East met west as
American and Chinese youth players conversed in the universal language of ice
hockey.
By Steven Sellers, Courier
Assistant Sports Editor:
There’s an ice hockey
drill that involves skating from blue line to blue line and back again—five
repetitions and it feels like you’ve skated to China
and back. Players for Sharks USA, part of the Guilford-based Shoreline Sharks
youth hockey club, actually took the trip.
Sixteen area youth
ice hockey players participated in the "Welcome Olympic Friendship
Competition of American and Chinese Youth Ice Hockey Players,” held as a
prelude to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Tournaments are a way
of life in competitive youth ice hockey, and stints in Massachusetts, Maine, and even Canada are commonplace, but
Dr. James Yue raised the bar to a new level when he proposed the idea of taking
a team to the Far East.
“At first, I thought
it was going to be a difficult task finding enough players who wanted to travel
8,560 miles to a another country where only Tofu burgers are sold,” said Yue, a
Guilford resident, hockey enthusiast, and Associate Professor of Orthopedic
Surgery at Yale University.
Yue found exactly the
opposite; the difficulty was in the selection process, where the coaching staff
had to winnow the number of players down to 16. The team (13 girls and three
boys) ended up being a fittingly diverse reflection of area youth hockey
programs and all were enthusiastic ambassadors of their sport, communities, and
nation.
“This was the first
time a USA
youth hockey team—ages 9 to 12, boys or girls—had played in China,”
said Yue. “The main element in the success of this trip was the initiative each
team member took in taking that first step in embarking on an exploration of
the relatively unknown.”
The competition, held
in Beijing from June 27
to July 5, required extensive fundraising and personal discipline by the team
for it to succeed. And the kids, said Yue, were up to the challenge.
“[These] children
were able to earn 50 percent of the cost of their travel expenses, travel 9,000
miles, and represent themselves, the United States, their families, and
communities in an extraordinary manner,” said Yue.
The Friendship
Competition opened with a dinner attended by the players and coaches, as well
as Chinese and U.S.
Olympic officials. Then, over the next five days, the Sharks competed against
Asian teams in a three-game exhibition designed to teach Chinese girls the game
of ice hockey. Outside the rinks of Beijing,
the team absorbed Chinese culture by touring the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Beijing Zoo, and other
landmarks.
Kelsey Greim, a
junior on the Guilford High School
girls’ ice hockey team last year, helped coach the kids along with Yue and her
dad, Bill Greim, who is president of the Shoreline Sharks. Among Kelsey’s tasks
was maintaining the team blog, documenting each step of the young athletes’
journey. The players, she said, seemed more surprised by the similarities they
found in China
than the differences.
“It was eye-opening
for the kids in a lot of ways,” said Greim. “Even so, they often would say in
the rink that they didn’t really feel like they were in China—that
the kids were like them in so many ways.”
Greim said the hockey
rinks were “just like the ones back home,” and although hockey is more
developed in America,
she saw a high level of skill in many of the Chinese skaters. But there were
dissimilarities outside the rink.
“The difference in
the culture is what struck me first,” said Greim. “I also noticed the smog when
we got off the plane. I have sports-induced asthma and I noticed it right away.
I also learned that, unlike the United States,
pedestrians don’t have the right-of-way. Crossing the street was a 50-50
proposition sometimes.”
Bill Greim saw some
of the economic disparities that prevent children from learning ice hockey in China.
The used hockey equipment the Sharks donated to their hosts, Greim said, helped
fill a real need.
“In China, it is
quite clear that only the more wealthy children get the opportunity to play ice
hockey—not unlike the United States—and not many of those are girls,” said
Greim. “We hope that our visit and donations of equipment inspires more Chinese
girls to play hockey and makes it within reach of a few more kids.”
Perhaps the most
important benefit of the goodwill journey, though, lies in the fact that it
will continue next summer—and on home ice.
“The Chinese have
already scheduled with me a return trip to the USA
from July 20 to 31, 2009, in which the Shoreline Sharks will be the host,” said
Yue.
Sharks USA included players from youth ice
hockey organizations throughout Connecticut including Lauren Yue and Emily
Yue (Guilford), Samantha Pratt (Madison), Lizzie Banasiak (Madison), Kate
McNally (Deep River), Morgan Connors (Madison), Kayla Maloney (Clinton), Emily
Hershman (Branford), and Jordan Ginsberg (Killingworth) of the Shoreline
Sharks; Samantha Sandler (Madison) of the Connecticut Wolves; Rachel Muskin
(Madison), Derek Lue and Nicole Lue (Darien) of the Southern Connecticut Stars;
Cassidy Pratt (Madison) of the Connecticut Polar Bears; Andrew Banasiak
(Madison) of Yale Youth Hockey; and Padraic Connors (Madison) of Greater New
Haven-Shoreline Warriors.