Shawano Fun on the Ice at the Crawford Center 

Join Jaime as she learns the ins and outs of Hockey and tries to get back into skating form.  The Crawford Center in Shawano aims to provide the Hockey experience to any youth regardless of their financial abilities.  For over a decade the Shawano Hockey League has thrived.  Not only can you catch live hockey in town but you can also skate on Sundays.

transcript

(upbeat music)

– Good evening and
welcome to Shawano news,

your positive source in a crazy world.

I’m your host, Jamie Lee.

Tonight, we’re at the Crawford Center

with the Shawano Hockey League.

This episode brought to you
by Knope Heating and Cooling.

Let’s skate!

Toot toot.

(engine revving)

Tonight, we were able to talk to Brian,

the marketing coordinator for
the Shawano Hockey League.

Thanks for joining us, Brian.

– Well, of course, thank you so much

for coming and highlighting
what we do here.

Appreciate it.

– Can you tell us how do you keep

the Shawano Hockey League going?

– Well, I mean, obviously it
requires a lot of cold and ice

and money to make that ice cold.

So our sponsors out
there, you can see them,

are really helpful.

They’re great partners in the community.

Most of ’em are very, very
local and most of them, a lot

of them have kids in here
or care about having kids

in the community that are doing things

other than destructive
things in their lives.

So they keep us going here.

We really appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

– A positive outlet for our youth.

Is there any other fundraisers

that you do throughout the year

that helps keep this going as well?

– Yeah, there’s a lot of
them and some of them,

other people are gonna talk
about, but our biggest one

of the year is probably the
fair, we do the fair stand.

So thank you all for coming
out and supporting us

with our ham sandwiches and
burgers and everything else.

We really appreciate it.
– And the beers.

I love going to the fair you
guys saw me there this year

and it’s got the big
hockey stickers on it.

So you guys do really well at the fair.

We’ll see you this year for
a beer at the fair, okay.

– Absolutely.

– Well, how can people
in the community donate

or give back to this
organization if they feel so?

– Well, first of all, come on down

and see what we’re all about out here.

Second of all, website,

www.shawanohockey.org,
marketing@shawanohockey.org.

And you can reach out there.

You can reach out to the
website or on Facebook.

Please just come see
we’re about, you know,

come and see some local hockey

and some great kids doing awesome things.

– Well, thanks for
everything you do, Brian.

– Thank you.

– Now I’m with my good friend
and hockey mom, Monique Knope.

Hey Monique.

– Hi, How are you?

– Good. Tell me, I know

that hockey’s really
important to your family.

Tell me about your kids

and your experience with this league.

– I have two kids involved in hockey.

My son started eight years ago

and he’s a freshman in
high school this year.

And now I have a daughter
in her fourth year in hockey

and we’ve been playing
for quite some time now.

And we just love playing,
going to tournaments

having fun with all the families

which we have a lot of families involved.

About 90 families involved
and 124 kids total.

– And can you tell us

about the motto and about
Shawano Hockey League?

What the Crawfords wanted to instill

in our community with this program?

– We wanted to promote the
safe, fun, and affordable.

So there’s no hockey kid
left behind right now.

We’re offering hockey at
free for the might level.

And we support all of the gear
for the kids at that level.

Then if you want your kid
to start playing hockey,

this is the time to do it.

With the younger age, they
start in, you can sign up

in July or August and we start
our practices in October.

– I know you mentioned the word safe.

I guess some people maybe are hesitant

that hockey might be a little dangerous.

So what do you do to keep the kids safe?

– We have the gear for it to keep ’em safe

and our officials get it to
the point where it is safe

and they don’t let it
things go to the extreme

of it not being safe and coaches
help out every way they can

to teach them the right techniques

and methods of playing hockey.

– So this is a great program
to teach kids discipline,

to teach kids, teamwork, responsibility,

but overall mostly it’s fun right?

– You’re right, it’s a lot of fun.

It’s a blast.

We love it.

– While we hope that we can
get more families interested

in the Shawano Hockey League,
make sure you check out

the schedule online
for all the tournaments

and all the upcoming fundraisers.

Are there some other fundraisers
that you’re in charge of?

– The fundraisers that we’re in charge of?

We have raffle tickets that we’re selling

for the high school now.

And we also have youth
raffle tickets called

the 12 days of Christmas raffle.

And if you guys wanna stop
down for hockey tournaments,

we do have raffle baskets
at every home tournament.

And what else do we have?

We have golf outings
going on in the summer.

So there’s lots of fun stuff to do.

And again, what Brian
mentioned the fair stand

in the summer also.

– I know we’ll see each
other there for sure.

Well, thank you so much,
Monique, and to all the families

and all the kids for this
excellent program here in Shawano.

It’s been over 20 years
making a positive impact

for youth in our community.

Let’s go interview your daughter, Kendall.

(upbeat music)

I am all suited up in hockey
gear, getting ready to talk

to these kids about the
sport they love the most.

Let’s go.

I am currently with coach Tim.

Can you give me some tips
of how to play hockey?

I’ve never done this.

How do I place my hands?

What am I doing here?

– Okay, we’re gonna put our
bottom hand underneath, like so.

– Okay.

– And we’re always gonna
bend our knees a little bit.

– Okay.

– So we got our balance.
– Okay.

– And we’re gonna keep our
head up the best we can.

– Okay.
– Okay.

And we’re just gonna
pass a puck right now.

– Okay, I need a puck.

Give me a puck, someone!
– Yep.

Let’s go here.

Okay.

– Just pass a puck.

– Okay.

– Maybe we could just place
it over the coach there.

– Okay, What if I gotta go
this way? How do I go over?

– Yeah, So I’m just gonna look
at where we wanna place it.

Keep your knees bent and
go ahead and push her.

There you go.
– Yeah!

– Okay you guys, can someone,
come on, pass it to me?

Come on!

You gotta pass the puck-

(screams)

Okay, here I go.

(buzzer sounds)

I have the pleasure of
talking with Kendall Knope.

Kendall. How old are you?

– I’m 12 years old.

– 12 years old.

And what league and what team are you on?

– I’m in the Shawano hockey
league, A PeeWee team.

– Okay. And it’s a co-ed league.

– Yes.

– But you are the only
girl on this team, right?

– Mmhmm.

– How does it playing with the boys?

Are they pretty rough on
you or are they pretty cool?

– They’re pretty cool, I can handle it.

– You can handle it.

You’re a tough chick.
– Yeah.

– Hopefully you can kind
of give ’em a little run

for their money huh?

– Mmhmm.

– What’s your favorite
thing about being in hockey?

– Probably the tournaments, just going

with my team and doing other things.

– If other people or
girls and boys in general

if they wanted to get involved in hockey,

what would you say?

How can they start?

What should they do?

– I think they should
just start practicing

going to open skate and just join.

– Well, I’m really proud of you Kendall

for being such a strong young woman.

I wish you the best of luck with you

and your teammates and, you
know, make us girls proud.

– Yeah. Thank you.

– Okay, go out there and skate girl.

– Woo, hockey is a tough sport

and I think I’m more of a
figure skater kind of gal.

So let’s go to open skate instead.

Three.
– [Crowd] Shawano News!

And besides hockey, another great activity

at the Crawford Center is open skating.

They have skates to rent and borrow.

So don’t worry if you don’t have your own.

Let’s lace these up and get on the ice.

(upbeat music)

If you need a little break

from the skates or to warm up,

come to the warm concession area

where they have lot of snacks.

All the proceeds go to
offset the price of hockey.

So come on, let’s have
some sun drop and popcorn.

Who says there’s not much to
do in the winter in Shawano?

For a full schedule of the
hockey and ice skating hours,

visit shawanohockey.org.

Until next time,

this is Jamie Lee signing
off for Shawano news.

Keep living and loving in the 54166.

(upbeat music)