Ice Hockey Trip Report

One of our Year 6 pupils, William, has a keen interest in Ice Hockey. During a conversation with Mrs Davis, the Family Adviser, he mentioned that his ambition in life was to become a Winter Olympic Ice Hockey Player, but there was still lots of things he needed to find out about the sport. Mrs Davis suggested that they could contact a team with a list of questions and ask very kindly if one of the players could answer them. At St Mark’s two of our School Values are ‘Hope’ and ‘Perseverance’ and this was a great example of how staff could support a child in reaching his aspirations.

The Cardiff Devils, who play at the Viola Arena, were contacted, and they replied with an invitation for William and a group of friends to visit their stadium to watch an ice-hockey training session, visit the locker rooms to meet the players for autographs, photographs. To top this exciting day off, William was then able to interview the team Captain and Vice-Captain for a question and answer session! The group found out lots of interesting information including;

The Cardiff Devils Interview with Joey and Jake:

Most players were 4 and 5 years old when they started ice hockey. Joey and Jake were inspired when their older brothers played hockey in North America and Canada. Baseball was the other sport they would want to play if they couldn’t play hockey. They train every day, except Mondays! There are players 20 -22 players on a team. Only 6 at a time actually play on the ice. Number 20, Gleason Fournier is the fastest skater. Number 17, Mark Richardson has been playing the longest for Cardiff Devils for 12 years.

Andrew Lord is our Head Coach. The team always eat healthy – except for a birthday treat! None of our players have played in the Olympics yet – but we hope so one day. We love the film – The Mighty Ducks! The Champions Play-off 2017-2018 is the biggest game we have played in. Our kit that we wear when we play ice hockey consists of; shin pads, shoulder guards, padded gloves, skates, team kit.

Mrs Davis was very proud of the boys for their excellent behaviour during the trip, which was extremely inspirational to the staff and children, and several pupils now would like to join a youth team.