Cook County hockey players earn academic award

Not only are they great on the ice, these kids are also great in the classroom. Winners of the 2019 S.K.A.T.E awards are starting in front (and the division they played in) are, L-R: Brody Bronikowski (Squirt), Michaela Lindgren (U-10 girls), Kallie Anderson (U-10 girls). Back row, L-R: Hunter Gomez (Bantam); Peewees Hunter Rex, Jacob Carpenter and Race Gibson; and playing Bantams are Kole Anderson, Ryan Christiansen, and Ben Rex. Photo courtesy of Leah Carpenter

Despite the long winters of ice and snow, Cook County, with no youth hockey or high school hockey program for boys or girls, isn’t considered “hockey country” but that might be changing.

Currently there is a group of kids who— with their parents—go to Silver Bay to practice and play hockey. It’s a big time commitment, one that could leave the kids short on time to study, but these kids are not only learning puck skills, they are indeed maintaining good grades as evidenced by the recent S.K.A.T.E. awards.

S.K.A.T.E. stands for “Skaters Keep Achieving Academics.” It is an academic recognition program designed to encourage youth hockey players to succeed in the classroom as well as on the ice.

This year all of the kids from Cook County qualified for the award, which required them to maintain a 3.0 or higher grade point average.

They played in various divisions, including Girls 10U, Squirts, Peewees and Bantams.

Just the travel time to practice or “home” games is a minimum of one hour one way, longer in bad weather. “This is a huge time and travel commitment,” said hockey mom Casey Bronikowski, “However, these kids have proven that they are up for that challenge.”

To celebrate the award the kids were recognized with a pizza party, prize drawing and generous gifts. Bronikowski gave a shout out and thank you to Kim Osmundsen, Kerri Johansen and Mike Guzzo for organizing this event. “And thank you to the Silver Bay Blue Line Club for their dedication to all of the youth hockey players and a huge congratulations to every youth hockey player who achieved this goal,” she added.