Despite the fact that Cook County doesn’t have youth hockey or a high school program, quite a few local kids have made hockey their winter pastime sport, traveling to Silver Bay to play with the North Shore Storm in various age brackets. Last month many of their teammates came from Silver Bay to play on the Cook County Community Club outdoor rink as a way to celebrate their unique partnership. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
There was some great hockey action on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at the Cook County Community Center hockey rink when skaters from Silver Bay and Cook County took to the ice to play pick-up games in front of friends and family.
Participants included boys and girls, who ranged in age from 5 to 15, showed off their skating, puck handling and shooting skills to an appreciative crowd of onlookers.
“The Silver Bay Blue Line Club coordinated through Jimmy Walner (Cook County Amateur Hockey Association) to make this event happen,” said Shane Hoff, who is president of the Silver Bay Blue Line Club. “We appreciate all the hard work shoveling and flooding before Tuesday. In small communities like ours, this passion and dedication are a requirement to keeping these opportunities alive for our kids.”
Several Cook County kids are playing hockey this winter with clubs in Silver Bay.
Three boys, Cole Anderson, Ryan Christiansen, and Ben Rex are playing Bantam hockey. Four boys play Pee Wee hockey, Hunter Rex, Hunter Gomez, Jacob Carpenter, and Royce Gibson.
Brody Bronikowski plays on the Squirt team, and Callie Anders and Michaela Lindgren play in the girls’ 10U division.
The Tuesday skate drew dozens of energetic kids who didn’t seem to feel the air getting colder as the sun went down.
Said Hoff, “The main goals of our event were to show our support of current Cook County hockey families; generate interest in the sport of hockey; and evaluate interest at various age levels.
“For instance, there were several Mite 1 and Mite 2 age kids that showed up, which indicates the real possibility of creating a team or teams at those levels based in Grand Marais. The Silver Bay Blue Line Club is willing to help the Cook County Hockey Association in whatever capacity we can to give these kids the opportunity to play hockey starting next season.
“While it is ideal if there are enough kids and coaches to form teams based in Grand Marais, we also want to let folks in Cook County know that several families are carpooling to Silver Bay for practices.
“The Silver Bay Blue Line Club helps families with carpooling expenses by giving a $25 gas card for each practice at a given level. Our gas card ‘spend’ for the 2018/2019 season will end up being close to $5,000 for 16 players.”
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