By Sarah Wallace

Riverside putting out call for gently used hockey equipment

Dec 3, 2016 | 11:00 AM

Over the years Prince Albert’s Riverside Public School has been putting together their own hockey team as part of extra-curricular activities for students in grades five to eight.

Matt Pelerine, a mentor at the school, said the program does a combination of things including taking the students to check out Carlton Comprehensive High School’s hockey program.

“Primarily we’ll go up and work with the grade nine/ten program at Carlton. Once a week we’ll go up and practice with them and [Riverside students] will run through the same drills the nines/tens will do. Ideally it sets it up that when they graduate from [Riverside] and if they move on to Carlton they can participate in the hockey program there,” he said.

Pelerine said they like to start students in the program around grade five or six so students get familiar with the program and being on the ice.

Depending on the weather the program also sees students going to the Midtown outdoor rink for scrimmages and practices.

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Pelerine said they typically have a day during the week where the students will meet before or after school.

Last year students started going to the Midtown rink around 7:30 a.m.

“The whole concept is based around them getting ready and going out and cleaning the ice off a bit so we can play on it. They went out until minus 28 or so, their tough. Then we just go from there,” Pelerine said.

Now the school is putting out a call for gently used hockey equipment.

“We are looking for anything and everything in terms of hockey equipment. The big focus or push is towards helmets,” he said.

He said they will take helmets in any way, shape or form as they can use the parts.

Other equipment the school needs includes skates, pads or sticks.

Equipment can be dropped off at Riverside Public School anytime during the week.

Pelerine said the program is great for boosting student’s confidence.

“The biggest goal that we shoot for and the easiest to see pan out is the grade eights that may be a little trepidatious towards going to Carlton and view it as a bigger school, that they might just get lost in, this kind of identifies not just a program they can just blend right into from [Riverside] but it also gives them a chance once a week get up [to Carlton] and see the school a little more, meeting some of the teachers and the kids,” he said.

Pelerine said with the lower grades it’s a chance for students to build on their skills and boost their confidence on the ice.

“We have a lot of kids that would or could play hockey but just don’t have the equipment so this is a chance for us to supply them with that,” he said.

There is no cost for students to take part in the program.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid