Great turnout for "Try Hockey Day"

 The Cook County Community Center was crowded with kids in hockey gear on Tuesday, Feb. 19 during “Try Hockey Day” in Grand Marais.
 
There were lots of smiles at the high-energy event which was a joint effort of the Silver Bay Blue Line Club and the Cook County Amateur Hockey Association. WTIP spoke with Shane Hoff of the Silver Bay Club and Jim Walner of the Cook County club.
 
Hoff expressed appreciation to Walner and other members of the Cook County group for all their hard work shoveling and flooding prior to Tuesday. Hoff said, “In small communities like ours, this passion and dedication are a requirement to keeping these opportunities alive for our kids.”
 
Hoff explained the reasons why the Blue Line Club wanted to have a Try Hockey Day in Grand Marais. He said there were three goals: to show support of the current Cook County hockey families; to generate interest in the sport of hockey and to evaluate interest at various age levels.
 
For example, said Hoff, there were several Mite 1 and Mite 2 age kids who showed up, which indicates enough interest to create a team at those levels based in Grand Marais. Hoff said it would be ideal if there are enough kids and coaches to form teams based in Grand Marais.
 
However, he said joining the young players in Silver Bay is an option if that doesn’t work out. Hoff said, “We also want to let folks in Cook County know that there are several families 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.”
 
Hoff said, “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.”
 
For more information about hockey on the North Shore, contact Jim Walner at 218-370-1097 or Shane Hoff at 218-226-3122.
 
 
Looking at the turnout for Try Hockey Day in Grand Marais, it seems there is a lot of interest in hockey in Cook County.  WTIP’s Rhonda Silence talks to some of the participants in this interview.

Click photos for slideshow - Photos courtesy of Renee Buryanek