If you haven’t heard, the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup last summer—“bonkers” would be an apt term for the region’s reaction to that fact. While the defending champions will return on Oct. 3, youth leagues across NoVA have been in action for a few weeks, and Caps fever has had an impact.
“‘We watched the Caps win, my children are excited to learn how to play hockey, how can we do that,’” parents have been asking Kevin Burch, president of the Reston Raiders Hockey Club. Reston’s Learn to Play programs sold out in less than two days, while most age groups quickly reached capacity and created waitlists, Burch reports.
It was essentially the same for The Northern Virginia Ice Dogs’ registration, which filled up its fall teams in two weeks and had enough on wait lists to create another team or two, according to John Rader, the club’s president. The newly opened St. James sports complex had no problems filling up its three initial travel teams either, per Hockey Director Tim Graham.
The DMV is one of the fastest growing areas for youth hockey in the country, per USA Hockey. Early indications from youth leagues suggest the Caps’ success will only continue that growth. Just one problem: Where are the kids going to play?
NoVA has about seven ice rinks available to youth leagues: SkateQuest in Reston, Ashburn Ice House, Haymarket Iceplex, Mount Vernon RECenter, Prince William Ice Center, MedStar Capitals Iceplex and the seasonal Reston Ice Rink. The St. James has two full-sized rinks, but those are exclusively for St. James programs. Many of the youth leagues share ice rinks for practice and games not only with each other but middle school and high school teams, which are also on the rise. Teams often have to travel to find ice, including to Fort Dupont in D.C. or Maryland, to meet their needs, says Rader.
While the Capitals can’t conjure up more ice, they are active in youth hockey in the region. In association with the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association, the Caps have the Future Capitals, which provides first-time participants with free equipment, eight weeks of on-ice instruction and certified coaching, says Peter Robinson, director of community relations with the team. The Future Caps program will be offered at Ashburn, Haymarket, MedStar, Mount Vernon, Prince William and The St. James this season.
In 2007, the Caps created the Hockey School program, which introduces second through sixth graders to street hockey, offering schools free access to equipment. Easier than ice, the Caps have also partnered with Loudoun County Parks and Recreation to refurbish outdoor street hockey rinks at Franklin Park, Douglas Community Center and Trailside Park; they are also in talks with Alexandria to refurbish an outdoor rink off Seminary Road.
The goal, Robinson explains, “is to grow the game of hockey by providing kids an opportunity to play by removing the cost barrier and provide access.” So, ice or not, the Caps are doing what they can to return some of the support their fans have shown them.
