Blackhawk fever puts kids on ice; parents need to chill

From preschoolers eagerly learning to take their first steps on skates to middle-aged "rink rats" fearlessly forgetting their last tumble, hockey has an icy grip on the suburbs.

"It's 90 percent due to the Blackhawks and their marketing," says Bob Veller, director for the Rolling Meadows Renegades youth hockey program with the park district, where the West Meadows Ice Arena is busier than ever for hockey players from age 3 to Social Security.

"It's fantastic, isn't it? So many people are falling in love with the Blackhawks and their kids want to play," says Pete Hassen, the Blackhawks' senior director of market development and community affairs. Hassen says the number of children ages 4 to 8 playing hockey increased 22 percent in the last year.

Not even the prospect of Blackhawk Duncan Keith losing seven teeth to a wayward puck can dim the desire for suburban kids hitting the ice with dreams of being just like those thrilling, skilled and likable Blackhawks on the verge of winning a Stanley Cup.

"We've added (hockey) classes in the morning for kids in afternoon kindergarten classes. We've added classes in the afternoon for kids in morning kindergarten classes. We've gone from 35 men's league teams to over 50 now," Veller says, noting rinks are busy from the time "rat hockey" pickup games for adults start at 6 a.m. until the last adult league players clear out after midnight. "Once hockey gets in your blood, it's in your blood."

But instead of milking the situation by pulling every slapshot-happy kid and fee-paying parent onto the hockey bandwagon, USA Hockey has produced a new marketing video telling young hockey players to kick around a soccer ball, play baseball, ride bikes, climb trees and do stuff other than hockey.

"You don't need an 8-year-old on the ice 365 days a year," says Veller, who fully embraces the philosophy of USA Hockey's new plan to avoid burnout, increase skills and produce elite hockey players.

"We have adults pushing the kids too hard too soon," says Ken Martell, director of USA Hockey's national effort to develop more and better hockey players. "It's no fun for kids."

Many of our child athletes spend too much time traveling to all those games and tourneys, too much time competing and too much time recovering from competitions, all while putting too much emphasis on winning. The result is that 20 percent of kids quit hockey after their very first year, and 60 percent drop out by age 10, before they even reach the Pewee level.

"You have people who can get caught up in keeping up with the Joneses," Veller says.

Striving to do whatever it takes to make their kids into the next Jonathan Toews, some suburban parents do too much, enrolling their kids on team after team and spending thousands of dollars a year on a year-round schedule of games and tournaments.

"We look at our NHLers and Olympians, and that's not how they got there," Martell counters, who notes that our nation's top hockey officials developed their new play after years of studying the problem. "We are deadly serious about little kids' hockey."

They concluded that having children play more hockey games not only falls short of teaching all kids to love the game, it also fails to produce elite players.

"A kid gets an average of 20.7 seconds of puck time in a 60-minute game," Martell says.

Also, kids who focus so much on one sport often suffer injuries and burnout instead of learning how to be complete hockey players.

"You see Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, their skills are off the charts," Veller says. "In the U.S., we've been worried about winning at all costs and we haven't been working on skills."

Hockey paid for his college education and let him play on great teams with and against future NHL players as a teenager, but as 33-year-old coach Tony Kolozsy leads a couple dozen 9- and 10-year-olds onto a Rolling Meadows ice rink, his goal is to let the kids have fun and learn to love hockey and develop skills the way he did.

"I love the breeze against my face, the smell of it," Kolozsy says as he skates along the boards. He played baseball and other sports as a kid, and had no idea that he'd be one of our nation's elite hockey players by age 16.

"I was on the ice a lot as a kid," Kolozsy says, "but I was 13 when I decided to just play hockey."

While suburban parents invest more time and money on youth hockey programs that dwarf those in Europe, the Swedish town of Skelleftea (which is about the size of St. Charles) produces more and better hockey players.

"They have 300 kids, they don't cut anybody and they only play six months of the year," Martell says, noting that town placed 21 players on Sweden's highly regarded older national teams. "This produces elite, elite hockey players."

The mantra for USA Hockey is "Play. Love. Excel."

"You can help that along, but it's in the opposite direction of how an adult thinks," Martell says, explaining that parents often feel pressure to stress excellence at an early age.

Participating in activities such as gymnastics, soccer, martial arts, baseball, music lessons, skateboarding, bicycling, swimming, dance programs and the like can build balance, conditioning, teamwork, rhythm and other attributes that pay off in hockey.

When kids see an NHL star dive, roll and flip a puck past a stunned goalie, "well, guess what? He never practiced that," Martell says. He picked up the ability to do that by becoming a "well-rounded athlete."

That spirit is why the Blackhawks, in addition to helping kids with hockey equipment and ice time, donate equipment and sponsor a floor hockey league for Chicago schools.

"The kids have a ball," Hassen says of the floor hockey league. "There's more to hockey than having parents pound on the glass and hold their coffee in a cold rink."

So root for the Hawks to bring home the Cup. Let kids (and adults) hit the ice and pretend they are Toews, Kane, Keith, Antti Niemi, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Dustin Byfuglien or some other favorite Blackhawk. Just remember to do other things, too.

"Play baseball, play soccer, go on vacation, take swimming lessons," Veller concludes. "Be a kid."