ISU hockey coach Al Murdoch (standing in red) is hosting 18 Chinese players at his youth hockey camp this summer. Photos by Mike Malloy.
By Mike Malloy
AmesNewsOnline
(July 19, 2010 – 9 a.m.) Al Murdoch’s summer youth hockey camp has gone international.
Eighteen players from China, ages 6-11, are here to test their skills alongside American youth. Most of the Chinese players have been in town for a week, and were joined this weekend by another group for the final two weeks of the camp.
Murdoch, the coach of Iowa State’s club hockey team, has hosted foreign-born players before, but never in this number. The players, from all around the nation of more than a billion people, all have heavily stamped passports.
“They’re pretty worldly. They’ve attended hockey schools in Montreal, Vancouver, California, etc.” Murdoch said.
Daniel Wang, 11, started playing four years ago in Bejing and became enamored with the speed of the game. His skills on the ice are equaled by his command of the English language.
“(The camp) has been a great opportunity to improve my skills. I have a lot of things to improve,” he said.
Accompanying the players is Yao Nai Feng. He was a teammate with former Cyclone player and current Ames resident Anfu Wang on the Chinese men’s national team, and also coached the women’s national team to fourth at the 1998 Olympics.
Yao grew up in Harbin, a city in northern China, with snowy winters that are conducive to hockey. It is one of the few hockey hotbeds in China.
“For little kids in Bejing, the sport is popular, but it isn’t in the rest of the country,” Yao said.
Yao now coaches youth hockey.
“Some of the kids are quite good, and there are some that are playing in Canada and Europe right now. There are others that are very good but they could not come because their parents could not get off work,” he said.
Camp attendees visit the Ames/ISU Ice Arena three times a day for sessions on power skating, strategy sessions, and team skills. Murdoch hopes they’ll come back.
“The method to my madness is if we can get 6-to-11 year-olds to visit now and have a good experience, then we’re more likely to get them back when they’re 18-to-20-years old to come to school and play hockey,” Murdoch said.
Original Article: Ames News Online