ESYHF Visits Hockey Camp in Canada

Durhamregion.com

OSHAWA -- Having coached at the National Hockey League level for many years, Ken Hitchcock has enjoyed the opportunity to teach several of the game's very best talents.

He has also coached on some of the biggest stages the game has to offer, winning a Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999 and being a part of the Canadian Olympic team coaching staff.

All that aside, Hitchcock seemed to take a lot of pride in a different type of coaching gig this week as he lent a hand at Keith Primeau's hockey camp at the Campus Ice Centre in Oshawa.

Primeau's week long camp featured several local players. However, the most interesting or unique aspect of it came in the 15 youth, sent from Philadelphia courtesy the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, that were afforded the opportunity to participate.

And Hitchcock, the former Philadelphia Flyers and current Columbus Blue Jackets head coach, was set to enjoy giving those kids a feeling they would never forget.

"I think the thing that is intriguing for all of us is that the sport of ice hockey is very much a team game," he said earlier this week as he prepared to take the ice. "If they leave with nothing else, it's still a great feeling being a part of something much bigger. I think that's why these kids are here. They had experiences around here that they would have never ever had. I think that's the thing that is more important.

"This affords them that opportunity to play and participate, to get to know our game and understand it," Hitchcock adds.

The foundation got off the ground during the lockout season of 2004-05, and has taken off ever since with around 1,000 kids having had the chance to be a part of the program this season alone.

Jim Britt, the executive director of Snider's foundation, and Jan Koziara, the manager of hockey operations, accompanied the 15 kids as they boarded a bus, crossed into Canada, and made Oshawa their home this week.

On the way up, they also had the chance to visit a couple of the more popular sights to see in Ontario.

"We took them to the Hockey Hall of Fame and we saw Niagara Falls and have helped them experience life in Canada," said Koziara, who grew up a Flyers fan and can recall being at youth hockey camps coached by former players Bill Barber, Joe Watson and Dave Shultz in the days of the Broad Street Bullies. "It's all a part of Mr. Snider's vision for giving kids who don't have an opportunity to play ice hockey that chance. This is an opportunity to give them world class coaching from guys like Keith Primeau and Ken Hitchcock and to expose them to some different things."

Friday, August 17, 2007