Game Scheduled for 4:00pm at Penn Ice Rink on Saturday, March 28th

Twenty-six young all-star hockey players from the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation (ESYHF), representing five inner-city Philadelphia skating rinks, will compete against the Lower Merion High School JV Hockey Team at the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Ice Rink on Saturday, March 28 at 4 p.m.

“Many of these young men and women come from the City’s inner-city rinks that were saved earlier this year from budget cuts,” said Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation President Scott Tharp. “They have been working hard all season both on and off the ice at their skills and their school work. This is an opportunity for them to display their hockey talents in front of family and friends.”

ESYHF took over the operation and programming of three ice-skating rinks targeted by the City for possible closure in November of 2008. As a result, ESYHF oversees all ice hockey programs at the Scanlon Ice Rink, the Laura Sims Skate House at Cobbs Creek, and the Rink at Simons Center.

The ESYHF Select All-Star team was formed in October of 2007, when the most skilled participants from Philadelphia’s inner city were brought together at the Penn Ice Rink to practice on a weekly basis. The team traveled to Detroit, MI, in February 2008, for their first game action and participated in the National Hockey League’s “Hockey in the Hood” Tournament. More recently in an effort to further develop the on-ice skills of its players, the team has begun to compete regularly on Saturday afternoons against local high school hockey teams.

Thursday, March 26, 2009