In this edition of Our Kids Play Hockey, we dive deep into the world of youth hockey development with Peter Robinson who is the Director of Youth Hockey Development for the Washington Capitals. With a career spanning 17 seasons with the Capitals, Peter shares his journey from a youth hockey player in Maryland to shaping the future of the sport in the DMV (D.C., Maryland, and Virginia) area.
Key Highlights:
Join us as we explore the impactful work being done to ensure the future of hockey is bright, inclusive, and accessible to all. Whether you're a seasoned hockey family or new to the sport, this episode is packed with inspiring stories, practical advice, and a deep love for the game that unites us all.
Remember, hockey is more than just a game; it's a community that shapes lives on and off the ice. Tune in and be inspired by the power of youth hockey development!
Stay tuned for more insightful episodes of Our Kids Play Hockey, where we explore all facets of the sport from grassroots to the professional level.
Our Kids Play Hockey is powered by NHL Sense Arena!
NHL Sense Arena, is a virtual reality training game designed specifically to improve hockey sense and IQ for both players and goalies. Experience the next generation of off-ice training in VR with over 100+ drills and training plans curated from top coaches and players.
Use Code "HockeyNeverStops" at Hockey.SenseArena.com to score $50 off an annual plan!
In this edition of Our Kids Play Hockey, we dive deep into the world of youth hockey development with Peter Robinson who is the Director of Youth Hockey Development for the Washington Capitals. With a career spanning 17 seasons with the Capitals, Peter shares his journey from a youth hockey player in Maryland to shaping the future of the sport in the DMV (D.C., Maryland, and Virginia) area.
Key Highlights:
Join us as we explore the impactful work being done to ensure the future of hockey is bright, inclusive, and accessible to all. Whether you're a seasoned hockey family or new to the sport, this episode is packed with inspiring stories, practical advice, and a deep love for the game that unites us all.
Remember, hockey is more than just a game; it's a community that shapes lives on and off the ice. Tune in and be inspired by the power of youth hockey development!
Stay tuned for more insightful episodes of Our Kids Play Hockey, where we explore all facets of the sport from grassroots to the professional level.
Our Kids Play Hockey is powered by NHL Sense Arena!
NHL Sense Arena, is a virtual reality training game designed specifically to improve hockey sense and IQ for both players and goalies. Experience the next generation of off-ice training in VR with over 100+ drills and training plans curated from top coaches and players.
Use Code "HockeyNeverStops" at Hockey.SenseArena.com to score $50 off an annual plan!
Hello hockey friends and families around the world, and welcome to another edition of our kids play hockey powered by NHL. Since arena. I'm Leo Elias, with Mike Benelli and Christy Cassiano Burns, and we are privileged to welcome with us today the director of youth hockey development with the Washington capitals, a team some of you may have heard from Peter Robinson. With the capitals, peter's role is to grow the game of hockey by providing access to the sport throughout the DC, maryland and Virginia area we will refer to that as the DMV for those of you outside the east coast today through on and off ice programming for all skill levels. And Pete is no stranger to the capitals. Prior to his role with youth hockey development, he oversaw community relations for the capitals and is currently in get this his 17th season with the organization. That's like a full pro career. You got lots to talk about today, peter. Welcome to our kids play hockey. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Hey, we're excited to have you. You know, pete, I got to start with this. 17 years with an NHL club is no joke. Tell us about how you initially got involved with the caps and why you've made this a continued commitment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're right, it's 17 years is kind of amazing that it's gone by that quick. It is a dream. I grew up in Maryland. I was a capitals fan. I played youth hockey growing up for Montgomery youth hockey association and Chevy Chase and then played for my high school sure would high school. So I played all the way up until high school competitive hockey and it's just always been a part of my life. My dad is from Windsor, ontario, so it's just, you know, part of the part of the tradition. As soon as you turn two years old and you can start walking, the skates are on and you have to rank. So it was, it's always been a part of my life. This brought me so many different places and so many opportunities. So my my degree was in psychology marketing and then my master's was in sports marketing. So my ultimate goal was always to work in professional sports, with that dream being working for the Washington capitals one day, which I was lucky enough to accomplish in 2007. I started as a coordinator of amateur hockey and fan development, did that for seven years and then moved in the community relations role that you mentioned earlier, so that in that role I oversaw, like our player appearances are signing sessions, hospital visits, granting wishes. You know, engaging with the community, hockey fights cancer, some of those league platforms, but I always continued engaging and growing the office form of the game. And then in 2019, the Washington capitals, as an organization, decided to invest in youth hockey and the development of the sport, and we created the youth hockey development department. So it's myself. Jesse Thompson is our senior manager of youth hockey development. She oversees everything on ice. And then Andrew Nash is our manager of youth hockey development. He oversees everything off ice. So there's three of us in the department now.
Speaker 4:I can say it came about because you saw a need. What did you see and why did you decide? This is something that we got.
Speaker 2:A stark portion, yeah, it's interesting when I started in 2007,. You're looking at the early part of Alex Oveskin's career and a lot of interest, right, a lot of interest in the sport itself. When I was growing up, I think at my school, for example, I was one of three or four kids that played hockey, and when you told somebody you played hockey, instantly they'd be like what are you like Canadian? Or something Like why not?
Speaker 4:Yes, we get that all the time here too.
Speaker 2:And so it was always this more of a niche sport. It wasn't very one of the mainstream sports. And that started the change with Alex coming in and the popularity. You saw that just if you look at the graph, you saw that giant leap in registrations and participation in terms of the sport of hockey. So we saw a little bit of that in this market in 98 when the caps went to the finals. But really when Alex came on it really started to grow and we started to do stuff in the community and oftentimes it was does anybody know the capitals? A few kids would raise their hands. Or are you aware of Alex? Oveskin is A few kids would raise their hands. But the football team they always knew the back up quarterback was started. They knew all the players on the football team, the basketball, other sports, the baseball team. So it was really trying to take advantage of the excitement around Alex and the turnaround of the franchise and really paying attention to trying to create fans and grow just the awareness of the brand. That's kind of what the original focus of our team is.
Speaker 1:You know, what's funny is that? So I used to send my summers in Silver Spring, maryland. Believe it or not, pete, my grandmother lived there and it was funny because once you kind of passed through Delaware at that time in the 90s, now I was a hockey guy. I got to sell some names out here. But like, yeah, I remember Peter Bondra, joey Juno, adam Oates, obviously Dale Hunter, and. But you're right, you know, I remember thinking those are huge names and then Oveskin showed up. It was like another stratosphere of player and Alex Oveskin, who I'm already saying is the greatest goal scorer of all time, even though you know he's still right below the record, it's actually interesting to hear you talk about his effect on the game and the reverberations of what a player like that can do to change it, because, again, there was no denying him when he came in the league. I'm going to ask you in a minute because I know you guys have just surpassed one million students in your hockey school program. But since we're talking about Oveskin, I think there's a lot about Alex that a lot of people don't know. I was researching. I saw that he's funding something called the Alex Oveskin Legacy Ball Hockey Rink in the region to kind of help the grow the game. And, like you just said it, you started right after his arrival. He was drafted, I believe, in 04, but he couldn't play till 06, 07-ish because of the lockout 05, 06, yeah. Yeah, right, I apologize, you're right. 05, 06 was his first season. Ironically enough, the Carolina Hurricanes ended up winning the cup that year, so that's even more for the kind of Southern effect, right. But you've witnessed firsthand that Oveskin effect and your team before the episode actually provided us some great stats that, to your point, the area has seen overall participation grow 70% since the 05, 06 season, and then this is a cool one Girl's participation has grown 140% in that time frame. You know, outside the DMV we see him as this mega superstar that he is. But tell us about him locally, right? Because, again, in our respective NHL cities we kind of know our athletes, right? Tell me about the Oveskin locally that maybe we don't see nationally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. You know, it's really interesting to see him in his own community. I think the easiest way and most fun way to describe Alex is he is just one giant kid. He absolutely loves the sport of hockey. He loves to play.
Speaker 4:He's a tough kid, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a big, tough kid and so he loves to play it, he loves to be around it, he loves to talk about it, he loves being on the ice or in a gym with kids playing the sport. He just enjoys the game of hockey and that excitement is infectious and I think what you see on the ice and how excited he is when he scores a goal and how much fun he is having just being in the game. He's like that off the ice as well. He just has this infectious energy and he's always, you know, really trying to grow the game and make sure that he can share it with everybody and so that they can experience it the way that he has, because he just it's brought him so much and he enjoys the game so much. So, you know, those stats that you mentioned are massive, you know, at what we call the Ovi Effect, and it has been pretty impactful. And it's not just OV playing well and getting all these eyeballs on it, it's also a combination of OV being a mega superstar and then the organization itself investing, absolutely Making advantage of that stardom to really provide opportunities for kids to watch the game, play the game, engage with the sport, learn about it and that's kind of where we roll into that hockey school program that you mentioned.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pete, I work a lot with a lot of the programs up here with the Rangers and the Devils and the Islanders and a little bit of Pittsburgh and all these IGF-funded NHL grant programs. But you see what you've done and the success you've had because of guys like Alex Ovechkin Like I see him all over Oshah's site doing all kinds of work with Jen and we've had Jen on the show. Actually she talks about the Washington Capitals and Alex Ovechkin, but can you just tell us a little bit about your players and how they've embraced this opportunity to work with you, because it's not always easy. Right, these are mega superstars, but we see it from the hockey side and I see it already with all the guys I work with how willing they are and how they bring great energy Like you would never know they're being. It's almost like they're completely volunteering to be there and give their time and they're probably some of the busiest people in professional sports. But can you just talk a little bit about the player and not just Alex Ovechkin? But I'm sure a lot of your different players help you in doing these outreach programs. So just talk about the difference between you seeing these hockey guys, what they really do and what kind of energy they bring to these players.
Speaker 2:Mike. It's a really good point. The hockey players in general and the NHL are kind of known to be these community-focused guys, and our players are no different. They have always been willing to help out and do appearances for us when it comes to the youth hockey side of things and helping grow the game, and of course, that's how they learned, that's how they got exposed to it as well. So there's so many players even going all the way back to when guys like Jay Beagle and Carl Alzner were getting called up from Hershey or Matthew Perot. They were getting called up from Hershey and they were even only in town for a couple of weeks playing in a few games and then they get sent back down. They would immediately what do we got? Where are we going? Who are we playing hockey with today? They were always looking for those opportunities to go engage with the community. Why they were here and then when they became full-time rostered players, that continued there. They were always looking for opportunities to be able to grow the sport. So they loved going to the school appearances, for example, because Pee was my favorite subject. I loved playing street hockey and Pee, and now I get to come here and just have 300 screaming kids in the gym going. That's for me to be here and I get to play street hockey and teach a kid how to hold a stick and pass and shoot. They absolutely love it and our players have been phenomenal and I think it really is from the top down. That's always been from our management on the hockey offside and our coaching staff that we've had through the years have always been really supportive of our community efforts. So the players themselves do that as well, and you mentioned American Special Hockey Association, for example. That's a partnership that Alex has had since 2014. And just celebrated 10 years involved with that organization and the impact that he has made. It's not just about the funds, maybe, that he's raised or the funds that he's donated. It's the awareness. So many more people in this country are aware of special hockey and that it is an option for kids to play because of Alex and the eyeballs that he brings.
Speaker 3:So they realize that the impact that they can make is also on the awareness and the attention outside of them just interacting with the kids that they might see it Because it's easy for those guys to give a check, but it's really hard to show up Like it's just and I fear and I always want to get this on the record because this will be a good, ever green episode but my fear is, when I watch hockey now and I watch these academies sprout up and I watch these single, focused, individualized sport instruction and the earliest specialization of kids, my fear is that we will lose that community piece. We'll lose that piece that a player knows they've got to give back because of like they just saw volunteer coaches, mom and dad struggling to get them to the rink, teammates that came from every socioeconomic background there is and we see it every day in this podcast talking to different people. It's shrinking and so your programs like yours burst that bubble a little bit. Like they just get in there and they say the hell, with all you specialized kids. We're going to go out for hundreds and hundreds of millions of kids and give an opportunity. I was just in a rink in the Bronx with Brian Mullen and he grew up in New York City and for a guy like that, he was literally on the rink and Lee mentioned like the ball hockey event or a rink that Alex is building. Like this guy is standing in a rink and he's pointing up to all the co-op buildings. He's like this kid live here, this kid lived there, that kid lived there. He goes. All these guys Like we laugh and everybody talks about Minnesota hockey and the great opportunities these kids get because they're on the ice all the time. Programs like what you're doing. I mean I look at the programs in New York. I mean there's more kids probably on that in the Bronx than the whole state of Minnesota. So when I see the impact that programs like yours bring, to just light the lamp of just these small, tiny percentage of the kids not that they're going to be NHL hockey players, but that they're going to be active, participating and back to those roots of being in a team, just like you said, having fun, laughing and loving the opportunity to play a sport they normally would never get to play if, in fact, this outreach didn't exist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you make a really good point in terms of the concentration of kids in the Bronx. We've you look at Lee, you mentioned our stats We've increased our and those numbers that you mentioned 70% growth and then 140% growth for the girls. Those are USA hockey registration numbers specifically. So those are just we're talking about just ice hockey. Yeah, that's crazy. And so that's, I think, the biggest mission that we have as a department and as an organization is that there are multiple forms of the game and it's really trying to educate people that it's not just ice hockey that is the option. And, like Mike you said, waking up super early or trying to find ice, or mom and dad are working jobs so you can afford the game those are all real things that apply to the sport of ice hockey. Ice hockey is very expensive and ice hockey can be very restrictive. There's a lot of hurdles to you have to overcome in order to maybe be able to access that sport. But street hockey and inline hockey are not so much. They are way more accessible and way less expensive than ice hockey itself. So it's really also educating that there's three or four different forms of the game. You need to count eSports as well. We consider a kid that plays eSports a hockey player and realistically, there's some kids that play NHL on PlayStation, for example, that maybe have never played hockey in real life but probably know more about the game than kids play hockey every day because they're changing lines, they're changing power, play setups, they're doing the coaching, so they know how to follow the game, they can be fans, and so it's really about accessing those different forms.
Speaker 4:Right, and I guess let's go a little farther into that for people who are listening. Organizations are listening. They don't have the OV factor. It may be not a lot of money behind them. What advice would you give to help grow the game? And, as Mike said, a lot of these programs are contracting, they're shrinking, they're disappearing, so how do we put the juice back into it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a really good question. I do believe that it is different forms of the game. I really do believe that, like you talked about we talked about those USA Hockey stats a minute ago that's about 12 and 1 1⁄2,000 youth that are playing currently in the DMV. If you count all of Maryland, dc and Virginia, they have around 22,000 total USA Hockey registrations and we're at capacity. We have around 40 facilities, around 50 sheets of ice in our market and if we go into a school, for example, and we have 300 kids in a gym and we put on a presentation about hockey and we magically convince all 300 that they want to play hockey, we probably don't have room for them on the ice. There's just not enough ice for them to be able to join a team and participate. So really, the ultimate growth of the sport and as you want to make it bigger and also diversify it, it really has to be off ice. There has to be other forms of the game and you can try and create a pathway to participation on ice if that's our ultimate goal to grow ice hockey. But we are OK if they just stop at Street Hockey or Inline Hockey and they never move on to play that ice hockey, because they're still involved in the game, they're still engaging with our brand and the sport and they are able to watch it and follow along a little bit better.
Speaker 1:I don't want to gloss over what he just said. You said there's 50 rinks in Maryland, Washington, Virginia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's about 50 sheets of ice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just want to stress quickly to everybody listening. I want you to just think about Maryland and Virginia. Now, obviously, dc is in there Like that's a lot of land and that's not a lot of ranks, especially when you look at like I'm in Philadelphia, where Pennsylvania has a tremendous amount of ranks. I know that in the inner city of New York this is also an issue, but the New York area or if you're in New England, you have 50 ranks within an hour drive, right? So I just want people to understand that. Mike, go ahead. I just I wanted to give some perspective on that.
Speaker 3:Well, no, but you're exactly right. So I think I think you know and we're not asking Peter to solve the problems of the world here but I think I think the, I think the biggest issue right is that these, these programs are so successful that the higher groups, like the travel level and the traditional hockey market, the we'll call it squirt for Lee's sake, but 10 you, 12, you, you know, 15. Yeah, that that market hasn't caught up to the success of the learn the play and rookie league market. So we're seeing this like this, like Peter said, like yeah, we could, we can have 100% success rate, but even a 20% success rate, there isn't anywhere for the kids to go on the ice because it, just because we're still stuck in the model of well, a 10 you team has to have 13 kids on it and a goalie and they play full ice. So all of a sudden, now that eliminates like for, like Peter's group, like his, like like Peter, like a typical learn the play has like 6070 kids on the ice.
Speaker 2:And our. So, for example, our learn to play has been going on in our market since 2016. And that's one that Jesse Thompson overseas, and she's done an amazing job partnering with all of our local ranks to implement that program. It's this season it'll be in over 21 ranks throughout our market.
Speaker 1:Fantastic Congratulations on that.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I appreciate that it's it's been. It's been a great program for the NHL general, but in since 2016, we've had 8500 kids go through that program, which is an increase in participation for sure. Our all caps all her platform that is just focused on getting girls and women and females involved in the sport. The programs that we have run over the last two years if you look at the registration numbers, those programs alone account for 13% of the new female USA hockey registrations in our market. That's awesome. So those programs have an impact and they do grow, but you also have to have the facilities to grow with them, and that's why, mike, you mentioned the industry growth fund. That's why, when we initially had the opportunity to apply for grants going back to the 2013 2014 season, we wanted to focus all of our efforts on office programming, and so we started to invest in refurbishing and current and existing ball and in line ranks in our market and building new ones, and then growing and expanding our hockey school program, and since then we have invested over $3.5 million in the office game. We currently have 14 outdoor street hockey ranks at the capitals have how much money was that $3.5 million so far. Well, I mean the NHL, nhl, pa Right, so combined. That's where all that money is coming from.
Speaker 1:You know, pete, I want to dive into this. I have a lot of stuff here actually when I talk about your direct work, but. But this is a broader thing that I want to actually talk about, because when, when I was working with the league and working with some of the member clubs, one of the stats you hear a lot about is lifetime value of a fan. It's a very misunderstood stat because if you're just looking at that, you go all the all. The clubs just care about money and it's like you realize really quickly the investment that clubs, the league, the PA make into cultivating a fan and their love for the game is so much deeper than just the dollar amount. And you said in your work directly you know for Washington you're the guy I said that you said earlier about a Vechkin and his love for the game and I see that across the board with high level players that the love is an obsession. They love it. It's a passion. You can't create that for someone, but you can cultivate it Right. And it's to me the lifetime value of a fan starts with your programs, because it's all about making the kids love and fall in love with the game. And then and this is the other side of that stat. The whole hockey world works together to create new hockey fans. However they do it. You just mentioned before so many different ways kids can be involved with the game. You mentioned video games. Look, you want me to be perfectly honest. You want to learn a new sport really quick. Have your kid play that sport on on Xbox or PlayStation. They'll learn the rules in two days. Right, you have a problem with off sides? Have them play any show play any show, whatever right, you're going to learn the rules really quick. It's how I learned several sports right this, but by growing up by that. But it takes a really special person and a really special team to understand how to cultivate that love for the game, and you guys do that Right. So so, again, before I dive in any more stats, and again I really want to talk about this this million kids in the program, because that's a huge accomplishment we want to commend you for. But can you talk about, when you go to any event, how in your mind it's like I have to help these kids understand and love this game, because there's a higher calling here. Right, hockey is not the most popular sport in the world, like you know, when you're in the game you think it's the world, but it's so small, you know, like, when you think about it. So can you just talk about, like, the responsibility of that? That's kind of where I'm going of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, no. I see where I see we're going with it. I think it's. It's really important, you know. To go back to what you said in terms of the value of that fan right and I believe it's the Deloitte research that the NHL will quote oftentimes which is a new hockey player equates to 2.5 new hockey fans right, which I believe is a two parents and a potential sibling.
Speaker 3:Right. Or that point, by the way, right? So my dog, my dog, wears a jersey every now and then.
Speaker 1:So I'm a fan for life. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:You know. So there is a value there and it is oftentimes overlooked that there's a lot of what the organizations are doing when it comes to the youth sports perspective, and that can be across any sport the NFL, the NBA, the MLB and the NHL, even in the MLS. It is a long term investment. The ROI on what we are doing is realistically 10 to 15 years from now. You mentioned earlier when we started that I had been here for 17 seasons. I'm fortunate enough to have been here long enough where kids that did mites on ice my first or second season here are now graduated college and they are season ticket holders at the capitals and I run into them at the games and they come up and they hide in it. And that that's the long term payoff there, right, and there is a short term ROI in terms of, maybe, revenue from registration fees, which really don't bring in. Usually the registration fees pay for the program itself and that that's the ultimate goal. But you can create revenue through media value and promotion of those programs. So there there is an opportunity for immediate ROI. But realistically, we're looking at the, the, the success in the future of this organization, and we're looking 10 to 15 years from now. So a kid that's been involved, getting involved in the game, in 10 years they'll be 18 and maybe be able to make their own financial decisions in 15 years. There, in the early 20s, they're graduating college, they're going to get a job, they're going to have their own disposable income. How are they going to spend it? Where are they going to be spending their time? On the screen? Or those eyeballs going to be paying attention to hockey, or they can be paying attention to something else, and that's a big, a big focus of ours is that that we have to remember that this is a bigger picture and it's more than then it's. It's not just about us and what we're trying to accomplish here and get accolades and win awards or get kudos for the programs that we run, it out the future of the sport in the future of the team itself. And all three of us that are in the Uthake development department are from this area. This is my community, is where I grew up. My son is seven years old. He's going to play hockey. Jesse played high school hockey in this area, andrew Nash played college hockey at George Mason, so collectively the three of us have been with the Washington capitals for over 30 years. So we we really do care about the community and the brand itself and the success of the organization. So I think about what is the immediate impact of program can have, but what is the long term impact of that program can have on the community and the access to the sport, and that's really the ultimate focus when we're building something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what I love to is the byproduct of the learn the play platform across the NHL and you talk about these million kids and thousands of new faces in the sport. One of the byproducts is these people go back out to their community and make hockey sound pretty sane, like you know. They go back out and say, oh no, no, we practice at 9am and I don't know, we got all these uniforms and the kids are on teams and I didn't have to go. You know we have a saying up here no bridges, no tunnels, no tolls. And you know, and just you're in a rink and you feel like you're on a team and they leave because they're, they feel it's normalized, like it almost because because you talk about the ball hockey and issues and putting all those millions of dollars into refurbishing outdoor space and rinks If we did that with every community like every community I'm in anywhere has a basketball net. Everyone, everyone and everyone has a soccer field and if everyone had a hockey rink and it doesn't need to be an ice hockey rink, but if everybody had a surface that you would see kids with sticks and balls and rollerblades and and you know, you know obviously protected with their hockey wrap rounds that they would be in a situation where you know they're there, they're playing hockey and, like you said, we said all the time, hockey is hockey, you know. You know that that whole, that whole you know marketing piece is just true. Like when I leave an event like downtown Yonkers or you know inner city programming, those kids leave. It's saying, hey, mom, I just played hockey today. I didn't have to mention ice and you know you don't play hockey, you're not allowed to play hockey. That's crazy. But but then they see, and then they see and go. Well, I could play hockey in this in this market for basically under $300. I get all my equipment for free and you don't and you. So when you talk to hockey people and Pete, you're saying this to like when you see these people go through the system and now you have, you know, adults that you're interacting with. Like, my skates cost $350 and that was 10 years ago.
Speaker 1:And that doesn't exist, mike, they don't cause that much now.
Speaker 3:Well, I know I don't buy it.
Speaker 1:So I think, I think it's.
Speaker 3:I think it's like one of those things, though. But what, the what, the what, the the NHL is done and the capitals have obviously taken and blown up is getting kids on the ice at a reasonable time, a reasonable cost, giving all this access. Yes, I mean, if on your side yeah, they think fans, they're buying jerseys, they're buying season tickets, mom and dad now have to watch the game because the little kid loves it. So I go geez, now I gotta watch hockey. But, more importantly, it just for all the rest of us create the crazy hockey people. It normalizes the sport. It's like you can actually talk to people. I'm like, well, you can do it this way, or you could do it this way, but for a long time it was only one way, and that was getting the car and travel all over the place. Now you could be in one rank and play, for I mean, you're down in your area, right, peter? I mean you could play in one rank for probably two or three years straight and never leave the rank and still play for the top.
Speaker 2:No, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you should say that, Mike about a basketball court, and that's true in my neck of the woods too. Along with that now are pickleball courts. So we can somehow figure out, since you know, in pickleball is Pickle hockey, let's do it.
Speaker 1:Pickle hockey, let's do it.
Speaker 4:I think we should be inspired by that that it can happen, Because look at the craze there. We can do the same thing with floor hockey.
Speaker 2:That's a really good point and that is a different version of a paddle sport, right? So you think tennis, you think badminton, you think pickleball and then padel I know that's really popular in the New York area, so it's it's. They're just different forms of the game and I think that, mike, you make a really good point. Oftentimes the NHL or the NHL clubs or just hockey in general, ice hockey in general, I won't it's not necessarily any wrongdoing by the league or by the teams, but it's storytelling opportunities. And what is the best way to do that? When you're in the playoffs, for example, and you have a superstar player, you tell the story of them coming up through the ranks as a child and becoming a superstar. And what do you do? You talk to their parents, or you talk to them and go oh, mommy used to wake up at 3 am and drive me four hours to the rink. Those are great, heartwarming stories. But what they don't realize at the same time is for somebody that's not familiar with the sport, all you're doing is saying this sport isn't for you.
Speaker 4:Because you wake up at 3 am and you have to dive really far. Yes, exactly, it's a reinforcement of everything that they hated about hockey.
Speaker 3:Well, it's like that joke going around about you want to be a teacher. I go, hey, do you want to try to force people to learn something they don't want to learn and sit there and not get paid for it? You know it's like, yeah, I want to sign up for that.
Speaker 2:So it's really about partially how we market it and how it is promoted and how it is perceived by the community, and so that's why, in a league going to year, you wanted to talk about the hockey school program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we really tried to focus.
Speaker 2:My background is prior to the caps coaching. I've coached and I've taught for a long time. I was a PE teacher for a few years as well, so the most.
Speaker 1:I just want to reiterate he's not kidding for the audience. I looked at your resume. I'm only interrupting you to help me even qualify. What are you about to do this? Man has coached for several years in several sports. So like he's not just saying I've coached, like you've been around the block and coaching, I just want to make sure our audience knows that.
Speaker 2:No, I appreciate that. No, it's just been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember is trying to provide kids an opportunity to play sports. I loved sports. I learned so many social skills. I learned so many different life skills through sports. I learned teamwork, I learned how to win, I learned how to lose. Most importantly, that's a big one that kids need to learn. And just the competition and if you work hard at something, you can get better and then you get rewarded for it, like that's really fun. Same thing you study really hard and you practice your math and you ace your math test. It's the same type of reward system. We're just doing it through physical activity, and the philosophy was instead of trying to take this old school way of thinking in terms of let's bring the kids to the sport. Right, we're always thinking about how do we bring kids to the ring to expose them to the sport. Let's flip it on a TED, let's bring the sport to the kids. And every kid is in school. Some kids are homeschooled, but for the most part, the majority of your kids are either in a public school or a private school, and most of those kids are learning sports for the first time through PE class and that's where they're getting exposed to them. And we realized that the biggest hurdle for that was financial. For if you go off our current stats, it costs us about $350 per school to provide them a full set of Street Hockey equipment so that they can implement Street Hockey in their PE curriculum. But if I'm a PE teacher and I have a limited budget, that $350 can probably buy enough basketballs, footballs, soccer balls and baseballs for the entire season or school year for the entire school. And if I'm not familiar with the sport and I don't really know how to teach it, why would I take that big part of my budget and invest in something that I'm not sure the kids are going to enjoy or want to engage with? So we decided to let's take the sport to the kids and go to the schools. And so, starting off in 07, when we first implemented the program, we were going to go to about 16 to 20 schools and introduce again. For the most part it was more of a media event, because we would have Mike Green and Alex Svetskin, we would have J Beagle and Matthew Perot, we would have John Carlson and Carl Alston. We'd have these players come with us, the coaches would come with us. I mean, I've probably gone into at least 50 schools with Dean Everson and taught PE classes when he was one of our assistant coaches here. So it was great to have the support of the players and the support of the coaching staff. But then when we left, if the teacher doesn't have those skills to play hockey or to teach hockey, how are they going to utilize that equipment? So I would always follow up with them and say give us a shout, give us a call, we'll come back, we'll help you implement the program. And they always called and we started to learn that, ok, it's not just the financial component of donating the equipment, it's also the education component of educating the teachers and teaching them how to play and then giving them the tools. And so what we found was, once you gave all of that to them, there was still the hurdle of, hey, this is really great, my kids are really pumped to play hockey, but I need to write a lesson plan or I need to make sure that whatever I'm teaching meets the educational standards for my school or for my county. And so that's where we really started to work on building our own curriculum. So we wrote our own curriculum in partnership with Shape America that kind of oversees the, the curriculums for the governing body for curriculums for PE in the US, and we created this custom 80 plus page curriculum that Andrew Nash wrote and it meets every single educational standard in every single school and county in our market. So now when we go in, here's the equipment, here's the training and we're going to teach you how to play and teach the sport for the teachers, and also here's the curriculum that's already approved by your county. You've just removed all excuses and barriers and now the teachers just pump to be able to implement a new sport into their school.
Speaker 1:You know I'll tell you this too my son in this area is playing floor hockey. He plays ice hockey, plays multiple positions, but he was so excited about floor hockey at the school and they invited us to come watch. And it's funny because I don't know more than two of the kids in this floor hockey program because none of them play ice hockey and I think that that's amazing. The other cool thing about it Pete with my son and I'm just kind of a little bit of a brag, but I'm watching him help the other kids, which is like a total win for me as a dad, watching him. He is sharing the game. He's only been playing it a few years. I do want to mention this again with the hockey school program that you're talking about across DMV. It was announced in January. Tell me if I'm wrong, but you just surpassed 1 million students involved with that program.
Speaker 2:We did. We did so, as Mike was mentioning earlier, with the industry growth fund in 2014,. We started receiving grants and funding through the league and the PA to be able to invest in our hockey school program. We completely flipped it on the table. Prior to that, we would have schools reach out to us and say we would like you to come and do the assembly and introduce hockey to our school. Once we had the funding, we were able to go to the county level and say we would like to implement this across the board in every elementary middle school in your county. We have the funding to be able to purchase all the equipment, we have the staff to be able to train your teachers and we have the curriculum that's already approved by shape and it really changed the buy-in. So all these counties and all these school systems are like 100%. We are in, tell us what we can do and it just kind of took off from there. So, for example, the first partnership that we made was with the city of DC and instantly, 111 public schools in the city of DC that's, every single public elementary, middle and high school in the city of DC had our street hockey equipment, had a curriculum and we were reaching over 48,000 students in terms of introducing them to the sport of hockey, and that has just since grown. And with our partnership with Prince George's County that we announced on January 4, we are officially in over 1,600 schools and engaging with over a million students on an annual basis. That's not collectively. Every school year we have a million students picking up Washington Capital's branded street hockey stand.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that. That's amazing, wow, yeah.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you saying that. Yeah, on the blacktop, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is an amazing stat. It just goes to show that people in your position again, and your team, what you do for the game. I think sometimes, especially in youth hockey, we don't celebrate that enough. You had spoken earlier about the long-term game plan when we were talking about fans. Right, and this is a tenure investment or more I should say the ROI comes in 10 years, right, and I think coaching, at least for me and Mike you can speak to it yourself, and Christy you as a parent when my mind was able to start thinking that way because as a younger coach, I was like right now, I've got to win, I've got to do it. And then you got older and I get older and it's much more like, wow, I really want this kid to love the game when he's 18. And whether he plays beyond 18, he can continue to love the game and maybe that the work ethic and the life lessons and everything he or she has learned over this time period will spawn them to do something that they love to the best of their ability. You brought it up earlier. I want to commend you for this too. We talk a lot about making it to the league. We always get people asking that you did that. It might not have been as a player for the Capitals, but here's a guy for our listening. Audience loves the game, grows up. You are now really supporting your community, right? I mean, we're talking about the hockey. This goes well beyond hockey what you're doing for these kids. We're not going to get into the stats of kids who do after school programs and how that just helps the community in its large helps these kids. But here's someone you got 17 years with the organization. You are living that dream. You're working for your childhood team. You're making a massive impact. You've had now a longer career than almost all NHL players. I just think we got to commend that and also let the audience understand that there are so many pathways into this game beyond the playing. I am sure and I would love for you to talk about this and you spoke about this with your coaching but everything you learned perseverance, winning, losing, dealing with good teammates, dealing with not good teammates that all plays into your role now, right, that's what made you the person you are today 100%.
Speaker 2:It really is a big component of it in terms of introducing the sport to these students but also then introducing them to the opportunities in that sport. It is not we're going to go in and we're going to give a fifth-grader a stick and they're going to pick it up, they're going to fall in love with it and they're the next number one draft pick. That's not we talked about, not necessarily the ultimate goal. If we start getting draft NHL draft picks from our market, we're ecstatic. That's phenomenal, but that's not our focus and that's not the ultimate goal. That kid that picks up a stick in fifth grade now might be like well, I really like video editing. I could work for a professional sports team and do video editing. I love all the content. I love watching all the behind the scenes of LeBron and Steph Curry or Patrick Mahomes in the NFL. I could do that. I could be on the team plane and flying around with a professional team doing video editing or doing stats or doing PR. I could be in ticket sales. I could be in sponsorship. I could be in operations and be in charge of turning a nice rank into a basketball court and a basketball court and into a nice rank Getting the arena ready. There's so many job opportunities and I don't think many people are aware of them. You mentioned growing up here. I often times we would get asked when we were kids well, what do you guys want to be when you grow up and almost all of my teammates said they wanted to be an NHL player I used to say I want to work for the capitals People would almost find that more unbelievable. There's not those opportunities, but I was exposed to it at a younger age. That could be a possibility and that was my goal that I set out to accomplish because I wanted to be able to share the sport with everybody.
Speaker 1:I can say with confidence that anyone listening to this who's kids want to work in the game, or you think they might one day. If they have enough passion, they have the right work set and the right work ethic, it is insanely possible. It's hard to get in. You got to make, you got to pay your dues like anybody else, in the sense that you might have to do a job a little bit you don't want to do. That's part of the journey, right, we get that on the ice all the time. Mike and I talk about roles all the time on the ice, right, but it is very possible, if you have the determination to drive, to get into an organization in hockey. I believe that. I think it's hilarious. The user people said, well, no, I mean you can't work for the caps and it's like wait, wait, wait. We're all trying to make the NHL here. But you said that that was the funny one. But no, thank you for sharing that, pete, because again, I don't think we talk about that enough. The love of the game. As I said, you can't create it, but you can cultivate it, and your ability to cultivate that love into something can really impact someone's life so far beyond playing Right. Again, you can't play forever either. Anybody over 40 knows what I'm talking about. Right, you just can't do it. So I think it's great.
Speaker 2:It's interesting that you're also talking about just the exposure of the game and the growth of the game. I know that Christy and Mike both touched on this earlier and that is really. We've noticed that we we're kind of getting capped here in terms of growing the game on the ice, and so, if you take that one.
Speaker 1:I have to say it sorry it was right there.
Speaker 2:It's totally on purpose, right? Let's take those million students right. Less than 3% of those kids decide to play ice hockey and we've more than doubled the current USA hockey registrations in all of Maryland, dc and Virginia combined. And that's a massive that's a massive amount of increase in terms of the participation on the ice and you're going to need more ice. So where are those kids going to play? And you mentioned the after school programs. We do try hockey for free programs, right? If a kid comes and signs up for a try hockey for free program for street hockey, we can get them to the rank, have an hour clinic and then leave with a capital branded street hockey stick and a ball and a puck to take home with them, and it costs our organization less than $20 to get that kid involved in the sport, and so the cost for participation is really not that high. When you look at the off ice, if you look at the cost per student with our hockey school program, it's 50 cents, right, it's just under 50 cents. Technically, 49 cents per student is what it costs the capitalist organization to give these students access to the sport of hockey and PE class. And so when we hear people say hockey is not accessible, hockey is too expensive, hockey is not diverse or it's not inclusive, there are some truths to that, but mostly it's relating to ice hockey. And so when you talk about the off ice game, out of those million students, about 48% of them. According to the demographics of the school system, 48% of them identify as female and 67% of those students are diverse, so they identify as a race or ethnicity other than white, and so that is a massive increase in participation and diversity of the game. And all of those students are all over the spectrum when it comes to economic diversity and let alone, maybe, their ethnic background or their ethnic diversity as well. So it really is exposing the game and providing an opportunity for it to grow and letting these kids know that it is an option for me. I just have to choose which form of the game I might want to play.
Speaker 4:What do you hear from the families who just suddenly discovered this option and now they're hooked?
Speaker 2:Most of them. First of all, they say they love it right and they can't wait to participate again. But a lot of the time it's I didn't even know this was an option. I didn't even know that I could play street hockey. I didn't even know that that was a thing. A quick story about. You know, for the, the ranks that we were building, street hockey ranks, when we knew we were going to be getting this funding, we had to start in the researching where all of these outdoor ranks that already exist in our market, where they are and what shape they're in and what investment might be needed to improve them. And at the time I had an intern that grew up outside of Baltimore, loves hockey, loves the caps and played street hockey with his brothers and his friends all the time. One of these ranks that was already existing was less than a mile from his house and he had no idea that it was there. This is a kid that played street hockey all the time and even know that there is an outdoor ball hockey ranked near his house until he was in college and interning with the capitals and doing this research project. So it is also about the awareness of where the facilities are and the different forms of the game that you can play and that I think that's the biggest component of it.
Speaker 1:So, pete, final question for me, because we're kind of getting close to time now. You know you're in a position here I'm going to put you on a little bit of a pedestal and put you on a spot a little bit. But as someone who's been involved with an organization for 17 years, you're overseeing literally the cultivating of love hockey for millions of kids. If I put you in front of every hockey director in the country right now, every rank, they're all looking at you. What is your advice to them? Because the hockey director is a unforgiving position. All the problems come back to them, but they have a massive responsibility to their organizations and their clubs to really make this experience worth being there. But they also have to make you want to stay with those teams. Right, it's a major challenge because we talk about on the show all the time. The grass is always greener on the other side, right, for these kids, for these families. If you could speak to them and share some advice to them, what would you tell every hockey director in the country?
Speaker 2:I would tell them that you have to make it fun. If it's not fun, kids aren't going to want to do it, and that's just the reality of it. My son is seven years old and if something isn't fun he's like I'm kind of over it, I want to do something different. What is it? Oh, maybe it's the coach is not that much fun, or the sport, or the way they're being taught the skills. First of all, it has to be fun. That's the biggest component of it. And then to your earlier quote. One of my favorites is the grass is not greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it. And so water the grass in your rink or water the grass in your community and provide those fun opportunities for these kids to engage in the sport. And it's not just the kids, it's also the parents. We all know that hockey parents I'm sure you talked about it on this podcast often every episode how intense hockey parents can get Right. I had the. I was fortunate enough to get humbled very early on with playing youth hockey in this market and then going up in the summers with my dad spending time in Canada with his family and going to camps and playing in leagues up there and I very quickly learned I am nowhere close to the greatest hockey player of all time. I mean, I have kids at this camp in Canada telling me that the kid that skating circles around is the worst player on their team, and I think that's a big part of it, and it's not just about being around my teammates and having some fun and that was something that my parents always, always pushed and it was just about enjoying the game. And if it's not going to be fun and you're going to get super upset at it, or it's not going to be enjoyable, maybe it's not worth doing. So I think the biggest component for hockey directors is to make sure that it's fun, but you also have to make it inclusive and you have to make it a safe place for kids to want to play and for families to want to be a part of it. And the big component as well is you often hear that this phrase of like hockey is not for everyone, or hockey is not inclusive, it's not a safe space, but it can be and it really does come from the top, and so I think that the hockey directors driving that forward and making sure that it is in a safe, inclusive space where everybody can have fun and everybody can participate, I think is really, you know, a big component of it.
Speaker 1:It may seem like obvious advice to those of you listening, but it is always something that needs to be reminded on a day in and day out basis. And again, pete, that's not me saying that's not a great answer, it's a fantastic answer. It's just one we need to continue to say over and over again, because I think we can lose sight of that really easy, especially when parents are saying, well, this team doesn't win, or you're not going to nationals, and it's like but that's, it's not exactly the only reason we're here. You know what I mean. So fantastic stuff, christy Mike. Any other questions before I close this out?
Speaker 4:What you're doing is great and what you just said, lee, is so important. It's not all about going to nationals, because now that my kids are in their 20s I can see the hockey skills translating into their everyday lives so easily. My daughter just a couple of weeks ago. Her boss came up to her. She went in early, she worked through her lunch, she stayed late and she did that all week long. The end of the week he said it's a sports team because you've got one hack of a work ethic. I played hockey goes. Ah, that explains it, because he knew he happened to be connected to. You, know the local hockey, he knows the kind of investment that a hockey player has to put in and the sacrifice and it really and my son same thing. It's amazing. You can see all that work, all that energy, all that time, all that money, all the fun that they had over the years is now translating into their young lives and it's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1:It's germinated into the flower that they are today. It really has.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, it is worth it. Mom's and dad's out there, it's worth it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the first things that we look for me personally that I look for when somebody is applying for one of our positions, whether it be part time, full time or even just working with different people around the organization, you can immediately tell somebody that played a team sport and, in terms of the the willingness to work with everyone in the teamwork that they have, in the way that they can maneuver around different personalities and handle different tasks that are sent their way, it's 100% noticeable Someone that played team sports and someone that did not.
Speaker 4:And that's the end of that story. So the boss made an announcement hey everybody, I'm going to let everybody have the afternoon off so we can all go out and party. If you have any work left, bring it to Sophia. She'll stay here till it's done.
Speaker 1:I'm sure she loves that Mike, anything before we go.
Speaker 3:I mean I just, if you see guys like Peter and his staff, go hug them and say you know you forget, you forget how much work these guys do. I mean I've, I've been fortunate to be on the inside of a lot of these events and it's every morning and you know outdoor ball hockey events, even in Maryland on a Wednesday morning or probably not the great you know it's not, it's not 80 degrees and sunny, yeah, it's just. You know the amount of schools and the amount of programs that go into this and what I love about you know, peter, what you do and your staff. Like when you watch the events they're always high energy, professional events like you wouldn't know. You know you know all the other participants like, oh my God, this is like unbelievable, they're doing this for us. Yeah, well, we do this for we're doing this for a million kids, but to make, to really go out and make those million kids feel special and feel like. You know that that impact was the same for the first kid as it was for the last kid in the last day of the season. Yeah, it's tough, it's hard work and I know from my side it doesn't go unappreciated, but it's really great to see. You know, the NHL program. Step up, you know, use these, the resources you have, in a positive way and hopefully it benefits all of us that love the sport of hockey. Because the more kids that are, you know, sitting around, stop and shop, that you know, look down the aisle and they're wearing hockey jackets and and they're hockey fans and hockey players, you know, I don't know, I find it more interesting to talk to them. So it's all good, I love it.
Speaker 4:I really appreciate it Right A HL teams to need to step up to this. Not just NHL, but a HL teams can also do that in local communities as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. You know the HL, the ECHL, all the developmental leagues. You know that they have the staff and they're starting to invest in growing the game and providing that access. And Mike, you mentioned it and I really appreciate those kind words. But there's youth hockey development staff at each one of these NHL clubs and they do amazing work and they have, you know, successful programs that are each, each club has a program. At the very least that's probably the standard in the league or the best in the league. Right, we look at our hockey school program as one of those and you know we we share all of our ideas with each other. We consider it an opportunity where rising tide raises all ships type situation, and so if Dallas or Nashville or Arizona is growing the game and creating more hockey fans, it's only going to benefit the capitals in the long run as well, and so we really do work together to provide opportunities to be able to support each one of these clubs and make sure that the programming in their communities being supported as well.
Speaker 4:Fantastic.
Speaker 1:Pete, as I close this out, I'm just going to say, on behalf of our group, but also our audience and you know we don't always get the opportunity to do this but just want to thank you, your team and, like you said, you could probably put this out to the entire NHL. We're affecting millions of lives, right, and that is a real calling to be able to affect millions of lives, not just to love the game of hockey, but to give them the life skills to be better citizens and more productive citizens, which is something we probably desperately need right now. And you are a community leader might not be your title, and, but it's true and everybody who works with you and in your team is doing that. So I just want to thank you for that, as a parent and as a citizen, as a hockey fan, I think it all three of those, those, those levels it works.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that and thank you for the kind words. It was a pleasure to be on today and I really enjoyed the conversation, so thank you very much for the opportunity.
Speaker 1:No, thank you. And for everyone listening, remember, pete Robinson works for the capitals. The capitals are a team and our sponsor, nhl Sensorina, that you can play as if you dive in there. Everybody get $50 off an annual subscription. Head over to hockey dot censoring a dot com. Right now, use our code hockey never stops to use that. Another great way joking aside, pete to experience the game and in a new reality, right? But for Pete Robinson, christie Casciano burns and Mike Benelli, I'm Leo. I this. This has been another edition of our kids play hockey. We'll see you on the next one. Everybody skate on and have a great time out there. I hope you enjoyed this edition of our kids play hockey. Make sure to like and subscribe right now if you found value. Wherever you're listening whether it's a podcast network, a social media network or our website our kids play hockey dot com. Also, make sure to check out our Children's book when hockey stops at when hockey stops dot com. It's a book that helps children deal with adversity in the game and in life. We're very proud of it. Thanks so much for listening to this edition of our kids play hockey and we'll see you on the next episode.