CARLSBAD — Saturday mornings for kids often mean sleeping in and watching cartoons.
But for Brad Boyle and his children, Sadie, 11, and Hudson, 9, the day begins inside a 40-degree ice rink — and it only gets colder from there.
By 10 a.m., the Carlsbad family is suited up in 20 pounds of hockey gear, balancing on skates just millimeters wide. By 10:40, they step onto the slick surface at Ice Realm, a local ice-skating facility, to help run Learn-to-Play, a program introducing kids to hockey fundamentals before they join a team.
As they get to work, the temperature inside the rink drops another 20 degrees.
Although San Diego County is better known for surfboards than slap shots, the region’s hockey scene is thriving, thanks in part to families like the Boyles who brought the sport with them from colder climates.
Brad, a lifelong Red Wings fan originally from New Jersey, began volunteering as a coach when his daughter first showed an interest in the sport.
“I wanted to make sure everyone gets fair ice time [and] has fun,” he said.
The Learn-to-Play program, launched by the National Hockey League and the NHL Players’ Association, is part of a broader push to grow the sport nationwide. According to the NHL, hockey participation has increased by 35% over the past decade, a trend primarily driven by youth programs like this one.
Fred Nelson, hockey director and general manager at Ice Realm, says Learn-to-Play is a “big part of the growth of the game.”
As Sadie found her passion on the ice, she joined the ranks of many volunteers and coaches who keep hockey alive in San Diego.
“It’s rewarding to teach these kids,” Sadie said, “knowing you got them better and you got them to come back and keep playing. My little brother (Hudson) started to play hockey, and I wanted to help coach him. As he got better, he started to help coach with me.”
During each practice session, participants rotate through five skill stations, spending 12 minutes at each station. Activities range from relay races to obstacle courses.
For younger children, falling and learning to get back up is a rite of passage in ice hockey. For this reason, Hudson didn’t enjoy the sport at first. But something changed.
“Once you fall down, you get really angry,” he said. “But then you take all that anger out, and then you skate your heart out.”
Emmitt Peck, a young participant in his sixth Learn-to-Play session whose father also played hockey, was introduced to the sport by his parents.
“We’re learning to love it,” said Audra Houtchens, Emmitt’s mother. “The falling is a little challenging, but they were persevering.”
To make hockey more accessible, Ice Realm’s Learn-to-Play program offers a unique loaner gear initiative for individuals who cannot afford to purchase gear for their children when they start the program.
Nelson says, “I’m from the Midwest, so I grew up with that kind of concept. Some of the rinks don’t want to handle used equipment because they think it’s a pain in the rear. I don’t mind it.”
Although the rink is wary of people not returning borrowed gear, Nelson says this community is tight-knit and willing to give to younger generations.
“When I bark, ‘I need more,’ I just throw out an email, and in the next couple of weeks, I’m overloaded again.”
For more information, visit https://icerealmcarlsbad.com/youth-hockey-learn-to-play-hockey.
