FALCONS TEACH FLOOR HOCKEY TO KIDS

By:  Mike Hopey

February 18, 2010 - On Tuesday, February 17, the Springfield Falcons hosted a free floor hockey clinic at Tower Square in downtown Springfield led by Colton Fretter, J.P. Levasseur, Slava Trukhno, Bryan Lerg, Ryan MacMurchy, and Jason Pitton.  Kids were able to come out during school vacation week  and enjoy some free time with Falcons players.

>>PHOTO GALLERY OF FLOOR HOCKEY CLINIC

“They’re having a blast, some of them are holding the stick wrong, but their having a lot fun with it,” said Bryan Lerg. “It’s good to see the smiles on their faces, running around all the energy in the world.”

For the third straight year, the Falcons players came down during February school vacation to give families an inexpensive and fun alternative to enjoying vacation week. 

“We do it for the community,” said Annette Scheidecker, the director of marketing at Tower Square . “Here they have the Falcons in their own backyard and they have an opportunity to come here for free and learn a little bit more about hockey.”

Once the kids had enough of playing street hockey with the Falcons and Screech, they lined up to have their jerseys, shirts, or posters autographed. Parents with cameras and camcorders stood by to snap pictures and record the kids excited faces.

“It’s always good to give back to our fans,” said winger Colton Fretter. “It’s fun for us to come out here and meet our fans in person.”

The large group of about 150 fans decked out in their blue and white Falcons gear streamed in and out of Tower Square for the chance to shoot on Levasseur or to impress Fretter and Lerg with their wrist shot.

“One of the kids here was picking corners,” joked Fretter. “A lot of the little guys are trying to put it on net, but he was asking us where we wanted him to put it.”

There were nets and sticks provided and the kids had the time of their lives shooting around the foam pucks.  The chance to play with some of their heroes from the ice provided all the excitement they needed.

“It’s been up and down this season and maybe hasn’t worked out for the best. But the fans keep coming to games,” said Lerg. “We take it game by game, and hopefully we can turn it around for everyone.”