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Affordable Hockey Lessons Being Offered to Local Kids, Sponsored by Islanders, NHL and NHLPA

Kids Part of Program at LIC-ICE (Photo: LIC-ICE)

July 11, 2018 By Christian Murray

A unique program that provides children from ages 5 through 8 with hockey equipment and lessons is kicking off its fall program at LIC-ICE in September.

The program, where kids are provided with eight training sessions and equipment to keep, will cost $200 and is being offered at LIC-ICE, located at 10-12 46th Road. The program is part of the “Learn to Play” initiative where the New York Islanders, NHL & NHLPA have teamed up to help young boys and girls learn the game.

“We will size them up and give them skates, helmets and pads—all the equipment—from head to toe,” said Lucia Grosek, who manages LIC-ICE. Each session will consist of 10 kids and three coaches, with Islanders alumni Arron Asham and Radek Martinek providing instruction.

The program is being offered at 11 rinks across Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens. LIC-ICE is the only rink to offer sessions in a “boutique setting,” where there are just 10 children per lesson.  The locations can be found at this link.

Kids Part of Program at LIC-ICE (Photo: LIC-ICE)

The initiative aims to attract New York kids to the sport.  The program also teaches children about fitness and teamwork.

“The cost of hockey in New York is very expensive,” Grosek said. “The equipment alone costs $450 and then there are few rinks so playing time can be costly. In other states, there are government-funded rinks—and lots of them—so it is less expensive.”

There are 130 spots available at LIC-ICE for the program, Grosek said. The rink has had 280 kids graduate the program, with almost 250 continuing to play.

The program is designed for first-time players.

Children are encouraged to learn how to skate prior to the sessions—although it is not mandatory.

LIC-ICE opened at the beginning of 2016 and is dedicated to hockey.

“We have kids coming here from as far as Westchester, Long Island, Connecticut, all boroughs, all ethnicities and background,” Grosek said. “We want everyone to feel welcome.”

Lucia said 40 percent of the players in the program are girls.

To register and for more information, please click here:

https://learntoplay.nhl.com/islanders

LIC-ICE located at 10-12 46th Rd.(Photo: Yelp)

email the author: news@queenspost.com

5 Comments

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MRLIC

I’m offering affordable bowling lessons as well. There’s not cost, but you have to agree to listen to me rant about Hillary’s emails for 20 minutes.

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Anonymous

are all people going to pay the fee for this or are there going to be people that will be going there for free as usual.

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Tommy O

Anonymous – instead of acting like a Fox News Stooge and politicizing everything, start your own hockey program and set your own rules and guidelines.

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brooklynmc

This program is awesome. The problem is it ends at age 8 and then you have a kid who likes to play an extremely expensive sport. I am beginning to get my son off of hockey and into baseball.

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