League hopes now is time for growth in China QB Neher could get start Friday
Sophomore became first Broward girl to throw TD
SHANGHAI — As the Vancouver Canucks held their first practice in Shanghai before their exhibition game with the Los Angeles Kings, a dense fog settled over the ice. The humidity in the arena was high and the players could barely see the puck.
Large dehumidifiers were rolled in and the mist eventually cleared, but the NHL has perhaps a bigger visibility problem in China — a country with little tradition of winter sports, hockey included. The league is hoping to turn that around with a major push in the country, beginning with its first two preseason games between the Canucks and Kings in Shanghai and Beijing this week.
The timing couldn’t be better for the NHL. With Beijing set to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, the government is putting a massive emphasis on developing winter sports. Hockey training programs and youth leagues are expanding across China, and the nation’s first professional team, the Kunlan Red Star, plays in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League.
With interest on the rise, the NHL believes it now has an opportunity to crack a market that has traditionally been more fixated on basketball and soccer.
“You don’t quite know what to expect the first time the game is coming here, but I’ve always believed that hockey is a game you need to see live,” Los Angeles Kings coach John Stevens said after Wednesday’s practice. “And once you see it live, you become hooked as a fan.”
A glance at the numbers shows just how far the NHL has to go. According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, China has just 1,101 registered players, compared with nearly 556,000 in the U.S. and more than 631,000 in Canada.
And the fan base in nation of more than 1.2 billion people is still in its infancy. On Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, the NHL has just 47,000 followers. The NBA, which hosted its first preseason exhibition games in China in 2004, boasts more than 33 million followers on Weibo.
“We’re learning a lot about how to market here and we’re learning a lot about how tickets are sold,” says David Proper, the NHL’s executive vice president of media and international strategy. “We’re just viewing this as Year 1 of a multiyear project and in Year 1 we may not knock it out of the park, but we can still build over time.”
The NHL also has an influential partner on the ground in Zhou Yunjie, the billionaire founder of a Chinese drinks packaging company who has devoted significant time and resources to building the game he fell in love with as a youth in Beijing. Zhou’s company, ORG Packaging, is the presenting partner for this week’s exhibition games.
“Hockey was actually quite common in northern China back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so there is a foundation among the kids in those areas,” Zhou told The Associated Press at his company’s newly opened hockey training base in a Beijing suburb, which includes a fully stocked gym, physical therapy room and a hotel for players attending training camps.
Zhou said China’s hockey revival should focus on both universities and a professional league, using the North American, northern European and Russian systems as models.
“It will take time before ice hockey really becomes like a religion with young people as it is in the West,” he said. “But ice hockey will definitely catch on with lots of kids.”
For now, the league is focused on taking its first baby steps in China, giving spectators in Shanghai and Beijing a good show.
HOLLYWOOD — Holly Neher already captured the hearts of Americans last time the Hollywood Hills football team took the field. Now, she may soon be capturing the starting quarterback job.
Neher made national headlines when she became the first girl in Broward County — and possibly all of Florida — to throw for a touchdown. The 5-foot-2 Spartans junior, who came off the bench to toss the 45-yard score to senior receiver Alexander Shelton, has since been featured in USA Today, ESPN’s SportsCenter and ABC’s Good Morning America among others.
Two weeks later, after Hurricane Irma disrupted the high school football schedule, Hills coach Brandon Graham goes into Friday’s game against Pompano Beach expecting Neher to see more playing time but isn’t ready to name her — or any other quarterback, for that matter — the starter just yet.
Whereas Neher was the third quarterback to come in against Hallandale after being second on the depth chart in the preseason, she is now “1A and 1B” with freshman Emile Bien-Aime. Senior Ramon James, the original starter, has been moved to receiver. It’s Neher and Bien-Aime to split first-team quarterback reps — with Shelton, a versatile 6-foot-3 athlete who primarily plays wideout offensively, working in some snaps out of the Wildcat formation.
Whether Neher or BienAime is technically “the starter” essentially comes down to which one comes out onto the field for the opening drive, but both will see action Friday.
“Through her play, Holly has earned an opportunity to be on the field,” said Graham, a first-year head coach and longtime assistant and flag football coach. “It might not mean she starts, and it may mean she does start. We have to get her and the other quarterbacks on the field.
“[She] and the other quarterbacks have shown they can do something well and bring something different to the table, and I’d be silly if I didn’t let her show what she can do.”
Neher impressed with more than just her touchdown against the Chargers. She led the following drive down to the 1-yard line before it ended in a lost fumble.
“She showed that she can run an offense,” Graham said. “We said since the beginning of the season, ‘It wasn’t just a marketing thing and it wasn’t just a publicity thing.’ She’s earned the opportunity.”
Unaware of how much playing time she’ll see, Neher believes the coaches will make the best decision for the team. Neher pledges to maintain the same attitude and work ethic that led to her improvement since the preseason and eventual success in a small on-field sample.
“Whatever coaches want to do, I trust their decision,” she said. “The coaches saw what I did, and no matter if I impressed them or not, I’m going to come out here and work as hard as I can — just like I did every day before then.”
Neher has the support of teammates, including top target Shelton, who sees leadership skills in her the team needs out of its field general.
“Whenever someone gets down, she’s always the one to bring us back up,” Shelton said. “She’s just always in a good mood, and that just sets the team up.”
As far as the national publicity goes, “I did not expect that at all,” Neher said. “I feel so accomplished.
“Now that I know everyone’s seeing it, little girls that want to accomplish something they might think is out of their reach, they can see I’m doing it. Look at me. That means they can do it.”
Neher’s story is here to stay, and it may just be inspiring another South Florida girl somewhere who will be the next to throw the pigskin with the boys.