Local hockey leagues switch up strategy for engaging new Canadians

Previous attempts to entice the children of new Canadians into the sport of hockey have not been successful for the Windsor Minor Hockey Association.

The executive director of a provincial minor hockey body is calling on its member leagues to promote the sport and look for ways to attract new Canadians as a way to boost dwindling participation. “If we can get new Canadians involved in our sport, we will,” said WMHA president Dean Lapierre. “We’ve tried in the past.”

The WMHA is not affiliated with Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario but Lapierre said the concept proposed by Alliance executive director Tony Martindale is sound. “We’re going to hold an open house this spring to let people know about our registration and what it costs,” Lapierre said.

He’s concerned some immigrant parents hear about families spending thousands of dollars for their hockey-playing children and worries they may not realize house league costs much less than travel. “You can play house league for under $600 and we offer a sevenmonth payment plan,” he said. Several years ago, information about WMHA registration appeared in materials published by the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County. Lapierre said they plan to reach out to the MCC again.

He also recalled how two years ago WMHA officials met with members of the local Iraqi community. A number of families expressed interest in signing up their children and WMHA compiled a list of 13 kids eager to play.

“It didn’t happen,” Lapierre said because some families thought the hockey was being offered free of charge and others wanted their children to play only at the arena closest to home. Economics, transportation and language are some of the barriers facing families new to Canada, said Pam Mady, communications manager for the multicultural council. “They’ve just arrived in the country and purchasing equipment for sports is not one of their top priorities,” Mady said. “Some are coming from countries that have never even heard of hockey.”

As the fourth most diverse city in the country, Lapierre knows there’s untapped player potential out there that could reverse a trend of declining enrolment.

“We’re down about 50 players from the year before,” Lapierre said. A total of 850 players just completed the 2017-18 WMHA season. Fred Baldwin is the president of the Windsor Junior Spitfires AAA program, which is affiliated with Alliance. Baldwin said unlike other Alliance members, they aren’t experiencing any problems filling rosters on the eight teams they field. He also didn’t know of any new Canadians playing in the AAA system.

The 2016 census found almost 28 per of Windsor’s population are immigrants. Over a 10-month span in 2016 alone, the city welcomed 1,400 Syrian refugees.

We need to figure out how we make hockey easy. We have to change the way we think and the way we’ve taken things for granted.

“We need to make sure we’re less intrusive and more welcoming,” said Martindale, who has seen player numbers drop three to four per cent in recent years. “We have to do a good job of promoting hockey and making it accessible. If they’re coming from another country with more familiar options in terms of sports, we need to figure out how we make hockey easy. We have to change the way we think and the way we’ve taken things for granted.” Associations that fall under the alliance umbrella have promoted Just Try It and Bring a Buddy programs to entice new players out to the rink.

“To me, we’ve got to do more of that,” Martindale said. “Where we really need to get traction is with the five, six and seven year olds. They need to be introduced to the game at the same time as the other players.”