Reflections

July 8, 2008

In early December after returning from a trip to Beijing and having a chance meeting with a Beijing hockey fan and coach (Mr. Yuan Meng), I began to think about organizing a trip for a select group of players who had the desire and personal character to travel abroad and be the first ever visiting youth hockey team (boys or girls) to play in China.

At first, I thought it was going to be a difficult task finding enough players who wanted to travel 8,560 miles to a another country where only Tofu burgers are sold. To my pleasant surprise it was exactly the opposite. I had an overwhelmingly positive and energetic response from many people from many teams making the selection process, ironically, even more difficult.

In the end, we achieved a perfect blend of players who all represented themselves, teams, country, and families in an outstanding manner. Throughout the process of preparing for the trip, I was amazed at the level of sacrifice, dedication, and commitment that both players and parents exhibited in all regards. I would like to personally thank my wife Susan Yue for dedicating countless late night hours communicating with our Chinese counterparts and China Spree our travel agency.

I would also like to thank all of the donors who made this trip financially possible. Your donations went well beyond any financial value as can be seen in the interpersonal relationships that the children were able to make with the Chinese players throughout the trip.

I would like to thank the Shoreline Sharks, Mid Fairfield CT Stars, CT Polar Bears, CT Wolves, Greater New Haven Warriors, Wonderland Wizards, Yale Youth Hockey, and the HOSA Ice Center- Beijing for making this experience so successful and possible.

I would also like to thank all the parents/grand-parents and my co-coaches Bill Greim and Kelsey Greim for their time and dedication. Our team blog would not have been a success without our team photographer Mr. Tom Tolla who also deserves a special "medal of honor" for weathering through sun poisoning, dehydration, and vertigo to put together what is going to be a blockbuster photographic chronology of our trip.

The players not only continued their hockey development but also initiated a cultural and anthropological educational process which will undoubtedly be a lifelong journey for them.

To this end, I invite all the players to offer to present their experiences at their schools, to their teams, and to their communities to share their learning experience whenever the chance presents itself. I greatly look forward to seeing everyone "in the rinks" this year!

Best, Coach Yue

P.S. Perhaps we can pull together an end of the summer picnic where we can go through a slide show of our very special trip memories.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 7, 2008


Quite an amazing trip and a great opportunity for the players and their families. Coach Yue, Sue Yue and Nancy Banasiak did a great job of organizing this.

The competition varied greatly, but the Sharks got stronger with every game. The last game, although a loss proved to be the best experience for the kids. They played up, fearless and determined to compete all over the ice. They wore their Sharks USA colors with pride and their growth from the whole experience is immeasurable.

We missed Sam Sandler who got sick and only played one game. She is an awesome player who was with the team in spirit.

In China it is quite clear that only the more wealthy children get the opportunity to play ice hockey (not unlike the US) and not many of those are girls. We hope that our visit and donations of equipment inspires more Chinese girls to play hockey and makes it within reach of a few more kids.

A lot of barriers were broken down this week as the Sharks showed just how good a team of girls (and a few younger boys) can be. Our team learned how talented players can be from a country so far away and we all learned just how powerful sports can be to bridge our different cultures.

The smiles on the kids faces after each game made all the travel and all the expense worth it.

Coach Greim