Tri-City Americans skate with Pendleton Youth program
By Annie Fowler
Pendleton, OR – Ismail Abougouche has played on outdoor rinks and ponds growing up in Lac La Biche, Alberta, but the Tri-City Americans’ defenseman was quite taken with the small rink tucked into Roy Raley Park in Pendleton during his visit Jan. 7.
“You don’t see too many outdoor rinks, but back home, you see them in every neighborhood,” Abougouche said. “During COVID, when the (indoor) rinks were closed, all there was to do in the small town where I’m from is play hockey.”
For the third year in a row, the Tri-City Americans coaching staff and a handful of players visited the Pendleton Ice Sports Hockey Club at the small rink to work with the youth hockey players on skills, and later signed autographs for the players and fans.
Abougouche said working with the Pendleton hockey program brought back good memories.
“It’s always fun getting out there, especially with the kids,” Abougouche said. “It’s nice to see all the smiles. There were a lot of kids there, which was good to see. The older kids are passionate about hockey, and the younger kids are excited. It’s nice to see kids trying hockey and enjoying hockey.”
Growing up, Abougouche said players from the Portage College hockey team would have camps and come skate with the youth programs.
“They were huge and super good at hockey,” Abougouche said. “It was an eye opener. It was fun seeing what we could be one day. You want to be one of those guys one day. It’s crazy.”
That is the same vision the Americans have when they make the trip to the Round-Up City.
Tri-City coach Stu Barnes selects a few players each season to make the trek. This year, Barnes chose Abougouche, Brandon Whynott and Grady Martin to work with and interact with the local players.
“It was really good,” Barnes said. “It’s nice to take different players every year. The experience of seeing an outdoor rink, and the excitement of the kids who are playing. We tell them about it before we go. It’s a unique and cool setting.”
The Pendleton Ice Sports Hockey Club has 64 members this year from kindergarten through high school. There are few young players from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and a handful of players that come from Cove a couple of times a week.
“They love it,” Pendleton Ice Sports Hockey Club president John Bieker said of the local players. “It’s such a great opportunity for them to get to meet them, skate with them and learn from them. We appreciate them coming down. They are so great with the kids.”
Barnes, who played 16 seasons in the NHL for five teams, grew up in Spruce Grove, Alberta. Skating outdoors is nothing new to him.
“A lot of the guys grew up playing outside,” Barnes said of the Tri-City players. “Sometimes it’s a pond, a lake, a rink, or the outside basketball court that would freeze over. They are all different shapes and sizes. The ice there was great.”
Whynott, who grew up in Langley, British Columbia, said there aren’t many outdoor rinks where he is from, but he enjoyed his day in Pendleton.
“It’s really cool to get to skate outside,” he said. “Every once in a while we get to do little coaching things. It was nice to work with the younger kids and hang out with them. It’s awesome that they have that little rink. Getting to skate on it for an hour and half was really fun. It’s always good to be able to do special things like that.”
The Pendleton players will be in for a treat next year after the rink gets some much-needed improvements courtesy of grants from the state and the Wildhorse Foundation, which is managed by the CTUIR.
“The city got a large grant from the state through Parks and Rec,” Bieker said. “We got a grant from Wildhorse for new boards. They are wanting to redo the concrete and put the cooling tubes in the concrete, which will cut down on setup time. It should be a little larger, but not by much.”
A standard sheet of hockey ice is 200 feet long and 85 feet wide. Pendleton’s rink is 96 feet long and 56 feet wide, has dasher boards and boasts its own Zamboni.
The Americans players and coaches arrived a little early in Pendleton and went to Hamley Western Store before hitting the ice.
“It was pretty cool,” said Barnes, who would like one day to take his players to a day the Pendleton Round-Up. “We all got a little souvenir.”
The Pendleton Ice Sports Hockey Club will attend an Americans game on Feb. 22, when rival Spokane visits the Toyota Center.
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