WHL Community Collective: Tri-City Americans
The Western Hockey League strives to promote and foster a welcoming community across our 22 clubs scattered throughout Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Every team is given the creative freedom to allow their players and staff to work with the organizations and groups that they are most passionate towards. The end goal is to create and maintain long-lasting relationships and ongoing partnerships within their community.
Through the WHL Community Collective we aim to highlight these outstanding initiatives done by each club over the course of the year.
This is what the Tri-City Americans’ #WHLCommunity looked like this season:
Located one hour southeast of the Tri-Cities stands the city of Pendleton, Ore. Known for its cowboy culture and the long-standing Pendleton Round-Up rodeo event, the city, which boasts a population of over 15,000, has embraced its western heritage for over a century.
However, this often leaves its smaller athletic communities lost in the shadows — including Pendleton’s minor hockey program, Pendleton Ice Sports. This lack of attention has left the hockey program, which only consisted of 58 athletes during the 2022-23 season, struggling to grow or attract any future participants living locally.
That is, until members of Tri-City Americans got involved.
With the goal of growing the game throughout the Pacific Northwest and as a part of the Club’s community efforts, Americans headed southbound to visit the athletes of Pendleton Ice Sports.
Americans Parker Bell, Ethan Ernst, Tyson Greenway, Marc Lajoie, and Alex Serraglio, with the help of coaches Stu Barnes, Jody Hull, and T.J. Millar took to the ice at Pendleton’s Roy Raley Ice Rink — the only ice surface located in the city.
The combination of coaches and players spent the day running practices and signing autographs for various ice times.
Yesterday we headed to Pendleton, Oregon for an evening skate! ????
It was a blast meeting some of our Oregon fans and skating with local kids! pic.twitter.com/72KaFhGfIY
— Tri-City Americans (@TCAmericans) January 25, 2023
The opportunity to join the minor hockey organization for the day stemmed from the Americans ongoing partnership with Wildhorse Resort & Casino. Prior to the Americans visit, Wildhorse had been providing grants to Pendleton Ice Sports in the hopes of lowering the equipment costs as a means of attracting more players.
For members of Pendleton Ice Sports, including Aaron Gillespie, who works with the minor hockey program, the visit from the Americans made for a very special day.
“Anything that grows the game in this area, that’s what’s important. This is an amazing opportunity for our kids,” Gillespie said.
The trip to Pendleton’s outdoor rink also hit close to home for members of the Americans too.
For forward Ethan Ernst, the visit helped jog his memories about skating on frozen ponds in his hometown of Weyburn, Sask.
“We would go to the nearest pond, clear it off and use that,” Ernst recalled.
“This is fun. This rink is awesome. It’s great to see how happy [the kids] are. I’m glad we can leave a good impression.”
Americans head coach of two seasons, Stu Barnes, echoed a similar sentiment.
“We had a rink, and at the school yard the basketball court would freeze over and we would skate on that too,” Barnes shared.
“The great thing about hockey is you can play at any age. It’s exciting when you see the young kids out there. It’s a positive for the game, for sure.”
Barnes, who has over 1,000 NHL games to his name, also understands that every young hockey player’s career must start somewhere. And, often times, that start comes on outdoor ice.
“An outdoor rink is the simplest, truest form of the game. I would be shocked if a majority of players in the game didn’t have memories of playing outdoors,” Barnes said.
With the goal growing the game of hockey in neighbouring communities still on the Americans minds, more team visits — as seen with Pendleton’s minor hockey program – will continue to be listed on the Club’s calendar.
