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OUR DIVERSE HOCKEY COMMUNITY – A Change in Direction

This is the first in a series spotlighting the people involved with the hockey for all centre’s First Shift Program, inviting youngsters from Manitoba’s Asian, South Asian and Filipino communities to learn all about Canada’s favourite sport. In this edition of Game On, we meet Allan Chan.

Allan Chan knows there are kids in his community who want to play hockey.

In fact, Chan’s involvement in a program that he helped organize – First Shift – makes it very clear that youngsters in the Asian, South Asian and Filipino communities will grab onto hockey and embrace it if they’re given the chance.

“Right now, in the First Shift program, we have 60 kids that are first time skaters plus another 30 kids that are in and out as coaches,” Chan explained. “We only started in the fall of 2023 and we haven’t done much advertising. It’s just been word of mouth in the communities and still, the spots in the program fill up right away. There is a very strong interest in the community.

“And it’s great to see these kids that have never skated and don’t even know which hand they shoot with, learn and grow in the program. It’s satisfying working with them, so they want to get involved in the game and play it. They’re learning that they belong and they should be part of the hockey community.”

Chan, along with Ganni Maan from Winnipeg’s South Asian Community and Ron Cantiveros from the Filipino community have joined with Bauer, the hockey for all centre and the Winnipeg Jets to introduce Canada’s national pastime to new Canadians who have never played the game before.

Of course, there is a very important reason that the Jets and hockey for all centre have recruited the likes of Chan to the program. David Sattler, the general manager of the hockey for all centre, has seen the numbers and he knows the demographics are changing. And they are changing faster than we ever expected.

“If you look at Manitoba’s demographics over the last decade and what it will look like over the next 20-30 years, Asian, South Asian and Filipino communities already make up a sizable group of the population, particularly in Winnipeg,” Sattler explained. “By the time we get to 2040, a significant percentage of the population will be represented by these communities, as well as by our Indigenous communities. We have a plan to help grow the game in emerging communities in both Winnipeg and around the province.

“For our city, our province and for much of the prairies, hockey is what drives the engine in the winter, whether it’s the Jets or the NHL, the CHL, right through to Jr. A and AAA minor hockey programs. If we don’t have kids sign up for minor hockey, we don’t have kids who go on and play at those higher levels and we don’t have kids who grow up to be fans of the Winnipeg Jets and the game in general.”

That’s why the game we love is taking a change in direction. Not in terms of the rules or the way the game is being played, but in the way its presented. People who never grew up with hockey are arriving in Canada every day and Sattler wants to recruit as many as he can to our country’s favourite sport.

It’s why Allan Chan is involved. After all, Chan is not only a member of the Winnipeg Jets advisory board, but he himself is a player.

“Back in about 2010, some friends of mine and I were interested in an annual tournament called the Asian Hockey Championships based in Toronto’” Chan explained. “So we went, myself and three friends, and we joined a team out there and we played. It was great timing and when we came back home we said wouldn’t it be great if we could put a team together?

“So, we did and put together an All-Asian team and went back to Toronto and played in the men’s division. It also has a kids’ division and a women’s division. In 2011, we actually took three teams to Toronto because the Jets had returned and there was a lot of interest in the team across the province. We also had all these players of Asian descent who wanted to play and wanted to be a part of it.

“As the years went by, a lot of my teammates had kids and they’d come to the tournament and play in it, as well. So now we take down two adult teams, a partial kids’ team that joins up with kids from Calgary and Toronto.”

It wasn’t long before Chan was organizing an All-Asian tournament in Winnipeg.

“Last February we held our own Lunar New Year Tournament,” Chan said.  “We had a four-team tournament and at that time we decided to have a gear drive and we were put in touch with the True North Youth Foundation. We partnered up on a gear drive and the True North Youth Foundation put us in touch with David at the hockey for all centre.

“We started working with David and Dean Court on Grow the Game back in May of 2023. We also wanted to do something where we got involved in the First Shift Program. So, last April and May, we recruited kids of Asian, South Asian and Filipino descent who had already started playing or at least had started skating, to be coaches in the program.”

This kind of community leadership was exactly what the First Shift program needed.

“Thanks to Scotiabank’s hockey for all and Grow the Game programs and Bauer’s First Shift (through an NHL/NHLPA partnership) along with Apna Hockey’s ability to reach the South Asian Community, Jets Hockey Development has been proactive when it comes to encouraging non-traditional communities to embrace the game,” said Sattler. “We’re hoping this will build bridges and create diversity in a sport that right now, doesn’t have as much diversity as other sports we watch, play and enjoy.”

Chan and his partners, Maan and Cantiveros, have already started to build those bridges.

“We got the kids together of varying skill levels and built a data base of kids who could someday become a coach,” Chan said. “It would really help Grow the Game if we had kids who looked like the kids we were teaching. Sometimes that just helps a lot when you’re working with kids who are brand new to the sport.

“So, in October of 2023 we partnered with Bauer and the Jets and we rolled out the First Shift program. We were catering to players of Asian, South Asian and Filipino descent and we actually moved the program to Seven Oaks where the program would be in a place that offered better accessibility for the parents of these kids.

“Bauer supplied 30 families with free head-to-toe hockey gear. Then for six weeks we conducted hockey lessons at Seven Oaks Arena. All completely volunteer run. Members of my hockey team, the Winnipeg Emperors, the Asian team, helped out and then Ganni Maan had a South Asian team that also came out, along with Ron Cantiveros and the Filipino community. We brought on as many volunteers as we could find to help out including the kids that we identified in the spring that could help us coach.

“That was our first intake and then in January of 2024 we did our second intake where we had another 30 families involved. Our future plans are pretty simple now. We will be involved with First Shift again in the fall with more kids. And we have to make sure we have additional transition programs for the kids after First Shift in order to help them play organized hockey. Having coaches that are just like you can really make a difference.”

By Scott Taylor – Game On Magazine

Photos by James Carey Lauder