by CJ Vetter
Kyle - This weekend, the Ash Pavilion hosted an international hockey tournament as teams from as far as Mexico, McAllen, and Dallas came together to duke it out. The event was hosted by Kyle Hockey, a local organization founded by President Lisa Crane and Vice-President Stephen Crane. Their son Ash is the namesake of the pavilion, as it was the product of a collaboration between the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the city of Kyle.
“It’s just because of the whole Ash thing and his make-a-wish, we just decided, the group of us, the Cranes, me, a couple other families, all asked how we could make this more legit, grow it.” Kyle Hockey Treasurer Kari Mcgowan said.
The six teams that gathered featured the Kyle Krakens, team Past Our Prime, the RGV Lizards, Diaz Ordaz, Team Boston and finally, the San Antonio Iguanas, who would go on to win the tournament. While they didn’t share cities, or even countries, they all shared a great love of the sport. Jason Stros was one of the volunteers and members of the RGV Lizards from McAllen who came to Kyle to show support from their own hockey organization, RGV Rollers.
“I think it’s the most important part of hockey, getting the kids together, getting the adults together, and combining it into something special,” Stros said. “Kyle was able to use this beautiful facility that they provided, and it’s been a great day.”
The goal of the tournament wasn’t just to play hockey- although, that was no small part. In addition, Kyle Hockey hoped to use it to catch the eye of the public and help grow their organization. They’ve recently applied for nonprofit status with the IRS, and are looking towards expanding their organization, buying more equipment, and getting more peopled involved. A large part of that growth has come directly from social media and their website.
“I honestly don’t remember how it started; we were out here playing a pickup, and some guy said I should make a Facebook group; so I did, and everything we’ve done has grown from face book and word of mouth.” Stephen said. “The city of Kyle has been great; they’ve been great partners. We started up the Kyle Hockey non-profit the beginning of this year and we’ve worked with a bunch of the city leaders. They’ve been great at supporting this community and keeping it going.
Kyle Hockey plans to continue to meet every Tuesday and Thursday and are currently waiting for approval on their non-profit status.
For further information, you can reach Kyle Hockey through either its Facebook page or KyleHockey.com.
