Northern Michigan hosts annual hockey camp

MARQUETTE — Aspiring hockey players were up bright and early Monday morning; invading the Berry Events Center for Northern Michigan’s annual hockey camp. The camp creators say hockey school is important to a successful college hockey program; but the kids were also really excited about being on TV.

“Well, this year, right now, we’ve got about 55 kids in the summer hockey camp. Anywhere from Illinois, Iowa. A lot of Michiganders, Upper Peninsula kids, kids from downstate that have continued to come here. And we’ve changed the camp up a little bit,” explained Northern Michigan University assistant coach, John Kyle.

The changes he refers to involve an increased focus on fundamentals; which in hockey means less pucks and more skating.

“We’re doing a lot of power skating. We’re doing a lot of skill instruction. And then we’re doing a lot of stuff with an older group that we just brought back in. So we have a bantam and a midget aged group that we’ve added on top of the mite, squirt, peewee that we’ve always had.”

Molding complete players takes two and a half hours of on ice instruction; but also a whopping two hours off ice each day. Participants can look forward to that every day until July 15th, when the camp comes to a close.