Hockey players reveal literary side

PALMER -- The place was packed with hysterical Anchorage Aces hockey fans. Waving homemade signs and chanting, they screamed for their heroes like a bunch of grade-school kids -- which is exactly what they were.

On Friday, four members of the Anchorage Aces hockey team visited Sherrod Elementary and Swanson Elementary schools as part of the Skate Into Reading program. Each Aces player read children's stories to individual classes before all the students came together in the Sherrod gym for a rousing finale.

Before the assembly, Aces player Joe Talbot read a story about a shark who ate everything at school. Sitting in a swivel office chair, he was surrounded by a cluster of attentive third-graders.

"There's nothing more important than getting children to read," Sherrod Principal Mark Hoffman said. "This is a program that allows us to inspire the children to read."

During the assembly, the Aces spoke

of doing homework, reading and listening to teachers.

"We model our hockey team around school," Talbot told the fawning elementary kids. "You guys have to listen to your teachers and we have to listen to our coach."

After each player gave a brief educational pep talk, the Aces faced off for a little floor hockey against a handful of teachers. Playing to three points, the Aces scored the first two goals and it looked as if it might be a shutout until the teachers sneaked a goal past the professionals to make it 2-1, with the hometown crowd cheering them on.

The Aces buckled down, however, and scored quickly to put away any hopes of an upset. The victory kept the Aces undefeated in floor hockey matches against teachers.

Rene Martinez was the family involvement specialist at Sherrod last year, and was instrumental in bringing out the professional athletes.

"A lot of times kids are encouraged by athletes to drink Gatorade or wear certain shoes," she said, "but if we can encourage them to read, that's much better."

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.