Copper River Hockey Club

The mission of the Copper River Hockey Club (formally known as Kenny Lake Hockey Club and Glennallen Panther Hockey Club) is to provide a skating program and facility for all students and community members in the Copper River Basin. Our area is one of the last hockey programs that utilizes facilities paid for and maintained by an all volunteer organization. It has a long standing tradition as one of the premier small school hockey programs in the state going back to the 1960's. Each year we have approximately 50 students that participated on teams as well as countless community members who use our two rinks for free skate, men's league nights, open skate, alumni games, recess and general outdoor healthy activities throughout the winter.

The hockey facilities in the Copper River area are currently maintained and supported by the Copper River Hockey Club (CRHC). The CRHC provides teams/programs for the following age groups: Learn to Skate (under 6 years old and first time skaters) Mites (under 8 years), Squirts (ages 9 and 10), PeeWees (ages 11 and 12), Bantams (ages 13 and 14), and Midgets (ages 15-19). We have good supply of gear to loan out to make hockey accessible to all. We host our annual Bush League Bold N Cold weekend and our players travel to town for tournaments and games placing competitively in the State arenas.

All of the coaching and support personnel is volunteer. It was calculated that we utilized at least 1,700 volunteer hours to make hockey happen. That includes building the ice, putting on lines, daily snowblowing and zamming, team organization, coaching, travel, and crockpots that outnumber the stars. The majority of our funding comes from corporate sponsors, local organizations, club registration fees and our annual Skate-A-Thon fundraiser. The club also puts on other smaller fundraisers as the need arises which have included sweatshirt sales, meal sales, working concessions in the school, auctions, raffles, and yard sales.

The season begins in November lasting through March. Most weekends we travel at least 200 miles each way to play hockey. We have more ice time than the teams we play because we usually practice 3-4 days a week. And since we maintain our own ice, we don't have to pay by the hour as teams in town do. Of course, it can be cold (practice is cancelled at -20) but our kids don't know anything else. We are Bold N Cold!

Your contributions go to continuing to have free, local ice for all community members to use and to foster a love of hockey in your rural community. Thank you.