While the official word has not yet been posted on the Chops site or AHL home page, all signs indicate that the Chops AHL franchise will not take the ice this fall. On Friday they laid off the entire ticket sales staff and other front office personnel. Making things worse, I found this today:
"The Chops ownership was unable to meet financial obligations and the team's operations have been suspended."
I will definitely miss having the American Hockey League in Des Moines. It was nice to have the top level minor league here for a few years. It is a shame that such terrible owners managed to screw it up just as the team began to make inroads in the community. Hopefully this is a temporary situation and the Polk County Supervisors can manage to locate a new (local) owner to relaunch the team ASAP.
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Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Youth Lax?
In case nobody has noticed, we have had a few kids coming to our games with their parents from time to time this summer. Thursday night we had a 10 year old from Ankeny there for a while. While not yet enough for an honest to goodness youth league, I am encouraged by the increasing number of parents contacting me. To continue the growth of lacrosse in the Des Moines metro area, we definitely need to get something going for the kids. I mean aside from the upcoming YMCA clinic.
This got me thinking about the box lacrosse thing. Maybe a box style league would be a great place to introduce younger players to the sport. They would not have to deal with long poles and the smaller number of participants would probably work better on the smaller field. Current adult or high school players could "coach" the teams and ref the games. Their league could run right along with the high school/adult box league.
Granted we will need a few more kids, but I am throwing this out for feedback. I would definitely like to get field lax started for younger players throughout the metro. In the meantime, a winter box league could serve as a great stopgap. The "big four" sports all have greatly developed youth programs in DM already. We need to get moving!
Post your comments or email me with your ideas for building a youth program.
This got me thinking about the box lacrosse thing. Maybe a box style league would be a great place to introduce younger players to the sport. They would not have to deal with long poles and the smaller number of participants would probably work better on the smaller field. Current adult or high school players could "coach" the teams and ref the games. Their league could run right along with the high school/adult box league.
Granted we will need a few more kids, but I am throwing this out for feedback. I would definitely like to get field lax started for younger players throughout the metro. In the meantime, a winter box league could serve as a great stopgap. The "big four" sports all have greatly developed youth programs in DM already. We need to get moving!
Post your comments or email me with your ideas for building a youth program.
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