These days, when Ashley Hubbard takes her son Broden to play atom hockey, she says goodbye to him at the arena doors.
That’s because at West Kelowna’s Royal Lepage Place, there are no spectators allowed due to COVID-19.
So Hubbard, like a lot of other parents, can’t watch her son’s minor hockey games.
“It was really disappointing; I feel like this year has been a frustrating year,” she told Global News.
However, Hubbard is a committed hockey mom who decided that a ‘spectator ban’ wasn’t going to get in the way of seeing her son play for the West Kelowna Panthers.
She got the video company that broadcasts the BCHL’s West Kelowna Warriors games to livestream her son’s first game to the internet.
“We had over 150 people tune in live to watch it and I thought ‘Wow, we have lots of grandparents and aunts and uncles who want to watch these kids,'” Hubbard said.
Thinking those family and friends might not mind helping share the cost of future livestreamed games, Hubbard set up a GoFundMe page to pay for the Panthers’ video broadcasts.
“We raised $1,000 in about 24 hours,” said Hubbard, adding it should be enough to livestream the team’s entire season — 10 games in all.
For young Broden, suddenly playing minor hockey doesn’t feel so minor anymore.
“It feels like I’m in the NHL, so I feel pretty happy and that’s been my dream since I was three years old,” Broden said.
Now, not only is the Panthers’ left-winger working on his slapshot, he’s working on his on-camera goal celebrations.
“I think my favourite ‘celly’ is the one where you go down on your knees,” Broden said.
And this weekend’s Panthers livestream broadcast won’t just look like Hockey Night in Canada, it will sound like it, too.
Well, sort of…
“We are really excited to be heading up to Royal Lepage Place this weekend for some play-by-play,” said K96.3 Classic Rock morning co-host Brad Karp.
K96.3’s classic rock morning crew, Brad and Alysha, will be in the press box, calling the game.
“I figured I have nothing better to do than hopefully put a smile on a kid’s face and butcher their last name,” Karp said.
“They get to feel like they are in the NHL and to bring that feeling to somebody is just a lot of fun,” Alysha Williams said.
Ashley Hubbard says she’s now looking at ways to help other minor hockey teams in West Kelowna raise funds to livestream their games.
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