The Kraken attending the annual Back-to-School Celebration at the Family First Community Center in Renton was mainly about showing up for the surrounding South King County neighborhood; with the bonus of perhaps winning some young hockey converts one child at a time.
By Geoff Baker /@geoffbakernhl /nhl.com/kraken
9:00 AM
Nhu Nguyen watched somewhat astonished as her 6-year-old daughter, May, raced around an inflatable ball hockey court, clutching a stick and firing balls into nets for the very first time.
The court and its inflatable “boards” used to simulate a hockey rink had been set up last Saturday by the Kraken for the 2nd annual Back-to-School Celebration at the Family First Community Center in Renton. Nguyen had brought May and her younger brother, Alex, 4, to the event for some afternoon fun and to visit various booths set up in its gymnasium and parking lot, where school supplies and other treats were given away.
But she’d never imagined her daughter, clad in a dress, taking one of the sticks provided by the Kraken and spending nearly a half hour on the court with other children – some of them twice her size — whacking away at random hockey balls and the occasional ankle or two.
“Nobody in our family has ever played this sport before,” said Nguyen, of Vietnamese origin. “Both of my children do martial arts, but now she told me she wants to take hockey lessons.”