Former DC Hockey Player Schools Manassas Park Students on the Game

Manassas Park Elementary School students learned about hockey from one of the best on Friday during a special clinic about the sport.

Former Washington Capitals player Alan May visited a group of 215 elementary school students and conducted the Washington Capitals Hockey School.

The hockey school is a free instructional and interactive program that aims to expose students to floor hockey and teaching them the proper techniques of the game.

May, a Capitals left wing from 1989 to 1994, did several demos and provided one-on-one instruction to students on hockey stickhandling, passing and shooting. After that the students played alongside he and Slapshot, the Captials mascot in a hockey scrimmage.

See video of Alan May's visit.

“It was a very good group of kids – enthusiastic as always,” May, who is now a Comcast SportsNet’s Capitals Analyst, said. “They had a lot of fun and seemed like they really love the game of hockey.”

May also shared anecdotes from his life as a child in Alberta, Canada including memories from the first time he played hockey as a 3 year old.

“School was really important to be able to play hockey because if I didn’t bring home good grades, my parents wouldn’t let me play,” May told the students.

“In order for me to get out of the house for my parents to let me play hockey I had to have really good grades in school. It’s pretty important, especially for kids who want to go to college.”

The Capitals donated a set of street hockey equipment to Manassas Park Elementary School, which no doubt made the students and a certain gym teacher very happy.

“It was awesome to have the Capitals come into the school,” Manassas Park Elementary physical education teacher Ryan Bogner said.  “Now that we’ve received all this equipment from the Capitals – we’ve got goals, we’ve got goalie equipment, we’ve got sticks, pucks—we’re definitely going to be able to incorporate hockey more into our education curriculum.”

Friday's visit was the team’s 14 assembly of the academic year.