CHL Mississippi RiverKings

RiverKings players visit Douglass Elementary

Published on February 9, 2004 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Mississippi RiverKings News Release


SOUTHAVEN, Miss.—Memphis RiverKings team captain Don Parsons and forward Brad Mueller visited Meghan Drury's fourth-grade class at Douglass Elementary School in Memphis on Monday as part of the Newspaper In Education (NIE) program with The Commercial Appeal.

The 15-week NIE program distributes Saturday and Sunday copies of The Commercial Appeal to participating classrooms. Teachers also receive a "Reading, Writing & RiverKings" workbook with weekly activities to be used, along with the newspaper, as a classroom tool.

The two players introduced themselves, then gave the children the opportunity to ask questions.

"Have you ever had stitches performed on your face?" one student asked.

"I've had about a hundred," Parsons said. "Not all at once," he said in response to the child's wide-eyed stare. "You know. Five here, six there."

"Yeah, broken noses, false teeth—our modeling days are over," Mueller said, jokingly.

"Is the equipment heavy?" asked another student.

"Goalie equipment weighs about 40 pounds," Parsons said. "Our equipment weighs about 25."

The guys explained positions and how different pieces of equipment work. "Do you know what a hat trick is?" Mueller asked. "If you score three goals in one game, that's called a hat trick."

After the question and answer session, Community Relations Representative Stacie White divided the class into two teams, with Mueller on one and Parsons on the other. For the majority of the rest of the period, the students played a heated game of board hockey.

Moving down the length of the rink, scoring and making saves were accomplished by correctly answering questions taken from Sunday's Commercial Appeal. Questions came from a wide range of articles and newspaper sections, including poachers' use of the Internet to sell products from their illegal kills; work on the World War II memorial; the work of a roboticist sculptor; how to contact the paper editor and how to place a classified ad.

At the conclusion of a sudden death shootout, the game ended in a tie. When it was over, the players autographed team posters for the class.

"I was impressed by how attentive the kids were and how much they participated in the activity," Parsons said. "They were really into it and very well-behaved."

"It was good to see the kids excited about learning," Mueller said. "They were learning without even realizing it. It felt good to be part of that."

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Central Hockey League Stories from February 9, 2004


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