The AP goes with, "The effort to add young minority hockey players in North America turns its attention to keeping them." The Capitals' Rising Stars Academy in late August was designed to "provide minority hockey players with elite on-ice skill development and off-ice training geared toward problem-solving and handling some racist elements in a sport that remains predominantly white." Fifteen years in the making, the program -- one of only two of its kind around the NHL -- represents the "next step for players and their families who have already chosen hockey with the aim of retaining them and showing them a path to playing in high school, college and beyond." Developing the clinic "took time because, first, hockey had to expand in the Washington area," and many families now in various programs are "wondering what’s next." Former Navy hockey captain Ralph Featherstone believes that off-ice training is "more valuable to kids than the on-ice work because it shows them they’re part of a community and how to deal with racism and other challenges."
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