A 10-member delegation of hockey coaches and administrators from the United States will be traveling to China in June for a sports diplomacy exchange, the second half of a two-way International Sports Programming Initiative (ISPI) sponsored by the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). The bureau’s programs cultivate people-to-people ties among current and future global leaders that build enduring networks and personal relationships and promote U.S. national security and culture. Through sports diplomacy exchanges, the U.S. Department of State uses athletes, coaches, teams, and sporting events to foster dialogue, promote peace, and improve international relations.
The first half of the exchange brought 10 hockey coaches and administrators from China’s Heilongjiang Province (Wisconsin’s sister state) to Madison and Milwaukee for 10 days in March.
“Getting out on the ice and playing hockey with our guests was amazing,” said Madison Polar Caps Youth Hockey Coach Steve Ridgely, who is also a UW-Madison professor and faculty director of the Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS). “The biggest surprise was how their questions about American youth hockey were exactly the same issues we also worry about as coaches: how much does it cost families, how many practices per week, how many games per weekend is the right number, whether or not to play year round, how do you balance player development with efforts to grow the game.”
Ridgely organized scrimmages for the visiting Chinese delegation with adult leagues at both the Oregon Ice Arena and at UW-Madison’s Bakke Recreation Center. He said entire rosters turned out for the chance to play on the ice with skaters from China.
For the Chinese delegation’s final day in Wisconsin, Coach-In-Chief for the Wisconsin Amateur Hockey Association (WAHA) Raja Aylsworth organized a scrimmage at Arrowhead High’s Mullett Ice Center, which included several current high school players and coaches. Members of the Chinese delegation divvied up to join lines alongside Arrowhead players. When the allotted time resulted in a 14-14 tie, Aylsworth, who served as game referee, called for a shoot-out. Players from China scored at both ends of the ice, with the onlookers cheering and banging the boards.
As delegation member Wu Lanfeng, who scored the tiebreaker at Arrowhead, said of his 10 days in Wisconsin, “The world would be more peaceful if we had more such programs.”
Along with the scrimmages, the Chinese delegation toured hockey facilities at UW-Madison and watched the Badger women’s team practice days prior to their successful NCAA tournament run. The delegation also learned the history of Wisconsin hockey from Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Michael Cowan, worked with former UW-Madison women’s hockey team captain Claudia Kepler on how to teach shooting skills, watched a screening of the “Miracle on Ice” movie, toured the Pettit National Ice Center near Milwaukee, talked about careers in the NHL with former Badger player and coach Tony Granato, discussed girls hockey with coaches in the Madison Mavericks Girls Hockey program, and watched Edgewood upset the defending champion Notre Dame to take the boys title (and display their golden hockey mullet hair styles) in the high school Division 1 tournament.
“The Wisconsin hockey community truly opened their arms to this delegation,” said Laurie Dennis, assistant director of CEAS, who organized the programming in Wisconsin, working with PH International, a Vermont-based nonprofit focused on sports diplomacy. “Delegation members experienced hockey culture here as a beloved and unifying source of Wisconsin pride.”
Dennis is now working with her counterparts in Heilongjiang Province to coordinate plans for the 10-member American delegation’s visit in June. Six of the 10 American delegates are from Wisconsin, including Aylsworth, Ridgely, and Arrowhead High Girls Goalie Coach Emma Tate, all three of whom engaged with the March delegation to Wisconsin.
The June trip will include time in Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang and the host of the 2025 Asian Winter Games, and in Qiqihar, which was recognized as the “Best Hockey Town in Asia” at the 2016 Asian Winter Games.
