Attending hockey tournaments brings a sense of nostalgia to the Nolan family.
Ted Nolan and his sons, Brandon and Jordan, attended the Mushkegowuk Cup on Saturday, Feb. 17, hopping from arena to arena, meeting with players and fans, and signing autographs, but the atmosphere is one they’re all very familiar with.
“This is where it all started for myself,” said Ted Nolan. “If they have half the fun I had at that age, they must be having a good time.”
Hockey was a big part of Ted Nolan’s life growing up in Garden River First Nation near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. That love of the game saw him playing for the Greyhounds, then going to the NHL as a player, and later as a coach.
His sons continued the hockey family tradition, with Jordan playing with the Los Angeles Kings, the Buffalo Sabres, and the St. Louis Blues, winning three Stanley Cups, and Brandon playing with the Carolina Hurricanes.
“I remember coming to these tournaments when I was younger, and it’s kind of the same feeling you get at a powwow, just pure pride and having fun, and that’s what it’s all about,” said Brandon Nolan.
His brother Jordan Nolan shared a similar experience from his own time in tournaments in his youth.
“The main thing is seeing the kids in the hotel, running around and having a good time, not so much the on-ice part of it,” he said. “It’s the off-ice memories, playing with your friends, that’s the best part of it.”
The 3 Nolans organization was founded in 2013. The organization holds hockey schools for First Nations youth in communities all over the country and provides scholarships and support for young people playing the sport.
At the Mushkegowuk Cup — a 56-team hockey tournament that took over Timmins over the weekend — they’ve been visiting locker rooms, and talking to players.
“It’s been fun because we run into so many people that we see with our hockey school program,” he said. “Seeing a lot of familiar faces but also getting a chance to meet some new people.”
The positive energy and the sense of community is a huge draw to get youth involved and to bump up their self-image, said Ted Nolan. Hockey is the way to get the youth and their families into a conversation, he said.
“The trick is, hockey gets them to the rink,” said Ted Nolan. “We get them to the rink and we talk to them about making good decisions and the importance of education, staying in school and about working hard, and the qualities of life.”
That involvement in hockey can translate to other aspects of life for the young people they’re working with.
“If one or two of them make it to junior hockey or beyond, that’s great but the goal of the hockey school is to inspire the kids to be the best that they can possibly be,” said Ted Nolan.
Ted Nolan said there is an important part of their work that he hopes people remember.
“Kids are just kids,” he said. “No matter if they go to a tournament in Toronto, or a tournament in Sudbury, it doesn’t have to be a First Nations tournament. They can have just as much fun there as they do here.”