Bowie Hockey's Mite Jamboree Encourages Fun and Teaches Skills from a Young Age

This is the time of the winter when the Bowie Hockey Club is getting very busy—and that’s just fine with them.

Last weekend, Bowie hosted the Saturday Mite Jamboree for kids ages 4-8. There were about 200 children from various places and programs who came to the Bowie Ice Arena for 3 ½ hours of cross-ice hockey.

This was an event for young kids going cross-ice working at learning the game and trying to have some fun.

“It was awesome,” said Bowie club president Bill Schmidt. “Just to watch the kids and watch them enjoy it and have a blast was just great.”

Schmidt said that there were teams from a variety of hockey programs in the area, including Piney Orchard (Odenton), Prince William (Va.), Wells Ice Rink (College Park), Southern Maryland and Bowie.

They played cross-ice hockey which is a little easier for younger kids to play than going from one end of the rink to the other as many young children are still working on the skating and puck-handling skills needed. Going cross-ice takes some pressure off the smaller kids in these areas.

“We just wanted them to have fun,” Schmidt said. “We did it for free because we wanted to help the kids out. We wanted to get them on the ice and grow hockey.”

There’s a bigger tournament coming in about a month when Bowie hosts its annual Presidents’ Day competition for travel teams of all ages.

Schmidt said there’s going to be teams in divisions at every level for children ages 5-18. There will be a total of eight divisions and about 500 kids competing.           

The tournament has been going on for about 35 years now. It begins on Friday night and works its way through the weekend until the finals takes place on Monday morning.