Youth ice hockey open to tap future stars

China's young hockey hopefuls may have a chance to extend their career on ice as some of the country's education and commercial institutes are keen to invest in the burgeoning popularity of the sport among young players.

The Xinhe International Youth Ice Hockey Open, which evolved from the Asian Youth Ice Hockey League last year, was unveiled by Sina Sports on Tuesday, including more young potentials to boost the country's talent pool.

Wei Jianglei, senior vice-president of Sina Group and general manager of Sina Sports, said the U15 group (under-15) will be added to the U6, U8 and U12 groups in the Open to give high school students-to-be a platform to seek a better further education, both in the sport and their studies.

"If the U15 goes well, we will go further to think about a college league in order to cover all the age groups before the youths can turn professional," Wei said.

Beijing's major universities, like Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University and Beijing Sport University, have established hockey teams supported by the Chinese Ice Hockey Association.

Youth ice hockey is, according to Wei, a key mass foundation to promote the sport as the country has almost no representation in the world, in terms of professional competitions.

"The progress is slow, as we have to keep working on it at least 10 years before a player is selected to the national team in his 20s," Wei said.

Liu Zhongyi, headmaster of Beijing's Chen Jinglun Middle School, said they are planning to enroll two ice hockey special students when the next semester begins in September, before the cut of the enrollment quota reserves for pupils with special talents in sports, music or art from 2019 issued by the Ministry of Education earlier this year.

"Students who do sports well are as excellent as those who study well," said Liu, who added the school will offer other possible preferences to ice hockey students after the favorable enrollment policy disappears.

Chen Jinglun is one of the first schools in Beijing to open hockey classes and join teenage leagues. The school established three teams with more than 100 players among 7,000 students from 12 branch schools in Beijing. The school also boasts speed skating, figure skating and curling teams.

Lu Airu, headmaster of Beijing No 20 Middle School, said potential sports students need not worry about their future as the favorable enrollment quota is still valid for high school enrollment and the school will keep supporting the sport financially. According to Lu, the school has invested 1.3 million yuan in the sport.

The Youth Open will be held from May to July in five cities nationwide, gathering more than 3,000 young players.

David Proper, executive vice-president of media and international strategy for the NHL, sent video messages to the launch of the Open.