Growing hockey in Coralville and Iowa City in the summertime

CORALVILLE — It’s about 1:30 on a Monday afternoon, and the ice rink at Coral Ridge Mall is busy.

Roughly 20 to 25 boys and girls are playing some shinny, which is hockey talk for an informal pick-up game. It’s a word that’s in the dictionary, honest.

The kids are having a blast, high-fiving each other as they come back to their team bench following a shift. Iowa Heartlanders head coach Derek Damon and players Yuki Miura and Kevin McKernan are among those monitoring this shinny, encouraging and celebrating with the kids after a goal is scored.

This is how you try to market your professional hockey club. By trying to grow the game at the youth level.

Which is why Damon has conducted and is conducting three week-long youth hockey camps this summer. He had one in May and will have another one in August.

The kids at this particular camp are 12 years old or younger and include two of his three children: 8-year-old Elizabeth and 6-year-old Keith.

“When I got the job here, this was something that (then team president) Brian McKenna and I talked about. To continually help out the youth organization (the Junior Iowa Heartlanders) here,” Damon said. “My thought is there’s not enough skating in the summertime. That’s how we’re going to keep these kids interested and also get them better at the same time.

“Cedar Rapids has done an incredible job of growing the game up there. We’re kind of trying to piggyback off what they’ve had for the last 10 or 15 years. We’re starting to see that. Having this camp this week, I had a good camp in the month of May, and I’ve got about 30 to 35 kids for my camp in August as well. It’s good momentum, a lot of good enthusiasm now with this.”

Damon’s camp is predicated on helping its participants with building hockey skills. A very large part of it is dedicated to helping build one specific hockey skill.

Power skating.

“If you can’t skate, you can’t play the game. So these kids have to learn how to skate,” he said. “At this age, there’s nothing better than going out to a summer camp. We’ve got 10 to 11 (a.m.) ice, then lunch, then some dry land training and hockey talk from 12 to 1. I try to make this as fun as I can.”

Damon was associate head coach for Gerry Fleming in the 2021-22 season, the Heartlanders’ first, before taking over for Fleming last season. Iowa has missed the ECHL playoffs both of its seasons and was last in the league in attendance this past season.

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The on-ice product might just be highly improved for 2023-24. Damon said the club has signed 12 players to ECHL contracts, with four of them being publicly announced so far: McKernan, Miura, goaltender Peyton Jones and forward Tanner McMaster.

All have multiple years of pro experience, which Damon said is key is being competitive in the ECHL.

“We have a lot of momentum,” he said. “We’ve got 12 guys signed, and that’s a really good step for us ... We’ve had a lot of rookies the first two years, haven’t had a lot of American (Hockey) League guys. That’s going to change.”

The Heartlanders are affiliated with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. Minnesota’s top minor-league team is the Iowa Wild in the AHL, with a few of its contracted guys trickling down to the Heartlanders.

Very few last season. The Iowa Wild have a new head coach in Brett McLean, who joins that club after three seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Wild.

He has spoken with Damon and told him to expect more AHL guys in Coralville this coming season.

“He said he’s going to want his guys who aren’t playing, down here playing for us,” Damon said.

The regular season for the Heartlanders begins Oct. 20 at home against Rapid City.

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