The Ducks will host Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend at Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena April 4-7. For nearly 30 years, the Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend has united boys and girls from diverse backgrounds to participate in both on and off ice lessons designed to build confidence and teach life skills. In partnership with the NHL’s Hockey is for Everyone initiative, 25 boys and girls between the ages of 12-15 years old and their coaches from over 20 youth hockey organizations will travel from across the U.S. and Canada to participate. The Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend is named after former NHL forward Willie O’Ree, who on Jan. 18, 1958 became the first Black player to compete in the League in addition to being the first black player to score an NHL goal (Jan. 1, 1961) while competing for the Boston Bruins.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Willie O'Ree Skills Weekend being held in Anaheim, Calif., this year’s festivities will officially begin Thursday, April 4 at Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena as the skaters will have on-ice skills evaluation session. On Friday, April 5, the participants will be led through an on-ice skills workout from 9-11 a.m. at Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena. Participants, coaches and their families will head to Honda Center later in the evening to attend the Anaheim Ducks game at Honda Center (7 p.m. vs. Seattle Kraken).
Beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 6, skaters will take the ice for a skills workout at Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena before enjoying a luncheon and panel discussion. The panel discussion will feature Hockey is for Everyone ambassadors including Ducks alumni, broadcaster for the Seattle Kraken and member of the NHL’s Player Inclusion Coalition JT Brown in addition to Willie O’Ree and head coach for the Colombian national hockey team and member of the NHL’s coaches mentorship program Sam Uisprapassorn. The Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend will culminate at Angels Stadium as the participants will attend the Angels vs. Red Sox game (7 p.m.).
The Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend panel discussion is set to begin at 12:30pm in the lobby outside Rink 4 at Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena.
The programing for the Willie O’Ree Skills Weekend is modeled after O’Ree who continues to champion positive social change through hockey. O'Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2018 for his accomplishments off the ice, becoming the third black player to be inducted, joining Grant Fuhr (2003) and Angela James (2010). Since 1998, O’Ree has served as one of the NHL’s diversity ambassadors where he has helped introduce and inspire more than 120,000 boys and girls across the U.S. and Canada to the game of hockey. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have mounted an effort to award O'Ree the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress. In addition to his time in the NHL, O’Ree also scored 314 points (153 goals, 161 assists) in 407 games with the San Diego Gulls of the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 1967-1974. O’Ree’s number 20 hangs in the rafters of Pechanga Arena, home of the San Diego Gulls.
About Great Park Ice and FivePoint Arena
An affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks, Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena is one of the nation’s largest public ice facilities, located at the Orange County Great Park. The facility is a part of a public-private partnership with the Irvine Ice Foundation. The $100 million, 280,000-square-foot facility has four sheets of ice and serves sports-related activities that include youth and adult hockey programs, regional and national tournaments, figure skating, and public skating hours. FivePoint Arena has space to seat 2,500 spectators. The complex includes administrative offices, dressing rooms, training facilities, retail space, and concession space. Great Park Ice is an official practice facility of the Anaheim Ducks. The facility is a part of a public-private partnership with the Irvine Ice Foundation and the city of Irvine.
