When David Poile took the job to become the first general manager of the Predators almost 30 years ago, he wrote down some goals.
Now a Hockey Hall of Famer, Poile accomplished plenty over the next three decades as Nashville fell in love with the Preds and became a hockey town. He’s now retired from his role as GM and President of Hockey Operations all these years later, but that doesn’t mean he cares any less for the game or his adopted hometown.
And now, he’s still working to make one of those goals come true.
Along with his wife, Elizabeth, the Poiles have established the Poile Family Youth Hockey Scholarship. With backing from the Predators Foundation, the program was created to benefit deserving young players in need of financial assistance who may otherwise not be able to learn and play the sport that’s engrained across the Poile family.
“One of the things that I wrote down was for sometime in the future to have a born and raised Nashville hockey player play in the NHL, and hopefully for the Predators,” Poile said. “With what's happened over the last 28 years of the franchise, with the building of so many rinks in the area, the growth of minor hockey and kids growing up to play college hockey, it's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when, and I can't wait to cross this off my goal list as accomplished.”
With the scholarships, the Poiles have committed $100,000 to award at least $10,000 in each of the next several years through the Preds Foundation to selected recipients. There will be two application windows every year, one in the fall and one in the spring, to coincide with youth programming registration.
“You want to make hockey available for everyone, but sometimes it just doesn't work in terms of the economics of work or family,” Poile said. “Creating that opportunity to give everybody and anybody a chance to play hockey…was something that Elizabeth and I really wanted to do. We moved to Nashville, we love Nashville, and we love hockey, and it seems to be a fit right into what our vision and goals are for the future of the growth of hockey in Nashville.”
For Poile, who spent 41 consecutive seasons at the helm of an NHL club - a record that will likely never be broken - the days of managing every nuance of a team from top to bottom have concluded.
Now, he’s shifted his focus to a different type of oversight - one that will allow him and his wife to give back to the game they hold dear.
“That’s where it's all at for us now,” Poile said of focusing their energy on this new endeavor. “Coming to Nashville and just learning about Tennessee, the Volunteer State, and the way we started with the Predators, with so many parts of our organization being involved in the community…there’s lots of different things that you can do in a community fashion. But for the Poiles and hockey, it just seems to be the right fit. To see young players get a chance to grow and love hockey, it’s just right in our wheelhouse of things that we want to accomplish in Tennessee."
For as long as Poile can remember, he’s been around the rink. His father, the late Norman “Bud” Poile, was one of the great managers and builders in hockey history. From a young age, the eventual Nashville GM played the game, including collegiately at Northeastern before beginning his career in a front office.
He cultivated countless lessons over that time, but the foundations of those teachings came by simply learning to love the game. Poile knows the difference playing hockey can make in a young child’s life, and that motivation to share that experience remains stronger than ever.
“There’s so many life lessons in sports,” Poile said. “It’s taking care of yourself physically, the mental tests from getting bigger, stronger, injuries, winning, losing, and then there's dedication, there's perseverance, there's commitment, there's your work ethic… When I look back on my career, I think of all the things that I learned in hockey and that hockey has given me to allow me to be successful in business.”
There’s no set timetable on how long the scholarships will last, but the Poiles invite any fans who feel called to share in their mission to donate to the Predators Foundation to piggyback off their plan.
At the very least, the Poiles know their scholarship recipients will be better off in all facets of life for having laced up their skates.
And maybe one day they’ll help the NHL’s all-time winningest GM cross off one more of his goals by accomplishing their own.
“It’d be really cool,” Poile smiled when imagining a native Nashvillian making it to the NHL. “A lot of people say that hockey wasn't going to be successful in Nashville in the early days, and those doubters are way in the rear view mirror. The success with the Predators on and off the ice, the growth of youth hockey in Middle Tennessee, it's all pointing to making hockey bigger and better - but it's also making Tennessee better, stronger and developing people in the best way possible.”
For more information on the Poile Family Youth Hockey Scholarships, including how to apply or donate, click here.
