Kerfoot’s Community Initiative Uplifts Girls Hockey Players

When Alexander Kerfoot and his wife, Marissa, moved to Salt Lake City they wanted to get involved with the community. However, when it came to youth hockey initiatives, a lot of resources and attention went to boys’ hockey. The Kerfoots wanted to change that.

“We’re really fortunate to be in the positions we’re in,” Kerfoot explained. “When we were making the move to Utah this year, my wife and I wanted to do our part to give back to the community in any way we can. Having a girl recently, our first daughter, when we were talking to SEG they mentioned that a lot of the local youth hockey initiatives had a tendency to go towards boys.

“We wanted to give an opportunity to have some girls’ hockey players out there,” Kerfoot continued. “It’s been a great initiative, we’re super fortunate that SEG has been able to allow us to do it and has done a lot of the leg work for it. But it’s something that we get really excited about every game day, to see the girls come in, and be able to interact with them. They seem to be having lots of fun, and hopefully we can continue to push it forward.”

Every home game day, the forward gives local girls hockey players tickets to the game, brings them on the bench for warmups, and provides them a once-in-a-lifetime experience to interact with Utah Hockey Club players.

“You want to have them have those experiences,” Kerfoot shared. “I fell in love with the game when I got to go watch the NHL firsthand. In order to really fall in love with something you have to have something to aspire to. You have to be able to see things on a firsthand basis. To have them come in, be able to meet us, be able to see us face to face, interact, talk to some of the other guys … that is great. Hopefully it allows them to keep pushing, keep working on their game, and who knows where they’ll be in a few years.”

“It’s cool, I see it all the time,” Captain Clayton Keller shared about the girls hockey players attending warmups. “I can always go over there and do my routine and give them knuckles and say hello. You can tell how excited they are. For a lot of them it may be their first game here in Utah so being that close it is super cool, even for warmups.”

For this initiative and his work in the community, Kerfoot is Utah Hockey Club’s nomination for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy. The annual award goes to the NHL player ‘who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community.’ Keller believes Kerfoot is the perfect candidate.

“He’s such a great teammate, great guy,” Keller explained. “You can tell he really cares about giving back in any way he can. I think everyone in this room would tell you how much of a great teammate he is and it’s huge to see him be nominated for the King Clancy Award, as he should be.”