Los Angeles young Bears gearing up for cup in Beijing

LOS ANGELES, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Finishing the last practice on Thursday, 15-year-old Grant Kaplan from Burbank Bears feels one more tinge of excitement that comes from his favorite hockey.

"I have never played with a team from China before, so I am really excited to see their playing style and everything," said Kaplan, who is ready for the Olympic City Cup in Beijing, 10,000 kilometers away, next week.

The minor hockey tournament, scheduled to be held in in the host city of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, is the highest level of international youth hockey matches ever in China. Seven clubs from the U.S., Germany, Latvia, Russia and China will join it.

Among the highly successful clubs on the ice, the California Golden Bears, one of the oldest hockey clubs in California which has been around more than half a century, feels quite confident about the game.

The club based in Burbank of Los Angeles sends two teams representing the U.S. - 14U AA and 12U AA.

Putting on the helmet, carrying the hockey stick, focusing on the puck, the rink offers Kaplan many enjoyable experiences with his growth. Playing hockey for eight years, Kaplan thinks the fast speed of this sport drives him the most.

For this upcoming trip, he is also seeking to explore more in Beijing.

"I am most excited to play hockey, and also to see Beijing, one of the largest city in the world," he said. "Put our full potential and do as well as we can."

"We have been practising for this about six months till now," coach Peter Torsson, director of hockey for the California Golden Bears, said."Everybody is ready to go."

For some players in this club, though it is not their first time travelling to China for a hockey game, this trip still feeds their drives to meet with teams from different countries.

"Just seeing Beijing, and playing with all different teams, is really excited," Madden Powers said. For him, it is his second time going to China. And he still remembers what it was like last year.

"We played some really tough teams, and it was really hard as physical as fast. So it is going to be the same thing as last year," Powers said.

Coach Torsson said such experiences help create a pathway for kids to learn more about various cultures around hockey.

"For the kids, it is a very unique experience, to pick up new ideas, to look at the game a little bit differently and to see different cultures," Torsson said.

"Everybody brings a unique playing style. We try to bring to our physical presence which is more North American, and learns from unique skill sets from every single country."

The Olympic City Cup international tournament is hosted by Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA) and Beijing Ice Hockey Association (BHA), aiming to help boost Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and flourish sports culture exchanges.

Symbols of this sport like speed, skill, blade and rink make hockey games both physically competing and visually appealing. Growing from a relative nascent stage, hockey in China starts to enjoy more popularity in recent years.

Torsson said even though it takes some time for Chinese hockey teams to hone their skills and accumulate experience, he is optimistic about its future in China.

"The Beijing team is very fast," Torsson said. "China has a very bright future, hopefully can compete in an international level and really grow this sport." Enditem