GARDEN GROVE : GOALS: From the Brink to the Rink

The first time Police Officer Andy Jauch saw children from the Buena-Clinton neighborhood playing street hockey, he said he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“They were using 2-by-4 strips of wood as hockey sticks, smashed tin cans for pucks and overturned shopping carts for nets,” Jauch said. “But their enthusiasm was unbelievable.”

A hockey fan himself, he said he knew he had to do something.

These days, children from the high-crime neighborhood are learning to play hockey, thanks to Growth Opportunities Through Athletics, Learning and Service (GOALS), a Disney-sponsored program designed to teach underprivileged children positive values.

Last week, Jauch took more than two dozen local 6- to 16-year-olds to a hockey clinic at the Pioneer Park hockey rink, where they learned to skate, shoot, handle the stick, and other fundamental skills.

“Some of these kids have never put on roller skates before,” Jauch said. “But they are developing a sense of pride in themselves.”

More than 50 other children from three Anaheim neighborhoods, where the GOALS program began in February, also participated in the clinic, some of them serving as mentors to the less-skilled children from Buena-Clinton.

Disney GOALS Executive Director Dave Wilk said that the clinic was the program’s first venture outside of Anaheim and it is likely to expand to other communities.

Wilk said that hockey, on the street or on ice, is one of the most popular sports in Southern California, thanks in part to Disney’s Mighty Ducks entry into the National Hockey League.

“This is an exciting, dynamic sport,” said Wilk, who conducted a similar youth program in New York before he was hired by Disney last year. “It’s unique. The kids just go bananas.”

But, he said, hockey is an expensive sport, with equipment costing from $750 to $1,000 per participant. GOALS provides participants with free equipment, he said.