Pro Athletes Visit Torrance Elementary
For a few lessons on Tuesday, five classes at Torrance Elementary School had some surprise substitute teachers – professional hockey players from the Los Angeles Kings.
The local campus was one stop on the athletes “Amazing Race”-style, scavenger hunt-esque team-building activity designed by coach Marc Crawford. Among the tasks he assigned them: hitting balls at Dodger stadium, stand on a surfboard in the waters off Manhattan Beach for at least five seconds and teaching a 10-minute lesson at the Torrance school.
Five groups of players visited the campus on Tuesday, one every hour between 9 a.m. And 2 p.m. According to Principal Gerardo Yepez. They visited first-, second- and third-grade classroom, as well as a fourth-fifth-grade combination class, sometimes reading to kids and in other rooms teaching math.
“But more than that,” Yepez said, “they were presenting important messages about having dreams, pursuing them, working hard, being responsible and persistent ... I think it was a very positive experience for the kids and for the players as well.”
The players also took a few questions from their pint-sized audiences, answering everything from “How do you put on your jersey?” to “Do you guys all get along?” Yepez related.
Each teacher whose room was visited sported a Kings jersey for the day, courtesy of the educator who got the team there in the first place. Second-grade teacher Rebecca Kanehl, a devoted hockey fan, hosted a visit from Coach Crawford last year after writing him a letter, “so when he thought of this idea, he remembered Torrance El and made us a stop for this team activity,” Yepez explained.