Harbor House Hockey

Updated May 4, 2007

In 2006, the East Bay Hockey League began a partnership with Harbor House Ministries to bring street hockey to the youth of Oakland’s San Antonio district. The decision to move weekday operations to Oakland was made after playing for two summers in Castro Valley, where the league’s founders observed that hockey could serve as a positive alternative to the negative activities taking place in the East Bay.

With hopes that the sport could catch on among some of the more at-risk youth in the area, the league’s founders began hockey at Harbor House in May 2006. While the East Bay Hockey League had previously been an activity for older high school and college students, Harbor House Hockey took off as a sport for boys and girls from all age groups, with elementary school kids and teenagers playing side-by-side in a fenced-in basketball court. Hockey eventually became a central piece of Harbor House’s summer program, with the San Francisco Chronicle coming to take pictures and report on the results of the partnership in an August 2006 article.

At the end of the summer, the EBHL left its equipment for Harbor House to use in youth programs year-round. Further development of the hockey program at Harbor House is currently being planned for the summer of 2007. If you would like to become involved in helping with hockey at Harbor House this summer, please contact mthomas@hhministries.org. For more information on Harbor House and their work with the youth in Oakland, visit www.hhministries.org.