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OneGoal program continues to help grow the game

MiHockey Staff
Players take the ice for a 'Try Hockey For Free' event in Plymouth last spring. (Michael Caples/MiHockey)

This story originally appeared in the Sept. 9, 2013 issue of MiHockeyMag.

By Michael Caples –

Like many hockey association executives, Jean Laxton wants to do whatever she can to help her current players.

Yet Laxton, who serves as the general manager for the Grand Rapids Amateur Hockey Association, knows that she has to make use of limited resources to find that next batch of hockey players, to make sure her organization continues to sustain and hopefully grow.

That’s why GRAHA, like a lot of other associations across the state, applies for a OneGoal grant.

Michigan’s OneGoal program, an off-shoot a program by the same name at the national level, takes $50,000 annually, and distributes it to associations with plans to increase their participation at the younger age groups.

“The OneGoal grant is specifically to be used to help us all grow the game,” Laxton said. “Ideally, any program that you’re going to use this grant for should benefit you by virtue of adding numbers to your program and providing special programs. For instance, GRAHA for the first time ever hosted a Try Special Hockey For Free skate for mild cognitive impaired children. I applied for a OneGoal grant for purposes of buying some helmets, because in the OneGoal equipment we get, although it’s good for the younger kids at 8U, for a typical Try Hockey For Free, but when you’re talking about special needs children, and some of these older special hockey players, I needed to buy large helmets.”

The OneGoal program, started by MAHA president George Atkinson in 2006, takes funding from equipment manufacturers and USA Hockey and, through an application process, donates the funds to associations found to have the best plans for increasing hockey participation. Funds are mainly used for Try Hockey For Free programs, but can be administered in various ways.

Atkinson, who was executive vice president of MAHA at the time of the program’s inception, said that he and other youth hockey leaders could see that hockey participation numbers were dropping, even before the Michigan economy plummeted.

“We recognized that our growth had sort of plateaued and was heading down,” Atkinson said. “We needed to do something about it, and what we wanted to do was find a way to incentivize the associations that got involved with trying to grow their associations. It was really a two-fold thing when it started, it was also to create a portfolio, if you will, things that worked or didn’t work, so everybody didn’t have to keep reinventing the wheel all the time. That’s kind of how it started.

“We have allocated $50,000 a year ever since we started it, and each year we have been able to get enough to apply for grants to use that and for the most part they do pretty good. It seems like every year there’s one or two that don’t pull through, but for the most part, they do what they say they’re going to do, and they spend their money and we’ve achieved some really good results over the period of time. I think it’s really helped us refocus people back on growth and give them some of the tools that they need to do it.”

Lyle Phair, chairman of the OneGoal program, said that he has seen mixed results with the distributed funding.

“It’s seed money,” said Phair, who is the president of the Suburban Sports Group. “They’ve made that investment every year to do that. Most associations have done really well with it, others haven’t, just because of how they are managed, or not managed. They’re all volunteers and I get that, but some ask for money and then they never use it. It’s kind of all over the map a little bit.”

Laxton said that more associations need to take advantage of the resources available, both with OneGoal and the various other ways MAHA and USA Hockey attempt to help youth programs.

“The associations should take advantage of the OneGoal grant,” the GRAHA GM said. “There’s always money there that comes down from USA Hockey and MAHA, and I’m always suprirsed that there are things like this to help us grow the game, and there’s also tons of resources on the member services page on the USA Hockey website, and I think often times it’s not as widely-known with some of the smaller associations or even the associations that have been around for a while, that there are resources out there that make it very easy to print off a flyer, it’s all done in JPEG or PDF, all you have to do is plug in your information.

“So I would just say take advantage of the resources, the OneGoal grants, the great materials on the USA Hockey website under member services. All the tools are there. The key is to get the associations to buy in and offer these Try Hockey For Free programs.”

Know of an association that did a great job of growing the game with their OneGoal funding? Contact MiHockey editor Michael Caples at mcaples@mihockeynow.com.

Associations approved for OneGoal grants in 2012-13:

  • Cadillac
  • Marquette
  • Berrien
  • Cheboygan
  • Lapeer
  • Iron Range
  • Ironwood
  • Keweenaw
  • Sanilac
  • GRAHA
  • Clark Park
  • Greater Flint
  • Dickinson
  • Plymouth-Canton
  • Woodhaven
  • Royal Oak
  • Dearborn
  • Adrian
  • Petoskey
  • Grosse Pointe
  • GLAHA
  • Westland
  • Rockford
  • Midland
  • Huron County
  • USA Hockey Club