Avon Grove’s hockey captain leads by example through his scholarship
WEST GROVE, Pa. — Hockey is prohibitively expensive.
Anyone who grew up playing or had kids play knows that. Oftentimes, just to play on a high school team for one season is north of $1,000. Higher-level travel teams cost even more. Add those costs to the cost of the extensive equipment and you have a sport that, quite simply, isn’t accessible to many people.
Covid-19 has made this challenging situation even more difficult, leaving kids unable to play the sport they love.
Last season, Avon Grove High School’s hockey team elected senior defenseman Caleb El-Attar as their captain, a role he takes to heart.
“Each year throughout high school I’ve done like a little project to give back,” El-Attar said. “My freshman, sophomore, junior year I did a coat drive through the Nazarene Church on behalf of AG ice hockey. Then this year I wanted to step it up a little bit and really bring that leadership aspect into it.”
Step it up he did.
El-Attar proposed to the Avon Grove school board a scholarship, one that would cover the $1,400 tuition required by the ice hockey program for one player. This scholarship would be open to anyone who wanted to play, all they would have to do is apply. The name would be “Engineering Success,” named after El-Attar’s own interest in engineering and architecture.
The board accepted the proposal and so the process began.
El-Attar sent emails around to friends and family, spoke with the sports boosters and did everything he could to raise the money he needed. He also had to get the word out to the kids at Avon Grove. It was very likely that someone would want to apply that El-Attar didn’t know. Announcements were made on Avon Grove’s online learning management platform and over the PA in the school alongside typical morning announcements.
When all was said and done, El-Attar had raised around $1,500, enough to cover the high school team’s tuition. The $1,400 went to cover the high school recipient’s tuition, however there was also a middle school applicant.
“The middle school player was a completely new player trying to get into the game,” El-Attar said. “So I connected with the hockey director for the middle school team so that kid is going to be allowed to practice with them and learn the game, get on the ice. I have a set $200 going to that kid for gear and all that to really get him into it.”
Thanks to what El-Attar has done, two kids are going to get a chance to play when they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
“I think it goes a long way to help people, kids, be successful in life when they have those opportunities,” Brandee El-Attar, Caleb’s mother, said. “At the end being able to help kiddos and potentially make a really impactful experience for them is just priceless.”
“It was amazing,” Caleb said. “Being able to give someone the opportunity, especially the younger kid, being able to get on the ice for the first time, being able to bring him into the community and the organization of Avon Grove hockey that we’ve created. With the high schooler, being able to give him a full tuition scholarship and have that weight lifted off the family’s shoulders of having to pay that for their son to play the sport that they love.”
Caleb doesn’t want the scholarship to end when he graduates; for him, it’s all about growing the culture of Avon Grove hockey.
“I really wanted to try to make an impact on the organization, make an impact on the culture that we’ve been trying to build over the past few years,” Caleb said.
Hockey culture is all about valuing the team over the individual, however, all too often that stops once you’re off the ice. Caleb defies that notion. Much like how he defied growing up living less than an hour from Philadelphia with his number, 66, that he wears for his childhood favorite player, another man known for his charity work, Pittsburgh Penguins great, Mario Lemieux.
Caleb has helped his team win on the ice, as last year was Avon Grove’s deepest Flyer’s Cup run. Sports fans too often look at a winning record as the only mark of a good team. Caleb and Avon Grove have the success on the ice, but they aren’t satisfied with just that, they want a culture that values each other and the community in which they live.
Avon Grove hockey wants success for its players as people; Caleb El-Attar is a big part of that, and, whether the next step is college or juniors, he hopes to be a part of that culture for years to come.
