The Plainfield High School Hockey Association provides a home for budding hockey players who are students at any of the four Plainfield high schools.
It would be a mistake, however, to assume that is all that matters to the PHSHA.
This weekend, the organization’s other defining elements – volunteering and community service – will be front and center.
On Saturday, regardless of the weather conditions, the Plainfield hockey players will volunteer for Wreaths Across America by placing wreaths on veterans’ gravestones in Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood. The PHSHA collected money to buy some of the wreaths. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. and will be followed by the wreath placement.
On Sunday morning, players and their families will volunteer at MorningStar Mission, loading hundreds of bags of Christmas presents, clothes and necessities for needy families onto distribution trucks. Last year, the PHSHA loaded more than 1,500 Hefty bags onto the semitrailers that were distributed during MorningStar Mission’s Star of Hope campaign.
Finally, PHSHA has been collecting unwrapped toy donations for Toys for Tots. Donations still can be dropped off at Canlan Ice Arena in Romeoville. Toys will be presented to the Marines during the annual Toys for Tots game at 6:30 p.m. Sunday against Lincoln-Way West at the Darien Sportsplex.
“This is the height of our year with the big events this weekend,” PHSHA president Brian Patrick said. “Between our being at Abraham Lincoln Cemetery on Saturday, at MorningStar Mission on Sunday morning loading trucks and playing the Toys for Tots game Sunday night, it’s our big time.
“I wish the forecast was a little better – I’m dreading it – but we’ll be doing this all the same. We’re buying heat warmer packs and whatever else we can for Saturday morning.”
The Toys for Tots game is an annual event. The players skate out and present the Marines with the unwrapped toys that have been donated. The players and their parents donate gifts along with the rest of the community.
“We sponsor the Toys for Tots game, and we ask our opponents if they would like to join us,” Patrick said. “Our league has really been good about it. We haven’t had anyone turn us down yet.”
Patrick has been the PHSHA president for three years. His son, Chris, is a junior on the Plainfield team.
“When my son was in eighth grade, he said he wanted to switch from club to playing on the high school team,” Patrick said. “I’ve been involved ever since. I coached his teams for several years in club. I used to play a little for fun when I was younger, but he really fell in love with it.”
Plainfield plays its regular season from September to March in the Illinois West Hockey League. That is followed in the spring by the eight-week Darien Sportsplex High School Hockey League. It is during the Darien league where eighth-graders can join and see whether the high school game may be for them.
Plainfield graduated a large number of seniors after last season, so this qualifies as a rebuilding year.
“We just have a varsity team this year,” Patrick said. “Usually we have a varsity and a junior varsity. But it’s a growing year for us. We have a growing team.”
It is also a team that believes in giving back to the community and taking care of the needy this Christmas season.