PEORIA, Ill. – Carver Arena became a classroom for kindergarten through high school students across Illinois on Thursday morning.
The Peoria Rivermen hosted its 4th Education Day game in a battle against the Quad City Storm. More than 90 schools with about 8,000 students in total attended the game.
The largest crowd from a school came from East Peoria’s Central Junior High School, with around 300 students in attendance.
6th grade social studies teacher Riley Jewell says the day is treated as an incentive field trip.
“The kids who are doing what they’re supposed to in the classroom, getting things done, behaving themselves, being good kids, we’re out here rewarding them and having some fun,” Jewell said.
Jewell says it also gives students a stress-free day away from school before Christmas breaks begin. He says he himself hasn’t been to too many Rivermen games, but is looking to go to more of them.
Most of the schools came from central Illinois, but some students came from as far away as Streator and Mattoon.
Rivermen owner Bart Rogers says Education Day is a chance to give the kids something they might not have experienced before.
“So many students, this could be their first time coming to Peoria, could be their first time coming to a hockey game. So that’s what it’s all about,” Rogers said.
Rogers says the first Education Day started prior to COVID with about 4500 students. He’s hoping to have a sellout for a future Education Day game.
He says education is incorporated into the game, with geography lessons on where Rivermen players come off, to math lessons, and science with how the ice is made.
Emily Hagaman is a teacher at Norwood Primary School in Bellevue, who says there’s also life lessons to be learned at the game.
“A lot of it’s for fun, but we talk about all the different kinds of things that go into hockey, and all the lessons that can be associated, teamwork, sportsmanship, all those kinds of things,” Hagaman said.
Hagaman says when the game ends, her and her students will continue talking about those lessons.
She is also very familiar with the team, as her husband is Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman, who scored the game’s opening goal in a 2-0 victory over the Storm. Emily says her students are very familiar with the team, with Alec having brought the Southern Professional Hockey League’s President’s Cup to the school.
The big N-O from Nick Latinovich in front of the largest SPHL crowd in Rivermen history!#HoistTheColors pic.twitter.com/sfIB5NnAIU
— Peoria Rivermen (@Peoria_Rivermen) December 14, 2023
