That’s why Clark decided to sign him up for Have Fun, Play Hockey, an event hosted Sunday at Munn Ice Arena by the MSU hockey team and sponsored by the CCHA. Nearly 70 children from 5 to 11 years old strapped on skates and helmets and played with the hockey team free of charge.

Benjamin is already taking skating lessons, but hasn’t yet joined a hockey league. Playing with other children his age and the MSU hockey team was something Clark said she thought would help her son get excited about playing the game.

“I think it’ll help boost his enthusiasm to play,” Clark said. “This will make it more fun for him.”

It’s that kind of family support children need when they’re getting into a new sport such as hockey, assistant hockey coach Tom Newton said.

“Hockey is a family-driven sport,” Newton said. “Parents should seize opportunities like this for that first experience. Something like this could’ve started (an interest in hockey) for one of my players.”

Newton said any exposure to the sport, whether it’s through playing the game on the ice, watching it on TV or becoming one of the players in a video game, can spark an interest in the sport for children.

Sometimes all it takes to get the children into the sport is to get them on the ice, he said.

“I think hockey is a game where once kids experience it, they want to take it on and play on a regular basis,” Newton said. “This will be that first experience for some of these kids.”

As fun as it sounds to play hockey with a group of national champions, some children were still nervous. Junior forward Nick Sucharski said he remembers crying the first time he tried to skate.

Even though he said there were no tears at this event, he knew some children were still a little shy before getting on the ice.

“In the beginning, they’re nervous,” Sucharski said. “I asked one of the younger kids if he was nervous and he didn’t say anything, he just nodded. They’re tentative at first but they eventually get into it.”

Sucharski said it usually just takes a little encouragement to give the children the confidence they need. He said he spent most of his time with a girl named Angela who was having a rough start.

“I just kept telling her, ‘Angela, you’re doing great,’ and she did fine,” Sucharski said.

Courtney Welch, CCHA communications manager, said the help the children receive from the MSU players can provide a lot of motivation.

“It makes a big difference when the players are all here because of the star power. They’re national champions and the kids look up to them,” Welch said.

This year the Have Fun, Play Hockey program will visit all CCHA schools and has already held events at Notre Dame and Ohio State. Welch estimates that these events will help introduce more than 800 children to the sport this year.

“Maybe a kid out here today will be a future Spartan hockey player or a club player,” Welch said. “If we start them young enough, we hope that they’ll want to keep doing it.”