Sheffield Steelers take a day-trip to Sutton-in-Ashfield and had a great day-out with Sutton Sting's kids!

Finnerty was joined by Chad Huttle, Lee Esders and Tom Squires who put more than 50 kids through their paces on the ice and in the sports hall.  When the session broke for lunch Steelers star forward Jeff Legue turned-up to give some one-on-one feedback to the kids as well as sign dozens of autographs including the Sting's own PCM Clarke and Meyers jerseys that the Panther's kids were proudly wearing which brought a smile to the Steelers players faces.  Finnerty said "It's a great facility at Sutton and they have a great programme going on there for the kids.  Its great for me and the boys to go down there and work with the kids and I was pleased with their work both on and off the ice.  I hope we can do a lot more of this kind of work because it helps the kids and it helps the players too."

The Steelers community programme is not just about hockey and the message given to kids by Ryan Finnerty and his players is more about working hard at school and maintaining good grades in class in order that you can exploit all of the opportunities that exist in hockey, and not just in the UK either, but maybe even in North America.  Steelers US import Chad Huttle had a captivated audience when he spoke about college schooling and hockey back home in the hockey hot-bed of Minnesota, he said. "I tell the kids about working harder than the next guy even if you are not as skilful a player.  Coaches like hard working players and if you work hard at hockey then I believe you should work hard in class because you will then have something to fall back-on after your hockey career is over."

Sutton Sting have been working hard to build a bridge with the senior game and their own senior side boasts players who were trained and have played at both Sheffield and Nottingham.  Former Steeler, Simon Butterworth, is one of a handful of good British players helping Sutton Sting to realise their ambitions and he is supported with former Elite league and Premier league players like James Goodman, Ben Lowe, Tom Jeffery, Ritchie Oliver, Simon Offord and Shaun Ashton as they try to get the Sting in to the credible English National League D1.  The men running the Sting seem to know what they are doing and they certainly know that working with the likes of the Sheffield Steelers, and the Nottingham Panthers for that matter, can only be good for the kids in their programme.

Sting Chairman, and Steelers fan, Ian Johnson said. "We've worked with David Clarke, Danny Meyers and Jonathan Phillips last year who provided our kids with some first class coaching on and off the ice and together they brought a new meaning to the Steelers and Panthers rivalry.  In the past couple of weeks we have had some North American input with Finnerty and Huttle giving our kids a talk on on junior hockey as well as taking time to run a special clinic which was a huge success.  I hope we can continue to work closely with the pro players and maybe even encourage more community work between the Steelers and the Panthers outside of their home cities because they both have supporters in Chesterfield, Rotherham and Mansfield, places that our kids come from."