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M H J O N L I N E . C O M | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 8 28 Once a month, one male and one female ref is chosen to be honored at a Wild game. Each honoree gets to skate out onto the ice in their zebra stripes with the officials before the game. The Wild have also started a Level I Youth Hockey referee recruitment seminar and clinic. On Sept. 30, there was a day-long clinic to get their Level I certification and it cul- minated with a Q -and-A with NHL referees Dan O'Halloran and Kendrick Nicholson and NHL linesmen Brandon Gawryletz and Brian Mach, who hails from Little Falls and has worked more than 1,000 NHL games. "We had kids driving four hours to attend," Petersen said. FACEOFF FOR FITNESS: This is Year 2 of this initiative. Last year, the Wild did six. This year, they're doing 12 assembly visits at local elementary schools. The goal is to promote physical fitness, nutrition and healthy life- style choices. Former Wild captain Wes Walz and former Gophers player Erica McKenzie has taken part, and it's a 45-minute school visit that culminates with Wild cards with different fitness and nutritional tips on them. The Wild also donates a set of street hockey equipment to the school's PE program. GIRLS HOCKEY WEEKEND: From Dec. 15-17, the Wild celebrated the growth of girls' hockey at Xcel Energy Center. It started with for- mer Gopher Krissy Wendell practicing with the Wild and included a special ticket pack for the Dec. 16 Wild- Oilers game and ended with 8U, 10U and 12U on-ice clinics and a pizza party. "In both numbers and talent, Minnesota is way above everywhere else when it comes to girls' hockey," Andresen said. "But there's still far fewer girls than boys playing, so focused on more girls interested in the sport." FALL MITE JAMBOREE AND MITE HOLIDAY JAMBOREE: Consists of 32 teams of both 8U girls and boys, and it's amazing how quickly the small-area game field fills up. Last year, the Wild sent out the release on a Monday and opened registration at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday. By 10:02, the jamboree was filled and the Wild's system crashed. EQUIPMENT DRIVE: For the ninth straight year, the Minnesota Wild, Let's Play Hockey and Minnesota Hockey partnered for a collection and distribution drive of used hockey equipment. Thousands of pieces of donated hockey equipment were distrib- uted, free of charge, to hockey associations and individuals at Xcel Energy Center on Oct. 1. Players from the Saint Paul Johnson Governors boys' varsity hockey team assist- ed at the distribution, helping to ensure a proper fit when individuals selected their hockey equipment. MINNESOTA WILD LEADERSHIP SUMMIT: 238 boys' and girls' high school hockey captains and coaches representing 56 schools from throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin attend- ed a Leadership Summit on July 11 at Xcel Energy Center and Saint Paul RiverCentre, the first of its kind in Minnesota and through- out the NHL. There were a number of speak- ers, then the captains and coaches got to attend a Wild development camp scrimmage. The Wild anticipate the numbers to increase dramatically this upcoming summer. As you can imagine, to organize this many youth initiatives, it takes a lot of time, money and manpower. "I remember when I first met with Wayne and we talked about all these programs, my thought was, 'Let's do one of these a year or something and roll them out slowly,'" Andresen said. "Wayne said, 'No, let's do them all right now.' It's amazing how these things get pulled off, but it's all been worth it. We see a lasting impact, and the entire goal is for everybody in the State of Hockey to fall in love with this sport." After 12 seasons covering the Minnesota Wild for the Star Tribune, Michael Russo now cov- ers the Wild and National Hockey League for The Athletic (theathletic.com/mn). He co-hosts the Russo-Souhan Show on mnspn.com, can be heard on KFAN (100.3-FM) and seen through- out the hockey season on Fox Sports North. Follow Russo on Twitter at @RussoHockey and subscribe to The Athletic at a special discount- ed rate at theathletic.com/michaelrussohockey. P R E S E N T E D B Y Russo's Rants Wayzata girls' high school hockey coach Jess Christopherson ran on-ice clinics during the wildly popular Girls Hockey Weekend.