Daily News Staff

FIFTEEN MEMBERS of the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation couldn't be picking a better time to head north.

They'll leave the heat Saturday to attend sessions at a hockey institute run by former Flyers Keith Primeau and Derek Smith in Oshawa, Ontario. Among their classroom and on-ice activities will be four scrimmage games.

Traveling by bus, the 7-day trip also will include stops at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and a Buffalo Bisons baseball game. That's assuming they ever want to leave Oshawa. The 10-day forecast for that region next week is predicting highs in the upper 70s and lows in the mid-60s.

Of course, this will be more than a cool trip and a chance to get educated in some of the nuances of hockey by Preems and Co. It should be an experience, one of the reasons Snider created the foundation in 2005.

"To provide opportunities for those who otherwise could only dream of such possibilities is an integral part of the ESYHF mission," Snider said. "We are gratified to be able to to bring such dreams to fruition of this very deserving group of participants."

That list of players, ages 11 to 15, consists of Thomas Brown, Joseph Dorety, Salim Ellis, Mikhail Fedotov, Glenn Harrell, Scott Hughes, John Kenny, Kyle Lafferty, Darrell Lettsome, Jerame Nelson, Jonathan Quiones, Virlen Reyes, Jonathan Rodriguez, Chris Rondon and Geraldo Rosario.

In just 2 years, the foundation has doubled to more than 1,000 participants.

Thursday, August 09, 2007