Seeing how his students responded to the program,
Fritz feels that floorball is “a great opportunity to
learn the basics of hockey and develop a love for
the game.”
Fritz was born in Pittsburgh, and like most kids
in Pennsylvania, learned to play street hockey at
a young age, but moved to Florida
when he was eight, and noticed
that hockey was not as popular in
the warmer climate. Introducing
the sport in an environment where
hockey does not have a lengthy
history is something that he is
proud to be an essential part of.
As each school participates in
the program, Janusz and the
Panthers are standing by to
continue providing information
and resources to South Florida
schools. When each student will complete the
floorball program, they are sent an individual
certificate of completion and two tickets to a
Panthers home game, courtesy of the Florida
Panthers hockey club. The Panthers high school
floorball program plans to continue their expansion
in school P.E. programs, and keep putting smiles
on both students’ and teachers’ faces when they
learn something fun, new, and productive.
“We’ve had an amazing amount of teachers come
out, and I think the teachers that are coming to
the training are dedicated to the new program,”
Janusz said. “The teachers that
are coming to training are really
invested, and they are coming to
the training for the right reasons
– to bring something new to the
kids.”
Fritz encourages his fellow P.E.
Teachers, who may be a bit
skeptical in the first part of the
program but offers to give it a
chance and see just how much the
kids will enjoy it.
“Several of the students were resistant when I introduced the sport, but they changed their attitude once
they saw everyone else having a good time. The students became excited about the sport and began
coming to class early to practice. The students loved the unit,” -Michael Fritz, P.E. instructor at Inlet Grove.
10 WWW.FLORIDAHOCKEYLIFE.COM
/WWW.FLORIDAHOCKEYLIFE.COM