Tim Hortons | The Away Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqYfhY5gVl8
With only enough guys to make up one team, the Kenya Ice Lions have never played a real game. They’ve never even played in a real rink. But that’s all changed now.
You might be asking yourself, “how is hockey even a thing in Kenya?” Leave that to the Canadians.
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The only rink in Kenya is inside a hotel in the country’s capital, Nairobi, and it’s mainly used for pleasure skating. It’s shaped like a rectangle and had no boards until very recently, so calling it a rink is a bit of a stretch, but that didn’t stop workers at the Canadian Embassy from showing up with sticks and pucks a few years back, and it caught on fast.
“The first time I played hockey was in 2013,” said Ben Azagree, founder of the Ice Lions. “That was my first time holding a hockey stick. It was not so good. I felt like I was walking on a soapy floor. But I never give up.”
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Before you know it, the Ice Lions had a 12 man roster on the ice twice a week. While some players have managed to accumulate equipment over the years, others still wear soccer shin pads, couch cushions or nothing at all. What they lack in equipment though, they make up for in heart.
“Not all of us have full gear,” Joseph Thuo said, who started playing on the team after he was bullied about his weight. “If you see a lot of us have cuts on our elbows and faces. Everybody has a story. I got hit from the puck twice in the kidney area. A good thing is they weren’t hard hockey shots.”
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Enter Tim Hortons. As part of a video called The Away Game, the company decided to fly the team out to Toronto for a truly unbelievable hockey experience.
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Along with brand new, custom jerseys and a full set of gear for each player, the team got to play in their first ever game. A real game in a real rink against real opponents, a team of firefighters actually.
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For the Kenya Ice Lions, it was a dream come true. That would have been enough right there. But of course, it wasn’t.
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They were told that they’d have a couple new teammates for the game. That’s when NHL superstars Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon walked into the locker room wearing green and red Lions jerseys.
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The guys just couldn’t hold back the tears.
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“I couldn’t say anything,” said Arnold Mburu, who scored in the game. “I had no idea. We were all dressed up and because we were a few guys short, they told us they are going to get extra guys. But then Crosby walks in. And MacKinnon’s face is right behind them. And I can’t believe it.”
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“It was just really cool to see the reaction, how pumped they were,” Crosby said. “For us to experience that, we had fun too. That’s what it’s about. Everyone loves the game and everyone has a different story as to why they love it or how they connect to the game.”
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No one is expecting a Kenyan hockey team at the next Olympics, but thanks to Tim Hortons, that idea might not be so far fetched anymore. Along with a donation of $30,000 to help develop a youth hockey league in the country, CCM has also partnered to provide kids with new equipment.
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“Everyone I told is like, Kenya? Like in Africa?” said MacKinnon. “I didn’t know what to expect. I was really surprised. But those guys were pretty good, I thought. They never had any instruction, but they could skate and move the puck. They definitely know the game.”
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Of course, the score of the game didn’t matter. What mattered is the smiles on these guys’ faces. Their lives, as well as the lives of future generations, have forever been changed.
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