As you may be aware, the APL Solihull Barons were awarded the “Organisation of the Year” award this season. This was awarded by the other teams in the league based on the following criteria:
– reception and welcome provided by the rink
– friendliness of the club
– facilities of the rink
– opposition fans
In a series of articles over the summer, we will be going around some of our off-ice volunteers and sponsors and thanking them for all that they have done.
Third up on the list is Denise Crowe.
Most of you will know Denise as one half of the time-keepers bench; the other half being Miles Wandby. Denise has been operating the clock for the last 5 years but her involvement with Solihull goes back a lot further and a lot wider.
Denise is the mother of our own Richard Crowe and her other son – Stephen – plays for the NIHL Coventry Blaze. Her hockey involvement started with both “boys” 9 years ago when they started their hockey careers at Solihull. She quickly became a team manager in the Juniors; then joined the committee; took over the chair in 2008 (from our own Andy Gordon); then was treasurer and is now again also the chair of the Juniors.
As if being chair of the juniors and running the clock at Barons games was not enough to keep her busy, Denise also spends a lot of time – with Lewis Smith – in producing the match day programs as well.
One lesser known fact about Denise is that she once put on Dave Graham’s old netminder pads and played in goal in a kids v coaches game! A very brave (or stupid?) lady indeed.
So – that is Denise…another great example of a volunteer at Solihull that spends a lot of her time assisting the Barons and if you were to cut her open it would say Solihull through and through.
Thanks Denise for everything that you do – you are a star!