Elimar’s younger brother, Néstor Nahim Calderón, played on a roller hockey team. As pandemic regulations began to loosen up in 2021, he started teaching Sarah and Lorenzo stick-handling and other hockey skills on the family’s patio. At the same time, one of Nestor’s teammates, Alejandro Ramírez, looked to create a youth roller hockey team. Ramírez loved hockey and wanted to help grow the sport in Venezuela.
Combining the kids’ love of skating with Ramirez’s passion for hockey proved to be something close to magic, Elimar said. Sarah and Lorenzo started skating on basketball courts and other empty lots, weaving around cones and working on their hockey skills.
Ramirez slowly built a team with kids from the Grillet’s neighborhood while also advertising locally on the radio. Their team started getting noticed, which pulled in another coach who had been one of the greats in the country when he was younger. His knowledge of details, skills and rules were crucial to helping the team improve. They all became as close as family as they fundraised and traveled around Venezuela for tournaments.
Finding something close to that feeling made signing Sarah and Lorenzo up for hockey in Wisconsin immediately such a priority. Elimar Calderón teared up talking about the experience she and her children had with their roller hockey team in Venezuela, recounting the camaraderie and support they all shared.
“As a mom, hockey was an opportunity to see life another way, of looking at each other, of learning to have and achieve dreams, of learning how to work hard and practice every day,” Calderón said. “The coach gave enthusiasm to the kids. If they wanted to play in tournaments and travel to other cities, they had to work hard and prepare.”
While there was a small ice rink back in Puerto Ordaz, the Grillet children had infrequent opportunities to ice skate and even fewer chances to play ice hockey. Now that they’re playing ice hockey exclusively, Sarah said the most difficult part has been getting used to the speed.
“It’s totally different, but not difficult,” she said. “You have to have much more control of the puck in ice hockey, but I like it. [With SHAW] I can learn so much and get to a new level.”
For Lorenzo, the transition has been all about adapting to the ice surface. After roller skating on cement and pavement, being on flat and even ice has been an adjustment.
“You have to be strong to play ice hockey,” he said. “The ice is so smooth, and you have to have a lot of balance. It’s much harder to control the puck than the ball.”
The family was able to purchase hockey skates for the children and then Swan helped connect them with Jon Greenberg, president of the AHL Milwaukee Admirals, who took care of providing pads and other equipment for the Grillets. Calderón said the generosity of Greenberg and others within SHAW has been a blessing.
The move to Wisconsin has been both difficult and exciting for Calderón and her children. The family had been separated from their husband and father, José Augusto Grillet, as he looked for work outside of Venezuela on and off over the past five years. He was eventually able to join a friend in Wisconsin and get settled, leading to the family finally making the move and reuniting.
Calderón is just beginning to learn English and her children are most comfortable speaking Spanish as well. Despite the language barrier, joining SHAW has helped make the transition from Venezuela to the United States a little easier for the whole family. The club and its members welcomed them whole-heartedly, something they could not be more grateful for.
The Grillet-Calderón family has so much to learn in their new home, she said, but as a mother, the difficulty of an international move is a little easier to bear when she knows that her children are happy, accepted and finding a place for themselves while playing a sport they’ve fallen in love with.
*Interviews for this story were translated from Spanish to English.
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc
