More than a dozen players from the American Hockey League team are taking the healthy cooking course today at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland.

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) _ Portland Pirates hockey players are hanging up their skates and getting out their cooking pans for a four-hour college course on healthy cooking.

More than a dozen players from the American Hockey League team are taking the course Tuesday at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, where they'll learn the basics from shopping for ingredients to cooking a meal.

They'll be teamed with SMCC culinary arts students during the meal preparation part of the course.

The goal is to improve the nutritional intake of the Pirates players while giving the younger players experience in cooking for themselves.