By Mark Mullally - In its 25th year, the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation High School Holiday Hockey Classic is excited to be bringing some of the states’s top High School talent, including Glenbrook North, Stevenson, New Trier Green, Providence Catholic, and Benet. We are also excited to add some returning out of state teams by welcoming back Christian Brothers College High School, and a familiar, but not so recent face with Chaminade College Prep School - both teams from St. Louis, Missouri. 

By Anita Lichterman, AHAI Girls Chair - Attention all high school sophomore, junior and senior girls! It's never too early to think about college and your desire to play hockey at the collegiate level. Click button for information, player requirements and registration form for the 2019 America's Showcase Illinois Girls' team. This year's America's Showcase will be held April 11-15, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Ten games into its Metro Girls season, Glenbrook has scored only 13 goals while surrendering 62. Glenbrook stands at 2-8. “This year brings different challenges than the last two years,” said Glenbrook assistant coach Alex Botvinnik. “We have a younger team and are focused on developing skills and working together. (Head) coach (Steve) Hamelin and I enjoy working together to help our girls have fun on and off the ice, and to continue developing at the high school level."

Statistics don’t tell the whole story of Glenbrook North senior defenseman David Wilcox, who has 10 goals, 15 assists in his first 26 games this season as the Spartans carried a 21-4-1 record into their Rivalry Night against Glenbrook South on Nov. 21. “To begin with, David Wilcox is a magnificent skater,” said GBN head coach Evan Poulakidas, in his 19th season coaching locally, his eighth in charge of the Spartans.

Jeremy Dombro is in his first season as a varsity head coach, and only his second season on a varsity bench, as he was an assistant for co-op Waubonsie Valley last season when the Warriors skated into the United Center only to fall to BG/H/W in the state championship game. Dombro has full intentions of bringing the Warriors back to the UC for the title game in the Illinois High School Hockey State Championship (Combined Division).

Will Bodine is in his second season on the Evanston High School JV team and his play is slightly changing. “Usually, I consider myself a defensive defenseman, but this year I have become more offensive,” said Bodine, 16, a sophomore who lives in Evanston. The left-handed shooting Bodine has skated for Evanston since he was a mite. “I am excited about this season,” he said. “We are off to a decent start and I hope we pick it up and start playing (better) as a team.

Hockey season has started. No doubt, this is a special time of year across the state of Illinois. For all involved there's excitement about the fun of hockey season, and, for many, an accompanying desire to get better on the ice. One way to do this is to improve hockey sense - the mental side of the game that is sometime overlooked but through which a player can make significant gains. This can result in scoring more goals, completing more passes or going from being on the third line to the second. Illinois-born players like Chris Chelios and Eddie Olczyk epitomized great hockey sense in their playing days. Hockey sense is often misunderstood, but has 3 main component parts: spatial awareness, anticipation of play and decision making.