Issue #2

March 23, 2023

This issues Tip:

Reflecting Upon Our Mission

Now that the season is complete, it’s a great time to look back and reflect. As coaches, did we lead our teams in a manner toward our association's stated purpose for existing? What did we do well, and what needs improvement going forward?

“The Mission of the Princeton Youth Hockey Association is to provide for the community a place where our youth can enjoy developing hockey skills, learn the value of teamwork, and be encouraged to pursue excellence on and off the ice.” 

-PYHA Mission Statement

Player Enjoyment: Did we plan and run practices in a way that our players looked forward to being there, or were they begrudgingly going through the motions, wondering when practice would be over? Why? What did you do to make them enjoy learning and refining skills – small area games, competitions, simple encouragement – what worked? Jot down some notes and let us know if you learned any tips and tricks this year that others could use. 

Skill Progression: How about skills? Could you teach ALL the skills listed on the PYHA Skills Progression Checklist for your team’s level? If not, what could you do differently in the future to get through them all? Are the expectations realistically attainable?

Teamwork: Did your players work well together as a team? Why or why not? What did you do to facilitate this? At the end of the season, did your team better understand the value of teamwork and why it works? Any ideas you can share with the rest of us?

Pursuing excellence: Did your players work towards "perfect" execution of skills, drills, and various systems throughout the season? What did you do to encourage/push them toward excellence? Did you ever try something that had the opposite effect, making them not want to try hard? What was that? What can you do to avoid this in the future?

If we want our players to strive for excellence, we should strive to do the same. So please, if you have any thoughts about what worked or what didn’t, send us your feedback. And if there is anything we (HDC or PYHA Board) can do to help you fulfill our common mission, let us know. We're ONE TEAM trying to accomplish the same purpose.

Send feedback to: [email protected]

-HDC Committee

Quote:

"Work without joy is drudgery. Drudgery does not produce champions, nor does it produce great organizations."

-John Wooden

Team Recaps:

The Bantam A team made great strides in our quest to be smarter hockey players, more capable of the transition to High School hockey. The players embraced a ‘defense first’ team approach that coupled with outstanding goaltending and opportunistic offense made this team far more competitive than their overall record would suggest. In tournament play, the team finished 4th out of 8 teams in back to back weekends. The team was also rewarded for playing big in big games as they swept the season series with their rivals from down river. The boys are excited for the players who move on to the PHS program, and even more excited to develop their skills in preparation for next season.

We had a successful year of development for the Bantam B2s. We ended up with an overall season recorded (scrimmages/tournaments & playoffs) of 8-26-1. Many of our scrimmages and tournament games were against B1 teams which always put us at a disadvantage but the players rose up to the challenge. Our level of competitiveness not only in games but also in practices went up each day throughout the season. Our team play and player to player encouragement increased. Our goalies especially found this level of competition with and against each other, their drive to be better than yesterday was unprecedented. Our coaching staff have created a few players to be swiss army knives of players, increasing their abilities to play forward or defense and being able change that mind set in the middle of a game. We had a great year full of adversities and successes. Most of all we had a blast as a team with our on-ice and off-ice activities. 

The B1 peewees had a strong finish to the year winning some big games down the stretch. Then In playoffs we lost to eventual D10 champs coon rapids in ot, beat Rogers before getting knocked out by eventual consolation champs SLP. The kids turned the corner and played good, “team” hockey. They also took home another 2nd place trophy from fergus falls. Coach Englund was very happy with how they finished the season playing together as a team and was proud to be their coach. 

The B2 peewees finished the district regular season play with a big victory over the top ranked Elk River team. The boys showed great progress in development of their hockey skills most notably our players that are new to hockey. This has been a most enjoyable season with the group of boys, parents and families. We shared many laughs and had many great times together around hockey this year. 

The 12U Girls Hockey Team finished the year after going deep into the D10 playoffs. The goal was always to go to Regions and the State Tournament. Other goals were to get better each day with our skill set and understanding of the game. We fell a little short in a few goals but succeeded in our individual and team development. In succeeding in this category we have created a tradition with our girls program. As parents and coaches we are extremely proud of our girls and can’t wait to get back on the ice.

The Squirt B1s had a fantastic 23-24 season ending with a 28-4 record and ranked 5th in the state for Squirt B1 according to Youth Hockey Hub. The boys finished 1st place @ Hibbing Tournament (Jan. 12-14), 1st Place @ Monticello Tournament (Jan. 19-21), 3rd Place @ Fergus Falls Tournament (Feb. 23-25), were D10 league runner-ups, and finished as D10 Tournament Champions. We had a team of 10 skaters and we pushed skating (did a lot of edge work drills) and TEAM play. The skating, passing, shooting, goaltending, defensive side of the puck, and structure of play was fun to coach and watch come together. Each boy came a long way from the beginning of the season and I'm proud to have had the opportunity to coach this great group of athletes. 

I want to thank my assistant coaches: Dylan Sweeney, Ryan Baker and Ben Heath for all of their time and effort they put in this season. Thank you to team manager Katie Wiedewitsch, parents, and spectators that came to watch our boys play this season. Good Luck this summer and we will see everyone around the rink. GO TIGERS!!!

The Squirt B2 players and their families became a tight knit group this hockey season. We didn't have great success in the form of wins against our competition but we still worked very hard, gave it everything we had and got better. In addition to working hard on the ice we made sure to have a lot of fun off of it with floor hockey games, pizza parties, pond hockey practices and skating with different skills instructors. Our players made lifelong friends this season and all left the rink everyday better hockey players than when they arrived. 

The 10U girls finished the season strong with some wins and very close games including two wins in the district playoffs. They played very competitively with a solid Centennial/SLP in their last game of the season. The 10U girls all showed much progress in developing their hockey skills and abilities this year. 

Despite being a young team with only two returners from last year, the Mite A’s had a productive and successful season. It was such a pleasure coaching this group of kids. They paid attention in chalk talks, had a blast during dryland training (outdoor & indoor), seemed to enjoy practices almost as much as games, and played well together as a team. Just a great group.

The highlight of our season came at the end during the Sauk Rapids Jamboree where we beat Blaine’s top mite team – Blaine Blue by a goal. Been waiting years to keep up with them! Note: I didn’t keep track of the score; I blame the players and parents :)

If I had to pick areas of improvement, I’d say more grit and better skating skills. You can never have enough of those! We'll keep working on that this spring with most of the players.

The Mite B team made great progress over the season. We competed in just about every game we played! We spent a lot of time simply becoming better athletes by doing lots of different dryland activities. The kids really started to pick up on positioning by the end of the year as well which was really fun to see. They also started playing as a team quite a bit more. Overall really happy with how the season went. Something to work on over the summer...SHOOT THOSE PUCKS, and then SHOOT THEM SOME MORE!

The season this year was a huge success in my opinion in many different ways. When I think back to the first few practices and watch the team that played in Sauk Rapids last weekend they are not the same. The players improved on many skills through out the season. The skating as a whole improved 100%, passing, shooting, and positioning improved leaps and bounds from the beginning of the season. The players learning that we play for the name on the front of jersey and playing like a team was fantastic to see. We had 3-5 one touch goals this season, and yes intentional. We had a run of 4-5 games that we did give up a goal. Really showed that the team was understanding how to play together and we have a couple really good young goalies in the system. Overall this was a great experience and look forward to this for many years to come. I truly enjoy and appreciate what the association does for all ages of players. Thank you for letting me be a part of this!!  

What a fun season we had growing as a team! Biggest accomplishment for the team was the improvement in skating ability, learning and growing their passion for the game. As with any age group skills are always something to improve upon, for our team skating and shooting would be the focus. 

8U has continued to work hard as a team through the end of the season with each player showing strong individual improvement. We are very proud of how they have conducted themselves both on and off the ice as they've had a steep learning curve this season. We will be finishing our year off with a late tournament at the Roger's Bar Down Tournament March 15 - 17 with 4 games to cap off the season. 

Season went well with positive feedback from multiple parents and kids. The group made good progress throughout the year, and I'm hopeful most will return next year.