End of the Year Recap
2011 – 2012 was a successful season and hopefully a huge step forward for Quincy Youth Hockey.
It started back in September with the partnership of Doug Nolan’s pro Edge Hockey. (
www.proedgehockeydevelopment.com) Personally I believe this partnership is what QYH has been missing for years, it’s the one piece of the puzzle that we have needed to move this program forward in development and competitiveness. We are very grateful for Doug and his staffs hard work and dedication to this program and we look forward to working with them this coming September.
Another new look early in the season was our changing of the September schedule format for more of an opportunity for the kids to skate. During that time house coaches collectively picked their teams – with the hopes of having an as competitive house program as possible. I think for the most part we succeeded in that. That competiveness really showed during the 2 week Jamboree where we wanted to bring the fun back. T-shirts for the kids were brought back – trophies were purchased and will have all the winning players’ names engraved on it and displayed in the cases out front. The Bruins mascot made an appearance – photo booth – red carpet event. It was a great 2 weeks and hopefully we can do even better next year.
A big concern going into the season was the long numbers for our Pee Wee house program. Tim Walsh stepped up big for the program by creating a new league – Middle School league- which allowed Pee Wees and 1
st year bantams a house league program to play in. This thinking out of the box by Tim gave a chance for kids in Quincy to continue playing QYH and enjoying a fun and competitive league at the same time. THANK YOU TIM!
Mitey Mites continues to be very successful and a great feeder to the mite program – one of the great moments of the season was when all of the mitey mites skated in-between periods of the Quincy High School – North Quincy High School game. We hope to make that an annual opportunity for those kids.
We created a National Bound U14 boys Tier 2 team to compete in the Mass Tier 2 Development League (
www.masstieriihockey.org) adding to our U16 and U18 teams that also compete in that league. Both U16 and U18 qualified for the State Tournament this past fall and faired very well in that tournament – both teams losing in the semi finals. The ultimate goal of this program is to get the kids ready for the upcoming high school season playing a much higher level than that of Midget or Bantam hockey with longer periods and stronger competition. This past year our players for U16 and U18 all played for their respected High Schools (CM, AWHS, Braintree, Watertown, Quincy and North Quincy). A little background on where this program has come the last couple of years – 2 years ago we didn’t even have a tryout because of the small numbers of players interested – just last week we had 52 kids on the ice for a tryout. That’s great stuff !
More excitement surrounding the program was the success of the travel programs from Mites to Bantams – We had a little bit of everything. GBL Championships – GBL Semifinal Games – Exciting and Competitive Play down games – Tournament Championship games – Tournament Championships.
Great to see so much success with some our teams and we hope to carry that momentum into the next year . That being said our main focus for the program needs to be improving our children’s skill and development as hockey players. Winning games is great and we will continue to win as long as we continue to development these young hockey players. When winning becomes our #1 priority that’s when we lose focus and steer away from the ultimate goal as a program.
Canton and Franklin youth programs, respectively win a lot of games but it’s the quality of skill and development that is the impressive part. The focus on detail and improvement is just some of the reasons why they win all these games and are constantly competitive at the young level and it’s no coincidence that the High School programs benefit from that development. That development and dedication starts with our coaches – as coaches we all have to be willing to learn everyday and do what’s best for the team/program, not what’s best for winning a house league game at 8am on a Saturday morning in November. Next season we will be putting in place a coach’s syllabus that will be put together by high school, junior and other coaches. So going forward there is a goal in place for each level.
We have come a long way this past season but I don’t believe we have even scratched the surface. We have a lot of work ahead of us and we need to do it together.
As always please email me with any questions / concerns / suggestions.
Just under 150 days to the start of the season! Looking forward to 2012 -2013
Thank you for a great year
Matt Gibbons
Some things to look forward to this summer and fall:
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New Website is in the final stages!!!!! – Late April early May Launch!
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Middle School Camp On Ice / Off Ice (email :
for more info)
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July 23rd – July 27th 10am – 1pm
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Age Group: Entering 7th – 8th and 9th
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Cost: $200
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Quincy Youth Arena GOLF TOURNAMENT - June 13th
Presidents Golf Course - 1pm Shotgun start
Contact: Michelle Stenberg (
)
