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Colorado Hockey Hub

VEHA President's Press - September 2012

By Alan McLean, 09/05/12, 9:45AM MDT

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Dear Players, Coaches, Parents, Families and Friends,

This year begins our 7th year as a valley wide association bringing competitive and recreational ice hockey to the youth of the Vail Valley. Despite bumps in the road, VEHA competitive teams finished last season with both Pee Wee teams and the Bantam A team participating in the Inter-League Playoffs. The Pee Wee A’s wining the Avalanche Cup Inter-League Championship Tournament. Congratulations to the players, dedicated coaches and parents for their support of the program.

This Player and Parent Handbook is designed to give an over view of the Policies and Procedures of the association and what is expected of each member of the association. Casey Parliament has been updating the website to give all members better access to information. Chuck Anderson has taken on the challenge of keeping the calendar of events up to date with the latest information. Cheryl Grimaldi is helping with communication to parents and is instrumental in welcoming new families to the association.  Rob Trotter, Chris Fedrizzi and Rick Beveridge have agreed to spearhead the fundraising efforts of the association again this year. We the members of your Board of Directors know how expensive the sport is for families and we work hard to provide the funding for solid program based on USA Hockey models for developing lifelong players with a passion for the sport and the game.

Hockey is changing, teaching methods, skill development and emphasis on players learning the concepts of the game are more important than winning or teaching a “system” to young players. Hockey is a late development sport; players do not hit their prime years until their late teens. Our job as an association is to give the youth player a strong foundation of skills and concepts while participating in a fun learning environment which will enable the player to play at higher levels of the game as they grow and mature, and still want to play into their later years of life.                           

Director of Hockey Brian Houlihan, and USAH have developed extensive Coaches’ resources to be utilized in planning player practices and dry-land training for athlete development. Director Houlihan and the Board of Directors have directed Coaches to communicate with parents on a frequent regular basis as to the skills and concepts the team or individual is working on in practice. If the Coach is non-communicative please let Director Houlihan and a BOD member know. VEHA wants to recruit more valley youth to this wonderful sport and will work to ensure VEHA’s enthusiasm for the sport reaches and serves more families each year.

The Board of Directors wishes to thank Mike Testwuide, with the Philadelphia Flyers organization, and his brother JP as well as other local graduates of the program for their help and assistance over the summer with our summer skate program.   When asked both Mike and his brother credit their youth coaches for making the game FUN, and developing their excitement and passion for the game. Thank you for giving back, and coaching our young players in the Mountaineer Summer Skates.

Coaches, Parents and Friends this year, let’s keep the focus on having FUN while learning the skills and concepts of the sport. Allow your players to express themselves, put some FUN into each practice, guide your player to see the game and the opportunities for playmaking, allow them to think and grow from missed opportunities and failures as they become successful players. We are here to develop players with a love and lifelong passion for the game. Elite coaches are looking for speed, talent, skills , and the players character. What are their leadership qualities? Are they a good teammate? Do they play hard are they unselfish, are they someone the rest of the team wants to play with? Parents let the Coaches coach, but help them by letting your player know you support them.

Thank You.
Alan McLean
President 
Vail Eagle Hockey Association