PCAHA Association of the Year for 09/10 Great ... - esportsdesk.com

S E A F A I R M I N O R H O C K E Y A S S O C I A T I O N N E W S L E T T E R
Seafair Volunteer Apprecia)on Night
It was another full house at the Richmond River Club, as our organization recognized our volunteers for
another year at our Annual Volunteer Banquet Good company, good food (the "Cheeze Whiz"
sandwhiches were not too popular, but at least the food wasn't as greasy as last year), good drinks (but
no more than 2 of them) and good times were had by all. As stated by speaker Ken Hamaguchi, "it's hard
to single out any particular volunteer, when we have so many excellent ones" -­‐ but then that's what this
night is all about.
The evening opened up with President Al White, sharing our team's successes for the
year. Coach Coordinator Shane Hohlweg then "dazzled" the crowd with his high tech
power point presentaJon, as he gave out the coaching awards. The night concluded
with the "sarcasJc and someJmes funny ramblings" of ExecuJve Director, Ken
Hamaguchi, as he handed out the Peggy Maskant Award (Volunteer of the Year) and
our Meritorious Service awards. If you couldn't make it, you missed a good Jme -­‐ but
here are the highlights:
Juniour Coach of the Year -­‐ Luke Birch
Senior Coach of the Year -­‐ Peter Reynolds
Rookie Coach of the Year -­‐ Ben Chen
Manager of the Year -­‐ Madeleine Csillag-­‐Wong
Peggy Maskant Award -­‐ Shane Hohlweg
Meritorious Service Award -­‐ Kim Kemp and Nigel Shackles
Japan Red Cross Dona)ons
We had a collecJon box at
the Year End banquet for
the Japan Red Cross to aid
them with their disaster
relief fund.
Seafair members stepped
up to the plate once again
and in the short two hours
we collected $526.00.
Thanks to everyone who
contributed.
Where are the pucks?
by Nigel Shackles
Any visitor to Seafair’s H1 sessions this past season would
probably have posed the same question no matter what
time of the year it was.......”where are the pucks?” Pucks. The
game can’t proceed without them. Fortunately for those kids
enrolled in Seafair’s Hockey 1 program their ice time was not
about games it was about skating. Skating forwards, skating
backwards, skating side to side, upside down, on their hands.
Okay, that may be a bit of hyperbole but you get the point.
Skating was the main focus of this years Hockey 1’s
(sometimes the sole focus) but the Seafair program is and
will be known for one thing in particular. You guessed
it.....skating! How serious was Seafair about their program
this year? Enough to bring in Seafair Director of Player
Development Yogi Svejkovsky as one of the instructors along
with Seafair Coach Coordinator Shane Hohlweg. Under the
guidance of these two executives the Seafair kids enjoyed an
unparalleled year of development. Also helping out were
many of the Richmond Sockeyes Junior B players who were
on the ice for each of the four sessions throughout the week.
All in all it was a good experience for all concerned and one
that Seafair will definitely be building on next year.
In addition to his work with our Hockey 1’s Yogi also worked
with our H2’s, 3’s and 4’s throughout the season. How does
one person do all that? Did we cut him in half? No. Not
really. But we did bring in noted power skating instructor
Derek Popke to lend a significant hand. All kids who played
Hockey 2,3 or 4 in Seafair during this past season had either
Derek Popke or Yogi as part of their practices every second
week. Every team. Every player.
Not bad for a small association and probably not something
you would see in most other associations. And the price for
all this extra instruction? Well, that’s where it got really
interesting. The price was fixed at an even zero dollars. Yes,
you read that right. For the price of the registration all of the
Seafair kids received instruction throughout the year from
two of the most qualified instructors in the province at no
extra cost. Now why would Derek Popke, whose client list
includes quite a few NHL players, be willing to work with
Seafair and these age groups? Why would Yogi Svejkovsky
work so closely with all of the kids we have in Seafair H1/4?
Because that’s Seafair. That’s the commitment that all of us
in Seafair have to our youngest members. They’re the future
of Seafair and the more time spent with them now the
brighter that future is for Seafair.
Now can someone find us some pucks? We’ve got some H2
teams to form!
Volume IV Issue IV Seafair - Great Hockey, Great People Page 10