The 2010-2011 hockey season will soon be upon us and there is much to report on the girls hockey front. On the AA hockey Front The LIRF has stopped operations and a new league is emerging, LFHDQ. While the LIRF was administered by Hockey Richelieu the LFHDQ will be managed and administered by representatives from a variety of Hockey organizations including Laval, Montreal, Lanaudiere and, perhaps, Lac St Louis. The compelling point of interest in the new league is the design of two conferences, West and East. The purpose of the two conferences is to reduce travel and cost as the discussions have focused on in conference play. At the midget level, there has been discussion of showcases. The idea has been discussed that might allow the Outaouais and Cote Nord regions to join our league through the facility of showcases, however, these items have not been completely worked out at the time this newsletter is going to print. The LFHDQ is looking at playing 28 games, each game would be 90 minutes. In an earlier proposal the Richelieu teams would be split with one team in the west and one team in the east, however, during a recent teleconference this proposal was not to the liking of Richelieu, so I think this is a point of review. The west conference would be composed of Lac St Louis (with two teams at Peewee and Bantam and three at Midget), Richelieu, Montreal, Laval, and the possible addition of Outaouais for a selection of games that would count towards the standings. Preseason would be 6 weeks in nature and include a maximum of 5 exhibition games. The teams would be permitted to attend 3 tournaments, any tournament outside Quebec would have to be underway or completed by December 31. The league is requesting a training regime of at least two practices per week and a minimum of one off ice training per 2 week period. The league is looking to standardize the amount of hockey and training to make sure there is parity in the league at least from a preparation perspective. New Leadership in Lac St Louis Hockey Feminine After a year of a vacant post, the Lac St Louis board of directors have a new Vice President of Hockey Feminine Ed Dodds. For those of you who do not know Ed, he has served as the Lakeshore Hockey Feminine VP for the past four years and has provided tremendous leadership in the ongoing development of girls hockey in the region. On the Single Letter Front When the LIRF decided to cease operations, a number of regions single letter teams were affected by the decision. The Richelieu region has elected to keep their teams inside the region this year. We have approached Montreal, Laval and Lanaudiere to join our single letter league and we await their response. Atom Girls Hockey Again, last season we had two A teams in the LIRF and now the LIRF is no longer in operations. Richelieu has elected to keep their Atom teams in house so we approached Montreal,
Laval and Lanaudiere to see if they would like to establish a league. The LFHDQ has opened up the prospect of a double letter girls atom league but no solution for our B teams has yet surfaced. So, we continue to discuss the possibilities of joining Montreal, Laval and Lanaudiere for this level. Lac St Louis girls at Quebec U18 The following Lac St Louis girls remain in the U18 tryout camp. The camp runs from June 30 th - July 4 th at the Military base in St. Jean sur Richelieu Marie-Soleil Deschênes Jaimie Leonoff Catherine Daoust Emily Davies Abbey Fraser Lauren Gentile Taylor Hodhod Jessica Hutchinson Maryanne Iodice Sara-Maude Pileggi Chelsea Ziadie Olivia Bishop Gabrielle Davidson Sarah Lefort Vicky Lemire Rika Pilon-Robert Devon Thompson Congratulations to all the girls! Congratulations go out to all the coaches, managers, volunteers and most importantly, the parents for their contribution to these young ladies hockey development. October 17 th On the 17 th of October, the Junior de Montreal will be hosting a pink jersey night in support of the fight against Breast Cancer. That evening, both teams will wear pink jerseys and through the evening, the jerseys will be raffled off through the 50/50 raffle. Breast Cancer reaches all of us! lets support this event by attending we are looking to reach 300 Lac St Louis Hockey Feminine supporters at the game on October 17 th Lets show them we care! AA Tryouts Begin August 14 th Peewee AA 08h00-9h30 Pete Morin Arena, Lachine Bantam AA Selects 14h30-16h00 Pete Midget AA Selects 16h00-17h30 at Pete Bantam AA Elites 17h30-19h00 at Pete Midget AA Elites 19h00-20h30 at Pete Jeux du Quebec Sud-Ouest August 16 Pointe Claire, Annexe 18h30-20h00 Jeux Du Quebec Lac St Louis August 21 12h00 at MAC Recruiting Territories As announced earlier in the Spring, the division of the recruiting territories will be based on school attendance. Both Peewee programs during the evening. The Selects program conducted late afternoon The Elites program conducted during the evening Montreal Stars Playing in Lac St Louis The Montreal Stars, featuring Olympians Kim St Pierre Caroline Ouellette, Sarah Vaillancourt, Julie Chui (USA), Danijela Rundqvist (Sweden), Ekaterina Viacheslavovna (Russia), will be playing their Saturday home games at Leo Crepin in Chateauguay 14h45-17h45. Sunday home games will be hosted at Ed Meagher arena at Concordia University 12h30-15h30.
Last season, Leslie Oles (Lakeshore) and Brianne Alfred (Suroit) both Lac St Louis girls, were in the Stars line up. This season we expect to see former McGill Martlet Captain Vanessa Davidson on the team, representing Lac St Louis girls hockey. Preliminary Home Schedule for the Stars November 6 Stars vs. Toronto Leo Crepin * November 7 Stars vs. Toronto Ed Meagher Arena ** November 20 Stars vs. Brampton Leo Crepin* November 21 Stars vs. Brampton Ed Meagher** December 11 Stars vs. Brampton Leo Crepin* December 12 Stars vs. Burlington Ed Meagher ** December 16 and 17 Alumni Game and NHL Alumni Game December 18 Stars vs. Boston Leo Crepin January 8 Stars vs. Burlington Leo Crepin * January 9 Stars vs. Burlington Ed Meagher** January 29 Stars vs. Boston Leo Crepin * January 30 Stars vs. Boston Ed Meagher ** February 12 Stars vs. Toronto Leo Crepin * February 13 Stars vs. Toronto Ed Meagher** February 19 Stars vs. Burlington Leo Crepin * February 20 Stars vs. Burlington Ed Meagher** * All Leo Crepin games are 14h45-17h45 ** All Ed Meagher games are 12h30-15h30 CONGRATULATIONS TO SABRINA! Just a note of congratulations to Sabrina Hrabec who worked as a technical director for the Lac St Louis Selects Bantam and Midget teams this past season. Sabrina has accepted a position as an assistant coach at Syracuse University. Sabrina rejoins her former coach at St Lawrence University (NCAA) Paul Flanagan. Brief note about Syracuse, I learned from a member of the St Lawrence men s team, that Syracuse invested $300,000 into the women s team dressing room they don t have a men s team and their budget is financially stronger than many D1 men s teams Looking for Coaches We continue to have coaching vacancies for the following teams: 1. Peewee AA Elites 2. Peewee AA Selects 3. Bantam AA Selects 4. Midget AA Selects The ideal candidates will have experience coaching double letter hockey, have their competition 1 certification, completed a police check in the past two years and be available to attend practices in late afternoons. Should you have an interest, please communicate with Chris Sides at girlshockeylsl@gmail.com. The Montreal Stars are looking for an assistant coach to join their staff. The ideal candidate will have playing experience in the CWHL or CIS, have a minimum of Competition 1 certification and three years coaching experience at Midget AA or higher and the flexibility to attend weeknight practices, afternoon home games and road games approximately every other weekend. Should you have an interest in this position, please forward your resume to themontrealstars@gmail.com Organizations/ Coaches The Montreal Stars players and coaches are interested in helping in the development of girls hockey. Star players and coaches are available to attend clinics, practices for all levels of girls hockey.
Should your organization or team have an interest, please coordinate with Chris Sides via email girlshockeylsl@gmail.com. Please keep in mind that proper notice needs to provide to arrange these events properly. New Jersey Colonials We have been contacted by the New jersey Colonials who have expressed an interest in visiting Montreal February 4 th to 6 th to play exhibition games at the (U14), Bantam AA level. Vermont Stars We have received the following communication from scheduler Craig Butkus: Below are the dates we are currently trying to schedule our jamborees and game weekends for the upcoming 2010-2011 full season. We are interested in establishing some firm dates if possible to complete our jamboree and weekend schedule. Please let me know what would work and/or any dates that you would be willing to host the VT Stars at your location like last year! We are looking for our U-12's and U-14's to play and travel together Jamboree Proposed Dates: (3 Full Games Min. - No games before 12:00 noon on Saturday and no later than 1:00pm on Sunday which makes only one night hotel stay November 13th & 14th - Vermont Stars Host Site (Stowe, VT) December 11th & 12th - Open Host Site January 29th & 30th -?? - Not sure about this date yet February 26th & 27th - Open Host Site The Jamboree concept would be for each one of the teams to host the site and confirm the teams for U-12 & U-14 levels - costs of ice times/refs would be split equal with all participants Observation on the Girls game The week of July 7 to 11 I attended the annual North American Hockey Academy (NAHA) showcase at the University of Vermont. The weekend before I attended the Exact Sports event at LCC s new arena. The NAHA event was hosted at the Gutterson Fieldhouse, an absolutely gorgeous hockey arena. There were 170 girls, 10 teams of 17 competing in a tournament style at the NAHA event. The opening day, each team held a practice and then, the folks at NAHA completed the day with a small space tournament. All 170 players on the ice two small space games inside each blue line, 7 minute games with 30 second shifts the small space game tournament s outcome would be used for the tie breaker for the big tournament. There were 52 Colleges on hand to scout the players at NAHA. There were meetings with Admissions people, College Coaches Roundtable and a seminar on Training and Development of the Female Hockey Player. The red team won the small space game tournament and the big tournament as well. And, there were two Lac St Louis girls and a girl from Sherbrooke on that team. Good news for us Hockey Quebec development people. My observation on the game is, there 170 very strong girl hockey players on the ice from 22 states and 4 provinces the world is catching up with us we need to continue to enhance the level of commitment to the
development of our elite players Girls interested in NCAA options or CIS options, need to know that there are girls all over North America interested in taking that spot! At the Exact Sports event, 3 girls were from Montreal (all three were Lac St Louis girls), but there were strong players from San Jose, California (3 of them), Chicago, Iowa, New York State girls from Ontario and New Brunswick Nine NCAA coaches put the girls through their paces! As good as this group was, these coaches know there is a large inventory of high calibre girls developing in North America. The vast majority of the Exact sports event was small space games, the game teaching the player the game with the coaches offering correction when needed. To coaches my observation is to incorporate more small space games into your practices, if you need an inventory of small space games I am pleased to provide I have them for 2on 1, 1on 1, 3 on 2, power play, penalty kill, defensive zone coverage you name the situation, I can provide you a small space game to teach If NCAA coaches in D1 and DIII are using these games as a primary method of teaching the game, maybe we should as well! And, coaches, the best part of the small space games, besides teaching concepts of the games to the skaters, is that the goalies are getting real game situations to compete in! To the players, my observations are: Train hard, be focused and listen to your coaches! In the off season, you training should be focused in the following priorities, in order: I have spent some time this summer with a variety of strength and conditioning coaches and the message on that front is very clear as well NUTRITION is key what you put in your body determines your ability to perform Be mindful of the elite athlete s need for energy recapture following games, practices be mindful of the gluton menace check into wheat intolerance And, follow the long term athletic development program and NOT hockey specific training until later on develop yourself as an athlete first generate better physical literacy to allow you to perform at the highest levels If we go back to the top of the page Get healthy read injury recovery and nutrition!!!!!!!!!!! Get strong read physical literacy NOT HOCKEY SPECIFIC TRAINING Get fast read physical literacy NOT HOCKEY SPECIFIC TRAINING For more on the Long Term Athletic Development Program (LTAD), please email girlshockeylsl@gmail.com and I will forward you the plan that 63 countries have adopted for the development of their athletes across all sports! Have a great balance of the Summer! See you at the rink! get healthy get strong get fast then worry about your conditioning