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SRI Monthly Newsletter - 09/22

By SRIYHA, 09/02/22, 4:45PM EDT

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Message from the President

SRIYHA players and parents,

We are very excited to kick off our 20th season of SRI Youth Hockey.  I hope everyone enjoyed their summer and had a chance to take advantage of all that our area has to offer. SRIYHA has grown yet again this year, we continue to put everything we can back into our program and that commitment to our players is why we are the premier hockey organization in the state for quality, commitment, and value.

We have an exciting season in store for us. We are happy to be bringing back everyone’s favorite power skating coach Sebastian Geerens from Elite Ice. In conjunction with power skating, we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Pro Crease Goaltending who will be working with our goaltenders the same evenings as power skating.  

I would like to send a very special thank you to all our volunteer coaches and team assistants this year. These great people sacrifice a lot of time to the program and it is truly appreciated. Beyond the on-ice time, a great deal of volunteerism takes place off the ice. Our coaches must be up to date with USA hockey certifications, age modules, SafeSport training, background checks, and first aid training. These great people are the backbone of our program and we couldn’t run such a great program without them.

We look forward to seeing you at the rink for another great season!

Sincerely,

Jordan Novak

SRIYHA President


2021-22 SCHL Season Wrap Up

The 2021-22 SCHL season was a rousing success for the SRI organization, with teams participating in five of the 12 championship games and winning 2 of them (U10B and U12A)!  Congrats to everyone on a great season, especially the two champion teams!


Start of the 2022-23 SCHL Hockey Season!

  • Practices for all teams will begin THIS WEEK - Hockey is BACK!! 

  • Days and times for the first several weeks of practice are posted on the website.

  • All SCHL divisions (with the exception of U8 B) will be playing parity games.

  • Parity for U18 and U14 will be the weekend of 9/9 - 9/11 with the regular season starting on 9/16.

  • Parity for U12, U10 and U8 A will be the weekends of 9/9 - 9/11 and 9/16 - 9/18 with that regular season starting on 9/23.  The regular season for these teams will end the weekend of 2/24 - 2/26.

  • The U18 regular season will end the weekend of 11/4 - 11/6 with the playoffs to follow on 11/11 - 11/13.

  • The U14 1st half regular season will end the weekend of 11/11 - 11/13 with the playoffs to follow on 11/18 - 11/20.

  • The only SCHL blackout dates for the season are:

    • ​​​November 23rd - 27th

    • December 23rd - January 2nd


Bruins Academy, Learn to Play Hockey coming to Boss Arena!

SRIYHA and The Boston Bruins Foundation are excited to continue and grow the Bruins Academy Learn to Play presented by Pure Hockey to help aspiring youth hockey players develop their skills. The program is available to both girls and boys and the registration fee includes a full set of equipment to keep (valued at $550 retail), skates, a professional personalized fitting, and four weeks of on-ice instruction led by certified coaches. The Boston Bruins are thrilled to share their passion for hockey with the next generation of hockey players. All players must be between the ages of 5-9 at the time of registration and have never registered with USA hockey previously.

BREAKING NEWS - We are happy to announce that we have SOLD OUT our Bruins Academy program and have gone to waitlist!  Very exciting for our first year with the program!


SRI Celebrates 20 Years!!

Look for upcoming information regarding SRI's 20th Anniversary Celebration - It promises to be a great time for the entire program!

20th Anniversary logo design by Greg Gonsalves, former SRI Coach, Goalie Development Director and Board Member.

Director of Creative Vision Design Co

21 College Hill Road Warwick, RI 02886

cvwebsight@me.com 401-465-5981


Sirens Update

After an exciting inaugural season, year two of Sirens Hockey is already off to a great start with over 2/3s of the players, across all age groups, participating in the 11-week Sirens Summer Development Program at Boss Arena. The effort that our girls put into refining the fundamentals, pushing their comfort zone and strengthening team bonds across ages is sure to payoff when the ESGHL season kicks off in a few weeks. A huge thank you to all of our players, parents and coaches for making this summer a success that we can build on for next year. During our second season we’re looking forward to building partnerships that will strengthen girls hockey in RI. We’re working to incorporate local high school, college and professional players and coaches into our on and off ice development to expose our players to what’s possible in women's hockey and what it takes to get there. Looking forward to a great season!

Tom McCarthy

Sirens Director


Team Notes - U16 Update

The 2022-23 U16 Girls Sirens Hockey team got their preseason started a little early this summer with a trip to Scandinavia to play hockey against some top talent in Sweden and Finland. The trip originally planned by Head Coach Conn Kelly met some resistance with the war in Ukraine and Russia threatening Finland over joining NATO.  But, not to be deterred, the Sirens gathered 7 girls and pulled in another 10 from around the country joining MCN management to get some great pre-season action at Finland’s Lion’s Cup Tournament. The Sirens got to see a part of the world around the Baltic Sea most don’t think of as a vacation spot. Leaving on July 30th for a 10 day tour of Sweden, Estonia and Finland, the Siren's main goal was to get to Finland and play in the Lion’s Cup.

Finland has revamped their youth hockey programs and since 2009 they have emerged as a global power in ice hockey. The Finnish Ice Hockey Association decided back then to invest in development of women's ice hockey by financially supporting girl’s leagues. Finland, a nation of only 5.5 million people, continues their ascension among the sport’s finest hockey players in the world. Overhauling its youth programs toward the development of individual skills, hiring full-time coaches for all national and youth teams. Finnish coaches meet year-round with national-team members to go over their coaching philosophies with a single mindset, even as they play for their individual club teams, they have a singular purpose. In the 2012 World Championships Finland played host, and by hosting, made a tidy profit that was used to hire dozens of highly skilled coaches to continue working with players age 10-14 on improving their on and off-ice techniques. Our Sirens girls were able to go over and see how the Finnish girls train and how good they really are.

We were able to defeat Sweden in our first game but the Finnish teams were just too good for us. We learned a lot and everyone wants to go back again. The Siren girls made it to the Bronze medal game against Canada losing in the last game of the Scandinavia trip. The game was a heated contest and our girls gave Canada a game they will remember forever. We had a wonderful time and can’t wait to see what the rest of the season will bring our girls.

We had wonderful tour guides for our trip and were able to see many great sites including the VARSA Warship in Stockholm and the walled fortress City of Talinn in Estonia. The food was remarkably awesome at all the hotels and cruise ships and restaurants.  In Helsinki the girls were able to sightsee and do Sauna the Finnish way, with all the girls going swimming in the Baltic Sea. Every person was beyond grateful for this experience. We had a wonderful time and brought back many great memories.       #SIRENS


In the Crease

Hi all and welcome to the first edition of In The Crease. We'll be using this space throughout the season to highlight the accomplishments of our tendies, share some favorite drills, and otherwise talk about all things goalie. If you have questions or suggestions of things we can address in this space, don't hesitate to reach out to me at jasonkrumholz@sriyha.com.

In this issue, however, I really want to focus on our new partnership with ProCrease goaltending that I'm very excited about rolling out this year. For the first time, SRI is thrilled to be able to offer goaltender specific training clinics, on our ice, included in the cost of our annual tuition. Moving our goaltender training "in house" will enable us to help reinforce the lessons learned in clinic at our regularly scheduled practices, and build good practice habits, which is critical to effective goaltending. At the outset, these clinics will overlap with  our regularly scheduled monthly power skating sessions, and we hope to be able to add a second monthly clinic on weekend mornings as the season progresses. Goalies who wish to also partake in power skating with coach Sebby (highly recommended) should talk to their coach or to me about identifying another power skating session (probably on the day before or day after) that they can join.  

Our sessions will be led by coach Nick Maringola, a Connecticut native whose on ice career included U18 seasons with the Hartford Jr. Wolfpack and the Springfield Rifles. He was named the Connecticut state player of the year and goalie of the year in 2020, before moving on to the New Hampshire Avalanche of the EHL where he has played the last two seasons, posting a 13-3 record and a .928 SV% last season in the EHL's Premier division. Please join me in extending a warm welcome to our RamFam for coach Maringola when you see him around the rink this year!

Looking forward to getting on the ice with all of you.

Coach Jason  


HOUSE LEAGUE UPDATE

Another season of Learn to Skate, Learn to Play and House League gets started in November!

We’re offering programs for age 3 through u14 (birth year 2008); from never skated before to a full-ice, no-check house league. Skaters will take the ice Saturdays mornings AND Sunday afternoon/evenings through mid March.

There’s always lots of questions about what level your child should register for. I’ll be posting a general breakdown of the levels on the SRIYHA website. While it’s unlikely you’ll get a recommendation for your child specifically, feel free to reach out to Emily with any further questions. Remember that it IS usually possible to move between levels mid-season.

We always need parent and teen/adult support on and off the ice to make these programs a success. USA Hockey has a lot of resources for coaches. If you’re nervous about coaching, register now and take advantage of these resources.

Last year we launched a volunteer program with NKHS Hockey. I’m working with Head Coach Sellers to further develop this program and we’re looking forward to seeing more of these young athletes. I’m hoping to have some of our Nariho, SK, Storm and SRI u14-u18 players in the volunteer rotation as well.

We’re getting NEW GAME JERSEYS! Can’t wait for January to see our teams looking so sharp.

Information and questions, contact Emily Manz, House League Director


SCHL Selects 2022-23

SCHL Selects is back for its 2nd season. See below for a note from SCHL Commish,  Tom Hammett -

The goal is to not only play a higher level of hockey, but most importantly, for the kids to have fun, develop on the ice, and create friendships with players from other programs that would otherwise be considered rivals. It was a tough opening season but each team found their level and proved that we belong. We even had two of our teams bring home trophies.

We would like to invite everyone to register for the 2022-2023 Selects tryouts coming up in September (CLICK HERE). Learning from our mistakes and building on our successes, we will be implementing various changes for the new season:

  • Schedule: we have already registered for 3 tournaments over the course of the season (Thanksgiving, New Years, March Madness)

  • Tryouts: Two tryouts with a mix of skill drills and scrimmages (first tryout will be open to everyone, second tryout will be for call backs). This will allow the evaluators to get an extended look at each and every player.

  • Welcome Practice: A ‘Welcome Practice’ where players that make the team will be able to try on jerseys, socks, and team apparel (sweatshirt, hats, etc.) before ordering them to make sure everything fits properly. After everyone is fitted we will have an opening practice for the kids to meet the coaches and get on the ice together for the first time

  • Additional practices: we have heard from multiple people that our teams would benefit from practices throughout the season so we are going to explore have 1-2 practices a month for each team.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR 2022-2023 SCHL Selects Tryouts


Other News

  • Several of our young Rams joined the referee ranks this year, congratulations and good luck to all those newcomers who now wear the badge.  Remember that every referee is someone's son or daughter!

  • 2022 Golf Tournament a huge success.  Not only did the tournament (held at beautiful Richmond Country Club) help raise money for SRI, but everyone had a great time!  A special thanks goes out to the golf committee, all our sponsors, donors and especially our golfers!

  • SRI is proud to present a new focus area, with Coach Jason Krumholz taking on Goaltender Development program wide - providing all of SRI's goaltenders the goalie-specific training, drills and skills that they need to develop.  Jason will also be focused on identifying and developing new goalies hidden in the ranks.

  • Some very sad news, as the father of one of our u18 players was killed in a car accident in July.  Please keep the family in your thoughts, and if you'd like to reach out and support them, there is a Go Fund Me page to assist in covering costs.     #RAMFAM


TOURNAMENT OUTLOOK

  • The Lake Placid International Youth Hockey Tournament will take place February 23rd - 26th, 2023.  This is always a kid AND parent favorite and will fill up quickly, so make sure your head coaches are aware of the signups, which happen VERY soon!  Last year, both the u12A and u10A teams won their divisions

  • 35th Annual Thanksgiving Tournament (Warwick) takes place Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 25th - 27th 2022).  A nice local tournament for anyone not going away for the holiday.  SRI currently holds the Mite Division Championship.

  • The Hockey Academy runs tournaments at Waterville Valley all season long.  They might not be the best (read: even) tournaments, but it's a great way to combine hockey with a family ski weekend!


SPONSORSHIPS

While we're discussing tournaments, sponsorships are a great way to offset some of the costs of playing travel hockey.  Sponsorship funds can be used for tournament registration fees, tournament hotel costs, and other travel related costs including team meals.  100% of the money collected goes back to the team that collected it.  

Now is the time to begin asking your employer or other local businesses for their support.  We had several teams collect enough money last year to pay 100% of their tournament registration fees!

All sponsors receive recognition on our website and on social media.  This is a great way for local businesses to help our young hockey players and, in return, get some great exposure to all our hockey families.

Please see our Sponsorships page for additional information.


UPCOMING SCHEDULE - SPECIALS

Goalie Clinics / Power Skating

  • September 13 & 14 6-10PM (4 Sessions)
  • October 11 & 12 6-10PM (4 Sessions)
  • November 15 & 16 6-10PM (4 Sessions)
  • December OFF
  • January 9 & 10 6-9PM (3 Sessions)
  • February 6 & 7 6-9PM (3 Sessions)

Referee Clinics


Skill of the Month


SRI Newsletter - September 2022 - Issue 1