Dear Members:
Welcome Players, Parents, Sponsors, and Fans to another season of exciting Thunder hockey. This will be the second year of my two year term and I look forward to the continued challenges of providing the youth of our community with what I consider to be one of the finest small town hockey programs in the province.
We continue to grow and our successes mount. Our Rep and AE teams proudly carried our colours deep into the OMHA play-offs with our Peewee Rep team capturing the “BB” OMHA championship. We were again very dominant in the Haldimand Local League where our teams captured several championships. These are admirable achievements and I know it’s fun to be competitive and to win, but I take pride in some of the lesser known achievements. Our tyke program is the bedrock of our organization and watching them falling all over the ice in October and then seeing them chase down Santa, like the old man he is, in December is something that never ceases to amaze me. It is through the hard work of our coaches and our commitment to the CHIP program that we are able to teach hockey skills in a fun and positive way and keep the kids coming back.
The Challenge Cup is quickly becoming a premiere early season tournament and the committee put together an awesome tournament last year. I look forward to the exciting games that will be played this year and we expect it to be a huge success. The Koocher Brothers Memorial Tournament was also a success and we are expecting even more teams this year.
There will be some changes to hockey this season. In Haldimand Local League, we are trialing for one year the removal of body checking in all divisions. We believe that this will be the direction of youth hockey in the future and we believe it will be good for the game. This change came about after much debate at the executive level where it was ultimately decided to turn it over to the membership for debate and a decision. I thank those of you who attended on that snowy January evening to give our Board the direction to move forward. There are also some changes in the rules of hockey for Minors as prescribed by Hockey Canada. Starting this season, all contact to the head, intentional or accidental, will be penalized. We are working with our fine coaching staffs in the hopes that we are able to avoid the inevitable parade to the penalty box as much as possible.
Please take the time to thank a member of our coaching staff and executive this year. All of the volunteers in our organization work hard to provide the kids with this great program and please remember to patronize our sponsors and thank them for supporting our program. Without their generosity, quite simply, hockey might become unaffordable
I hope each and every child who signs up for hockey with us this season has a fun time and that they reach all of their goals and remember that they play this game for them, not those of us watching from the stands.
Yours in Hockey,
Wray Uimonen |
