After a fantastic amalgamation season, please click "read more" to view a season end letter from our Executive Director and General Manager.
“That’s a
Wrap”!
As we close the books on the first year of amalgamation,
I just wanted to take some time and reflect back on the year that was.
All our members deserve so much credit for
embracing amalgamation and making it a successful year. All we heard from other
associations was “just wait for the post amalgamation nightmares that will
happen”. Well, we had none. The year was
quite successful with no major issues because of the amalgamation. Thank you to
our members for your great support in making this all possible.
Our House League was once again vibrant and
exciting. We had very good numbers in all age groups which led to an exciting
year. The weeklong house league playdowns were overwhelmingly exciting. The
arena was packed full every night and seeing parents, grandparents, aunts,
uncles in the arena cheering quite loudly was incredible. The final weekend
gave me chills just being part of it. Thank you to all our volunteer coaches
for their hard work and effort. It’s important to remember coaches give up watching
their own children play because they are coaching all the players on the team.
Not to mention being on the ice for practice on those early morning cold arena
days, brrrr. Thank you Coaches!
We hope to continue all our programs such as
the HL development night and perhaps even add more enhancements. House League
is a huge part of what we do, and currently has more registrants than our Rep
program.
Speaking of Rep Hockey – Holy moly did our
teams have a great season! The APMHA sent many teams to the OMHA Championship
weekend this season. Many of our rep teams were on the cusp of attending as
well. Some heart-breaking overtime losses and tie break formulas led to 4 or 5
more teams just coming up short of attending; next year we will build on that. Congratulations
to all the teams on a great season!
Beyond winning there are also some great
storylines about our coaches and sportsmanship. Our U15MD team made OMHA
headlines when the team collected funds to help the opposing teams’ goalie who
was injured during the game and his equipment was cut off by EMS. The complete
story can be found here: https://www.omha.net/news_article/show/1257591#.Y9gOh03fRvM.twitter
Or how
about Jacob, an OMHA essay contest finalist – What great inspiration from a young
player!
Story can
be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2RpBzxg1WY
I want to thank Evan Jones, Taylor Lewis and
Brian Menard who have coached in the association for a long time and their
teams are aging out this season. They all put a lot of time and effort into the
association over the past few years. Their years of dedication to the players does
not go un-noticed.
And finally, I want to thank our administrative
staff. Not sure how they pulled off this season, but in a year with
amalgamation, spring tryouts and fall tryouts (at the same time as House League
start), while getting ready for 3 tournaments and then Spring tryouts again,
made the season extraordinarily difficult. They put in countless hours, many 15-hour
days, and even while at home answering emails at 10pm. Thank you for all you do!
The future
of the APRMHA is so bright and I am so excited to be a part of it.
Leo Nat
Executive
Director and General Manager