VOSHA Lady Coyotes Assistant coach French


a valued asset By Shane Dale


N


ew VOSHA Lady Coyotes assistant coach Mindy French is no stranger to the program or its head


coach, Gayle Shalloo. “Gayle and I actually played on a girls hockey team


together back in (1997),” French said. “I went back east for awhile, and as I was coming back towards Arizona this past April, I ended up getting a phone call from Gayle and their manager asking me to come on board.” French had already been hired as the youth hockey director at Polar Ice-Chandler, and needed to convince her general manager that she had the ability to perform both functions.


“We understand our jobs do come first, but this is something I like to do,” she said, “and I got the thumbs-up from my rink to do it. I’m juggling both and handling both the best I can right now.


“I’ve coached boys hockey here and enjoyed it. I love coaching and teach- ing kids, and I wanted to take another step with a girls hockey program, and who better to do that with than someone I’m used to?” French sees big things already happening in the Valley for girls hockey and expects the landscape to only improve.


“That was our goal (growing up), to make something for girls hockey out here and we did,” she said. “After leaving for college and coming back and seeing the Lady Coyotes - and now Mission (Arizona) has a girls team - that’s a big step.


“In 10 years, I’d love to see another team, whether it’s a 19U or 12U team,” French added. “And I think we can get there; it’s just going to take some time and patience from a few committed individuals, as well as a group of girls who want to excel.”


LadyCoyotesHockey.com AWAY FROM THE RUBBER:


lot of times during the sea- son, I have the opportunity to


watch other teams practice; not just NHL clubs, but youth teams that arrive at the rink early or stay late. I’ve witnessed various age


and enhancing your ability to recover between those shifts. Off the ice,


Desert Youth Hockey Association


Three teams taste Labor Day success


By Shane Dale A


trio of Desert Youth Hockey Association (DYHA) squads came home with some hardware


after Labor Day Weekend, as the Firebirds’ Mite A, Squirt A and Pee Wee AA teams all won their respective divi- sions at the Fun in the Sun tournament in San Diego. The Mite team went 5-0 during the showcase, capped by a 13-5 win


in the championship contest. “Our guys were solid the entire tournament,” said assistant coach


Mark L’Heureux. “They made good decisions with the puck, were very aggressive in the corners and provided quite a bit of offense.” Forward Michael Burke was named the tournament’s MVP. “The boys did a great job of sharing the puck, and they were relent-


less on the backcheck,” said head coach Zac Fryer. The Squirt A squad received great play from its goaltender and


defensive unit while allowing just eight goals in five games - including a pair of shutouts - and scored 36 en route to its championship. “I’m still reveling over how well they played together,” said head


coach Matt Lundgren. “The kids still have a long ways to go, but they worked hard and tried to the best of their abilities all weekend.” And following an opening-day shutout loss, the Pee Wee AA team


bounced back and captured a 2-1 win in the championship game with goals from Josh Tucker and Joey Miscio and great goaltending from Brady Parker. “It was an overall gritty team effort,” said head coach Tim Wat-


ters, “and we found ways to manufacture goals when we needed them.”


DYHA.org


Keep players engaged, on and off the ice A


groups and skill levels work on their craft over the years, and it’s often easy to draw parallels be- tween on-ice practices and off-ice workouts. Both should have clear goals


and objectives, both short-term (possibly even within each prac- tice or workout) and long-term (by the end of a month, season or possibly even over the course of a career). On the ice, goals can include


learning a new team tactic or strategy, developing better skills with your stick or furthering your skating abilities. There can even be conditioning components, such as doing interval training on the ice with the aim of developing better endurance during your shift


16 magazine


goals can include learning a new exercise that will transfer more effectively to hockey, working on lower-body power to give you great first-step explosiveness or full-body endur- ance to provide you plenty of energy throughout the game. The design of practices and


entire session. There’s no down- time where the athlete can be easily distracted or bored, like waiting in line for their turn. Obviously, in


Bahn


workouts should be very similar as well. A common word that’s used in Physical Education circles applies perfectly to any practice or workout: engagement. Being engaged in a workout


or practice means the athlete is actively participating in both mind and body throughout the


the intense, fast- paced sport of hockey, you can’t spend 100 percent of your time doing drills. The game demands very in-


tense bouts of activity for around a minute, followed by 2-3 minutes of complete rest. Taking that ratio into consid-


eration, on-ice drills (and off-ice conditioning) should follow a similar formula: For every athlete participating in a drill or exercise, no more than 2-3 kids should be waiting their turn. The absence of engagement is one of the biggest pitfalls of


inexperienced coaches, both on and off the ice. Watch a practice or workout, and if you see long lines of kids standing and waiting, then they’re not engaged in the activity. I encourage any young player


or coach to watch an NHL team practice; as soon as it starts, there’s constant movement of passing, skating and shooting. Usually, there are no more than 2- 3 players resting along the boards at each position and, usually, those players waiting in line are watching the flow of the practice so they know where to go when it’s their turn to participate. Keeping athletes engaged in


what’s going on, both physically and mentally, is the most efficient use of training time and, in turn, the most effective. They’ll get the most out of the drill by frequent participation and they’ll have less chance of losing interest by becom- ing bored or distracted by other activities when they’re waiting in line behind 10 other kids.


Mike Bahn is the Phoenix Coyotes’ strength and conditioning coordinator.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24