IRISH YOUTH HOCKEY LEAGUE

                                          December Newsletter

Dear IYHL Families:

I wanted to reach out to everyone as the first half of the season has come to a close and thank all the parents and players for their time and commitment to the Irish Youth Hockey League.  Also, please take some time to thank your child’s coach. All our coaches spend their own money and invest a lot of time and energy to get certified to coach so they can be the best coach they can.  We wouldn’t be able to run our league without our volunteer coaches, so THANKS to all our coaches.    

The hockey community in our area is a great hockey family and we have suffered a few losses recently.  Our Irish Rovers 14U A head coach, Mark Crawford and his son Bryce, lost Mark’s wife and Bryce’s mom, Tammy, after a tough battle with cancer.  Also referee John Eason lost his son Jason due to a car accident in LaPorte.  Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers during this Holiday Season.

To have a vibrant and growing league we need to have a strong travel program, strong, select program and strong house program along with growing our girls program. Our league will only be successful if all these areas are strong and so that is what our focus is as a board.  With that I would like to highlight a few of our league successes so far this year.

14U AA Rovers NIHL Gold Division                1st South Bend Cup    1st Motown Cup

14U A Rovers NIHL Bronze Tier 1 Division     2nd Motown Cup

12U AA Rovers NIHL Gold B Tier 1 Division

12U A Rovers NIHL Silver A Tier 2 Division

10U AA Rovers NIHL Gold B Tier 1 Division   2nd South Bend Cup     1st Motown Cup

10U A Rovers NIHL Silver Tier 1 Division       1st Motown Cup

We have seven select teams and an all-girls team and six teams  played in their first tournament a few weeks ago.

14U Blue   2nd South Bend Cup-December

14U Green

12U Blue

12U Green   1st South Bend Cup-December

10U Blue      2nd South Bend Cup-December

10U Green   2nd South Bend Cup-December

The 8U team and the all-girls team, the Shamrocks, will both have their first tournament next week.

House League as off to a good start with a lot of close games and good play.  We will again be celebrating the House League and their championship games with Championship Sunday on March 11, 2018.  We hope to make it bigger and better than last year and will have more details to follow in the coming months.

The IYHL is excited to announce that we will be offering free baseline concussion testing for all of our 14U, 12U and 10U players.  We are working with Dr. Jason Hix and OSMC to roll out this program.  More information will follow in an email as to the how to enroll your player in this program.      

We have had tremendous response to the free goalie clinic in January and everyone will be notified via email if you are a participant as a goalie or a shooter.

This year we are trying something different with our 3 on 3 tournament.  The idea is to have some fun at the rink, get to know more of the great families in the IYHL, and share some fellowship.  That is why the IYHL will put the teams together.  We would like more participants and to make the games fair and equal and not have any “stacked” teams.  So please sign up your player and enjoy some hockey fellowship at the rink.

Finally, thanks to the IYHL Board, Mike McNeill and his staff at the Compton, Mike Klute and his staff at the Ice Box and IYHL parents for making the IYHL a tremendous organization that benefits our kids.  It takes all of us working together and I appreciate everyone’s hard work and dedication to make the league better.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.

Brian Troester

President

Irish Youth Hockey League