Apr 08, 2019 | roadrunners Hockey | 1431 views
CrGHA HIGH PERFORMANCE PROGRAM
We are excited to announce that our Peewee AA team is now part of our High Performance Program. The goal of this program is to have all top teams at the Peewee, Bantam and Midget levels send five skaters once a week to the higher level team's practice. For example, five skaters on the Peewee AA team will have the opportunity to practice with the Bantam AA team once a week.
What is a High Performance Program?
The High Performance Program is a program including the Rivulettes (our PWHL Junior team) and our Bantam AA and Midget AA teams. The Rivulettes coaching staff work closely with our Bantam AA and Midget AA teams and coaches. In fact, the entire roadrunners High Performance coaching staff have full access to the Rivulettes staff and are encouraged to seek help if necessary and participate in Rivulettes practices. Players from the Bantam AA and Midget AA teams practice with the Rivulettes on a (regular) weekly basis.
In addition to this, players are called up to play in games when needed. As we all know injuries are part of the game. It is very important for the success of the program that call up players can contribute when called upon to play at a higher level. This is why every Midget AA and every Major on the Bantam AA team was given multiple opportunities to practice with the Rivulettes this season. Also the entire Bantam AA and Midget AA teams shared practice ice with the Rivulettes on several occasions. Unfortunately during the 2018/19 season the Rivulettes experienced a higher than normal number of injuries. However this allowed the Rivulettes to use both Bantam AA and Midget AA players for a total of 66 regular season games this year spread out among 13 different players. No other PWHL team used call up players from their own association more than the Rivulettes. These numbers do not include playoffs and tournaments. Several Bantams and Midgets were used in Showcase tournaments which are normally played in front of dozens of Canadian and American university coaches. In fact, 95% of the call up players used by the Rivulettes in the last few years have come from the roadrunner teams. As a result of this relationship over the last couple of years many players have made the jump from our Bantam AA or Midget AA teams to the PWHL.
What makes this such a strong program?
We have highly qualified coaches at the Junior level, Midget AA level and Bantam AA level. Geoff Haddaway was named PWHL Coach of the year in the 2017/2018 season. He has been part of the Team Ontario Staff for 3 years and was part of the Camp Staff for Team Canada Women's U18 program that won the World Championship this past season. Geoff has worked closely with the OWHA as a coach mentor for U16 and U18 programs and is a Group Leader and Field Evaluator for the OHF for coaches pursuing their High Performance Certification. Geoff is a local high school teacher and he is completing his 7th year with the Rivulettes and prior to that coached 10 years of Jr B hockey including a Provincial Championship with the Elmira Sugar Kings. Shawn Maltby is a former professional hockey player with many years coaching experience. He has his HP1 certification and owns and operates 11/18 Hockey. Shawn has been responsible for further strengthening the High Performance program in Cambridge and works very closely with the Rivulettes. Shawn recognizes that making his players available to the Rivulettes not only makes the players better, it also exposes them to the type of people that the Rivulettes look for when building their teams. Kory Green is transitioning to Bantam AA hockey after working with the Peewee AA program for the last couple of years. Kory has been involved in coaching in the region for many years where he has experience coaching at the Junior level in the male game as well as working with many local elite female players. Kory also has his High Performance 1 certification. Both Shawn and Geoff and their staffs are looking forward to continuing to build the relationship with Kory and his Bantam AA team.This program also provides mentorship between the Junior players and younger players and encourages the girls to strive to play at the next level. Many of the girls on the Rivulettes have received scholarships to US and Canadian schools. Some have also played for Team Ontario and Team Canada. In the last several years the Rivulettes have promoted nearly 50 players to USports (Canadian University hockey) or the NCAA. Every player graduating from the Rivulettes program in the last 2 years has been offered a spot on a University team. The High Performance program in Cambridge is about player development. While the Rivulettes have one of the highest cumulative winning percentages in the PWHL over the last couple of years, and the Midget and Bantam teams have had more success in the last couple of years than in any other time in roadrunner history we will not mark the success of our program with wins and losses. Our goal is to develop the complete athlete where we look to help them become better people through hockey. Our program is unique and emulates and exceeds the expectations of some of the top female programs in the province. Our Rivulette and roadrunner family is becoming stronger and we look forward to a fantastic 2019-20 season.