Desert Hockey Development

Dedicated to building youth hockey in Arizona

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NHL Centennial Fan Arena Street Hockey

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The Coyotes staged a street hockey Jamboree this past Saturday (January 7) during the “Centennial Fan Arena” event at Tempe Marketplace this Saturday. The event attracted five teams of kids 10 and under. Other than the DHD team, most of the the tams were organized ice hockey teams, used to playing together.

Everybody had a blast! Somebody may have been keeping score, but we aren’t sure who. We don’t know who scored the most goals, but we saw a bunch of kids running around playing hockey and having a great time.

We also saw ZERO examples of poor sportsmanship, whining, or complaining. Everybody that participated really got into the spirit of the casual event and made it a big success.

Plus, every team had their picture taken with the Stanley Cup! How cool is THAT!!!

Answer: REALLY cool!

There was plenty of other action at the Fan Arena including a really nifty set of NHL memorabilia in a mini museum with all sorts of touch screens and multimedia presentations. There were two virtual reality Zombonis to race, Howler and the Paw Patrol ladies were there, too.

If this event comes around again some time, you should try to get out and see what it’s all about, it’s worthwhile.

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Coyotes Street Hockey Showdown

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SORRY, THIS EVENT IS FULL

The Coyotes are staging a street hockey Jamboree this during the “Centennial Fan Arena” event at Tempe Marketplace this Saturday. The event is for “mite” and “squirt” teams (kids 10 and under).

FREE COYOTES HAT!

We’d like to show everybody how DHD kids play hockey! SO, we want to put together a team of our great boys and girls and play the tournament this Saturday. We apologize for the short notice, but this is a great opportunity.

This will be a fun event and a little informal. If you’ve ever participated in an event put on by the Coyotes, you know they’re always fun and well run without any stress.

The object of this tourney is to have fun and to start off the new year with some hockey action! In between games, there’s TONS of other stuff to do at the event.

The kids who play will have a chance to have their picture taken with the Stanley Cup without waiting in a giant long line of people, a major bonus!

A generous benefactor has donated two GREAT seats, three rows from the glass, for the Saturday, January 14th Coyotes/Ducks game. We will be giving those two seats to the MVP for the DHD team! Another great incentive to have some fun!

Check in starts at 10:30 AM and the Jamboree will be over by 3:20 PM. You don’t need to bring anything with you other than your normal sneakers and great attitude. If TOO MANY kids want to sign up, we’ll see if we can add another team.

The NHL Centennial Fan Arena will be located on the north side of Tempe Marketplace in the parking lot area between Thirsty Lion Gastropub & Grill and Dave & Buster’s, just west of Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que. https://www.nhl.com/coyotes/fans/nhl100 is the link for more info about the main event.

SORRY, THIS EVENT IS FULL

Please shoot deserthockey@deserthockey.org an email if you’re interested and we’ll get you all set up.

Hope we see you there!

Coyotes Youth Hockey Night – Deals!

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Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs come to town in just over 2 weeks on Friday December 23 at 7:00pm.

As you know, Auston is from Scottsdale and learned to play hockey here because he was a Coyotes fan. As you also probably know, Auston was drafted FIRST in the NHL draft, going to the Leafs.

There has been a buzz around hockey as soon as he was drafted and it has only grown after his start to the season. If you didn’t hear about or see Auston’s first NHl game…

HE SCORED FOUR GOALS!

From mites up to adult players, everyone has circled this date on the calendar and knowing that, the Arizona Coyotes are celebrating with some blowout offers for YOU!

Aside from simply offering up a discounted ticket that these families would be purchasing regardless, there are two main initiatives geared around this night:

  • Coyotes youth jersey giveaway for kids 12 and under who purchased from offer
  • post-game on-ice photo with Max Domi (without his diabetes alert dog Orion).
(AZ Central photo)

Other exciting initiatives included for this game include:

  • All information and ticket discount link: arizonacoyotes.com/YouthHockeyNight
  • Coyotes beanie giveaway provided by Fox Sports Arizona for first 10,000 fans
  • Discounted tickets up to 35% off or more in both the upper and lower level
  • Benchwarmers – 15 randomly selected players will watch warmups from Coyotes bench
  • 5 randomly selected players will join the Coyotes on the blue line during national anthem
  • Youth hockey mites-on-ice intermission game
  • “Top Dog of the Game” will be a local hockey leader

So, you’re in, right? CLICK HERE NOW

See you at the rink!

Skate Party Fun!

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cyr5qdkuoaa5cauThanks to everybody that joined us at our Thanksgiving Skate Party on Saturday, Nov. 26!

Thanks to the generosity of AZ Ice Peoria, we were able to hold our fundraising event on Thanksgiving weekend at their great facility. If you haven’t been there, you should put it on your list as a place to go the next time you’re feeling the need for some skating speed.

We had a bunch of cool Coyotes collectibles up for sale, the $5 table was a big hit! We had some real bargains on the table, signed pucks, lunchboxes, mini Zambonis, all sorts fo cool stuff. We’ll be doing the same thing at our upcoming events throughout the year, so you’ll have the chance to bid on some great signed bobbleheads, hockey cards, and many other Coyotes collectibles you NEED to add to your collection.

As you can see from the pictures a couple of the Coyotes Paw Patrol ladies joined us! They were helping out with skating lessons besides taking time out of their holiday weekend to mingle with a bunch of hockey type people. We appreciate their help more than we can say.

We were even lucky enough to be joined by the big dawg himself! Howler was everywhere, as usual, doing his Howler thing all over the ice.

Last, but certainly not least, we had Ali Dean Smith from the Arizona Coyotes Foundation attending with a couple kids AND a giant check in hand!

The Arizona Coyotes Foundation helped us get out show on the road last year with a generous grant, and they followed up AGAIN this year with more generous support. There’s no doubt the Coyotes are heavily involved with the local community just as Coyotes hockey is out somewhere in Arizona every day working hard to grow the game with youth hockey programs. We’re proud to be considered part of their pack.

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Thanksgiving Weekend Skate Party

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We’re throwing a skating party at AZ Ice Peoria on Saturday, November 26 from 5pm to 7pm.

Martin Hanzal Locker
Martin Hanzal Locker

We’re having a Thanksgiving Weekend Skate Party thanks to the great people at AZ Ice Peoria.

This is a fundraiser to benefit the past and future endeavors of Desert Hockey Development in our goal of growing the game of hockey in Arizona.

A $5 donation per person is requested and a $20 donation for a family. Click here for tickets or you can buy them at the door.

Skates are included, and all family donations get you entered into a drawing for a cool Martin Hanzal “locker”, one of the bonuses from the 2015-2016 Coyotes season.

Assistance will be available for kids and adults that aren’t yet comfortable on skates. The object is to have fun, NOT fall down all over the place!

This is a fun holiday skate for kids and their families, so we won’t be playing hockey or allowing hockey sticks or pucks. If you want to bring hockey gloves and protective gear, that’s of course just fine!

Please join us, and please spread the word! We can really use the help and the more people we have, the more fun it will be.

See you there!

First DHD Hockey Clinic in Tucson

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We’re happy to say our first free hockey clinic in Tucson was a success. With the AHL Roadrunners playing in Tucson next season, there’s some real enthusiasm for hockey in the area.

Tucson Parks

parks_logo_colorWe were lucky enough to hook up with Tucson Parks and Recreation to be able to offer a free clinic for the kids in one of their summer programs. The “In-Betweeners Club” is a summer recreational program at the Donna Liggins Recreation Center for children aged 12-14.

Because DHD is an all volunteer organization, we are rarely able to stage events on any day other than weekends. We were glad we were able to sneak in a weekday event in this case. We have a goal to expand our reach beyond the Phoenix area, and local volunteers such as Coach Kyle Canfield and Sergio Mendez will help make that possible.

If you’re in the Tucson area and would like to help keep this ball rolling, please get hold of us and let’s see what we can do together!

Big Kids

Tucson3We had our portable rink set up in a gym at the recreation center which was WAY cooler than the scorching summer temperature outside. Our usual clinic process is to familiarize the kids with hockey stick safety and the basics of the game. We’ll then run some drills so everybody gets familiar with how to play the game.

Then we turn everybody loose to actually play some games. Everybody wants to get to the “fun stuff” as soon as possible, don’t they? We ALL do!

There were some standout performers in the first group, hopefully some of them will continue to pursue hockey in some form.

Little Kids

Tucson10While we were playing with the “big kids”, a group of “little kids” aged 8-11 started watching. Some of them looked like they wanted to play some hockey. So…

Once the time was up for the 12-14 year old group, we figured we’d stay around awhile and play with the 8-11 year old kids.

We’re pretty sure everybody had fun, we certainly did!

 

We are hoping to have the opportunity to stage more free hockey clinics all around the Tucson area. We’re always happy to talk to people looking for neighborhood or school events, our goal is to reach as many kids as we can.

Check out the slideshow below.

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Arizona Youth Hockey Boom

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The number of ice hockey players in Arizona, based upon active player registration numbers for USA Hockey members, has risen dramatically in the past five years.

Emma_MiaThere were 7,329 registered hockey players in Arizona at the end of 2015, an increase of just over FIFTY percent in one year. The year before showed a similarly impressive 36% increase after a statistically inconsequential increase (0.29%) in 2013. The membership numbers for 2015-16, while showing an increase, showed the rate of increase flattening out.

The most dramatic increases in 2015 were in the most significant demographics to DHD, youth hockey. The group of kids age six and under had an impossible to ignore, 162.56 percent increase in one year. All of those kids, and a few more, stuck with the program through 2016. The next group, ages 7-8, came in second with a still impressive 76.57 percent increase.

Arizona led the United States in new USA hockey memberships in 2014-15, and had the second-highest overall growth rate in the nation. There is perhaps no more “non-traditional” hockey market than Arizona, yet growth of participation in hockey is pacing the nation.

Arizona Ice Hockey – USA Hockey Registered Players
Year Total 19/Over 17-18 15-16 13-14 11-12 9-10 7-8 6 & U
2016 7,510 3,707 394 500 573 605 610 501 620
2015 7,329 3,714 390 461 563 540 560 505 596
2014 4,860 2,332 331 415 420 436 413 286 227
2013 4,125 1,717 281 431 385 434 387 274 216
2012 4,113 1,717 321 408 391 384 380 285 227
Percentage change from prior year
2016 2.47% -0.19% 1.03% 8.46% 1.78% 12.04% 8.93% -0.79% 4.03%
2015 50.80% 59.26% 17.82% 11.08% 34.05% 23.85% 35.59% 76.57% 162.56%
2014 17.82% 35.82% 17.79% -3.71% 9.09% 0.46% 6.72% 4.38% 5.09%
2013 0.29% 0.00% -12.46% 5.64% -1.53% 13.02% 1.84% -3.86% -4.85%

 

While we’d like to, DHD isn’t taking credit for this growth. Of course we’re convinced we DID participate, but the numbers are a lot larger than we are.

coach_shottIt’s clear that the enthusiastic participation of the Arizona Coyotes in building youth hockey since they’ve been free of ownership concerns is what’s made the difference here. All of the youth hockey numbers started their meteoric rise coincidental with the renewed Coyotes. Their staff assigned to the task are all completely committed, professional, and energetic.

For example, the Coyotes have built partnerships with the local ice rinks and have made a tremendous success of their Little Howlers Learn to Play ice hockey introduction program. Little Howlers signed up over 1,300 kids last year and managed a retention rate of 60%. Look at the numbers in the table above, you can see the impact of keeping those kids on the ice playing hockey.

The future is bright, you’ll see those number spike again next year as Tucson gets more ice time and the AHL team generates interest in the sport.

If you’re interested, feel free to peruse the USA Hockey reports by selecting the year you’re interested in.
2011-12       2012-13       2013-14       2014-15       2015-16

Arizona Coyotes Foundation video

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The Arizona Coyotes Foundation showed this video at the Celebrity Waiters Gala in March.

Desert Hockey Development (DHD) is proud to have been a recipient of a grant which made it possible for us to begin our expansion process and has given us the ability to mobilize around the state of Arizona.

The Arizona Coyotes Foundation raises funds all year to benefit at least THIRTY different groups in the 2015-16 period. When you contribute to a 50/50, you’re contributing to the foundation.

If you follow the team, you’ve seen the foundation’s work around the community. They’re out there ALL the time, volunteering and making a difference in people’s lives.

We’re grateful for the partnership we have with the Arizona Coyotes Foundation, they’re a great group of people with a high degree of passion for hockey and for the community. Next time you see one of them, shake their hand and introduce yourself.

Coyotes AHL Team in Tucson

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It’s official and all the business matters are finished. The Coyotes AHL affiliate team will soon be taking up residence in Tucson at the Tucson Convention Center (TCC).

Name The Team

The name for the former Springfield Falcons is yet to be determined, so please join in the process and add your suggestion by clicking on the image below.

nameteam

Convention Center Upgrades

Tucson Convention Center
Tucson Convention Center

The Tucson Convention Center will receive renovations and upgrades including locker rooms for home and away teams, the purchase of a Zamboni ice resurfacer, and some new video equipment. The renovation process will begin immediately.

Click here for the Arizona Star story.

More Ice, More Ice Time

The University of Arizona, the Tucson Adult Hockey League, and the Wildcats Youth Hockey Association already share the TCC ice surface. Having the ice available for longer periods of time will help all three organizations expand their operations or, at least, improve their play.

There’s strong talk of another facility coming on-line soon. Having a permanent sheet of ice available to the public will have a tremendous effect on growing the game of hockey in the Tucson area. This has been a major stumbling block in the Tucson area, it’s difficult to build a youth hockey program without enough ice time for practices and games.

Community Advantages

Arizona-Coyotes-Foundation-500Having an AHL team affiliated with an NHL team that’s a couple hours away by car will mean benefits to the community as well as to the Coyotes.

The Arizona Coyotes Foundation is very active in the Valley and continues to support a wide variety of organizations, including DHD, that benefit the local community. The AHL team will be out in the Tucson community doing similar things, and having the NHL team so nearby will strengthen their ability to make a difference.

DHD South

DHD portable rink
Taking It On The Road

DHD is currently planning events in the Tucson area and we’d love to hear from Tucson people. Please contact us with any ideas for venues, what neighborhoods are most in need of some youth outreach programs, and anything else you want to discuss.

Our ultimate goal is to extend the reach of DHD with partners in the Tucson area to be, essentially, “DHD South”. Pooling resources and sharing knowledge will be a great way to keep programs flowing throughout the year to get more kids started with hockey through ball hockey events.

Shoot us an email or give us a call any time to talk about how we can work together to make this thing happen.