Desert Hockey Development

Dedicated to building youth hockey in Arizona

Arizona Coyotes Foundation

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.

DHD Receives Arizona Coyotes Foundation Grant

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Desert Hockey Development (DHD) is proud to announce we’ve been selected to receive a grant from the Arizona Coyotes Foundation. DHD will be utilizing these grant funds to expand our operations to include other areas of Arizona as well as continuing our free hockey clinics in Glendale’s Bonsall Park.

Street Hockey Summer League Champions
Street Hockey Summer League Champions

This summer, we filled the Street Hockey Summer League to eighty person capacity in remarkably few days after the announcement and, unfortunately, had to resort to a waiting list.

Among other things, that experience cemented our conviction there is an unsatisfied demand for free introductory ball hockey programs.

DHD’s goal of growing the game of hockey in the Southwest has been successful for the first two years of operation. In our first two years, we have had over 736 individual boys and girls aged 4 through 14 participate in hockey for at least 1,189 “kid days” for 3,427 hours of hockey fun and instruction.

We’ve seen some of “our kids” continue on into roller and ice hockey and we’re glad to welcome so many of them return to participate in many of our activities.

Now that we have a solid family of volunteers and a pretty good idea what works and what doesn’t, it’s time to expand to other cities and towns.

Arizona Coyotes FoundationDHD is an all volunteer organization. We attribute a great deal of our success to our dedicated group of volunteers and to a great partnership with the Arizona Coyotes organization.

The Arizona Coyotes have been generous with their equipment, their facilities, and most importantly their expertise. The Coyotes Youth Hockey Development people were there at our first clinic showing us how they wrangle forty or so inexperienced kids for a few hours of hockey.

This grant from the Arizona Coyotes Foundation should help us reach a lot of kids that would never have a chance to try hockey. We seek out less economically advantaged areas because we feel that’s where our fledgling group can have the most impact on kid’s lives and also on introducing “our” sport to a new crop of hockey fans.

The board of Desert Hockey Development is grateful, and we will never be able to thank the Arizona Coyotes Foundation enough for their support and their confidence in our project. We will work diligently to not disappoint and to surpass our goals.

Coyotes Street Hockey Summer League

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Summer Ball Hockey Shootout at Gila River Arena - Arizona Coyotes and DHD

We’re adding a new element to this summer’s events in Gila River Arena. We have partnered with the Arizona Coyotes to offer some real competition for kids of all skill levels to have some fun playing against other teams.

We have five dates scheduled at Gila River arena (click here for calendar). Last summer, we had kids returning for every clinic we ran. This summer, we’re hoping to have a similar experience.

We know returning kids don’t necessarily want to run through the same or similar drills and instructions once they have the basics down. What do they want to do?

KIDS WANT TO PLAY HOCKEY!

So, this summer they will be able to do exactly that. It’s all about keeping the FUN level up for the kids.

Coyotes Hockey DevelopmentThe Coyotes and DHD hope to host at least six teams of kids with a minimum of eight kids per team. If there’s more children that want to play, we will accommodate as many as we can fit.

These teams will attend ALL FIVE of the scheduled events and play a full championship series with the finals to be held at the final event on August 8.

Every child that participates in the entire series on a team will go home with a street hockey stick after the championship games are finished on August 8.

Everybody that participates will go home with a ball hockey stick, a hockey player card, AND some other cool hockey goodies throughout the summer.

There might even be some special guest coaches.

We understand it’s a commitment for families to schedule five events in a busy summer with vacations and other things that compete for hockey time. We hope that we’ve come up with a schedule that works well for most people.

Right now, the dates are (all Saturdays):
June 6 and 20, July 11 and 25, August 8.

We’ll have more information as we get it all put together.

Sign up for the mailing list to stay informed or complete the form below to register.

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Playground – Prep Day 1

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Desert Hockey Development’s (DHD) usual “home” is Bonsall Park North in Glendale. Monday, December 8, the City of Glendale and the Arizona Coyotes Foundation will be building a playground in the park in partnership with KaBOOM! And they will be doing so in in ONE day!

Arizona Coyotes FoundationKaBOOM! is a national non-profit group dedicated to ensuring that all kids get a childhood filled with the balanced and active play needed to thrive. One of the ways they do that is by designing and building playgrounds in cooperation with local groups.

YOU are invited to participate, and it sounds like it will be fun!

The preparation for the December 8 build day has been completed on Friday, December 5 and Saturday, December 6.

The City of Glendale people really did a great job in Bonsall Park, the pictures don’t do justice to the quality of the work they completed.

On Monday, a couple hundred volunteers from the Arizona Coyotes organization and the City of Glendale, along with a few Desert Hockey Development people, will descend on Bonsall Park to build a great playground.

Here’s some pictures from the first prep day.
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Playground Youth Engagement Day

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3D-PlaygroundPlease join us on Saturday, November 22 from 2-4 PM at the Bonsall Park North rink in Glendale for a fun event for kids 4-14. The City of Glendale and Desert Hockey Development will be opening up the celebrations for the new Bonsall Park playground with a “Youth Engagement Day” for kids and their parents and guardians.

We’ll be playing ball hockey and having a BUNCH of other cool events, and it’s all FREE! Click here for the City of Glendale press release.

There will be water and Gatorade galore, courtesy of Glendale public safety folks. There will be games in the park that are NOT hockey, but will be fun.

We will be having a mini clinic and other hockey games on the hockey “court”, we guarantee you will have fun. No equipment is necessary, we’ll provide everything necessary. Just wear sneakers so you can run around, the only other thing you need to bring is a smile.

Arizona Coyotes FoundationThere are no formal presentations or speeches, but lots of people will be around to explain the playground project and show off the extremely cool plans. You’ll be able to see where the playground is going in and if you feel motivated we’ll even sign you up to help BUILD it on December 8.

We’d appreciate it if you’d show up before 1:45 PM or so, that way we can get you through the brief registration process and take your picture for your “hockey player card”.

Desert Hockey Development’s (DHD) usual “home” is Bonsall Park North in Glendale. On December 8th, the City of Glendale and the Arizona Coyotes Foundation will be building a playground in the park in partnership with KaBOOM!

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KaBOOM! is a national non-profit group dedicated to ensuring that all kids get a childhood filled with the balanced and active play needed to thrive. One of the ways they do that is by designing and building playgrounds in cooperation with local groups.

Twitter: Arizona Coyotes Foundation – City of Glendale – KaBoom!

City of Glendale City Hall
5850 W. Glendale Ave.
Glendale, AZ 85301

Bonsall Park

Playground Build Project in Glendale

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Desert Hockey Development’s (DHD) usual “home” is Bonsall Park North in Glendale. This December, the City of Glendale and the Arizona Coyotes Foundation will be building a playground in the park in partnership with KaBOOM! And they will be doing so in in ONE day!

Arizona Coyotes FoundationKaBOOM! is a national non-profit group dedicated to ensuring that all kids get a childhood filled with the balanced and active play needed to thrive. One of the ways they do that is by designing and building playgrounds in cooperation with local groups.

YOU are invited to participate, and it sounds like it will be fun!

There will be a couple meetings at Glendale City Hall on October 6th.

The first meeting (at 4pm) is for kids to design their own dream playground alongside people that KNOW how to do it! There’s no way that could NOT be a blast! Round up your kids and bring them to City hall.

The second meeting (at 5pm) is for interested adults to participate in the planning committee for the playground project.

Bonsall Park is heavily used by people in the neighborhood. We have never been there when somebody hasn’t been playing something. There are handball, basketball, and tennis courts that all see action from the local kids and adults.

The park could use some touching up, and this project is another step in that direction. Glendale works hard with their resources to maintain an excellent park system, and the Coyotes have jumped into community involvement with both feet. Our group has been the beneficiary of tremendous support from both organizations.

The meetings are on October 6, the playground will be built December 8. There is no mention of requesting volunteers to help with the playground construction, but it’s not likely that a helping hand would be turned away.

Click here for the flyer from the City of Glendale. RSVP to confirm your attendance, and we hope to see you there!

Twitter: Arizona Coyotes Foundation – City of Glendale – KaBoom!

City of Glendale City Hall
5850 W. Glendale Ave.
Glendale, AZ   85301

Meetings in the employee lounge, on the basement level right across the driveway from the parking garage.