Desert Hockey Development

Dedicated to building youth hockey in Arizona

Tucson

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.

  • Start The Clinic
    Start The Clinic
    The first thing we do is go over what a hockey stick is and how to handle it safely.
  • Not Chaos
    Not Chaos
    This probably looks like chaos and that's only partially true.
  • Lonely Goalie
    Lonely Goalie
    When your defense is locking it all down in front of you, sometimes being a goalie is lonely.
  • New Fans
    New Fans
    The 8-11 year old kids dropped by to watch and decided hockey looked like fun, so they wanted to play.
  • Game Face
    Game Face
    Some people just naturally get into game face mode when they play.

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.