Desert Hockey Development

Dedicated to building youth hockey in Arizona

Youth hockey

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 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!

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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Ball Hockey With Louis Domingue

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Arizona Coyotes goaltender Louis Domingue sponsored a Desert Hockey Development event at Bonsall Park in Glendale on Saturday, April 16. His idea was to provide breakfast and some really cool custom T-Shirts while playing some ball hockey with a bunch of kids.

Fifty boys and girls between two (almost three) to fourteen years old participated on a beautiful day in Arizona.

DJ and crew at ball hockey with Louis DomingueSome more of the Arizona Coyotes “A” team people also chipped in a LOT of effort and time to help ensure the event a success.

We started earlier in the day than usual so the kids could relax a little, get to know each other and munch on some light breakfast eats courtesy of Louuuuuuuuuu. The blueberry muffins were the biggest hit with the kids, for what it’s worth.

Between DHD volunteer coaches and the extra coaching power of a few of the Coyotes Hockey Development people, there was plenty of personal coaching attention for all the kids.

Louis made sure that he played with every single kid. He signed a custom T-Shirt for every single kid and spent some one on one time with every single kid. That means that Louis, despite having a brand new daughter (four days old!) at home, spent that much time with each child there. So, multiply that by FIFTY.

All of the board members and volunteers from Desert Hockey Development would like to express our humble thanks for the heartfelt effort and personal attention he graciously offered to our organization and our kids AND to the growth of hickey in Arizona.

You have a lot of permanent fans, Louis!

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Norterra Canyon K-8 School Carnival

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Desert Hockey Development had the new portable rink up and running for the first time at a school carnival at Norterra Canyon School on Saturday, April 9, 2016.

Girls getting ready to playOver fifty kids joined DHD throught the afternoon and evening to basically mess around with some ball hockey to get the feel for how to use a hockey stick and to have some fun.

This sort of event is something DHD is looking to attend more often, we just want to get hockey sticks into the hands of kids that otherwise, for whatever reason, probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do so.

While the Norterra Canyon School is in an affluent area of Phoenix, DHD will happily travel to any event of this nature if it can fit the schedule. If you are involved in event planning for school carnivals, block parties, gatherings of a nature where there would be enough kids in attendance that fifty or so kids would end up joining us for some hockey, we’d love to hear from you. Use the contact page to find out how to get us using the communication type of your choice.

DHD would like to thank the kids and parents of Norterra Canyon that dropped in to play some hockey with us, we hope to see you again!

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Coyotes “Part of the Pack” Rink Partnership Program

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The Arizona Coyotes announced a new “Part of the Pack” rink partnership program today. The Coyotes have entered into formal agreements with ALL of the hockey rinks in the Valley.

While the Coyotes have always been staunch supporters of youth hockey in Arizona, this move represents an increase in that support in an effort to continue to grow the game of hockey in Arizona.

The team has already started this program with four visits from Coyotes players to hockey practices around the Valley. Now, the team will have more involvement with “learn to play” clinics and other events at the local rinks.

It’s an exciting time for youth hockey here in Arizona, we hope you’re aboard!

Click here for the Coyotes press release with more details.

Shane Doan gives advice to his younger self

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doanAll of us at DHD are big Shane Doan fans. If you don’t believe us, ask us when you have an hour or so to listen to the reasons why.

This video from Pat Shannahan who works for the Arizona Republic and AZ Central is a great example of why we think so much of the Arizona Coyotes Captain. You never doubt for a minute that Doaner means what he says and that he walks the walk.

Good advice from the Captain, right?

Even if you don’t play hockey (or another sport), the same lessons apply to everyday life. We’re all in this together, life is a team sport and we can’t do it alone.

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.

Kid’s Day Off HOCKEY

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KDO_HowlerGoalieWe had a great time at the first “Kid’s Day Off and Ultimate Birthday Party” we attended on Saturday, August 15.

Throughout the day, we played some hockey with over 100 kids, most of whom had never touched a hockey stick before. A bunch of kids tried on the goalie gear and stopped some shots, we had some really little kids that were having a great time trying out their hockey skills.

The Kid’s Day Off and Ultimate Kid’s Birthday Party event (from PB&J Events and Productions) was at WestWorld in Scottsdale. Everything was FREE including:

  • Massages
  • Really cool balloon animals
  • Bounce houses
  • A golf course next door to DHD
  • Hockey (yes, that’s us)
  • Archery
  • Video game theatre
  • Obstacle course
  • Caricatures
  • Lots more and everything was FREE!

KDO_HowlerNetFrontIt was 115 degrees outside, but the WestWorld North Hall was breezy cool and pleasant inside.

The Arizona Coyotes were kind enough to send Howler and, from the Paw Patrol, Allison and Ashley. They were all, as usual, a big hit and a great addition to the event.

Special thanks to faithful DHD volunteers Gina and Ryleigh for helping us out all day, you ladies are the best!

We hope to see you at our next event, Ice skating fun (and fundraiser) at AZ Ice Peoria next Saturday, August 22 from 5 pm to 7 pm. We’d appreciate a $5 donation (including skate rental) for two hours of ice skating. Skating lessons from real, professional, skating instructors will be available at the same time. We’re grateful to to AZ Ice Peoria for offering us the opportunity to get to know more people, get some ice skating in, and maybe keep the lights on at DHD for future hockey endeavors.

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Coyotes Street Hockey Summer League Championship

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The Championship finals for the 2015 Coyotes Street Hockey Summer League were held Saturday, August 8.

Final Bracket
Final Bracket

Down To The Wire

It was an exciting finish, with the Gila River Monsters overcoming an early 3-0 deficit to tie the game in the last minute or so of regulation time.

Rather than go to the shootout, the Monsters played the OEL Diablos in the first 3 versus 3 hockey every played in Gila River Arena and managed to score the sudden death goal.

Free Hockey Gear

Every kid that played this summer played the final games and then went home with a brand new CCM street hockey stick curved right or left thanks to CCM Hockey.

All eight goalies got to KEEP their goalie gear, they were pretty happy with that extra surprise thanks to the Arizona Coyotes!

After the event, Papa Johns delivered maybe a million pizzas to Gila River Arena for all the kids and the adults they brought with them.

It was all FREE for every participant.

Can’t Say Thanks Enough

DHD can’t say thank you enough to the Coyotes, Fry’s, Mix1, Papa Johns, Gila River Arena, and CCM Hockey for making the five event series a complete success. Throughout the season, over one hundred kids got the chance to see what hockey is about, and it didn’t cost any of them a dime.

10489916_10207204478017372_6525316720349530829_nThanks, Connor Murphy, for joining us a while back during your time off! Thanks for playing with every team, signing everything pointed in your direction, talking hockey with adults who were supposed to leave you alone so you could interact with the kids, and hanging out until the event was over and everybody left. And, of course, you did it with a smile the entire time.

We were all welcomed into an real NHL arena during a time when the 100+ degree temperatures of an Arizona summer make it simply impossible for us to run outdoor clinics. The hockey boards magically reappeared after concerts in the arena for us to be able to play hockey. The Coyotes Hockey Development men and women put up and knocked down three rinks for five events, a LOT of work.

Obviously we can go on, but we’ll finish by thanking our volunteers for making our all volunteer “hockey thing” a success that we hope to keep growing.

Thanks, families for showing up and making our day(s) this summer. Take a run through the slide show below if you have time.

If you haven’t already, if you want to stay up to date on what is going on with DHD, please click here to join our mailing list.
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