USA HOCKEY, INC. 2018 USA HOCKEY S WINTER MEETING COACHES SECTION FOR SEASON: 2017-18 WINTER REPORT INTRODUCTION USA Hockey s Coaching Education Program continues to play a key role in the development of our country s youth hockey players and coaches. The beginning of the hockey season lends itself to mainly serving the needs of the coaches as they register for clinics and work to complete the certification requirements. Matt Cunningham, Coaching Education Program Manager, has taken a new position as the hockey director with the Junior Reign, in Carlsbad, Calif. The Junior Reign is a USA Hockey Model Club so he will still be involved with USA Hockey. Matt joined USA Hockey in October 2009 and was very instrumental in the development of numerous CEP initiatives, including the Online Age-Specific modules, the Mobile Coach App, the new Practice Planner handouts and the monthly CEP Newsletter. Matt was also been involved with the CEP curriculum committee to annually update the Level 1, 2 and 3 PowerPoint presentations. In addition, he dedicated a lot of time working our player development camps. The Coaching Program would like to thank Matt for his contributions to USA Hockey and the CEP. The remainder of this report will reflect a general overview of what the Coaching Education Program has accomplished so far for the 2017-18 season and what is being planned for the remainder of this season. 2018 LEVEL 5 The 2018 USA Hockey Coaches Symposium will be held in Lake Placid, NY, August 23-26. Mark Tabrum and Mike MacMillan conducted a site visit of the new Lake Placid Convention Center. There a lot of positives to the location. USA Hockey will assist with procuring hotel rates for attendees due to the high tourism business in the area at that time of year. The clinic will be posted for registering in January once hotels have been secured. NHL/CEP CLINICS Several districts held clinics throughout the fall in conjunction with NHL teams. Minnesota, Christian Koelling, Sept. 22-23, Minnesota Wild at St. Paul RiverCentre. The clinic was held as part of the State of Hockey Coaches Summit featuring Minnesota Wild coaches as well as area college coaches and USA Hockey ADM staff. The clinic was a Level 4 clinic as well as a clinic for boys and girls high school hockey coaches. Mid-Am, Bill Switaj: Sept. 23-24, Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. The clinic granted Level 4 certification to coaches who attended all weekend. Saturday featured a Level 1 option, and a Level 2 or 3 option on Sunday. All coaches registered for the clinics received a ticket to the preseason game that Saturday night. The Blue Jackets coaches were not involved in this inaugural event but Bill is looking to have them speak at future clinics. Mid-Am, Bill Switaj: Sept 30-Oct 1, Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena. This clinic featured Level 1, 2, 3 clinics each day for a total of six clinics throughout the weekend.
Page 2 of 6 Mike Sullivan, Penguins head coach, spoke both days; Jacques Martin, Penguins assistant coach, spoke one day. All coaches registered for the clinics received a ticket to the preseason game that Saturday night. Massachusetts, Paul Moore, and New England, Larry Rocha: Nov 4, Boston Bruins at the Warrior Ice Arena, the Bruins practice facility. This clinic featured Level 1, 2, 3 clinics with the groups starting as one large group and then breaking up into the level-specific clinic later in the day. Bruce Cassidy, Bruins head coach, and his entire staff spoke during the large group setting. Michigan, Jack Witt: Nov 11, Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena. This clinic featured Level 1, 2, 3 clinics with the groups starting as one large group and then breaking up into the level-specific clinic later in the day. Jeff Blashill, Red Wings head coach, spoke during the large group setting. The Coaching Program is looking to expand this further next season with more districts getting more involved with the NHL teams and holding joint clinics. GOALTENDING CLINICS This clinic season USA Hockey conducted a series of HP Goaltending Coaching Clinics around the country. Over 200 coaches participated in these clinics which served as 1 Ups for certification, granting level 2 or 3 certification or recertification. Clinics were held in Duluth, Minnesota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Amherst, New York; New Haven, Connecticut; Marlborough, Massachusetts; South Bend, Indiana; Seattle, Washington; and Kent, Ohio. Each clinic featured an on-ice component as well as a series of 20 minute topic discussions followed by group engagement sessions. Each clinic lasted for 8 hours and was based inside ice rinks. These clinics which had been ran before in Minnesota, New York and Ohio served as pilots and will become part of the new Goalie Coach Development Program. GIRLS /WOMEN S CLINICS Each year Christian Koelling conducts clinics for the Minnesota High School Association. This year he conducted the clinic for the girls high school coaches as well in conjunction with the boy s high school coaches and a Level 4 clinic. Flint Doungchak ran a girls /women s clinic during the Women s Pre-Olympic tour in San Jose, CA, Dec. 15-16, The clinic featured instructors from the National Office, Pacific District and the Women s National Team. The clinic included tickets to the US vs Canada game on Friday night. There will be an additional girls /women s clinic during the Women s Frozen Four March 16-18, 2018, in Minneapolis, MN. The Coaching Program has historically held a High Performance clinic during this event. DISABLED CLINICS There were two Disabled Coaching clinics held this fall. One took place in November at the USA Hockey facility in Plymouth, MI. It was a relatively small turnout, but the clinic was well received.
Page 3 of 6 The other clinic was held in Columbus, OH, in conjunction with the USA Hockey Disabled Workshop. The CEP has conducted coaching clinics at the Workshop for the last four years. This year had the biggest turnout yet. For the second year in a row, there were two separate 2-day clinics. One was geared towards coaches of special hockey, and the other was for sled hockey coaches. The Special Hockey Coaching Clinic had approximately 20 coaches in attendance, with presenters from both the USA Hockey ranks, as well as ASHA. This was the second year both organizations worked together on the clinic, and it was very well received. The Sled Hockey Clinic had approximately 30 coaches in attendance. Presenters included the entire staff of the USA National Sled Team. Although previous Workshop clinics received great reviews, this clinic was by far the best. The coaches in attendance really appreciated the ability to hear from the National Team staff, as well as to watch the national team practice. There are a few clinics planned for the off season, as well as next year. LEVEL 3 RECERTIFICATION UPDATES The entire Level 3 Recertification online program was redone for this season. All presentations were replaced using videos and PowerPoints from previous Level 5 events. All speakers are professional coaches and feature more up-to-date information and videos. There are still two tracks for coaches to view and focus on different areas of the game than the previous presentations. ONLINE AGE-SPECIFIC MODULE UPDATES Updating the goaltending content was the focus for the modules this year. Each age level goaltending chapter was reshot with Phil Osaer and all new videos to support the new information. These chapters were then merged into a new goaltending module featuring all age levels as part of the new Goalie Coach Development Program CURRICULUM UPDATES The clinic PowerPoint presentations have gone through total revisions in the last few seasons. This season saw only minor changes throughout with the exception of the goaltending sections. Phil Osaer and the goaltending coordinators created new goaltending material for all three levels. The clinic curriculum will continue to be reviewed on a yearly basis to make them current and relevant to today s game. CEP INSTRUCTOR TRAINING The CEP Instructor Training was conducted very differently over last summer. The District Goaltending and Off-Ice Associate Coaches-in-Chief were brought into Colorado Springs during Annual Congress. They spent time with the ADM Regional Managers and CEP staff focusing on their respective areas. Every district had at least one representative for this training. The Coaches-in-Chief then held district training sessions for the rest of their staffs prior to the clinic season in each district.
Page 4 of 6 COACH CLINIC CERTIFICATIONS Coach Clinic Certification Figures for the 2017-18 Season, for certifications received between July, 2017, and December 12, 2017. District HP Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Total Coaches AK 42 112 73 56 0 283 AT 0 472 388 317 0 1177 CN 0 1162 871 704 155 2892 MA 20 696 668 574 182 2140 MI 71 496 328 295 99 1289 MD 75 729 420 343 76 1643 MN 132 1012 770 699 281 2894 NE 26 352 317 312 170 1177 NP 0 353 178 195 80 806 NY 40 903 589 502 125 2159 PC 34 465 300 191 105 1095 RM 4 704 435 321 187 1651 SE 0 701 439 359 239 1738 TOTAL 444 8157 5776 4868 1699 20944 LEVEL 1, 2, 3 & 4 CLINICS (held/scheduled between July 29 and Dec. 31, as of Dec. 12, 2017) District Workshops/ Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 HP Clinics Alaska 1 7 8 6 0 Atlantic 0 13 14 13 0 Central 1 25 21 18 1 Massachusetts 1 15 13 12 1 Michigan 1 18 17 14 2 Mid-American 3 20 17 13 2 Minnesota 4 35 34 34 3 New England 1 16 10 10 1 New York 2 16 16 15 2 Northern Plains 0 23 23 22 2 Pacific 2 15 13 9 2 Rocky Mountain 1 41 31 23 2 Southeastern 0 33 27 22 3 Totals: 17 277 244 211 21 ONLINE AGE-SPECIFIC MODULES Age-Level Completed In Process 8U 5797 1197 10U 6675 656 12U 6590 580 14U 5753 454 16/18U 3726 360 Disabled 93 25 Totals 28634 3272
Page 5 of 6 LEVEL 3 RECERTIFICATION Completed Track 1 1675 532 Track 2 977 283 Totals: 2652 815 In Process COACHES NEWSLETTER The Coaching News continues to experience great success with click and open rates. The newsletter was redesigned with a focus on modernizing the look and maximizing functionality on mobile (phone, tablet) devices. We continue to develop new ageappropriate topics such as skill development, team concepts, goaltending, small-area games, general athletic development and dryland training. In conjunction with USA Hockey Coaches-in-Chief and coaches from the junior, college and professional ranks, we continue to explore new topics in an innovative fashion while providing timely materials to coaches around the country. MOBILE COACHING APP After more than 170,000 lifetime downloads, USA Hockey Mobile Coach 4.0 takes coaching technology to a whole new level this year. Introduced this year is a revolutionary practice plan analyzer, a new digital whiteboard for phones and tablets, new navigation, new activity tracker and a goaltender activity tracker. This is the best version of the app to date by far. The practice plan analyzer gives a coach the ability to create a custom plan using the library of 1,500 pieces of content then immediately see if the plan meets age-specific guidelines. It s a first-in-class product free to our coaches. We encourage anyone to join the more than 800 coaches daily from our country as well as hundreds across the globe who use this app to improve themselves and grow the game of hockey. RESOURCE CENTER Since our Annual Congress meeting in June 2017, the focus in the Resource Center has been to continue processing/cataloging the remaining materials that were donated by Bob O Connor. There are currently two boxes of VHS tapes remaining to be processed. There have been several other boxes of materials/memorabilia donated by staff members, Walter Bush s estate and also Roger Godin (Curator-Minnesota Wild). Two boxes of duplicate materials have been sent to Braemar Ice Arena Library in Edina, MN. This number is down mainly because we are now burning an extra DVD copy of each donated video of Bob O Connor s instead of sending the original VHS tapes to them. Another project since June has been the cataloging/processing of the 2014 Coaching Education Program Level 5 theses. This involves entering each thesis into the ResourceMate database and also scanning each thesis onto a folder on the server. So far 250 of the 2014 theses have been processed. The goal is to have these coaching theses accessible for viewing via a link on the Resource Center site. Materials that are not hockey or coaching related are in the process of being removed from the Resource Center to free up space. This will be an ongoing process; however, to date it has been completed in the first area of the Resource Center (books only).
Page 6 of 6 Additional changes in the Resource Center include the addition of a larger computer monitor and also a new television (replacing the existing outdated one). CONCLUSION We would like to thank the District Coaches-in-Chief, the Associate Coaches-in-Chief, and the more than 200 Instructors who have devoted so much of their time and energy to the Coaching Education Program. These volunteers have directly influenced thousands of youth coaches and indirectly impacted hundreds of thousands of youth players as they develop their skills and enjoy playing our great game. Our mission in the USA Hockey s Coaching Education Program is to meet the on-going needs of coaches at all levels. We continue to move the program forward as we seek to educate coaches and not just certify them for coaching our children. Submitted by: Mark Tabrum Director, Coaching Education Program Mike MacMillan Director, Coaches Section