U18 Rep Program Updates
Semiahmoo Ravens Hockey is pleased to announce positive changes to our U18 program delivery. Below outlines the program and highlights a renewed commitment to player development and overall athlete and personal development.
In addition to our U18 A1 Head Coach, Josh Daley, we are excited to announce the appointment of George Diamantopoulos as our U18 A2 Head Coach. Having coached minor hockey for over 15 years and played for 24 years, Coach George prides himself in consistently developing players at all levels and focuses on leading teams to success. The experience he brings having coached in multiple organizations, allows him to understand the dynamics of a team and enables him to streamline his approach based on each team. George’s understanding of the game and his passion for development is evident in the way he coaches. He is committed to working closely with U18 A1 Head Coach Josh Daley as well as with our other program partners to contribute to the development of Semiahmoo Ravens Hockey athletes in these important years.
Semiahmoo Ravens Hockey – U18 Rep Integrated Player and Coach Development Program
Semiahmoo is embarking on a re-invention of how we approach the management and coaching paradigm of the U18 age group to better reflect a redefined set of core values for the U18 Rep program going forward. Those core values include a commitment to transformational leadership, mental and physical wellness, personal development and creating a sense of lasting community for our players, parents, and coaches.
Athlete Development:
With regard to the athlete performance elements of this program the Semiahmoo Ravens will be aligning the U18 Rep Athlete Development Model with the BC Elite Hockey League Valley West Giants program. This will include the formal integration of Raven’s players in Valley West Giants offseason skill development sessions as well as in season skills and team practices. This is not a significant departure from the traditional Semiahmoo U18 program as we have had real success in developing Semiahmoo Ravens Hockey players to a point where they have successfully made the transition to AAA Zone, Junior A and Junior B programs over the years. The primary shift will be the formal coordinated in-season integration of players between teams. This integration will include opportunities for deserving players to practice and participate with the Valley West Giants. It will include active participation of AP players with the teams for which they have been AP’d as much as possible through a revised and more integrated schedule that places players together more often with more opportunities to contribute to each other’s development. This has traditionally been a very informal, coach driven process. This process will be evolved into a coordinated and formalized effort between Semiahmoo’s U18 Division Manager, the coaches of each team and the General Manager of the Valley West Giants program. We will also be seeking out mutually beneficial partnerships with local Junior A and B programs and working to align the interests of the entire U18 hockey landscape within the Fraser Valley region as much as possible to the benefit of Semiahmoo Minor Hockey participants.
Coach Development:
While sport specific knowledge provides a critical foundation for fostering athlete skill development, it is insufficient for optimal personal development. Interpersonal and intrapersonal knowledge/behaviours provide the needed ingredients for effectiveness. That is to say, it is not just what a coach knows or what they do, but how they do it that makes the difference. For the coaching staff in our U18 Rep program, basic qualifications will include:
NCCP Development 1 Certification with preference given to those who have achieved or are seeking to achieve their High Performance 1 Certification.
Successful experience in coaching and/ or playing hockey at a high-performance level
Complimentary qualifications will include:
A background in teaching/education,
A background in sports, leadership and/or counselling psychology.
However, the truly innovative foundation for the transformation of the Semiahmoo U18 program will be the way that coaches are recruited and supported in delivering against the core values of the program. Core Value 1: Transformational Coaching Approach *Turnnidge & Cote;A coaching philosophy whereby coaches develop athletes into leaders by focusing on four areas; Competence, Confidence, Connection and Character. The components of Transformational Leadership are as follows:So, what will be the behavioural hallmarks of a coach applying this philosophy at Semiahmoo? Some examples are as follows: Idealized Influence:Coaches will not argue with officials. The officials will not be framed as an excuse for underperformance, and anytime a player might infer otherwise the coach will actively act to correct their focus to manage what they can control rather than what they can’t control.Inspirational Motivation: Through active participation and collaborative communication our U18 coaches will co-develop a vision for our teams with our players that they all understand. Coaches will subsequently communicate the roles each player is currently positioned to play and chart a course for each player as to how they might evolve their role on the team over the course of the season. Intellectual Stimulation:Practice and Game plans will be co-designed with purpose and player involvement. Our coaches will go beyond dictating strategic imperatives and the players will go beyond execution by wrote. The answer to the question “why are we doing this?” will be explored openly and with the intention of evolving and improving. Individualized Consideration: While hockey is a team sport, everyone brings with them their own lived experience that impacts how they behave as members of the team. Our coaches will be encouraged to engage with each player in one to one or small group exchanges where knowledge and understanding of those individual experiences is garnered. This can be as simple as having coaches at the rink early as players arrive for games or practices to ask a simple question like, “how was your day?” and really listening to what comes from that simple cue. Core Value 2: Mental and Physical WellnessPhysical wellness resources have long been readily available to U18 athletes in the Semiahmoo hockey program through our affiliation with Semiahmoo Athletic club and that will continue. The substantial addition to the U18 program this year will be the addition of mental wellness resources for players and coaches. Building off the success of last year’s hental Health awareness week the U18 program in collaboration with Mindful Athletics Semiahmoo U18 will be implementing the Hone App https://honeathletics.com/ Once per week, players will receive a simple, seven-question survey where they can rank how they’re feeling in different areas that impact mental health. Their responses to these questions are completely anonymous and are delivered to team and division managers and the coach, who can view group data. This will allow coaches to receive feedback from players, influence the culture, adjust training schedules and plans as necessary to ensure they are protecting the team’s mental well-being and supporting players in performing at their highest level. Core Value 3: Personal Development and Creating CommunityThe results-oriented business of hockey is a space overwhelmed with resources and opportunities for hockey players in Canada. It is a space in which minor hockey struggles to hold its ground in representing a viable path to their respective communities as they compete with professionalized, profit driven athlete development programs. However, minor hockey associations remain cultural keystones in communities across the country. Minor hockey has a huge role to play in the development of great citizens and providing the resources for success beyond hockey. We plan to be at the forefront of that endeavor through several initiatives: Volunteer opportunities: A minimum of 30 hours of paid, career preparation or volunteer community service is a graduation requirement for all BC secondary school students. For students seeking entrance into Canadian Universities a minimum of 100 Volunteer hours is recommended by local school counselors to truly fill out your application and show a commitment to community contribution. Yet how do we fit in that kind of time in volunteer initiatives when hockey takes up upwards of 10 hours per week. Very little means more to a U11, U9, U8 or U7 player than getting to play with the big kids. We will provide coaching, officiating and mentoring opportunities for our players that fit into their schedules and contribute to their well-being and sense of self as they give back to the community they grew up in and we will help to track and quantify their community hours with the association so that they get full credit for the work the contributions they have made. Scholarship opportunities:Semiahmoo Ravens Hockey has worked hard to create a scholarship endowment fund that provides for scholarship opportunities to graduating players. PCAHA and BC Hockey also provide for numerous scholarships, not to mention the myriad of scholarship opportunities available through non-hockey channels. Unfortunately, all too often our student athletes are too pressed for time to research and complete the applications and get the financial aid they deserve. We will make time and take time to help our players be aware of and complete applications for the opportunities presented. We will seek out assistance from the 4 local High School Counselling departments to ensure we have the academic interests of our players in mind as well as their athletic interests. Quality Personal References:Most jobs, College, Technical School and University entrance and financial aid applications, and even volunteer programs are seeking personal references from members of the community the applicant has been active in. The Semiahmoo Minor Hockey community has been a part of many of our players lives since the age of 6 years old and yet there is no formal process for which a player at the U18 level can seek and obtain a reference from the association or a recent coach. Informal relationships for specific players and coaches might provide the opportunity for a player to feel comfortable enough to approach a coach for a reference letter in their final year of Minor Hockey if the player is lucky. Why do we need to leave that to chance? If you are a player that has invested 5 or 10 or even more years as a part of this community and is playing with us in their age 18 season, we should have something to say about you in the form of a reference letter you can use for your next steps in life. We will formalize our reference letter process so that it is an expectation that you can count on us as an option and get an honest and thorough assessment provided for your use in completing the applications that require them.
We are excited to embark on this new era of the U18 hockey program at Semiahmoo Ravens Hockey. We look forward to your thoughts and feedback on our progress along the way!
