Volume 11 Issue 2 | February 2023 |
|
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT | |
|
Congratulations to all the teams who have made the playoffs. Good luck to all. Remember to do your best and have fun. Not everyone can get the Banner, but being there is a victory as well. Enjoy the experience.
We are getting ready for Nationals and Spring Hockey. Before you know it tryouts for 23-24 season will be here.
Parents and players enjoy this time together, it goes by in a flash, just ask those of us whose kids aren’t playing. We wish we could go back.
Good luck and have fun,
Kevin Bolger
President
| |
You can follow along with all the State Tournament games by accessing the brackets here. Tier I schedules and scores can be found here and look for our Countdown to State newsletter in your inboxes next week! | |
Welcome to January’s Girls’ Hockey Community article:
This is a crazy time of year for sure…..so seat belts on & pedal to the metal!
Play-in games for the State Tournament are wrapping up & the final four Girls Tier II Round Robin field is almost set. The 2023 Girls State Round Robin will match up the best of the best in a weekend of very competitive games from 10u thru 19u…..come and join us at the Glenview Community Ice Center for all the action from February 23rd thru February 26th. By the end of the Round Robin, only 2 teams will be standing to meet up on Saturday, March 4th at Mount Prospect.
Stay tuned for the State Tournament Special Edition newsletter for all the match-ups!
| |
|
Central Districts Championships Tournament is in Illinois this year so join us in cheering on all the Illinois teams that advance….Girls Tier II and 14u Girls Tier I will be hosted at Seven Bridges Ice Arena in Woodridge while Canlan Romeoville hosts Tier I Youth and Tier I Girls 16u and 19u. All games at both locations will be held March 10th thru March 12th.
Central District Tryout Camp is April 14th thru April 16th in DePere, WI. Information can be found on the Central District website here.
| |
America’s Showcase tryout registrations are being submitted. If you are interested, please visit the AHAI website here. Scroll to the bottom where there are 2 pdfs (1 is the tryout/practice schedule – all are at the Edge in Bensenville) (1 is the information invite with background & instructions & registration form).
America’s Showcase is in St. Louis, Missouri April 19th thru April 23rd. Every year Illinois girls have been selected to apply and sign to play for a college team. We are very proud of ALL the girls that have played on the Illinois Girls Showcase team over the years.
For questions or comments, please contact me at girls@ahai2.org or 847-414-5737.
See y’all at the rinks!
GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE! 😊
Anita Lichterman
AHAI Girls Director/Committee Chair
| |
2023 High School All-State Teams | |
White Team Girls All-State Team | |
Red Team Girls All-State Team | |
|
White Team Boys All-State Team
| |
Red Team Boys All-State Team | |
7th Annual Terry J. Stasica MVP Award
Terry loved hockey, especially high school hockey. His passion for, and dedication to, high school hockey spanned decades. He was a coach, league president, AHAI director, high school committee chairman, and the Illinois showcase team general manager from 2004-2015. Terry passed away in November 2015 and was inducted in the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018.
His focus was always to make everything the best it could be for the kids. This award is presented in his memory.
| |
|
Isabella Zolezzi, Freshman
Naper Valley
| |
|
Tyler Kolb, Senior
Libertyville HS
| |
Two-sport standout Albrecht leads PREP toward state tournament with No. 1 seed in Combined Division
‘One of the most humble kids I’ve coached’ – PREP’s Nick Panos on Albrecht
By Ross Forman
In the semifinals of last season’s IHSHL North-Central Division playoffs, Nick Albrecht tallied the game-winning goal as co-op PREP defeated the Chicago Romans in overtime, marking his all-time favorite hockey memory in a career that started as a first-year mite playing for the Glenview Grizzlies house league.
“It’s challenging to remember my first-ever game, (but) I do remember how happy I was to play my first organized hockey game,” said Albrecht, now 17 and a junior at Prospect High School. He lives in Mount Prospect and the right-handed shooting defenseman is in his second PREP varsity season.
And he’s ready for more memories – this season. READ MORE<<<
| |  |
From Thailand, With Skates
Glenbrook girls player brings worldwide experience
By Ross Forman
Aye Chunhasomboon brings worldwide experience to the co-op Glenbrook girls’ hockey team, which went 10-4-3 in the 7-team Metro Girls Founders regular season.
She is in her second season skating for Glenbrook after playing in Thailand before the pandemic.
“Hockey in Thailand is limited to a small group of people because we do not have a lot of rinks to play at. There were only two standard-size rinks in Bangkok while I was there and one of them was shut down a little prior to the pandemic. The rest were small rinks,” she said. “My mother took me to the rink (years ago) and asked me if I wanted to learn how to skate. Hockey followed soon after that.
“I would say the main difference (between hockey in the U.S. and Thailand) is the quality of the rinks that we played on. The ice sheet is much smoother here.”
READ MORE<<<
| |
Northern Illinois Hockey League
A League with a History of Innovation
By Bob Apter, NIHL President
Our league is driven by the philosophy - "what's best for the kids and the game of hockey". Much of today's Illinois hockey landscape mirrors innovations that came from NIHL. Creating spectacular Championship weekends, creative playoff formats, support for hockey related causes in our community, LIVE streaming of key games, holding league All Star events, honoring our nation's Veterans, celebrating academic excellence, etc. are all examples of this spirit of innovation.
We fully realize that not every innovation pans out. Sometimes we try things and they don't work the first time. These setbacks will not prevent us from continually trying new concepts that will help the game of hockey and our players' experience. Willingness to innovate has been a powerful tool in making our league stronger than it was 20 years ago.
As we begin the end of the year NIHL Blackhawks Tournament I would like to take a moment to wish everyone the best of luck. This is a great time of the year for hockey and we are proud of the event we put on each year. We have added a couple of special changes to our Premier Select Championships and can’t wait to showcase them. Whether your team makes it to the Championship game in Joliet or not, please come down and enjoy the show.
The NIHL Blackhawks Tournament game schedule can be found here.
| |
CSDHL announces 2023 ALL- STAR GAME
Top 40 CSDHL players at the U-18 & U-16 players have been chosen to compete in the 1st annual CSDHL event at Arctic Ice Arena in Orland Park, IL on March 10th, 2023
U-16 ALL STAR PROSPECTS GAME @ 6:00PM
U-18 ALL STAR PROSPECTS GAME @ 8:00PM
Each team will be comprised of 20 players (12 forwards, 6 defensemen, 2 goalies) for a total of 40 players at each level. Next year we will be including a 2024 All Star Futures Game to include our U-15 and U-14 players. This will allow early exposure to the many scouts that will be covering the event.
One of the many things that CSDHL does better than any other league in Illinois is developing their players for the next level. The CSDHL All Star Game will play a big role in promoting our players to the next level, including junior and college programs. This event will not only provide the players the opportunity to showcase their talents but also gain the recognition of being one of the top Tier II players in the #1 Tier II league in the nation.
We are very excited to add this event to our CSDHL offering. We are proud of the players in our league, and we want to recognize them in this event. We encourage all the teams to come out and cheer on your fellow CSDHL players.
| |
|
Squirt Major -
St. Louis Knights
| |
|
Squirt Minor -
Chicago Blues
| |
|
Squirt Prospects -
Flames
| |
|
PeeWee Major -
Northwest Chargers
| |
|
|
PeeWee Prospect -
Littleton Hawks
| |
|
Bantam Major -
Littleton Hawks
| |
|
Bantam Minor -
West Dundee Leafs
| |
|
Bantam Prospects -
Fox Valley Cyclones
| |
|
Midget U15 -
Chicago Blues
| |
|
Midget U16 -
Orland Park Vikings
| |
|
Midget Prospects -
Affton Americans
| |
|
Midget U18 -
Chicago Hawks
| |
COACHING & OFFICIATING INFORMATION | |
Longtime figure skater Cebulski is now one of Illinois’ top hockey officials
By Ross Forman
| |
Samantha Cebulski has taken quite a unique route to the rink in this, her ninth season as a hockey official, as one of only nine female top-tiered Level 4 officials in Illinois.
She never played hockey growing up. Instead, she was a figure skater for about 15 years, but retired in college due to an injury – and she didn’t start playing hockey until well after graduating from college. Her husband was playing in an adult league at the Fox Valley Ice Arena in Geneva and there was a female on the team who, in 2012, recruited Cebulski to play for a senior women’s team.
“My husband and dad both officiated for a short and one day my husband said I should give (officiating) a try,” said Cebulski, who was immediately reluctant, mostly because her limited playing experience was low-level senior women’s. READ MORE<<<
| | |
Ask the Official
By Dave Zednik
QUESTION: The play is stopped due to the injury of a goalkeeper. After recovering quickly, they skate to the players’ bench to wipe
their face with a towel. Is this action permissible or must they be replaced?
ANSWER: The goalkeeper must be replaced or a bench minor penalty
assessed. Rule Reference 205(c).
Any time that a goalkeeper goes to their players’ bench
during a stoppage of play, they must be replaced or penalized.
If replaced, the goalkeeper is not allowed to return to the
game until the next stoppage of play.
| |
|
Each month we will present a brief article on various health & safety issues relevant to youth hockey players. Today, we hear from physicians at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush on shoulder and knee injuries that can occur in hockey. We thank Dr. Brian Cole and his colleagues for sharing their expertise with us.
Hockey Injuries to the Shoulder and Knee
By: Katie McMorrow, BS, Landon Frazier, BS, Ryan Quigley, MD, Brian Cole, MD, MBA
Ice Hockey Injuries:
Hockey has the potential to cause a wide range of injuries, in part due to its fast pace, high speed nature as a contact sport. The shoulder and knees are commonly injured as they are often the first point of contact and must sustain the high forces experienced during collisions between players or against boards. In this article, we examine common hockey injuries and treatments of the shoulder and knee, their prevalence in youth and adult players, and everyday practices that can reduce the risk of injury.
| |
|
The Shoulders:
Shoulder injuries are among the most common injuries experienced by male hockey players. This is in part due to body checking and the high likelihood of contact with another player or against boards. Body checking, being a penalty in women’s ice hockey, decreases the occurrence of these injuries in females. In both youth and adult hockey, shoulder injuries are the second most common injury of the upper body, comprising 16% of injuries in the World Junior Championship and 12% in the National Hockey League (NHL).1,2 The most common shoulder injuries are listed below from highest to lowest prevalence.
- Acromioclavicular joint separation
- Shoulder Instability (dislocation, labral tear, and rotator cuff tears)
- Clavicle fractures
| |
|
The Knees:
Knee injuries are typically less common in hockey compared to other sports. Although the exact reason is not known, this could be due to a lack of jumping and decreased twisting injuries caused by an inability to firmly plant one’s foot on ice. While hockey knee injuries are less common when compared to other sports-related knee injuries, they still make up about 8% of injuries in the World Junior Championship and 9-13% in NHL players.2,3 Multiple structures in the knee can be injured during a single event. The most common knee injuries are listed below from highest to lowest prevalence.
- Medical collateral ligament (MCL) injuries
- Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries
- Meniscal tears
READ MORE<<<
| |
|
Blackhawks Summer Camps
Chicago Blackhawks Summer Camps are back for 2023!
Camps will be held at the Chicago Blackhawks practice facility, Fifth Third Arena, as well as arenas in Hammond, IN, Rockford, IL, and Mt. Prospect, IL. All of our camps will feature experienced and highly skilled coaches, including Blackhawks alumni, to help your son or daughter learn from the very best in the business.
The sessions will be geared toward skills such as power skating, edgework, agility, puck handling and shooting. Participants will also work on team skills in 1v1, 2v2 and scrimmages.
Register today at: https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/community/youth-hockey-camps
| | |
|
Little Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are excited to announce spring session of the Little Blackhawks Learn to Play program!
This program is for first timers only. Additional details, host sites, and registration can be found at: https://blackhawksltp.leagueapps.com/events/3657924-learn-to-play-spring-2023
| |
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER TODAY! | |
|
Subscribe Today to Our Monthly Newsletters: Coaches, Girls & IHSHL Snapshot
Can't get enough Illinois hockey news? Check out our monthly Coaches, Girls or High School newsletters! Simply click the button below to subscribe to any or all of our monthly newsletters.
| | | | |
