Any time a new sports organization surfaces it has the potential to rock the boat.
As a coach in good standing of the Agawam Youth Hockey Instructional team, Bill Heney is holding the sides of the boat to steady it.
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Get ready for some serious play
The North Shore IceHawks is interested in developing a new plan for the skills development of players, ages 8-10 (i.e. the birth years 1998 through 2000, Squirt level of youth hockey). To that end, the team ran its first “open skate” to gauge the interest of players on April 7 at the Johnson Rink at the Pingree School in Hamilton.
The team is not holding tryouts, but those interested in playing with the team should be ready for intense practices and development of “skills, skills, skills,” said IceHawks founder Rick Tolstrup, of Ipswich, who already coaches youth hockey and AAA travel teams.
The IceHawks plan to have two teams who will have varying ice times at 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. next fall and winter at the new rink at Governor’s Academy in Byfield. Each team will play 20 games there Sundays.
Practices will be held in Byfield but also at the Hat Trick Rink in Middleton, which is a smaller-size ice surface intended for teaching hockey skills in small spaces, demanding quick decision-making. |
The new North Shore IceHawks hockey organization isn’t saying there’s anything wrong with local youth hockey, or the various AAA travel youth hockey teams that fellow IceHawks founder Rick Tolstrup coaches. In fact, the goal for Tolstrup and Heney is to blend the best of both worlds.
“We are not going to be in competition with any youth hockey leagues; this is an alternative and that is what we want to get across,” said Heney, a Hamilton resident.
“I’ve coached town hockey, and I’ve coached AAA hockey, and there are positive aspects of both,” said Tolstrup. “The best part of town hockey is that it’s local and it’s not driving from here to Timbuktu for a game, and you get to grow up and play with the guys you go to school with.
“What’s terrific about AAA travel hockey is the skills development and the reliable ice time,” said Tolstrup, an Ipswich resident.
Tolstrup and Heney both have experience in Agawam Youth Hockey ‑ Rick’s kids used to play there, before they aged out, and he was a coach. Heney’s children are younger, and he expects his 4-year-old son Seamus to play with Agawam’s Instructional League in Newburyport next year. He also hopes that Agawam will continue to seek his services, in addition to his coaching commitment to the IceHawks.
“I met Rick [Tolstrup] through men’s league hockey, playing here at Pingree,” said Heney. “Rick had a kid playing in the instructional group at Newburyport, and he invited me to come up with him, and my oldest son Aiden jumped on with Rick’s team. Rick’s kids moved along, but I stayed with Agawam another two years.”
Heney said he expects Aiden to play on one of the two IceHawks teams. The co-ed squads will be designed to raise the skill level for girl hockey players as well. Those skills will be tested in games against teams where Heney and Tolstrup believe they can be competitive, depending on the skill level of the kids whom they signed during the April 7 open skate and from a series of IceHawks summer camps, also to be held at Pingree’s Johnson Rink in Hamilton.
“Since we do have a hybrid here, it’s allowing us to schedule the teams we play based on the kids we have,” said Heney. “If we have a bunch of kids who are rock stars out there, we’ll have a great team. If we have some kids still at the developmental stage and learning, we’ll play teams of a commensurate level and ability.”
The team will be registered and rostered through USA Hockey, so they will fall under the rules and regulations of the nation’s governing body. That will open up the IceHawks to play the multitudes of USA Hockey-registered teams in Eastern Massachusetts.
However, they won’t join a league.
“We don’t have to pay league fees,” said Tolstrup. “You don’t have the pressure of winning and losing. You can have fun and play every kid; you can start a different line for every game. That’s part of Bill’s and my own philosophy. We’re more oriented towards every kid and making them feel a part of it.
“Not being in a league, that will allow us to schedule a Mite A town team or another town’s Squirt B team,” Tolstrup added.
“We’ll find teams that are on a par with ours. The best games are close games, and our goal is to be .500 by the end of the year,” he said.
