Dunedin Ice Hockey Association

DIHA Newsletter: June 2011

From the President

We’re currently in the depths of the hockey season – early morning starts, long drives, weekday evening followed by evening followed by evening down at the rink. It’s great to see all the club – from the newest Kiwihockey player to the Dunedin Thunder all out on the ice and playing some great hockey. The club continues to show steady growth – driven by our Kiwihockey programme and our popular adult beginners programme, and we’re continuing to add more hockey to our calendar as a result. The Adult Winter DIHL – currently two weeks in – is an example of this – a chance for the adults to play each other while the high school players are all engaged in the high school league on Wednesday nights. We’re trying to match this growth with developing our resources. Four club members recently undertook Level 1 coaching training, and in the last weekend of June we will be sending some of our hopeful referees to Queenstown to qualify as a level one official.

Team News

Dunedin peewees recently played in their second tournament, beating Roxburgh and Queenstown. Bantams were also in Queenstown recently and won one, and lost one game.

The Southern U16s, including 11 Dunedin players, have begun their rep league, beating Canterbury twice in Dunedin, and splitting two games against Auckland in Queenstown. They’ll have two away weekends before coming back to Dunedin later in the season to play Auckland in the finals.

Dunedin Thunder had split weekends against Auckland Admirals (in Auckland), and Canterbury Red Devils (at home – including a shoot out win which went to 12 shooters). Last weekend they were up in Auckland playing the Swarm, where they unfortunately lost both games and came back with a list of injured players. They’ve got a couple of weeks off before playing Stampede in Queenstown 25-26 June.

A Dunedin Womens team will be taking on a Canterbury Womens team this weekend (6.30pm Saturday and 10.00am Sunday). Come down and give them some support.

Lastly, the Southern Friendship Team will be flying off on Monday to play in the tournament in Hudson Bay, Wisconsin. The team includes a pile of Dunedin players, best of luck for the trip and the games guys!

Upcoming

Adult Beginners and SNC practices have their last practice for a couple of weeks on 26 June. Youth practices continue through.

Shortly after the Winter DIHL finishes, the club will be running a “B Checking League” for senior and older youth players to continue to develop their checking hockey. Stay tuned for an email early in July and keep your Tuesday evenings free.

Dunedin Ice Hockey League

Organised by David Richards and Jacyln Ho, the Winter DIHL is a new innovation for the club and the teams filled up quickly, and we’ve had four good games so far. Stats are posted on the club web site as they become available.

Shinny Session

The club is running a regular shinny session where ice is available in a non-coached environment to practice skills and have free time on the ice. The next one is Thursday 30 June, 7pm. Cost is $10, open to all members.

Easton Cup

The club hosted the annual Easton SNC Cup 7-8 May, with a couple of Canterbury teams coming down for the weekend. The Dunedin Stars beat the Canterbury Red Zone 3-0 in the final to bring the trophy back to Dunedin. During the weekend over eight hundred dollars was raised for Canterbury Ice Hockey, which they will use to help support some players who have lost income, gear, and homes.

Club Night Schedule III

A further club night schedule for the season is now available, this takes us through to July. You can find it on the web site:

https://dunedinicehockey.hellyer.kiwi/files/documents/Sat-Night-2011-June-July.pdf

Owe DIHA Money?

If you still owe money for club leagues or practices, you can pay this to Joyce on Tuesday (or some Sunday) nights, or log back into club hub to get payment information.

Lost Stick

Noah Leahy left his Sherwood RM7 left handed stick (red and black with white tape grip) in the 3rd change room after Tuesday night training. He called up as soon as he got home but Reece could not find it. We are hoping some kind soul has picked it up for him as he needs it for Friendships next week.

We can collect it from anywhere if this is the case.

Thanks, Jane (leahysnz@xtra.co.nz)

Club Hub

Lastly, you’ll find some minor changes over the next couple of weeks about how club hub looks and works. We’re merging our club hub site in with the other clubs around the region as this will allow us to run our regional rep teams and regional leagues from within club hub. Not too much different from your point of view, but make sure that you choose all the things labelled “Dunedin”, and not some other club.