Dunedin Ice Hockey Association

DIHA celebrates another outstanding year

The Dunedin Ice Hockey Association held its Annual General Meeting this Saturday. As usual, this was an opportunity for us to celebrate players and volunteers who contributed to the ongoing success of the club this year.

The awards were presented by our Head Coach, Janos Kaszala, and Club President, Peter Wallis.

List of individual awards

Peewee

• Player of the year: Billy Sheard
• Most improved player: Hannah Cross
• Coach’s choice: Nikolai Tchesnokov
• Best Forward: Valentin Kaszala
• Best defenseman: Adam Stitely

Midget

• Player of the year: ​Liam Kinraid
• Most improved player: Kelepi Tapealava
• Top Defenseman: Kent Marshall
• Top Forward: Seamus Leahy
• Rookie of the Year: Max Hurring

Top Junior club Goalie

Rhett Wilson

Amateur Coach of the Year

Bret Dougherty

Youth Amateur Coach of the Year

Hunter Waugh

Senior Outlaw Player of the Year

Maxime  Rainville

Senior Penguin Player of the Year

Liam Roth

Women

• Player of the year: Kirstin Gerken
• Most improved player: Ashley Dickinson

“Geoff Cook” Hockey Person of the Year

Jacyln Ho

Speech by DIHA President while delivering the “Geoff Cook” Hockey Person of the Year trophy

I’ve been doing this a few years now and every year someone has really stepped up and made the decision fairly easy. This year was totally different. The club this year has really come together in a very positive way. There have been a number of people that have really gone above and beyond. Before I let you know who this year’s hockey person of the year is I want to make mention of a couple of other people.

Firstly Maxime Rainville. Max is a senior player, who organised the club nights and did the Communications role on the board. He has taken over the website, Facebook etc and has done a huge amount of work developing all things on line as well as the new website. Really appreciate Max’s efforts this year.

Secondly Michael Stitely. He has managed the Peewees, done various fundraisers, managed Southern Midgets, applied for grants for the club, represented the Junior club on the board and even managed to play DIHL. Rumour has it he may or may not have scored one or two goals against me.  Mike has done a fantastic job which has had some very positive outcomes. Very much appreciated Mike.

This year’s hockey person of the year is a person who has worked tirelessly in a huge range of things for the club. Involved in playing for the club, refereeing, membership manager, club hub manager and Treasurer. Collecting money is a constant battle from club. This person has made it her personal mission to stop the leakage of casual players not paying and keeping everyone up to date and accountable for their debt. This is not a glamorous job and is a very tough one. It is also an absolutely essential one from the clubs point of view. Without the dedication of this person the club would certainly not be in the financial situation it is today.

It gives me huge pleasure to name the winner of the newly named “Geoff Cook“ trophy for this year’s Hockey person of the year as Jacyln Ho.

DIHA President, Peter Wallis