The primary objective of this site is to serve our membership and improve communications. Our Association seeks to provide a community and volunteer driven program to promote the growth and development of our players.
Our mission is to give kids, regardless of their age and athletic ability, an opportunity to develop playing skills and game knowledge in a safe and fun environment, and to promote enjoyment for youth hockey families.
Announcements
UPDATE ON TOWN HALL MEETING
To the AYHA Membership,
The Town Hall Meeting for the Armstrong Youth Hockey Association was held last Sunday night at the Crystal Community Center. AYHA Youth Director, Todd Pannek, gave a presentation that highlighted the reasons that our Board came to its present position that merging with Cooper Youth Hockey is the best thing for our Association. The successes of the last year were discussed, as were the things that we could have done better. We discussed costs, gambling profits, and open board positions. Results of the on-line survey were also examined. The bottom line on the survey was that la! st year, the majority of our membership thought that the combined team concept was a good one. Moving on from there, it is also apparent that the majority of our membership supports a merger.
We discussed what the new identity of Armstrong Cooper Youth Hockey Association would be, what the jerseys could look like and how we would handle logos and apparel. We also talked about the fact that merging with Cooper will not increase the cost of playing hockey. We will continue with our successful Charitable Gambling efforts and look for new ones. In addition, Cooper has a very successful fundraising base which will continue when we merge.
As a Board, we urge you as members to reply to this email with any questions you have about the merger and the coming hockey season. We also hope you’ll come to the Annual Meeting on Sunday, May 18th at the New Hope Ice Arena. We’ll meet upstairs at 7:30 p.m. The purpose of this meeting is to change by-laws to accommodate our new, larger Association and then elect Officers of the Board. We hope to have the support of our entire Association.
In addition, if you are interested in serving on the board, please let Todd Pannek (youth.director@armstronghockey.com) or Tom Keller (asst.youthdirector@armstronghockey.com). Open board positions include President (a/k/a Youth Director), Assistant Youth Director, Registrar, Equipment Coordinator, Ice Scheduler, Travel Coordinator, and At Large Member/Past President. We also have plans to add a Concessions Manager, Tournament Director and Girls Coordinator, all as voting positions on the board.
Again, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns by responding to this email.
Thank you,
Kristen Harnett, Secretary, AYHA
UPCOMING MEETINGS FOR ALL AYHA MEMBERS
AYHA Members:
We will be holding a "Town Hall Meeting" to discuss the merger of Armstrong Youth Hockey and Cooper Youth Hockey. This meeting will take place on May 4th, at 7:30 at the Crystal Community Center in the A/B Meeting Room. Please strongly consider attending this meeting. The AYHA Board will be laying out the plans for the future and will be there to answer any questions and address any concerns that our membership may have about this merger.
Our ANNUAL MEETING will then be held on Sunday, May 18th, at the New Hope Ice Arena. (This is a change from the email we sent earlier this week.) We will be upstairs in the Community Room; the meeting will commence at 7:30 p.m. During the Annual Meeting, all AYHA members present will be a! ble to vote on the changes to our bylaws in regardto the number of board positions, the physical boundaries that make up our membership, and the change of our name to "Armstrong Cooper Youth Hockey Association". Upon the passing of the new by-laws, Cooper members will then be "ACYHA" members. At that point any ACYHA members in attendance will then have a vote in selecting new board members.
Again, the Town Hall Meeting will be your best place to get the latest information and the explanations about our new Association. The AYHA Board as well as the CYHA Board has worked very hard on this in the past few months and would appreciate your questions, comments and support in regard to the merger.
Thank you, AYHA Board of Directors
ANOTHER ARMSTRONG YOUTH HOCKEY ALUMNI BECOMES A GOLDEN GOPHER!!
From gopherblogspot.com:
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Goalie Kent Patterson commits to the Gophers
With the departure of Jeff Frazee to the pros, one of the biggest questions of the early off-season was who would be the other half of the goaltending tandem with Alex Kangas. That question was answered earlier today as the Gophers received a commitment from former Blake HS goaltender Kent Patterson. After having met with Coach Lucia on Monday, Patterson weighed his options and decided he wanted to play for his hometown Gophers. He has been playing the past two seasons at Cedar Rapids (USHL) after leaving Blake HS. (You can find his stat line at this link: Kent Patterson USHL stats)
Patterson is a very good goalie that endured a rather tough season this past year. After a very good year in 2006-2007 (he was the league’s all rookie team goalie that season), Patterson developed a sports hernia late last summer and eventually had to have surgery to correct the problem. This kept him out of game action until mid-December and put his development on hold for a period of time. In the meantime, Cedar Rapids teammate Brady Hjelle (a UMD recruit) took over the goaltending duties and did very well in his own right. So when Patterson returned to the ice, he had to share goaltending duties and getting back into form probably took him longer than he had hoped.
The Gophers had been interested in Patterson for a while but the issue was always whether there would be a scholarship available before he committed somewhere else. He reportedly had a number of full ride scholarships offered to him over the course of the past year. Among the schools that had made offers were RPI, Maine, Notre Dame, Alaska-Anchorage, and Quinnipiac. There were many other schools that had been scouting him. In fact, North Dakota was apparently looking to make a late pitch to Patterson after the ACHA convention this past weekend.
From what I hear, Patterson has the right attitude about joining the Gophers. He isn’t looking to simply come in and relegate himself to back up duties behind Alex Kangas. He wants to come in and compete for the top job. This will do doubt make the overall goaltending situation strong for the Gophers as there is nothing better than competition to make guys work hard in practice and in games.
Congrats and welcome aboard Kent!
TEAM MANAGERS
All Team Managers - Please leave your team book in the youth room at the arena - any questions please contact Sandy Poferl at registrar@armstronghockey.com
GIRLS STP (SUMMER TRAINING PROGRAM) INFORMATION NOW AVAILABLE!
Please Click Here for registration and information on this great summer skating program for all girls U10 eligible and up.
ARMSTRONG SUMMER TRAINING PROGRAM (STP)
Armstrong High School Hockey will once again be offering STP. Please click here for more information and registration forms.
AYHA FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITY
We have a unique fundraising opportunity through AHYA member Mitch Hunstad, Sales Manager for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.
If you are in the market for a home mortgage (new or refinance) Wells Fargo Home Mortgage offers the "Sharing Advantage Program." Wells Fargo will make a $300 contribution to a non-profit organization of your choice (i.e. Armstrong Youth Hockey) when you close on a home loan. To begin the process, please contact Mitch at 651-205-6522 orMitchell.Hunstad@wellsfargo.comand be certain to identify AYHA as your donation choice.
CHARITABLE GAMBLING
AYHA is now offering CASH PRIZE BAR BINGO AT CHAMPPS IN MAPLE GROVE, STEVE O'S IN CRYSTAL, AND THE SUNSHINE FACTORY IN NEW HOPE. Please see the Charitable Gambling tab for further information.
NEXT BOARD MEETING
The next board meeting is our Association's ANNUAL Meeting. All members of the Association (you you are member if you have a child in the program) are invited to attend and will have a vote in the proceedings. You must be present at the meeting to be able to vote.
This meeting will take place on Sunday, May 18th upstairs in the Community Room at New Hope Ice Arena. This meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m.
ATTENTION AYHA FAMILIES
Do we have your e-mail address? Please click on "join our e-mail list" on the right side of the main page so you can receive important announcements from the association
POND HOCKEY: A DOCUMENTARY FILM
After nearly three years of shooting and editing, "Pond Hockey" will premiere next week right where filming began: in Minnesota. It's part of the lineup of films at the 2008 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival and will premiere on April 24. Additional showings will be on April 25 and April 30.
"My parents just raised me to be a humble person. That's really big in my life. To be cocky and arrogant is something that's not a good quality to have." - Kyle Okposo, Minnesota Gophers Mens Hockey Team.
