KELOWNA MINOR HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
DIRECTOR OF HOCKEY OPERATIONS
ANNUAL REPORT
MAY 31, 2010
It has been my pleasure to serve your association in this my 7th year. The 2009/10 season has been a great one for Kelowna Minor Hockey. He have had countless successes on and off the ice which I am extremely proud of. Our association had a total of 77 teams this season with approximately 1386 players and hundreds of rostered and behind the scene volunteers. We hosted 18 tournaments encompassing 216 teams from our association and around the province. All of our tournaments were full this season and all were operated at a surplus thanks to a very dedicated group of tournament committees. The KIMMIT tournament was a resounding success this year with our local Midget Tier 1 team making it to the semi-finals. The parents of the players on this team were responsible for bringing thousands of dollars back to KMHA as part of their efforts in selling advertising for this event. These are funds that each and every player in our association will benefit from. We had so many teams from our association bring home tournament championships that they are too numerous to mention which is a true testament to the hockey talent in our association and to the strength of our coaching.
We still have challenges with securing available ice time during the Monday-Thursday portion of our schedule which unfortunately is not something that we can control. Be assured we are doing everything possible to try and rectify that problem and as an active member of the city’s Arena Advisory Committee I am continuously lobbying other user groups to try and scoop up any time from their allocation that I can. Our weekend ice allocation is a healthy one and I will continue to utilize this ice to the best of my ability to ensure each division is receiving an equitable share.
We have had the pleasure this season to host several special events this season in Kelowna with the Major Midget All Star Weekend and the Midget AAA Female Western Regional Championships. We are happy to be able to provide for our players an opportunity to see the best hockey that minor hockey has to offer which we hope inspires them to compete at the very best of their ability.
KMHA has also made great progress with off ice growth this season. Our association has taken a unique approach in the minor hockey world in that we are working on making not only great hockey players but some pretty fantastic individuals as well. Our children are receiving along with their sport training some of the best life skills needed to become truly amazing adults. During the 09/10 season KMHA players have visited seniors in our community in our “Game Day Initiative”, which for those of you who are unaware is an amazing program that sees our teams spending an afternoon every weekend during the season at a seniors complex in our city playing board games, pool, cards or simply just chatting with the residents. Our players have raised funds for two families in our association who have been affected by cancer, making a tough time in their lives a little easier. We completed our 6th annual fill the net with food drive and have had the pleasure of being honored as giving the largest donation from a single organization in the history of the Kelowna community food bank. We have had players do bottle drives for the St. Vincent de Paul Society, donate $1000.00 dollars to the Pediatric Unit of the Kelowna General Hospital from money the kids earned doing odd jobs around their neighborhoods, donate tournament proceeds to the Canadian Red Cross for Haitian relief and the list goes on. These are things we will all benefit from years down the road when the future leaders of our city are ready to take over. Hockey skills truly are for life.
I would like to congratulate all of our house teams on a fantastic 09/10 season. Our teams were so successful in our house tournaments that I fear other associations might not want to come back in the future as we are tough to beat. Our teams looked fantastic in their new NHL Replica Jerseys and as I walked around the arenas this season watching our house games I could truly sense the pride from our players and their parents from this small gesture. I would like to personally thank Mr. Saul Katz and Mr. Greg Evtushevski for donating hundreds of practice jerseys to our house teams from Atom and above. These jerseys will be used for years to come to ensure our players have an identity at practice that inspires them to work hard as a team. This donation goes beyond what money has bought and for this we are truly grateful. Our rep teams also had a phenomenal season. With a condensed schedule due to a pilot project within the league which saw only the top 4 teams in each division making it through to playoffs I am proud to say all but 1 of our rep teams were in the top four and went on to participate in OMAHA playoffs. We had 5 teams that went on to represent our district at the BC Hockey Provincial Championships with two, our Midget Tier 1 and our Midget AAA Female teams bringing home the gold. Congratulations to all of our players on a great season. Our Atom Development teams also had a great showing in the league with two Kelowna teams battling it out in the league championship game for the top spot. These successes don’t come without the dedication of our players and their coaches and certainly not without the support of our KMHA families.
As we approach the 2010/11 season I look forward to another great year for KMHA. I see our association heading to greatness for many years to come with so much talent being nutured and a new KMHA pride developing. Our board upon its election at last years AGM made a commitment to giving KMHA a new identity. This was one of hard work, mental toughness and spirit. We are surely well on the way to that identity being recognized throughout the Okanagan and all across the province. To our coaches and team staffs you are irreplaceable, thank you. To our appointed division directors, thank you as well without your timeless dedication and work ethic we would not be able to provide these programs for our players. To our elected board of directors, you are a group of true professionals. I am proud of each and every one of you and your commitment to KMHA excellence. Your giving of yourself and your time makes it possible for our children to enjoy our sport, live active healthy lives and develop into great people.