Junior Storm

Coaches

Philosophy

When thinking about what we are looking for in a player, the four things we always talk about are: Players that play hard, play fast, are good teammates and are coachable. If we have a team that follows those four “rules,” we will be extremely successful. It’s important for us to build good hockey players both on and off the ice. The goal, as mentioned above, is to create an atmosphere where players are able to develop into AAA hockey players the following year(s).

Tryouts

For evaluation and team placement, please contact Bobby Acri at [email protected].

YEHL / Gameplay

Both teams will be participating in the YEHL (Youth Elite Hockey League). We will be the only Chicago team in this league, which has been created to give kids the opportunity to play against the best competition throughout the US. There will be league games once a month at a host city with league playoffs sometime in February. When we aren’t traveling for league games, we will play in tournaments and practice games against teams in the Chicagoland area. Our goal is to play between 40-50 games over the course of season.

Practices

Each team will practice 3 days a week. 2 of these practices will be at Orbit Ice Arena and one at a rink to be named later. Coaches will focus on individual skill development, position specific training, small area games and team play.

Off-Ice / Video

We will incorporate both off ice at our state of the art facility as well as video breakdown of games so players can learn from watching themselves and their teammates play. These two components are crucial in the development of our players.

Cost

We will charge $3,950 for team dues. This will cover the YEHL, practice/game ice time and coaches. Families will be responsible for their travel costs. There will be a slush fund on top of the dues which will be set after the season begins.

Dates

The season will run from August 15-March 1. We will take a break over winter holidays (Dates TBD). There will be options to skate over the summer through camps and clinics run by the Windy City Development Program.