Lyndon Youth Hockey Prepares for Season
- Details
- Created on Friday, 03 November 2017 20:41
- Written by Josh Caredeo
Lyndon- The Lyndon Area Youth Hockey Association is set to begin practices and games for the upcoming season. This year the league has around 110 players from the Lyndon area that have signed up to play.
Lance Tucker, who is in his second season as Coaching Director, has already seen a major hurdle to overcome. Featured on both the News 7 and NewsLINC platforms, the Fenton Chester Arena in Lyndon had some ice issues. At that time, the temperature was 28 degrees, but needed to be at the ideal temperature of 19 degrees, according to Rink Manager Chris Carr. “The (37 year old) rink just does not have the insulation that the newer rinks have,” Tucker said. “While other associations are on the ice at the end of September, we didn't really get going until the end of October.”
As far as what Tucker would like to see from the players that come through the program, he likes to put emphasis on skill development. “One cannot play hockey if they can't skate. It is more important the players can perform the tasks than understand advanced offenses and defensive setups.” Tucker added all volunteers run the organization. The coaches attend weekend clinics, take online classes through USA Hockey, are on the ice for 2-3 hours for practice, and travel to at least 3 games that are two hours away.
I asked Tucker what would be a realistic goal for this upcoming year. He said that goals set for teams of the LAYHA would not be based on wins and losses. “I like to know if the players learned something new about the game of hockey, were they challenged, and did they improve their hockey skills.” “Also (what’s) very important is did they have fun? And finally, are they going to play hockey again next year? If they can answer yes to these questions than our season was a success.
Lyndon’s teams start game action on November 4th.
