AZ Thunder Team Tryouts
AHSHA announces tryouts for the AZ Thunder teams. These are travel teams that are intended to give high school players some additional practices and games over and above their high school teams.
We are planning a Midget Under 16 and a Midget Under 18 team this season that we hope will skate at the AA/A level depending on the players at tryouts.
You must be signed up for the Fall Registration for High School Hockey to tryout for the Thunder teams.
We have just opened registration for tryouts and the cost to tryout is $100. You can register for tryouts on www.thunderonice.com
Rick Herring will be the Head Coach of the Midget Under 18 team and Frank Kraljic will be the head coach of the Midget Under 16 team. Todd Schall, former Head Coach of the NAU Icejacks team will be the General Manager for the Thunder Program. Individual team managers will be selected once the teams are formed.
Teams will plan to generally practice one night during the week at Arcadia and have some off ice sessions which are still to be determined.
We will play games against other travel and high school teams if they are available as well as participate in up to four tournaments. The teams will not be participating in the Arizona AA State Playdowns
Tournaments that we are looking at for this year are the Thanksgiving Day Tournament at Polar Ice, Coyotes Cup Christmas Tournament at the Ice Den, President’s Day Tournament at Polar Ice and the Martin Luther King Tournament in either Arizona or California. We are hoping to do one out of town tournament with a team bus trip that needs to be determined.
The total cost of the Thunder Program is $1999 and this includes all practices, games, tournament fees, jerseys, socks and out of town travel, hotel and meals. You can pay the entire fee up front or you can use flex pay and have a portion of the costs get charged to your credit/debit card each month. You can also pay by check if you make arrangements with the AHSHA Treasurer.
Once the team is selected, we will have a team meeting to review the plans for the season and will review a preliminary budget for the teams.
Tryouts will be held at the Arcadia Ice Arena as per the following schedule:
Midget Under 16 Team
Friday, August 27 from 4:40 PM to 5:40 PM at Arcadia Ice
Saturday, August 28 from 6:50 PM to 7:50 PM at Arcadia Ice
Sunday, August 29 from 12 Noon to 1 PM at Arcadia Ice
Midget Under 18 Team
Friday, August 27 from 5:50 PM to 6:50 PM at Arcadia Ice
Saturday, August 28 from 5:40 PM to 6:40 PM at Arcadia Ice
Sunday, August 29 from 1:10 PM to 2:10 PM at Arcadia Ice
Our long term plan is to make the Under 18 Thunder Team the Arizona team that represents our high school players at the Americas Showcase to be held in Pittsburgh this year from April 13 to 17, 2011. You must be a Junior or Senior and must participate on your high school team to attend this Showcase.
We are planning for this year’s Thunder team to be the core of the team that attends this prestigious Americas Showcase that is attended by scouts from most Junior and College teams. There is an additional cost of $999 plus airfare to attend this Showcase and the team will try to do fund raising activities to help offset some of this cost. There will be a separate tryout for this Showcase team later in the year.
If you have any questions, here is contact information for the teams.
Head Coach U 18
Rick Herring via phone at 623-776-6950 or email rick0045@go.com
Head Coach U !6
Frank Kraljic via phone at 480-614-5711 or email fjkraljic@cox.net
General Manager
Todd Schall via phone at 480-636-9676 or email t.s.schall@earthlink.net
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