The GPYHA is pleased to announce several enhancements to its skills program for the 2014-2015 season. 

First, we have an amazing and awesome opportunity to have Pertti Hasanen (www.perttihockey.com) run our Skills Program.  Pertti has been the skills coach at Boston University for the past 30 years where he has been part of three NCAA Championships with the Terriers and personally trained numerous All-Americans and National Hockey League players.  Some of the players at Boston University that Pertti has trained are Keith Tkachuk, Sean McEachern,  Chris Drury, Scott LaChance, Mike Grier, Jay Pandolfo,  Joe Sacco, Sean Bates, and Tony Amonte to name a few who have played in the NHL.  He currently works with numerous National Hockey League Teams (Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars, and Pittsburgh Penguins), American Hockey League Teams, and teaches and coaches all over the country.  He is known in and around the hockey world as one of the foremost thought leaders on core hockey skill development.  Pertti has a one of a kind training process with multiple touches (600-700), 200-300 shots, innovative stick skills and decision training, and he teaches kids attention to detail on the ice, proper form and technique, anticipation, and problem solving.  There is no better skills coach in the country than Pertti and our league has made a substantial financial investment in both paying for the services of Pertti and acquiring the ice time that will be allocated to just skills; approximately $30,000 in total.  We ask that you and your children take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity to have one of the, if not the best teacher of hockey to work with your children.  While games are great and fun, practice and core hockey skill development is the most important part of a hockey player's development and maturity in the game.  As parents, we always want the best for our children in school, sports, and in life, so please commit to attending Sunday skills with Pertti, even if it means 2 trips to a rink on certain Sundays.  Take a look at this video to see what is in store for the kids; it's hard not to get excited.  

With the exception of Sundays following Thanksgiving and Christmas, we have the ice at the bubble in Cranston starting Sunday September 28 and going to the last Sunday in February.   The ice block is from 2 pm-6 pm and the groups will have an hour of ice.  The four groups will consist of both Mite A teams, all Squirts teams, all Pee Wee teams, and all Bantam teams.  The time slots per group will vary so please look at the on-line schedule.  If you have any questions, please free to contact Frank Fede (401-487-1233) and please make sure to look at Pertti's website.

In addition, the league is increasing our emphasis on goaltender development by scheduling 6 clinics (1 per month) with Clay Adams and the team from Northeast Goalie Development (www.ngdgoalies.com).  Clay and his team have worked with goaltenders at colleges throughout the northeast to help them achieve their full potential.  If you have any questions about the goalie clinics, please contact AJ Picchione.

Lastly, for our PeeWee and Bantam skaters we have scheduled checking clinics with Mike Getchell and will be scheduling off-ice training sessions once the season is underway.

It's an exciting time to be a Junior Bear.  Please take advantage of these exciting new opportunities.