Leadership Weekend Energizes Core Volunteers For Hockey Season

Providing Hockey Alberta’s volunteers with a professional development experience is the purpose of Hockey Alberta’s Leadership Weekend that concluded Sunday in Sylvan Lake. Members of Hockey Alberta’s Board of Directors, zone teams, councils and committees were among this year’s attendees.

“The focus of this year’s event was to get our volunteers and the Hockey Alberta staff to get to know another,” said Hockey Alberta’s Executive Director, Rob Litwinski. “There are a lot of new people involved with the organization and we felt it important that everyone got to know what their roles bring to the vision of Hockey Alberta.”

The Leadership Weekend was a chance for volunteers to take part in professional development sessions while engaging and sharing ideas with hockey peers.

The event started Friday evening with Litwinski and Hockey Alberta President, Rob Virgil going over the Governance Changes as well as reviewing the operation of the new Board of Directors.

Saturday began with a presentation from Change Management Specialist, Damon Heron focusing on the qualities and steps needed in order to enact changes successfully within an organization. Heron zeroed in on the focal points of leading change as well as some traps to avoid.

The day continued with introductions to all of Hockey Alberta’s staff and a series of workshops on topics including: organizational values, updates on Hockey Alberta’s Regional Centres, its website, coach clinics and Respect in Sport.

On Sunday, the Hockey Alberta Board of Directors met with Red Deer College President, Joel Ward and Vice-President of Community Relations, Michael Donlevy for the first time. The meeting gave the Board a chance to learn more on the new partnership between Hockey Alberta and Red Deer College, the benefits and the greater vision.

“The leadership weekend reinforces the solid support system we have at Hockey Alberta and it officially signals the kick off of the new hockey season,” added Litwinski. “We really focused on Hockey Alberta’s vision and our organization’s values.”

Hockey Alberta announced on Tuesday the top 20 athletes that have been named to the Team Alberta roster for the 2012 National Women’s Under-18 Championship, November 7-11 in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE TEAM ALBERTA U18 FEMALE ROSTER

The selection process started with an intense spring selection camp in May where a combined total of 88 athletes met to compete for one of the 46 spots at Summer Camp. Following the completion of the Summer Camp, the coaching and evaluation staff narrowed the talented field down to 27 players.

The short listed players then competed at a tournament in Edmonton facing the University of Alberta Pandas and two Bantam AAA male teams September 7 - 9.

“The tournament in Edmonton gave us a chance to see what the girls can do in game situations and against players at an elite level,” said Hockey Alberta’s Manager of Hockey Development, Mike Kraichy. “Narrowing down to just 20 players is difficult, but we believe we’ve put together a team that can play well in every facet of the game.”

The National Women’s U18 Championship is an event that brings together the top talent from across Canada. The event is held every year except when the Canada Winter Games are held (every four years). In 2011, Team Alberta finished seventh.

Of the 20 athletes, 12 are returning from the team that finished seventh in 2011, and three are returning from the team that won Gold at the 2011 Canada Winter Games.

U18 Female is the final stage of the Team Alberta Female Program and one of the initial stages that Hockey Canada uses to help identify players for the National Program.