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January 20, 2012
By Mike Scandura
Special to USAHockey.com
Call it a marriage made in hockey heaven — the relationship between the Amarillo Hockey Association and the Amarillo Bulls of the North American Hockey League, the only Junior A Tier II league sanctioned by USA Hockey.
“Football is king here in west Texas,” said AHA president Ken Creamer. “What we’ve seen is we’ve increased our publicity in the community. It’s been a joint effort with the Amarillo Bulls. They’ve really been a big help in advancing and promoting youth hockey in Amarillo.
“Not only are they tops in the league [the Bulls were the 2011 NAHL South Division champions and currently lead that division] but their coaching staff [especially head coach Dennis Williams] and [AHA ice/travel coordinator] Austin Sutter have taken youth hockey as a task. They have their players out in the community promoting youth hockey.
“They’ve brought hockey more publicity than we’ve had in the past,” continued Creamer. “Austin works with the Bulls in their marketing and PR department and is very heavily involved in this.”
Williams also runs clinics for the Amarillo Hockey Association where the focus is on USA Hockey’s American Development Model.
“It’s a joint effort with the Bulls,” Creamer said. “We held one in the fall and we’re doing one now. Austin fully supports the ADM. We had a transition to supporting the ADM last season when it really was coming out.
“We had several folks who volunteered to be coaches. I got involved, as did other dads. It’s our only exposure for training to be a coach [Creamer coached the 8-U Mites house-league team last season]. We did cross-ice games. I used the practice guidelines that you can print out. It definitely fits in with that and the Bulls are fully supportive of it.”
The AHA’s Learn-to-Play program serves as a foundation for the association’s house league.
“When we have new players join, even if they can’t skate, we run them through one or two practices to see if they’re ready to move into another age group,” explained Creamer. “The ages for first-time players range from 3 up to 13 or 14. They learn all the basic skills — skating before anything else — and then puck handling.
“That’s really been a growing program this year, especially for 5- and 6-year-old kids. Very seldom do you have a player join and then quit. They get hooked very easily. We have about 30 to 40 kids in the program this year.”
Arguably the highlight of the current season was the first Amarillo Stampede Challenge, which took place the second weekend in January.
“It’s a small tournament and it’s our first year,” Creamer said prior to the tournament. “This is part of growing our program … getting other teams in here and letting our kids experience games without traveling.
“This will be a big production with music, a video board, a PA announcer and each participant will be presented with a trophy and a goody bag.”
Associations from Amarillo, Odessa, Texas, and Taos, N.M. (which is about a five-hour drive) fielded Peewee teams while associations from Odessa, Taos, El Paso, Texas, and Allen (a Dallas suburb) fielded Mite teams.
“They’re going to play for fun,” Creamer said. “We’ll have cross-ice games and not keep score.”
Creamer has a pair of goals he hopes the association can attain.
“You always have short-term and long-term goals,” he said. “Our short-term goal is to grow the awareness of the sport and get more kids involved. When they get involved, they seldom quit. We want to get kids aware and involved through our own publicity and partnership with the Bulls.
“Long term we’ll have a few different paths. We would love to have the high school route develop and have that option for our kids. Depending on how our short-terms goals go, that will be our ultimate goal — preparing kids for the next level whether it be high school, junior hockey or college hockey.”
Creamer, who’s been the AHA president for a year and a half, relishes the improvement he sees in the boys — especially ones who are new to the sport.
“I think when I see kids out there that, say, are in the Peewee or Squirt division, it makes me feel good knowing I had a part in helping them develop into better players and better people — especially those kids who could barely skate and stop,” he said.
“Now, in one short year, they’re doing stops, crossing over, going to the net and keep their sticks on the ice. To see them progress and enjoy themselves is the most rewarding thing for me.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
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