Flames Hockey: Welcome

Charlotte Area Hockey Families, 

The Charlotte Flames youth hockey organization has preliminary rosters in place to field Squirt and PeeWee travel teams for the 2009-2010 CHL season.  We continue to evaluate prospects for fielding a Bantam team.  We will finalize rosters in late August.  Parents interested in participating should contact Jeff Clark (803.493.6653) regarding Squirt teams and Brian Tubbs (330.651.2752) regarding PeeWee and Bantam teams. 

We expect that our players will participate in the house leagues of the newly formed Charlotte Metro Hockey Association.  We will also encourage them to take advantage of developmental programs offered by the CMHA at the Pineville and Extreme rinks.  We are excited about the prospects of a strong house program supplemented by convenient and affordable travel opportunities. 

Sincerely,  Board of Directors

The Charlotte Flames Youth Hockey Association

Charlotte Area Hockey Families, 

The Charlotte Flames youth hockey organization is making plans to try and field teams at the Mite thru Midget levels for the 2009-2010 season. 

Our board remains intact and funded, and we are currently working with our attorney to secure our status as a 501(c)3 non-profit entity.  We continue to explore all options for the upcoming season including purchasing ice at Pineville, fielding teams through the CMHA house program, and cooperating with rinks and hockey organizations in nearby cities.  We expect to present options by early August to continue our tradition of high quality and competitive travel hockey that is also convenient and cost effective. 

We appreciate your continued support and extend best wishes to our 2008-2009 teams participating in the 2009 North Carolina State Games. 

Sincerely, 

Board of Directors

The Charlotte Flames Youth Hockey Association

The Flames Bantam team celebrated the close of the regular hockey season with a Father – Son game.  To ensure the game was competitive, the Fathers were supported by a former NHLer and a few of his friends.  The high-scoring game was action packed, the lead “seesawing” back and forth, with the contest finally ending in a tie.

The celebration then moved outside to a “day to evening” barbeque at the Hatton’s.  Good food, good friends, a great day…

Jason Dawe's Pre-Tryout Training Camp is upcoming - see schedule below.  For more information or to register for this camp, go to www.jasondawehockeycamps.com.

Squirts/PeeWees    

            Saturday May 16^th – 4:10 – 5:40pm

         Monday May 18^th – 6:30 – 8pm

         Wednesday May 20^th – 7 – 8:30pm 

         Wednesday May 27^th – 7 – 8:30pm

         Saturday May 30^th – 4:15 – 5:45pm

         Tuesday June 2^nd – 6:40 – 7:40pm

 Bantams

         Saturday May 16^th – 5:50 – 7:20pm  

         Monday May 18^th – 8:10 – 9:40pm

         Wednesday May 20^th – 8:40 – 10:10pm

         Saturday May 30^th – 6 – 7:30pm

         Monday June 1^st – 6:30 – 7:30pm

         Wednesday June 3^rd – 7 – 8:30pm

The Charlotte Flames season, which began last summer with kids lining up on the ice with hopeful looks in their eyes during player evaluations, culminated at Tuesday night’s Flames Family Skate night with many new friendships formed, significant hockey skills acquired and plenty of success to go around.  

The 2008-09 season saw the Charlotte Flames family grow from three travel teams to six competing from the Bantam (U14) level all the way down to the Mite (U8) level, each with a lot to celebrate.  Thanks to every player’s commitment to their team, every coaches dedicated patience and mentoring and countless volunteer hours by parents, the Flames competed at the highest levels within their divisions.   

Bantam A

Led by head coach Mike Willerding, the Bantams traveled to multiple tournaments this season and faced opponents from as far away as Windsor, Ontario CA, St. Louis and Dallas.  Their achievements include bringing home the second place banner from the Presidents Day Tournament held in Nashville, Tennessee and finishing in third place in the CHL Championship Tournament.  

Thanks to every player, coach, assistant coach, general manager, parent volunteer and fan for making this such a successful season.  Congratulations to all the Flames teams for a season to remember!

The Flames held a "family skate night" this past Tuesday to celebrate the closing of a very successful hockey season.   There was a great turnout of Flames' players, siblings and parents to participate in the celebration.  Everyone enjoyed pizza and subs from Hungry Howies and watching players create skating "trains" down the ice.  A highlight of the evening was the unveiling of the CHL Championship Banner that the Mite Team just brought home (see article above).

The Charlotte Flames are withholding our full support and endorsement of the CMHA for the reasons stated below.  We will remain engaged in the process to stay informed, represent the views of our families and hopefully affect changes that will result in our participation and support.

 Key Concerns Surrounding CMHA

 • Limited hockey options for Charlotte based families/players (monopoly).  This may lead to increased numbers of players choosing other youth sports vs. hockey over time if dissatisfied with the program/offering.

•   Organizational structure and management – foundation being recommended versus non-profit.  100% volunteer organizations being replaced by “for profit” companies.

•     Level of financial transparency and lack of flexibility to tailor program at the team level.

•    Haste and approach taken in creating new entity and adopting new USA Hockey model without fully assessing risks/pitfalls.

•     Ice Provider track record related to management of current house leagues and quality of programs offered to date.

•    No evidence of business plan to grow sport and player base – model redistributes many current travel players to house teams.  This also has an impact on the Carolinas Hockey League as participation is reduced.

•     Value for the dollar - price & cost based on total package (# of games, practices, skills training, competition, player/parent experience, etc.) .

•    No input from broader hockey community that will be impacted.  No accommodation for families that live far from one of the two rinks (e.g. Rock Hill residents).

•   Level of competition relative to current state (CHL) .

•    Qualified coaches to player ratio – where will all the coaches come from? 

The Charlotte Flames youth hockey teams followed up their January success at the Golden Puck Tournament with a first place win for the Squirt A (U10) team and a second place showing for the Bantams (see article below) at Presidents Day Tournaments in Chesapeake,Virginia and Nashville, Tennessee, respectively. 

The Flames sent two PeeWee (U12) teams, in addition to the Squirts, to the Presidential Cup Tournament in Chesapeake.  The PeeWee A team made it as far as the semi-finals, but it was the Squirts who brought home the championship banner for the Flames.

The Squirts defeated teams from Virginia and West Virginia and suffered a loss to the Triangle Sharks (Hillsboro, NC) in the qualifying rounds.    The semi-finals brought the Squirt Flames face to face with the Sharks again and they came from behind to defeat them 3-2, playing the final minute with the Sharks on a power play but to no avail. 

 In the championship game, the Squirts played the Greensboro Stars, the first seed who was undefeated coming into the final game.  In the first period, Greensboro took the lead but the Squirts tied it up and the lead went back and forth until half way through the third period when the Flames took the lead which they never relinquished, winning the championship title 4-3. 

Muhammad Ali said “Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream and a vision.”

“This team has performed well all season, placing third in the Annapolis Crabtown tournament, and third in the Golden Puck Tournament.  They wanted this win, they wanted to be number one, it was not only their skill, but their desire that won this,” Ed Morris, Head Coach.

Congratulations to the Charlotte Flames Bantam A Team for a strong showing in the Nashville Presidents’ Cup Tournament.  The Team returned home with the Runner-Up banner…

The Flames went undefeated in the opening round of the tournament with a 7-0 victory over the Kirkwood Stars (St. Louis), a 4-2 victory over the Affton Americans (St. Louis), and a 3-1 victory over the Kansas City Jr. Outlaws.

The Flames headed to the semi-finals as the tournament’s top seed and once again had to face a tough Affton Americans team.  The Flames defeated the Americans 2-1 in a hard-fought battle, thus earning a spot in the finals.

The finals pitted the Flames in another tight battle against the Dallas Penguins.  After going undefeated all weekend, the Flames finally fell to the Penguins 2-1.  In an ironic twist to this game, one of the Flames’ forwards, acquired as an unrestricted free agent by the Team this summer, was a former member of the Penguins.

With all the excitement of the weekend, also came heartbreak; a key defenseman for the Flames suffered a serious “lower body injury” during the second game of the tournament and will be out for the remainder of the season.   “We will miss you, Cokey.”

2009-2010 SEASON

The Flames remain committed to providing a high quality hockey program for our kids and to growing the sport in Charlotte. We have made great progress in our first two seasons thanks to the dedication and hard work of our coaches, players, general managers, treasurers, schedulers, scorekeepers and other parent volunteers. We look forward to the success of our teams and to continued improvement across all facets of our program.

CHARLOTTE METRO LEAGUE

The Charlotte Flames recently held discussions with leaders from the ECHL Charlotte Checkers (“Checkers”) and Charlotte Youth Hockey (“CYH”) to explore the creation of a Charlotte metro youth hockey league. The Checkers would like to lead a merger of the Flames and CYH into a single league which follows the NHL and USA Hockey’s American Development Model.

The Flames communicated our support of such a league provided that it meets criteria outlined during the meeting. Our board will remain in close contact with the Checkers as the vision takes shape. Due to the amount of planning and work such a league will require, we do not expect it to impact our 2009-2010 season.

Thank you for your continued support, and good luck to our players and coaches for the remainder of the 2008-2009 season.

The Charlotte Flames Youth Hockey organization had an impressive showing at the Golden Puck Hockey Tournament in Charleston, South Carolina over the Martin Luther King weekend.  The Flames sent six teams – 1 Bantam (U14) team, 2 PeeWee (U12) teams, 2 Squirt (U10) teams and 1 Mite (U8) team - with players ranging in age from 14 to 6 who practice weekly with their own coaches as well as with former Buffalo Sabre, Jason Dawe, at the Pineville Ice House.   

The Flames were proud to have four teams still competing in the semi-finals of the tournament, two of which were the Squirt A and Squirt B teams.  Both teams played down to the wire but came up short with 2-1 losses, the Squirt A team in overtime.  However, the coaches and parents were very proud of the effort the players put forth on the ice and the sportsmanlike manner in which they handled their loss. 

Two Flames teams made it to the finals of the tournament.  The first to play was the Mite team, coached by Mike Holland and Garry McAvoy, and facing the Charlotte Junior Checkers whom the Mite Flames had defeated the previous weekend to win their division regular season title.  With all of the Flames families cheering them on, the Mite Flames came back from a 4-2 deficit to tie it up 4-4 and force a three minute overtime in which neither team scored.  That brought it to a shoot out which ended 2-1 in favor of the Junior Checkers. 

The Flames PeeWee B team, coached by Jason Ehrlich, played later in the day with a smaller crowd but no less heart.  They entered the championship as the number one seed after winning 2 games and tying a third.  The opposing team, the Atlanta Knights, took the early lead 1-0 but Flames winger Chase Wiriden, assisted by Martti Kahra, quickly answered back with a goal to tie it up.  The Knights scored again but this time it was Flames center Martti Kahra, assisted by Chase Wiriden, who scored to tie it again.  Late in the second period, Flames winger Chris Walsh, assisted by defenseman Ben Crotty, scored what would be the championship goal.  Flames goalie Brendan Bishop and the entire Flames team played the last period on high alert and did not allow another goal by the Knights.   

“We are so proud of all of our players and coaches for how well they represented the Flames organization both in their fantastic performance and in their sportsmanship,” said Gerry Kramer, Flames board member.   The Charlotte Flames were established in 2007 and have grown from three initial travel teams to the current six.  Anyone interested in more information about the Charlotte Flames Youth Hockey Travel or House teams, please contact  Charlotte_Flames@yahoo.com.

The Charlotte Flames Mite Select Team went 3-0 this past weekend clinching a narrow regular season CHL championship.  The Mites went 9-1-2 in the regular season and will now play for the championship at the end of February.  Good Luck to the Mites and all Flames team as they head into CHL Championship play!!!

Summer is just around the corner, and it's time to find a summer camp for your player.  Summer hockey camp "is the time when players have the opportunity to learn from some of the best hockey experts about everything from the basic fundamentals of the game, to more advanced strategies and skill development."  The February 2009 issue of the "USA Hockey Magazine" has a comprehensive listing of summer hockey camps.  Check it out...

The Duluth Jr Thrashers 95 and Charlotte Flames Bantam travel teams joined together the weekend of 11/21 to donate used hockey gear for a newly created Sled Hockey Program.  
 

Are you home schooled?  Interested in semi-private hockey lessons during the day?  Jason Dawe wants to hear from you so that he can determine the feasibility of offering such a program in Charlotte!  Please email Jason to learn more about this opportunity including costs, schedule, etc.  He can be reached at www.jasondawehockeycamps.com.

Lessons will focus on developing and strengthening your players hockey skills.  Areas of focus include skating, stick handling, scoring, etc.  Lessons can also be tailored to address specific areas of improvement.

In addition to his NHL hockey experience, Jason represented Team Canada on the global stage winning gold and silver medals in two appearances.  He is also the all time leading goal scorer in Peterborough Petes history.