Arizona Coyotes goaltender Louis Domingue sponsored a Desert Hockey Development event at Bonsall Park in Glendale on Saturday, April 16. His idea was to provide breakfast and some really cool custom T-Shirts while playing some ball hockey with a bunch of kids.

Fifty boys and girls between two (almost three) to fourteen years old participated on a beautiful day in Arizona.

Some more of the Arizona Coyotes “A” team people also chipped in a LOT of effort and time to help ensure the event a success.

We started earlier in the day than usual so the kids could relax a little, get to know each other and munch on some light breakfast eats courtesy of Louuuuuuuuuu. The blueberry muffins were the biggest hit with the kids, for what it’s worth.

Between DHD volunteer coaches and the extra coaching power of a few of the Coyotes Hockey Development people, there was plenty of personal coaching attention for all the kids.

Louis made sure that he played with every single kid. He signed a custom T-Shirt for every single kid and spent some one on one time with every single kid. That means that Louis, despite having a brand new daughter (four days old!) at home, spent that much time with each child there. So, multiply that by FIFTY.

All of the board members and volunteers from Desert Hockey Development would like to express our humble thanks for the heartfelt effort and personal attention he graciously offered to our organization and our kids AND to the growth of hickey in Arizona.

You have a lot of permanent fans, Louis!

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Over fifty kids joined DHD throughout the afternoon and evening to basically mess around with some ball hockey to get the feel for how to use a hockey stick and to have some fun.

This sort of event is something DHD is looking to attend more often, we just want to get hockey sticks into the hands of kids that otherwise, for whatever reason, probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do so.

While the Norterra Canyon School is in an affluent area of Phoenix, DHD will happily travel to any event of this nature if it can fit the schedule. If you are involved in event planning for school carnivals, block parties, gatherings of a nature where there would be enough kids in attendance that fifty or so kids would end up joining us for some hockey, we’d love to hear from you. Use the contact page to find out how to get us using the communication type of your choice.

DHD would like to thank the kids and parents of Norterra Canyon that dropped in to play some hockey with us, we hope to see you again!

The post Norterra Canyon K-8 School Carnival appeared first on Desert Hockey Development.

While the Coyotes have always been staunch supporters of youth hockey in Arizona, this move represents an increase in that support in an effort to continue to grow the game of hockey in Arizona.

The team has already started this program with four visits from Coyotes players to hockey practices around the Valley. Now, the team will have more involvement with “learn to play” clinics and other events at the local rinks.

It’s an exciting time for youth hockey here in Arizona, we hope you’re aboard!

Click here for the Coyotes press release with more details.

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This video from Pat Shannahan who works for the Arizona Republic and AZ Central is a great example of why we think so much of the Arizona Coyotes Captain. You never doubt for a minute that Doaner means what he says and that he walks the walk.

Good advice from the Captain, right?

Even if you don’t play hockey (or another sport), the same lessons apply to everyday life. We’re all in this together, life is a team sport and we can’t do it alone.

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This summer, we filled the Street Hockey Summer League to eighty person capacity in remarkably few days after the announcement and, unfortunately, had to resort to a waiting list.

Among other things, that experience cemented our conviction there is an unsatisfied demand for free introductory ball hockey programs.

DHD’s goal of growing the game of hockey in the Southwest has been successful for the first two years of operation. In our first two years, we have had over 736 individual boys and girls aged 4 through 14 participate in hockey for at least 1,189 “kid days” for 3,427 hours of hockey fun and instruction.

We’ve seen some of “our kids” continue on into roller and ice hockey and we’re glad to welcome so many of them return to participate in many of our activities.

Now that we have a solid family of volunteers and a pretty good idea what works and what doesn’t, it’s time to expand to other cities and towns.

DHD is an all volunteer organization. We attribute a great deal of our success to our dedicated group of volunteers and to a great partnership with the Arizona Coyotes organization.

The Arizona Coyotes have been generous with their equipment, their facilities, and most importantly their expertise. The Coyotes Youth Hockey Development people were there at our first clinic showing us how they wrangle forty or so inexperienced kids for a few hours of hockey.

This grant from the Arizona Coyotes Foundation should help us reach a lot of kids that would never have a chance to try hockey. We seek out less economically advantaged areas because we feel that’s where our fledgling group can have the most impact on kid’s lives and also on introducing “our” sport to a new crop of hockey fans.

The board of Desert Hockey Development is grateful, and we will never be able to thank the Arizona Coyotes Foundation enough for their support and their confidence in our project. We will work diligently to not disappoint and to surpass our goals.

The post DHD Receives Arizona Coyotes Foundation Grant appeared first on Desert Hockey Development.

Throughout the day, we played some hockey with over 100 kids, most of whom had never touched a hockey stick before. A bunch of kids tried on the goalie gear and stopped some shots, we had some really little kids that were having a great time trying out their hockey skills.

The Kid’s Day Off and Ultimate Kid’s Birthday Party event (from PB&J Events and Productions) was at WestWorld in Scottsdale. Everything was FREE including:

• Massages
• Really cool balloon animals
• Bounce houses
• A golf course next door to DHD
• Hockey (yes, that’s us)
• Archery
• Video game theatre
• Obstacle course
• Caricatures
• Lots more and everything was FREE!

It was 115 degrees outside, but the WestWorld North Hall was breezy cool and pleasant inside.

The Arizona Coyotes were kind enough to send Howler and, from the Paw Patrol, Allison and Ashley. They were all, as usual, a big hit and a great addition to the event.

Special thanks to faithful DHD volunteers Gina and Ryleigh for helping us out all day, you ladies are the best!

We hope to see you at our next event, Ice skating fun (and fundraiser) at AZ Ice Peoria next Saturday, August 22 from 5 pm to 7 pm. We’d appreciate a $5 donation (including skate rental) for two hours of ice skating. Skating lessons from real, professional, skating instructors will be available at the same time. We’re grateful to to AZ Ice Peoria for offering us the opportunity to get to know more people, get some ice skating in, and maybe keep the lights on at DHD for future hockey endeavors.

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Down To The Wire

It was an exciting finish, with the Gila River Monsters overcoming an early 3-0 deficit to tie the game in the last minute or so of regulation time.

Rather than go to the shootout, the Monsters played the OEL Diablos in the first 3 versus 3 hockey every played in Gila River Arena and managed to score the sudden death goal.

Free Hockey Gear

Every kid that played this summer played the final games and then went home with a brand new CCM street hockey stick curved right or left thanks to CCM Hockey.

All eight goalies got to KEEP their goalie gear, they were pretty happy with that extra surprise thanks to the Arizona Coyotes!

After the event, Papa Johns delivered maybe a million pizzas to Gila River Arena for all the kids and the adults they brought with them.

It was all FREE for every participant.

Can’t Say Thanks Enough

DHD can’t say thank you enough to the Coyotes, Fry’s, Mix1, Papa Johns, Gila River Arena, and CCM Hockey for making the five event series a complete success. Throughout the season, over one hundred kids got the chance to see what hockey is about, and it didn’t cost any of them a dime.

Thanks, Connor Murphy, for joining us a while back during your time off! Thanks for playing with every team, signing everything pointed in your direction, talking hockey with adults who were supposed to leave you alone so you could interact with the kids, and hanging out until the event was over and everybody left. And, of course, you did it with a smile the entire time.

We were all welcomed into an real NHL arena during a time when the 100+ degree temperatures of an Arizona summer make it simply impossible for us to run outdoor clinics. The hockey boards magically reappeared after concerts in the arena for us to be able to play hockey. The Coyotes Hockey Development men and women put up and knocked down three rinks for five events, a LOT of work.

Obviously we can go on, but we’ll finish by thanking our volunteers for making our all volunteer “hockey thing” a success that we hope to keep growing.

Thanks, families for showing up and making our day(s) this summer. Take a run through the slide show below if you have time.

If you haven’t already, if you want to stay up to date on what is going on with DHD, please click here to join our mailing list.
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We had a full schedule with 80 kids for yet another GREAT day at Gila River Arena! We even had a “no goal” scoring controversy this time, with no hope of getting on the phone to Toronto to check the replay.

The controversial game resulted in a change in the league leading team with the Doanasaurs taking the top spot over from the OEL Diablos.

The commissioner ruled “That’s hockey!”, so we’re moving on with no hard feelings.

Every kid that played (and even some of their smaller brothers and sisters) wen home afterwards with snacks courtesy Fry’s, Mix 1 drinks courtesy Mix 1, and nifty backpacks courtesy the Arizona Coyotes.

Once again the National Anthem was courtesy of the DHD official anthem singer Callie who sucked it up and managed to belt out the Anthem despite a freshly broken foot and crutches!

It’s coming down to the wire now, with the formerly unbeaten OEL Diablos taking a beating from the Doanasaurs in the last game of the day.

The final, championship, event is scheduled for August 8, it’s still a wide open competition.

The post Coyotes Street Hockey Summer League Results – Week 4 appeared first on Desert Hockey Development.

Another GREAT day at Gila River Arena! We had lots of kids and managed to get some waiting list people into the action.

Super nifty water bottles were handed out to all the kids that played, and the National Anthem courtesy of the DHD official anthem singer Callie (yes, she IS famous enough now to ONLY use her first name) was particularly excellent.

It’s coming down to the wire now, with the formerly unbeaten OEL Diablos taking a beating from the Doanasaurs in the last game of the day.

With two events (July 25 and August 8) left on the schedule, it’s still a wide open competition.

The post Coyotes Street Hockey Summer League Results – Week 3 appeared first on Desert Hockey Development.

We had some special guests join us yesterday. Ace sportswriter and all around decent guy Craig Morgan brought his Fox Sports expertise and camera to see what’s going on this summer with ball hockey in Gila River Arena.

Also on hand was former first round draft pick and also all around decent guy, Coyotes defenseman Connor Murphy. Connor played hockey with everybody and it sure looked like he managed to talk to every single kid in the building at least once, and he only left the building when everything was being packed up.

We (DHD) can’t thank you enough, Connor, for your visit and everything you passed on to the next set of first round draft picks that are just learning the ropes.

Not only that, but Murphy’s namesake team jumped a spot in the standings because they were obviously inspired by the tall defenseman. Note to number 89, the BoedZillas dropped a spot and the next event is July 11. We’ll save you a spot, Boeds.
** NOTE: A scoring error, spotted by a sharp eyed Gila River Monster, changed the rankings when we corrected the scores. So, the SMurphs, despite having their team decimated by a couple older “no show” kids, managed to hold on to their spot.

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