Dear ECHO Families,
Looking back on our 2021-2022 season, we want to take this time to thank you for committing to the ECHO hockey family. We are grateful to our returning members and we welcome all our new members for the upcoming 2022-2023 season!
We couldn’t be more proud to sport our green, black and gold! Our Bar Down and Bullseye Fundraiser was a huge success and so much fun! We grabbed some metal and tons of memories in both the Avon Thanksgiving Tournament and Steel City Shootout Tournament. All of our teams had successful and competitive seasons, many advancing far in their state tournaments. We are so unbelievably proud of all our players. We cheered for them in the stands and eagerly watched them on social media throughout the season, bond with their teammates, progress exponentially as players and play some exciting hockey. Despite coming back from a challenging year with COVID, we couldn’t have had a better season of competitive hockey and personal development of our players.
As many of you know, in January, ECHO was acquired by Black Bear Sports Group, the same company that purchased our home rink, the Bolton Ice Palace. We appreciate your patience with the volunteer Board of Directors and Coaches while we navigate this transition. We know that change can bring on lots of questions and cause families concern. However, we want to assure you that the ECHO Directors leading the transition along with Black Bear, are working hard and are passionate and dedicated to the continued success of ECHO and excited for what the future holds for our nearly 50 year old organization. We recognize there could be more communication and we will do more to ensure you are up to date on all things ECHO moving forward.
Our 2022-2023 Assessments have been a huge success! We have multiple teams in each level for U8-U12 and we are looking forward to completing our Bantam tryouts coming up in April. We appreciate your patience as we continue to organize our teams and analyze the assessment results. The Learn to Play and Mite Development Programs continue to thrive and have record registration, which is the foundation for a strong organization.
With these changes, we welcome the great opportunities that follow. In summary, we will have Sasha Malkov, founder of Explosive Hockey, leading the charge as Skills Director, up leveling all players on the best skating and skills for modern hockey development. Former NHL player, Bob Crawford will share his expertise in creating enhanced practice plans and ensuring that our players are prepared for the most competitive youth hockey in the area. Tampa Bay Lightning goaltending Scout and founder of ProCrease Goaltending Jared Waimon, along with his dedicated crew, will lead our goalies in weekly training sessions. ECHO also houses some talented coaches, with decades of experience in post high school hockey careers and head coaching of youth hockey teams. We will continue to share with you throughout the season coach profiles, player highlights and upcoming events in our organization’s Newsletter Stars and Snipes, as well as our social media channels.
We want to take a moment to thank our former Board of Directors president, Gary Gordon, for his passion and dedication over the past few years. Gary worked tirelessly in his capacity as president to continue implementing ECHO’s traditions as well as enhancing ECHO’s ability to compete in the area’s youth hockey environment. Gary played an important role in increasing ECHO’s social media presence and he was instrumental in forging the relationship with Black Bear. We are grateful for his commitment to ECHO.
ECHO would like to announce that Zach Allyn, former Board of Director member and Director of Player and Coach Development will now act as Co-Program Director for ECHO. Dan Gibson, former Board of Director member and Vice President of Operations will act as the other Co-Program Director. Both Zach and Dan had post high school hockey careers and have been dedicated ECHO coaches and members. Finally, Elise Bishop, former Board of Director member and Secretary will now act as Administrative Director for ECHO. Elise and her family have been ECHO members for over 6 years.
Again, thank you for your commitment. We hope this message creates the same excitement and confidence as it does for our new directors as we prepare for the 2022-2023 season.
One final but incredibly important note: we want to hear from you! We want your questions, your concerns, your enthusiasm. Simply stated, YOU and your families are ECHO. The organization wants to see you and hear from you. We want you to play a critical part in the success of ECHO and our continued efforts to enhance our program for the kids. As most of you know, the kids' love of hockey, camaraderie and fun is the key to success of our program. The more fun the kids are having playing the sport they love with the friends they've made, the more success they will have on the ice. As parents, you are the integral piece to ensuring that the kids have fun and we encourage you to assist us in making that happen.
E - C - H - O… ECHO, ECHO ECHO!!!
Sincerely,
Zach Allyn, Dan Gibson and Elise Bishop
Your dedicated ECHO Directors
