Minneapolis Park Hockey

Parents and coaches:

Welcome to the 2008 Storm Goalie Camp.  Many of you are new goalies, or have shown some interest in the position.  Others have participated in our program in the past.  Note that several goalies or players interested in the position may not be on this email group list; if you are aware of a goalie or a player (boys and girls) interested in joining our group, please forward this on to that goalie/player and their parents.  Thank you.

Dates and Format:  We have scheduled 7 sessions of ice time for our 2008 Storm pre-season Goalie Camp this year.  Based upon the responses to our initial email, we plan on splitting the groups again based upon age.  The Mites and Squirts will skate the first hour of each session, followed by the Pee Wees and Bantams at the second hour.

Dates and times:

Sunday 8/10    SLP West    12:30-2:30 pm

Sunday 8/17    SLP West    12:30-2:30 pm

Sunday 8/24    SLP East    12:30-2:30 pm

Sunday 9/14    SLP West    10:30-12:30 pm

Sunday 9/21    SLP East    1:45-3:45 pm

Sunday 9/28    SLP East    1:45-3:45 pm

Sunday 10/5    SLP East    1:45-3:45 pm

Registration and Cost:  Again, camp costs will depend on confirmed number of participants.  Right now we are looking at projected costs of $150 per player.  Note that we will set final costs based on total participation, and this cost is an approximate cost.  Registration will take place on the first day of camp; your player will need to make a full payment to participate.  Scholarship applications are available upon confidential request (see below).  

Camp Staff:  The camp will again be run by Donnie Williams and Mark Klaers.  Donnie played his collegiate hockey at Augsburg and is the Head Goalie Coach for the St. Louis Park Oriole Varsity boys Hockey Team.  Mark played his collegiate hockey at St. Thomas, is a coach with several summer goaltender camps, and coached the Storm Squirt A goalies last year.  We have been fortunate to draw support for our program from a number of experienced former goalies including William Graves (Mankato State), Dan Hames (St. Mary's), and Paul Burke (Alaska-Fairbanks).  Additional staff will be added as needed, based upon participant response.  Members of the St. Louis Park Boys Varsity team will again participate as shooters.

Camp Goals:  The Storm Camp is in its second season.  The Camp was created to fill a need for getting Park and SW goalies a pre-season opportunity to drill with goaltender coaches in an intimate, four or five-to-one ratio setting outside of traditional "clinics" run primarily for skaters.  The Camp takes each goaltender and works with the player based upon their experience level, physical abilities, and age.  Younger goalies are taught the basics:  skating, edging, balance, stick position, glove position, and angles.  Our more experienced goalies are given more extensive work on all of these items, with more emphasis on recoveries, rebounds, strength and agility, crease and goal management, breakaways, handling screened shots, and other advanced techniques.  

Responses:  As this program feeds off of the participation of Storm goalies, we look forward to receiving responses from all our Storm players and parents on their intent to join this unique group of athletes.  We encourage responses from parents with any specific requests for work on particular areas of goaltending.  

Last year, our Storm Goalie Camp had a rate of participation of over 80% of all Storm goalies involved in our Squirt, Pee Wee, and Bantam programs.  Our success was due to the hard work of our goalies-and it showed on the ice last year.

I look forward to seeing your kids stopping pucks again this fall.  Please feel free to email me at duncan3260@msn.com, or call me at 612-964-1509 (cell), 612-349-9853 (work), or 952-925-3593 (home).

Doug McIntyre