The Genesee Amateur Hockey Association (GAHA) Timbit Beginners will be participating in their end of the year “Jamboree” on Saturday / March 18th starting at 9 a.m. at the David McCarthy Memorial Arena.
The world has the Olympics, Buffalo has pond hockey, but we have the Beginner Cross-Ice Event – ‘THE JAMBOREE”. The draft has taken place and the teams are set. Game schedules are confirmed and the blue lines are waiting for the hockey players to stand on them for the National Anthem. The Rink will be divided into three areas and two teams will play against one another in two-minute shifts for 12 minutes; then they move on to play more “games” with other teams — a total of 4 games. Since there are five teams, the team not scheduled for a “game” will participate in skill drills in the middle section.
At 9 a.m., the players will be introduced one by one as they step onto the ice and proceed to the Blue Line for the National Anthem. This year, the National Anthem will be played by Miles Meyer on his electric guitar. Miles is the grandson of the late Dave Meyer who had a long history with GAHA serving as President for several years and coaching from the Mite level right up to being Assistant Coach with the Notre Dame Hockey team. We’d love to have you join us and capture the progress of the little players ages 4 to 12. This year, the beginner program consisted of 69 registered players. They are coached by Brian McCarthy along with Nick Harris as well as many other dads, family members plus several GAHA Student Coaches serving as on-ice helpers.
Without all of this support it would be impossible to run this program.
Most of the players have been on the ice since early October through today. About 23 joined the program in early January after participating in the November USA Hockey – Try Hockey for Free event. At practices they run through drills established by USA Hockey’s American Development Modules – six stations are set up around the rink and a different drill is introduced at each station. The players move from station to station.
GAHA is thankful for the sponsorship of their Beginner Program by the local Tim Horton Shop managed by Dave Lumberg. They provide the jerseys for all of the players as well as Timbit donuts for our special functions throughout the year.
For this Jamboree, the players are divided into five teams (featuring the Black Team, the Royal Blue Rockets, the Navy Team, the White Lightnings and the Red Hamsters) denoted by the color of their jerseys and will play five 12-minute games with shifts of two minutes. A great time is had by all.
At the end of the Jamboree the GAHA organization will offer a free family skate for the Beginner Program until Noon and the McCarthy Rink Staff and Management will be providing “free” rental skates for those participating.
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