A Word from the GM
Matt Smith
It’s been an exciting summer at UTC Ice!!! We had 3 very successful camps that ran simultaneously. Our Junior Figure Skating Camp got busier and busier throughout the 7 weeks as word got out about how fantastic the counselors were and how much fun the kids were having. A big thank you to Nikki Baharie, Heather Cristobal and Brittney Olson for making this a truly awesome experience for the campers!
Tim Paden headed up our first ever Junior Hockey Camp. This camp also became more popular as word got out about how great it was. Matt Smith ran power skating lessons and both Logan Monje and Adam Hout stepped in to help out. The kids had a great time and learned some great skills they can use throughout the rest of their hockey careers.
Our Advanced Figure Skating Camp was great too!!! Skaters were training 2 ½ to 3 hours on the ice daily as well as having ballet, hip hop, flexibility and conditioning classes. They learned new spins in the spin class and worked there back ends off during the stroking classes!
UTC Ice is wrapping up summer camps with Pro Ambitions Battle Camp. There are over 30 young players on the ice in this advanced hockey camp. All week the kids are getting 2 hours of intense drills on the ice and an hour of dry-land training. Half way through the camp and the kids are already exhausted!!! Way to go Pro Ambitions Staff!
Piranha Hockey
This summer was the summer of ICE TIME!!! Most players from Mite and up got 2 hours of practice and 2 games weekly! As the summer progressed the time on the ice paid off. We truly were competitive against the other rinks in the Metro League. Total control of the in-house games allowed players to try different positions on the ice, while the coaches were able to teach in game situations.
We advanced the 5pm Friday practice to the USA Hockey stations hour. Each station developed different aspects of skills and it guaranteed lots of skating and touching the puck!
As we move into the new season we are looking at having 5 Metro Teams and 1 team in the advanced tiered league. We’re graduating many Academy players onto the Mini Mite Team. Due to the USA Hockey rule all San Diego Mites will play half ice. This means lots of ice time as often times no one will be on the bench. The other major advantage is the amount of time each player will be able to touch the puck due to the condensed playing area. We will also have Squirts and a Peewee Team. The tiered team will be our Squirt Tournament Team. This select group of players will play against other local tournament teams.
Tournament Teams
The governing body, USA Hockey, has decided Mite teams have to play half ice. The argument between full and half ice has been going on for some time now and continues to affect Tournaments at the Mite level. In fact there have been no Tournaments scheduled with the exception of SDIA’s Labor Day Tournament. The Anaheim Ducks who usually include Mites in their Tournament have decided not to schedule anything for the Mite level.
This mandatory rule change has made the UTC Ice Piranhas Tournament Teams rethink their strategy for the upcoming season. More to come later on that, so stay tuned!!!
Pro Ambitions Hockey
This is the second year Pro Ambitions has come to UTC Ice and they are doing a tremendous job with the players! There truly professional staff is great with the kids. They are running really great drills on and off the ice.
The majority of players are Piranhas which is awesome, but it is also nice to see players from the Kroc Saints and SDIA Oilers participating! What a great turn out and we look forward to having these guys back next year!!!
Figure Skaing Director
Brittney Olson
We have come to the end of another great year of Summer Camps, and our skaters had so much fun this summer! Our Advanced Camp skaters have learned so much and improved tremendously in such a short period of time. Jr Camp was a blast this summer. The kids had fun with cool crafts and showed off their skills each Friday in a recital performance for their parents and all the public session skaters. What a great summer!!!
Skate by the Sea Competition
Our competition will be Saturday August 17th starting at 12:30pm. The final competition schedule will be posted on the home page of our website and sent out to all coaches.
We welcome all spectators even if you are not in the competition, so come and watch all the skaters perform. We will also have cool skating vendors so you can do a little shopping if you like.
If you would like to volunteer to help out please contact Brittney Olson for more information.
Make-up Classes
Skating Academy members I want to remind you of our make-up class policy. With all of the vacations and beach days you’ve probably missed a class or two this summer. Remember that you can make up your class with the same class on another day, within 30 days of your missed class. For example, if you normally come to Youth Starter on Saturdays and you missed a class, you can come on Wednesday or Thursday to do the Youth Starter class then.
Epic Edge
Intermediate just finished their choreography week and our program is already awesome this season! They will be skating a Bollywood style program to “Bombay Dreams” soundtrack. We are looking forward to choreography for Open Juv and Pre juv this month also. Open Juv will be skating a rock star program to “Addicted to Love” and “You Give Love a Bad Name”. Pre Juv will skate this season to the “Hercules” soundtrack. It is going to be a successful year for us!!!
We still have space for more skaters for all teams and will be forming an Open Collegiate team. If you are skater going to college in the San Diego area please contact us for more info on this new and exciting team.
Contacts: Coach Brittney Olson – Brittney.olson@epic-edge.org and Team Manager Gina Williams – gwillia7@san.rr.com
Adult Hockey
Mike Duffey
Adult Hockey August Newsletter –
Fall/Winter Season is starting next month:
September 8th – Bronze/Copper Division – 3:55pm-10:45pm – 12 Teams
September 9th – Gold Division – 7:45pm-10:25pm – 6 Teams
September 10th/11th – Silver Division – 6:50pm-10:50pm – 10 Teams
September 12th – Platinum – 7:30pm-10:10pm – 6 Teams
We are approaching our upcoming season and all the leagues are full; so be sure to contact your captains to inform them whether or not you are playing next season. If you need to check the schedule to see if you are able to participate in the upcoming season, please visit our website: www.utcice.com .
All players must have USA Hockey Registration in order to step on the ice. All USA Hockey Registrations are due at the time of sign up. All players must turn in a hard copy of their USA Hockey 2013-2014 registration into the UTC Ice Box Office. If you are signing up at home, please email the confirmation page to mduffey@utcice.com and the employees in the UTC Ice Box Office will print out a hard copy for our records.
We will still have our “Monday Night Skills, Drills & Scrimmage” Hockey Clinic at 6:30pm – 7:30pm for $20 per player. All new players start off at our rink by attending the Monday Night Clinic and get evaluated so we are able to place them in the right league level.
Because of our break with the Adult League, ice is available to rent.
Ice times that are available to rent:
Monday August 26th – 7:30 pm
Tuesday August 27th – 9:40 pm
Wednesday August 28th – 6:50 pm
Thursday August 29th – 7:30 pm
Contact another Captain(s) and split the ice time! If you are in need of a goalie, contact Mike Duffey. Please contact Matt Smith for ice times available @ msmith@utcice.com
In playoffs, let’s have fun, sportsmanlike competition. Meet a new friend, you never know, he/she could be on your team next season!! Thanks for supporting our leagues!!