What started off as a challenging season for the NVMHA U11 A3 Storm team ended in storybook fashion.

After months of hard work and dedication from the players, parents, and coaches, the team managed to finish first in the league, as well as win the championships during playoffs.

So how exactly did the team pull off a perfect ending to their season?

NVMHA had the chance to chat with Jeff Maihara, hearing about how the U11 A3 team grew as players, as a team, and eventually took home the biggest title of their season.

Starting from scratch

While Jeff Maihara isn’t a stranger to coaching hockey, it was his first time coaching a rep hockey team from scratch. For him, one of the most important things that he was looking for when working with players was their values – he wanted them to be coachable and hardworking.

And while they lost games by a wide margin during exhibition games and the start of the season, the players never complained and always came ready to work.

“The parents were amazed at how the players all developed and worked as a team,” Jeff tells NVMHA in an interview. “They improved so much – they were unrecognizable compared to the beginning of the season.”

The path to improvement started with individual skill development. During their first month as a team, the majority of practices were spent working on individual skills such as skating, passing, and what Jeff describes as basic chaos drills.

“They skate around in a circle with the puck, keeping their heads up,” he explains. At first they were crashing into each other, it was a little comical. But within a month, they were skating around that area at full speed, they saw where each other was, and they were attacking each other’s pucks.

“That was one big step that really made them aware of where they were on the ice.”

Growing through the season

The U11 A3 team also received plenty of support from both the assistant coaches and parents to help them develop their on-ice skills.

Assistant coaches, both NVMHA players, ensured that players and goalies had opportunities to improve the minor details in their game. Not to mention, they were fortunate enough to have a parent on the team who was a former power skating coach – he would come on the ice every second practice.

Jeff added that the team also found ways to build chemistry and friendships off the ice.

“One of the first tournaments, towards the beginning of the season, we went to Kelowna,” he explained. “Between our games, we had them in the boardroom doing team building exercises like stacking cups, tic tac toe, anything that would build teamwork.”

“It was really good for them to get to know each other, because a lot of these kids had played on different teams but never together.”

They even learned by watching older players at NVMHA games. The U11 A3 team would watch U15 games, paying attention to different players and watching their positioning and even their play away from the puck.

As the season continued, the team started seeing results by the holidays – not only were they winning from improving their individual skills, they were also winning by sheer effort and being one of the least penalized teams.

“They weren’t quitting on pucks, they were changing when they were supposed to be, supporting their teammates.”

A storybook ending

By the time the regular season ended, the U11 A3s finished first place in their flight – a large part came from not just winning games, but securing the majority of their sportsmanship points.

After several close playoff games, the season ended in storybook fashion, winning against the North Shore Winter Club – a team that had handily beat them towards the beginning of the season.

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