On March 16th a local youth hockey team won the privilege to compete for the
USA Hockey National Championships, held this year in Hackensack New Jersey.
The
Arapahoe Bantam AA Ice Warriors, skating out of the Family Sports Center in Centennial, defeated the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes (Arizona State Champs) in the final game to win the USA Hockey Tier II 14 and Under Rocky Mountain District Championships in Oklahoma City March 16.
By winning the Colorado State Championship on March 2nd, the Arapahoe Bantam AAs qualified to represent Colorado in the District Championships, where the state Champs from Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico competed for the District title.
Arapahoe defeated the Jr. Coyotes 2-0 in a hard fought game where Arapahoe's size, strength, conditioning, and teamwork overwhelmed the fast breakout style game played by Phoenix.
The Coyotes out shot the Warriors, putting 23 shots on net to Arapahoe's 16, but superior special teams play, goal tending, and defense allowed the Warriors to withstand the attacks. Forechecking heavily, and owning the neutral zone, the outstanding Arapahoe defense allowed no goals despite 6 penalty kills. Taking the final penalty with 1:32 left in regulation, the Warriors withstood a 6-on-4 man attack as the Jr. Coyotes pulled their goalie for the remainder of the game, shutting out the Coyotes, who are ranked 16th in the nation. Truly a team victory.
The Colorado State, and now Rocky Mountain District Champion Arapahoe Bantam AAs are made up of seventeen boys ages 14 and 15 from Centennial, Monument, Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Parker and Greenwood Village. Most of the boys have been competing on travel ice hockey teams for many years, spending as much as four nights a week from September to March training at Family Sports. In addition to being great athletes, most of these outstanding young men are honor students at their respective High or Middle schools and several maintain a 4.0 "perfect" grade point average. The team is made up of the following players:
Collin Abitz,
Mac Abruzzo,
Shawn Badali,
Cameron Blair,
Cole Brychka ,
Colin Champine,
Garrett Cologne,
Luke Fiegl,
Jordan Friedman,
Alex Gresh,
Daniel Hogue,
Ryan Martin,
Garrett Prochazka,
Jock Purchase,
Cooper Roberts,
Leon Seserman, and
Thomas Stack. The Warriors are coached by
Gerry Hogue,
Vince Cologne, and
Steve Smith, and the team is managed by
Tracy Cologne.
The team's web site is located here:
www.easyteammanager.com/index.cfm. The Arapahoe Youth Hockey club site is located at
www.ayhl.com. You can follow the progress of the team during the National Championships at this site:
www.usahockey.com/Youth_Nationals_2008/default.aspx?NAV=AF_06&ID=216392.
Go Warriors!!