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Glenview Stars January 2018 Update

By Glenview Stars Staff, 01/14/18, 3:00PM CST

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Winter break is over and the season is back in full swing. There is a lot of hockey coming your way!

Mid-Season Survey
We want to thank those of you who submitted your Mid-Season Survey. All 141 of the surveys received have been read and reviewed. It is a very useful tool for us to maximize every family’s experience. Hockey Director Sylvain Turcotte has contacted each and every coach and reviewed the results with him or her. We will be sending out another survey at the end of the season. Please complete it so we can continue to improve the program. We are hoping for a 100% return rate on the end of year survey.

Skills Sessions
One of the main concerns consistently voiced in survey responses was the quality of skills sessions. After lengthy review, we would like to inform you that we have redesigned the skills sessions to optimize our players’ development. All players are still required to attend every session every week. The only change to this requirement concerns excused absences for attendance at goalie clinics. That topic is covered later in the newsletter.

The new skills sessions will be structured as follows:

Mite Session: Instructed by Sandy Cooney, assisted by Cody Turcotte and one of the on-ice teams’ coaches.

Mount Prospect Sessions: Instructed by Tommy Robaczewski and Nick Gualano. Focus will be on power skating, speed training and edge work.

Glenview Sessions: Instructed by Rob Messner, assisted by Alex Merkle, Cody Turcotte and one of the on-ice teams’ coaches. Focus on group skills and station work every week.

Girls’ Sessions: Instructed by Rob Messner.

Goalie Clinics
Goalie Coach Dean Opper has asked for six shooters per session to assist him with goalie clinics, which is a win-win situation for everyone. Goalies will face more and different kinds of shots, more skaters will get a chance to shoot for an hour and attendance at Mt. Prospect skills nights will be reduced by two skaters, thereby increasing individual attention for those in attendance. Participation for shooters is mandatory. Please see the SignUpGenius form to sign your player up for a slot.  

Drylands
Survey responses indicate that Tactic Sports Performance has been a huge hit. As we took on the transition to Tactic, we were mindful of the difficulty in requiring all skaters to get to Tactic’s Northbrook facility on the same night as a skill session at Glenview or Mount Prospect. Survey responses suggest that many families would prefer the Tactic sessions take place at the Tactic’s practice facilities. We will continue to explore this topic and consider convenience, scheduling constraints, cost and access to equipment in arriving at the best possible solution for the Stars and Tactic next season. In the meantime, Tactic has offered Glenview Star players a discount for attendance at regularly scheduled Tactic classes — many players are already enjoying this opportunity. Classes are offered six days a week — please contact Casey Tiesman at casey@tacticsp.com with any questions.

Nutrition Seminar
We received very positive feedback from people who attended the Glenview Stars seminar on pre- and post-fueling and hydration strategies for Stars players and families. We plan to offer it again next year. In the meantime, if you would like more information and/or to see the materials distributed by Feed to Succeed’s Melanie Battaglia and Betsy Hjelmgren, visit the Glenview Stars website or download below. To contact Melanie and Betsy, email info@feedtosucceed.com.

Tournaments
The Stars have played in 36 tournaments so far. This weekend marks the biggest tournament weekend of the season: Martin Luther King Day weekend. We have nine teams on the road in Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois. After this weekend, three more teams will play in additional tournaments. After finishing up regular season play, playoffs for State (Illinois State Championship/Blackhawk Cup), NIHL (NIHL-Blackhawks Tournament) and Central States will start in a busy February. 

This year’s tournament schedule has once again provided a great opportunity for all of our teams to have fun on the road, bond as a team and bring home banners!

Some of our success stories include the following:

  • Squirt 4 captured third place in Sheboygan Lakers Tournament in their division.
  • Bantam 3 won the Wishbone Tournament in their division.
  • Bantam 1 won the Ruble on the Rink Tournament in Detroit in their division.
  • Bantam 2 took second place in the Big Bear Wright Angles Tournament in Madison, Wisc., in their division.

Good luck to all our Stars teams playing MLK weekend! Bring home those banners!

Glenview Stars Girls Program Update
The Stars' Girls teams have continued to offer a very positive environment for our female hockey players to grow and develop both as athletes and as young women. This year, we have teams participating at the U10, U12, and U14 levels and playing in NIHL Co-Ed divisions. A second U14 team is participating in the Girls NIHL division and our U16 team is playing independently. In addition to playing games locally, our girls teams have collectively travelled to many locations throughout North America to play against highly-competitive girls teams at their level. The teams have traveled or will travel to Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis, Minnesota, South Bend, Madison, and Ontario, Canada, during the course of their season. As our teams progress through the second half of the season, we wish each team the best of luck with the end of the regular season and commencement of the post season. As ever, we maintain that at Glenview, it is not girls' hockey, but rather Girls Playing Hockey.

Stars to Host Girls NIHL playoffs at the Glenview Ice Center
After an absence of several years, the Glenview Stars have been given the opportunity to host a division of the NIHL Playoffs in 2018. We will be hosting the Girls’ Division Consolation games on February 24, 2018, at the Glenview Ice Center. Games will start at 8 a.m. and run through 12:30 p.m. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS FROM ALL TEAMS. More details will be forthcoming, but we will need four volunteers per game x four games. Please consider volunteering an hour to help present the Stars in the best light possible to all of our visiting teams.

Glenview Stars Dinner Dance — Don't Miss It!
Saturday, February 10, 2018, is the date for this season’s annual fundraiser. The Stars have one fundraiser per year and this benefit is it! Last year's dinner dance proceeds were used to fund the coach/players development fund which sent coaches to clinics to update them on the newest techniques. It also funded the purchase of an iPad and Coaches Eye software for teams to use to review games.

We have incorporated new enhancements to our program this year that have been and will be funded by the proceeds from the dinner dance. They include the subscription to the coaches' evaluation software, Zoom Reports, and additional skills.

You should attend! This event is FREE OF CHARGE for parents of Stars players and will be held at Mission Hills Country Club, 1677 S. Mission Hills Road, Northbrook, Ill. Cocktails and bidding on auction items begins at 6:30 p.m. followed by dinner and dancing. Check out for the auction will begin at 9:45 p.m. and the event will end at 11 p.m.

More detailed information will be forthcoming regarding the benefit. Each team will donate a basket to the auction with a value of approximately $250. Most teams have it covered already. If yours does not, please consider helping your manager and take on this responsibility. Each team will be required to provide volunteers to help with the dance in terms of set up, selling raffle tickets, etc. A Sign Up Genius form link will be available soon.

For questions or to volunteer, please contact Desi Toutsias.

You will be receiving an invitation via email from your manager shortly and you will have to RSVP to your manager. 

Please consider donating gift certificates, products, or services for our silent auction. Your name and business card will be displayed next to your donation. Please contact Desi Toutsias with your donation.

New Rink Update
As you may know, the Glenview Park District Board voted 5–2 in favor of going to referendum on the March 20, 2018, ballot for $17 million to update The Grove, expand the Glenview Ice Center to 2-1/2 sheets and to create a fund to purchase open land. There is a committee in place with members from various organizations to help make Glenview residents aware of the upcoming vote. We need ALL Glenview Stars parents who are residents of Glenview to make sure are you registered to vote and then to get out and vote on the referendum on March 20, 2018. There will be more information coming on this topic. Meanwhile, please:

  1. Enter March 20, 2018 into your calendar to go vote
  2. Make sure you, your spouse, your neighbors, your friends and family of voting age are registered to vote!

Spring Season
Spring tryouts will be between March 12-18, 2018. Save the dates! More information will be available soon.

2018 NIHL-Blackhawks Tournament Host Locations

  • 14U Gold A & Elite – Bluehawks (Northbrook) - BT1
  • 10U Gold A – Sabres (Bolingbrook) - SQ1
  • 12U Gold B – Yellowjackets (Crystal Lake) - PW1
  • 14U Gold B – Leafs (West Dundee) - BT2
  • 10U Silver A – Wilmette (Wilmette) - SQ2
  • 12U Silver A – Cyclones (Geneva) – PW2
  • 10U Silver B – Ice Dogs (Vernon Hills) - SQ3, U10
  • 12U Silver B – Yellowjackets (Crystal Lake) - PW3, U12
  • 10U Bronze – Yellowjackets (Crystal Lake) - SQ4
  • 12U Bronze – Winnetka (Winnetka) - PW4
  • 14U Bronze – Yelllowjackets (Crystal Lake) - BT3, U14
  • 14U Girls Gold – St. Jude (Crestwood) - U14C
     
  • Elite, Gold A, Gold B, Silver A, Silver B, Bronze Championship: Jaguars (Joliet)
  • Girls Championship: Hawks (Darian)
     
  • Elite, Gold A Consolations: Yellowjackets (Crystal Lake) 
  • Gold B, Silver A, Silver B, Bronze Consolations: Leafs (West Dundee) 
  • Girls Consolation: Stars (Glenview)

2018 NIHL-Blackhawks Tournament Dates

  • 2/13/18 – 2/20/18 – Gold B, Silver, Bronze – First Round
  • 2/16/18 – 2/19/18 – Elite, Gold A – Round Robin games. Girls’ Gold – Playoff games
  • 2/24/18 – Gold B, Silver, Bronze – Second Round Games
  • 2/23/18 – 2/25/18 – Elite, Gold A, Girls’ Gold – Championship Weekend
  • 3/2/18 – 3/4/18 – Gold B, Silver, Bronze - Championship Weekend

2018 Illinois State Tournament Dates

  • 2/9/18 – 2/16/18 – First Round Eliminations
  • 2/17/18 – 2/15/18 – Second Round Eliminations
  • 3/1/18 – 3/4/18 – Round Robin Games
  • 3/5/18 – 3/6/18 – 3rd & 4th Place Games Played
  • 3/8/18 – 3/11/18 – Championship Games

If there are other topics you would like to have us address in upcoming newsletters, please let us know by email at info@glenviewstars.org.