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Skillz Hockey’s Cyril Bollers named to 2015 Canada Winter Games hockey staff

06 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Cyril Bollers, Darnell Nurse, Edmonton Oilers, Josh Ho-Sang, Montreal Canadiens, P.K. Subban, Pittsburgh Penguins., Sidney Crosby, Skillz Black Aces

Cyril Bollers, president and coach of Skillz Hockey, has been named an assistant coach for Ontario’s Under-16 hockey team that will compete in the 2015 Canada Winter Games.

Cyril Bollers will help map X's and O's for Team Ontario at 2015 Canada Winter Games.

Cyril Bollers will help map X’s and O’s for Team Ontario at 2015 Canada Winter Games.

Bollers will help Team Ontario Head Coach Drew Bannister,an assistant coach for the Ontario Hockey League’s Owen Sound Attack, guide a squad of some the province’s best hockey players under 16 years of age at the Winter Games, which are held every four years.  David Schlitt, head coach of the Huron-Perth Lakers Minor Midget team, rounds out the Ontario hockey coaching staff.

The 19-event sport festival will be held Feb. 13-March 1, 2015 in Prince George, British Columbia. The games have been a showcase for some of Canada’s best athletes including Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos, and Canadian women’s hockey Olympic Gold Medalist Haley Wickenheiser.

“This is wonderful. It’s an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to have been selected,” Bollers said. “I’m just going to go out, try my best and make Ontario proud.”

Bollers is president and head coach of Skillz Hockey and associate coach of the Markham Majors Minor Midget AAA team in the Toronto area. He is one of the few coaches of color in organized hockey.

There currently are only two minority head coaches in the NHL – Philadelphia Flyers’ Craig Berube and Buffalo Sabres Ted Nolan, who are both First Nations. Paul Jerrard, who is black, served as an assistant coach for the NHL Dallas Stars last season. He’s an assistant coach this season for the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets, a Vancouver Canucks farm team. Darren Lowe, who is black, coaches the University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s hockey team.

Bollers hopes to join their ranks in the not-to-distant future.

 Bollers hopes that he and the kids he's coached rise in pro hockey.

Bollers hopes that he and the kids he’s coached rise in pro hockey.

“After all the years of all the hard work, this is the opportunity that I was looking for,” Bollers said of the Canadian Winter Games appointment. “Once you get this opportunity you have to make the best of it and it could lead to other things.”

Between Markham and his Skillz Black Aces and Black Mafia teams, Bollers has coached a stable of players – minority and white – who’ve gone on to successful major junior hockey careers and positioned themselves to become NHL players.

Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds defenseman Darnell Nurse, the Edmonton Oilers first-round draft pick last summer, Kitchener Rangers forward Justin Bailey, a Buffalo Sabres 2013 second-round pick, and Bellville Bulls defenseman Jordan Subban, the Vancouver Canucks’ 2013 fourth-round pick and brother of Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban, all played under Bollers.

And more of Bollers’ former players are expected to chosen in the 2014 NHL Draft in Philadelphia this summer. Josh Ho-Sang, a forward for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires was listed as the 18th best North American skater in the NHL’s mid-term draft rankings last January; Brendan Lemieux, a forward for the OHL’s Barrie Colts and son of retired NHL player Claude Lemieux, was ranked 38th; Keegan Iverson, a forward for the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, was ranked 64th; Owen Sound Attack forward Jaden Lindo was ranked 96th; and Colts forward Cordell James placed 126th on the NHL list.

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Darnell Nurse sent back to the Soo

25 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Darnell Nurse, Edmonton Oilers, NHL draft, Seth Jones

The Edmonton Oilers sent first-round draft pick Darnell Nurse back to Sault Ste. Marie. (James Egan Photography)

The Edmonton Oilers sent first-round draft pick Darnell Nurse back to Sault Ste. Marie. (James Egan Photography)

He had a good run and turned a lot of heads, but defenseman Darnell Nurse was cut from the Edmonton Oilers training camp Tuesday night and returned to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, his junior team.

Nurse, the seventh pick in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft, was reassigned shortly after the Oilers’ 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers in Edmonton Tuesday night.

The 18-year-old nephew of retired Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb wasn’t expected to make the Oilers when training camp started. But he turned heads with his sometimes strong and aggressive play, particularly in a preseason game against the Vancouver Canucks last week.

Asked about how he felt when learning he was cut, a downcast Nurse told reporters “it sucks.”

“If anyone tells you it feels good to get cut, they’re lying to you,” he told reporters. “It sucks, there’s nothing fun about it, but they have the best plan for me in my development. I’m going to go back and dominate my league and hope I have an opportunity to play in the World Juniors.”

“I gave everything I had,” Nurse continued. “I came in as prepared as I could be. I was really fueled by the fact that so many people said I wasn’t good enough to keep up at this level. I think I proved a few people wrong over the course of this camp, but I still have a lot of room to grow as a player.”

Of the eight players of color taken in the 2013 draft, only defenseman Seth Jones remains in the training camp of the team that selected him. Jones, the fourth player picked in the draft, looks likely to make the Nashville Predators roster.

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