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Miami ice: Randy Hernandez joins U.S. National Team Development Program

10 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Florida Panthers, NTDP, Randy Hernandez, USA Hockey

Most kids who grow up in Miami, Florida, and dream of becoming professional athletes usually think football – the unofficial religion of the U.S. South – basketball, baseball, or even soccer.

Randy Hernandez thinks ice hockey. And his dream has taken him from a novice skater who first laced up a pair of skates at a cousin’s birthday party at age six to a member of the prestigious U.S. National Team Development Program’s Under-17 squad.

Randy Hernandez will play for the NTDP in the USHL (Photo/Rena Laverty).

Randy Hernandez will play for the NTDP in the USHL (Photo/Rena Laverty).

Hernandez was named to the team after finishing one full season of AAA hockey with the Florida Alliance in which he tallied 53 goals, 40 assists in 54 games at center. In addition to USA Hockey, Hernandez’s play caught the attention of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, an Ontario Hockey League major junior team. The Greyhounds drafted him in the 13th-round in April with the 261st overall pick.

“I don’t think I’m ready to play for major juniors right now,” Hernandez told me recently. “NTDP will help me grow as a player, and then I’ll make a decision between the OHL and college when I’m done.”

In the meantime, he is slated to play 35 games in the 2015-16 season for the U.S. National Under 17 team that competes in the United States Hockey League, a feeder league for several NCAA Division I hockey programs. The team is located in Plymouth. Mich., a long way from sunny Miami.

“My mom’s definitely a little bit nervous that I’m staying here with a new family, of course,” said Hernandez, 16. “But my family is happy for me because they know that this is what I want to do. I’m going to leave my parents and it’s going to be a little tough on me, but this is obviously the sport that I want to play and I want to get as far as I can in it. I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”

In many ways, Hernandez’s ascension in hockey is the typical All-American story of a kid who falls in love with the game and chases the dream of playing in the National Hockey League.

But Randy Hernandez’s story is far from typical. He is the son of Cuban immigrants who arrived in Florida 20 years ago. His father, Roberto, is a trucker and his mother, Marlen, a stay-at-home parent.

His grandfather, Dr. Fernando Gonzalez, is a psychiatrist who came to Miami from Cuba via Spain in 1972. He was the one who took Hernandez to the birthday party at Miami’s Kendall Ice Arena, where he immediately fell in love with skating.

“My grandfather, he actually pushed me to play hockey – he wanted me to try a new sport,” Hernandez recalled. “He’s the one who helps me out with hockey. He’s gone to all my games, he’s really supportive of me. He’s also paid for my hockey, and I’m really grateful for that.”

After a big season of AAA hockey in Florida, Randy Hernandez will play two seasons for the NTDP team in Plymouth, Michigan (Photo/Rena Laverty).

After a big season of AAA hockey in Florida, Randy Hernandez will play two seasons for the NTDP team in Plymouth, Michigan (Photo/Rena Laverty).

After the birthday party, Gonzalez enrolled his grandson in skating lessons. Hernandez’s progress on the ice was noticed by coaches of the AA Miami Toros and they approached Gonzalez about his grandson give hockey a try.

“I didn’t even know hockey existed,” Gonzalez recalled. “I was a fan of baseball.”

Hernandez said he quickly took to hockey and started to notice that by age 8 he was a little faster than the other players.

“When I was 12 or 13 and when I started going up North with my Florida team to play against AAA teams, that’s when I thought I might have a shot” at a pro career, he said.

In March, Hernandez was invited to the NTDP’s evaluation camp, where he skated with players from hockey powerhouses like Massachusetts’ Cushing Academy, Minnesota’s Shattuck-St. Mary’s School, Michigan’s Compuware minor midget program, and Philadelphia’s Team Comcast minor midget team.

John Arceo, a Miami Toros coach, said he wasn’t surprised that Hernandez was able to compete with players from New England and Minnesota, despite coming from the land of palm trees, South Beach and KC & the Sunshine Band.

“He has a professional hockey player’s work ethic,”  Arceo told me. “He’s the first kid on the ice, the first kid in drills, the first kid in off-ice training. Even as a 10-year-old, he had that ethic.”

And these days, his rise has parts of Miami talking. Octavio Sequera, a reporter for ESPN Deportes Miami who does color analysis in Spanish for Florida Panthers broadcasts, calls Hernandez’s move to the national development team “huge.”

“For Florida, especially the city of Miami, it means a lot because he’s the first one, the first one from the Kendall Ice Arena, the South Florida area, to be selected for USA Hockey,” Sequera told me. “He will be like a pioneer, in that sense. Randy will be the first Cuban – I say Cuban because of his parents – to be selected from Miami.”

Sequera said that Hernandez’s selection to the NTDP shows that hockey is gaining traction in South Florida’s Hispanic community, fueled by the Panthers. Last season, the broadcast seven games in Spanish. It will carry all 41 home games in Spanish for the 2015-16 season. The Panthers have one Hispanic player, Cuban-American goaltender Al Montoya.

“Here at ESPN Deportes we’re working on a campaign where we can actually bring more kids to the games, more Randy Hernandezes,” Sequera said. “There are a lot of other kids that see Randy as an example. Not only that, a lot of Hispanic parents are taking Randy’s story as an example.”

Sequera included. He enrolled his five-year-old son in a learn to play hockey program at the Kendall arena and he marvels at what he sees and hears on the ice and in the stands.

“The kids know the game, love the game, so now their parents are getting involved,” he told me. “You go to the bleachers, you go to the stands, you see a lot of people speaking in Spanish trying to learn about the game, and the kids are the ones teaching the parents what the game is all about. It’s very nice to see.”

 

 

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Nashville Predators’ Seth Jones named to 2014 U.S. World Championship team

16 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

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Dan Bylsma, International Ice Hockey Federation, Nashville Predators, Peter Laviolette, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins., Seth Jones, USA Hockey

Nashville Predators defenseman Seth Jones’ rookie National Hockey League season is over, with the Preds failing to make the playoffs, but his hockey year is far from being done.

No NHL playoffs for Nashville's Seth Jones but more international hockey as a Team USA member.

No NHL playoffs for Nashville’s Seth Jones but more international hockey as a Team USA member.

Jones was among the first 15 players named Tuesday to the U.S. Men’s National Team that will play in the 2014 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship May 9-25 in Minsk, Belarus. Jones, the fourth player selected in the 2013 NHL Draft, played in 77 games for the Predators and tallied six goals and 19 assists. He averaged 19:37 minutes on ice per game.

Jones adds a wealth of international experience to the U.S. squad, having played for U.S. national development teams since 2010-11.  He was a member of U.S. junior teams that won Gold Medals in 2013, 2012, and 2011. The son of former NBA player Popeye Jones was invited to the 2014 U.S. men’s hockey team’s pre-Olympic orientation camp last summer, the only invitee who hadn’t played in an NHL game.

He didn’t make the U.S. Olympic team but USA Hockey officials made it clear that Jones is definitely on their radar for the 2016 Winter Olympics, if the NHL sends its players to the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. In the meantime, playing in the 2014 Worlds will mean that Jones will postpone rest for what already has been a long hockey period for him.  He started the 2012-13 season with the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, then played in the Junior World Championship, then returned to the Winterhawks for hockey’s Memorial Cup championship. He took about two-three weeks off between the time the Winterawks lost to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Halifax Mooseheads in the Memorial Cup final and the 2013 NHL Draft. “It definitely felt like a 12-year – er, 12 month season,” Jones said at the pre-Olympic orientation camp.

Jones could be a vital cog in USA Hockey rebuilding its national team after an American squad filled with NHL players failed to medal at

the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  That team was led by Pittsburgh Penguins Head Coach Dan Bylsma. USA Hockey

Former Flyers Coach Peter Laviolette seeks to improve U.S. hockey team's performance.

Former Flyers Coach Peter Laviolette seeks to improve U.S. hockey team’s performance.

Tuesday named former Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette the bench boss of the 2014 men’s national team.

Laviolette served as an assistant coach in Sochi. Laviolette and his players will look to avenge the poor U.S. performance in Sochi and

improve upon the Bronze Medal the Americans won at the 2013 Worlds played in Helsinki and Stockholm last May.

The other players named to the team Tuesday were New York Islanders defenseman Matt Donovan; Torontoa Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Gardiner; Florida Panthers forward Jimmy Hayes; Boston College forward Kevin Hayes; goaltender Connor Hellebuyck of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Buffalo Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe; forward Peter Mueller of Switzerland’s Kloten Flyers; New York Islanders forward Brock Nelson; Edmonton Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry; Florida Panthers forward Drew Shore; Nashville Predators forward Craig Smith; forward Tim Stapleton of the AK Bars Kazan of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League; Florida Panthers forward Vince Trocheck; and Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba.

The rest of the U.S. roster could be filled later with NHL players whose teams didn’t make the Stanley Cup Playoffs or are eliminated in the early rounds.

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Hockey heals body and soul, prepares vets Roman and Lee for Paralympics

28 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

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Colorado College, Fort Sam Houston, Jen Lee, Mexico, Operation Comfort, Paralympics, Puerto Rico, Rico Roman, San Antonio Rampage, San Francisco, Taiwan, U.S. Army, University of Wisconsin Badgers, USA Hockey

As members of the U.S. Army, Rico Roman and Jen Lee are part of America’s first line of defense. As members of the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey team, Roman and Lee are the last line of defense.

Roman is a rugged defensemen who took to sled hockey because it reminded him of the hard-hitting football he played in his youth in Portland, Ore. Lee decided to don goalie gear because it brought back memories of playing net while growing up in San Francisco.

Neither man envisioned that they would become world-class athletes who’d be on the cusp of competing in the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, this March. But neither of them envisioned losing a limb, a devastating event that can alter the trajectory of a person’s life.

But don’t plan pity parties for Roman and Lee. They’ve turned tragedy into triumph by playing a sport they never thought they’d play that’s taking them to places that they never thought they’d go.

Army Staff Sgt. Rico Roman hopes to be Sochi-bound. (Photo/USA Hockey, Bill Wippert)

Army Staff Sgt. Rico Roman hopes to be Sochi-bound. (Photo/USA Hockey, Bill Wippert)

“I didn’t watch hockey, I don’t come from a hockey state, Oregon isn’t hockey country,” Roman told me recently. “Never did I know there was a Paralympic team. I never, never, never, never thought I’d be traveling and playing for the U.S.A. team.”

Hockey hurts: the vulcanized rubber puck that travels at speed in excess of 100 miles per hour always seems to find a section of unprotected flesh to strike and teeth-rattling body checks are jarring.

But hockey also heals, body and soul. And for Roman, 32, and Lee, 27, the game provided the right medicine at the right time.

“I think a lot of people thought, hey, our goal would be to try to walk again, or even run,” Lee told me. “Getting involved in this sport, to get out there, move around, play for the national team and represent your country and play all over internationally, it’s really cool.”

Army Staff Sergeant Rico Roman is the first war-wounded veteran to land a spot on the U.S. National sled hockey team. He joined the Army in 2001 after graduating from Alpha High School in Gresham, Ore.

Roman in action. (Photo/USA Hockey, Bill Wippert)

Roman in action. (Photo/USA Hockey, Bill Wippert)

On February 22, 2007, Roman was working his third tour in Iraq, finishing work at a security checkpoint that day at Sadar al Yusuf. He decided that his Humvee would lead the vehicular caravan back to base.

It was struck by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and the blast damaged both of Roman’s legs. The pain in his left leg became so unbearable that a year later he opted to have it amputated just above the knee.

While recovering at the Brooke Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, Roman was approached by members of Operation Comfort, a nonprofit group that provided rehabilitative and therapeutic programs for wounded vets at the medical center.

The son of a Mexican-American mother and Puerto Rican father, Roman took up hand cycling, using specialized bikes for disabled users, and wheelchair basketball with competitive zeal. When Operation Comfort staffers suggested to Roman that he try sled hockey, he shook his head.

Once Operation Comfort staffers got Roman to the rink, they couldn’t get him out. He joined the San Antonio Rampage, a sled hockey team comprised of military veterans. He joined the U.S. National team in the 2011-12 season.

“Once I got on the ice, I was hooked,” said Roman, a Purple Heart recipient.  “I’m so happy they (Operation Comfort) did that for me. Now I do what they were doing; I go to Brooke Army Medical Center and I try to recruit guys to come try it out. And they tell me the same thing I said ‘I don’t play hockey, I don’t watch hockey.’ I go ‘I said the exact same thing you told me right now and now I’m on the Paralympic team heading to Russia.'”

Army Staff Sergeant Jen Lee is teammates with Roman on the Rampage and the U.S. Paralympics team.  He enlisted in the Army after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Lee, 27, ended up at Brooke Army Medical Center after being involved in a motorcycle accident in 2009. His left leg was amputated above the knee. But the surgery didn’t dim his competitive athletic nature.

Staff Sgt. Jen Lee hopes to tend goal for U.S. team at Paralympics. (Photo/USA Hockey, Bill Wippert)

Staff Sgt. Jen Lee hopes to tend goal for U.S. team at Paralympics. (Photo/USA Hockey, Bill Wippert)

He embraced adaptive sports offered by Operation Comfort as part of his physical therapy regimen. His hockey experience as a kid convinced him to give sled hockey a chance.

“I couldn’t skate really well playing in-line, so I tried goalie,” he said. “When sled hockey came around, I had the same concept: I’m not great skating, I played goalie before, maybe it will be the same.”

Lee, who’s of Taiwanese heritage, quickly found a home between the pipes. He started playing for the Rampage in 2010. A year later, Lee was chosen for the U.S. National Sled Hockey team. He helped backstop the U.S. team to a gold medal at the 2012 International Paralympic Committee Ice Sledge World Championship and a silver medal at the 2013 world championships.

“I love it. I guess you’ve got to be weird to stop pucks, but I really enjoy it,” he said. “I’m the kind of person that f I play an away game I love to hear the crowd get upset that I’ve made a magnificent save or a great save.”

Army  Staff Sgt. Jen Lee, defending the goal. (Photo/USA Hockey, Bill Wippert)

Army Staff Sgt. Jen Lee, defending the goal. (Photo/USA Hockey, Bill Wippert)

Lee and Roman said the most enjoyable thing about being part of the sled hockey team is the locker room. The Rampage team is filled with members of all branches of the military.”We clown on each other and make fun of each other,” Lee said. “We always find ways to get ourselves going, motivate each other. We all know what we’ve got to do to prepare. Go out there like it’s a battlefield, prepare your boys, train well. It’s almost the same thing except you’re not getting shot at…except for me, really. I’m still getting shot at.”

The U.S. sled hockey program is serious business. The national and Paralympics team is coached by Jeff Sauer, the retired University of Wisconsin and Colorado College hockey coach who led the Badgers to NCAA hockey championships in 1983 and 1990. In a 31-year NCAA Division I coaching career, Sauer racked up 655 wins, two national titles, 12 NCAA tournament berths, six Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff titles and two WCHA regular-season crowns.

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Pre-Olympics camps highlight NHL’s diversity

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Carey Price, Chicago Blackhawks, First Nations, Hockey Canada, NHL, Ojibwe, Olympics, P.K. Subban, Patrick Kane, Sochi, T.J. Oshie, USA Hockey

When Team USA and Team Canada prospects gather for pre-Olympics orientation camps next week, some of the National Hockey League’s best players of color and Native heritage will be in the mix to represent their countries in Sochi, Russia in February 2014.

Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien.
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien.

Three players of color were among the 48 invitees to the U.S. camp: Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, from Roseau. Minn.; New York Islanders forward Kyle Okposo, a St. Paul, Minn., native; and Nashville Predators rookie defenseman Seth Jones, born in Plano, Texas. USA Hockey will hold its orientation camp Aug. 26-27 at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Va., the practice facility for the Washington Capitals.

Two players of Native heritage players received camp invites. St. Louis Blues forward T.J. Oshie, who is part Ojibwe (Chippewa), will join the U.S. invitees at the Kettler facility. Montreal Canadiens star goaltender Carey Price, whose mother is a former chief of the Ulkatcho First Nations, will attend Team Canada’s orientation camp.

Blues' T.J. Oshie hopes to be in Sochi in February.

Blues’ T.J. Oshie hopes to be in Sochi in February.

The U.S. camp boasts an offensively potent roster that mixes youth, talent, and international experience with forwards Oshie, Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Paul Statsny of the Colorado Avalanche. The defensive corps has size and nastiness with the likes of Byfuglien, Jack Johnson of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Keith Yandle of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban headlines a deep  47-player Team Canada orientation camp roster that includes Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, Tampa Bay Lightning sniper Steven Stamkos, Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp and the Brothers Staal: forwards Eric and Jordan of the Carolina Hurricanes and defenseman Marc of the New York Rangers. Team Canada will hold its camp August 25-28 in Calgary.

Montreal's P.K. Subban

Montreal’s P.K. Subban

Among the other international teams participating in the Winter Games, Team Sweden invited Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya to its camp.

With teams able to pick from the best hockey players in the world, some highly-talented NHL skaters didn’t receive camp invites. Notably absent for Team Canada were Winnipeg Jets high-scoring forward Evander Kane and Nazem Kadri, the Toronto Maple Leafs forward who had a breakout year last season that helped the Leafs end a long playoff appearance drought.The start of the camps begins the biggest mystery for both teams: who will be the goalies going to Sochi?  Team USA invited six netminders: Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings, Cory Schneider of the New Jersey Devils, Jimmy Howard of the Detroit Red Wings, Craig Anderson of the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres’ Ryan Miller, who backstopped the U.S. team to a Silver Medal at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.But the most intriguing competitor for one of the Team USA three goaltender slots is John Gibson, the 20-year-old Anaheim Ducks draftee who played last season for the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League.

Seth Jones (Photo: USA Hockey).

Seth Jones (Photo: USA Hockey).

Johnny Oduya hopes to represent Sweden in Sochi.

Johnny Oduya hopes to represent Sweden in Sochi.

Gibson supplanted Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Helsinki and Stockholm last May and guided the U.S. team to a Bronze Medal. He has a solid international pedigree, having guided U.S. under-20 teams to Gold Medals at the IIHF Junior World Championships in 2013 and 2011.

Montreal's Carey Price vies in a crowded net for Olympic spot.

Montreal’s Carey Price vies in a crowded net for Olympic spot.

Canada also must untangle its net. Hockey Canada’s brain trust will have to choose from the Chicago Blackhawks’ Corey Crawford, Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals, Montreal’s Price, Mike Smith of the Phoenix Coyotes, and Vancouver Canucks’ Roberto Luongo, who was the winning goaltender in the Gold Medal game against the United States at the Vancouver Games.

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