Washington Capitals Step Up to Promote Silver Goalie Coach Education Course
Eight tiny goaltenders squared off in a scrimmage between periods of a recent Washington Capitals home game. It was one of those events that keeps the fans in the stands entertained and makes social media gush over the cuteness.
That scrimmage was just a tiny element of what took place in the nation’s capital from Jan. 31-Feb. 2. More importantly, it was the culmination of four months of hard work by 100 folks from across the country seeking accreditation as part of USA Hockey’s Silver Goalie Coach Education Course.
The silver course is three 3½-hour virtual sessions once a month covering season planning, drill design and player evaluation, all centered on developing young goalies. It is also part of a three-level approach in support of USA Hockey’s 51 in 30 initiative. That program aims to have American goaltenders play 51 percent of the minutes played at the highest levels of hockey — specifically the NHL and the PWHL — by 2030.
“We know that we’re not going to achieve that by just getting to the goalies and maybe hosting a high-performance camp for our 5 percentile,” said Steve Thompson, USA Hockey’s manager of player development for goaltending since 2019. “We’ve got to make sure we’re hitting every single kid that comes to the rink. So from a competitive standpoint, we know [the course is] huge because the best long-term plan for player development is coach education and we know the more registered bronze, silver, gold coaches we have on benches in our country, the better goaltenders we’re going to have from a performance standpoint.”
The silver course is the second of three steps coaches can take with USA Hockey.
The bronze level is three virtual calls with associated homework assignments, while the silver is “a lot more robust,” Thompson said, with the aforementioned in-person event at an NHL site, where coaches will be analyzed on how they apply what they have learned to young goalies they might never have interacted with before. If they meet the USA Hockey standards, coaches earn their silver certificate.
For the gold course, there are nine months of virtual classes to go along with a thesis-like project. Each of the classes has different instructors who specialize in the subject matter. Coaches are generally reimbursed for course costs through their local organizations.
These courses aren’t just for the coaches who have been in the sport and looking for an edge at the highest levels. No, they are for anyone, from the parent of a youngster just looking to make sure their kid or others at their home rink get the proper training, up to those in professional leagues.
It is rewarding for Thompson, who is very active in the classes, to see everything come together like it did Jan. 31-Feb. 2, where coaches congregated in the Washington area and put their lessons into action at the Capitals’ suburban practice facility, MedStar Capitals Iceplex. One of the activities the coaches went through was guiding players through their first experiences putting on the pads and trying out the position.
“There’s a big difference between sitting on a Zoom call and talking and watching some video of kids on the ice and then actually being on the ice and managing the chaos of kids running around and having fun and everything else,” Thompson said. “After they get to spend a weekend together and do all the cool things that we do, it really starts to feel like a family and that’s our mission.”
Part of creating that family is receiving support from the NHL teams who provide ice time and many other resources to USA Hockey to complete the final step in the silver course. This year, the fifth time held in partnership with an NHL team, the Capitals stepped up.
Jessie Thompson, the Capitals’ senior manager of youth hockey development, said her group was approached about hosting this event last summer. Part of the allure for the Capitals was how it aligned with the franchise’s 50th anniversary season, in particular the “Dot Com Caps” (1997-2005), an era the team honored during their game on Feb. 1.
Those Caps had a particularly recognizable netminder in Olaf Kolzig, better known as “Olie the Goalie.” Despite being a South African-born German, Kolzig nonetheless was a terrific ambassador for the position at this event, as was another Caps backstop, Brent Johnson.
USA Hockey leaves it up to the NHL team how much it wants to be involved in the events and Jessie Thompson said the Caps wanted to be all-in, which included paying a portion of the class fees for coaches from the region. Not only did Kolzig and Johnson participate, but the team’s goalie coach, Scott Murray, also spoke and was part of a question-and-answer session with those taking the course.
For the second-intermission game, the eight kid goalies were split into Kolzig and Johnson teams, with each one wearing the NHL netminder’s respective number on a Capitals jersey from the era and matching wrapped pads. Following the mini-game, Kolzig interviewed a 6-year-old participant and asked who his favorite goalie was.
“Well, it’s not you,” Jessie Thompson said was the kid’s response. “The entire arena erupted. It was so funny, but he knew who Oli was. He thought it was so cool to wear his pads.”
Steve Thompson said the coaches who go through the accreditation process are also tasked with breaking down stereotypes of goalies, like you must be crazy to play the position.
Another is the cost of being a goalie. He said there are grants available to cover the cost of goaltending equipment, thus making the position affordable on many levels.
By the end of the weekend, another 100 coaches had more experience to take back home and be better instructors for the next wave of goaltenders.
Who knows, one of the kids at the camp in D.C. or in the goalie scrimmage at the Capitals game could one day be the centerpiece of a U.S. team that captures another Olympic gold medal. Or maybe that kid has yet to strap on the pads for the first time.
“I would just encourage coaches to take the bronze and just make sure that everybody recognizes that these courses are designed for anybody,” Steve Thompson said. “We know that in order for this program to succeed, we need everybody to support their goalies, not just the goalie gurus in each local community or the former goalies within your hockey club. It’s going to have to be the head coaches, the assistant coaches with varying backgrounds of hockey experience and goaltending experience.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Source: usahockey.com