With thousands of players and leagues all over the world using the Point Streak system (ice hockey, soccer and lacrosse), SAIHA decided to adopt it into our local leagues.

For those of you not yet familiar with PS, it is a league management system along with great features such as league & team setups, live online scoring including play-by-play viewing, complete player stats and much more.

The system is busy being integrated into the SAIHA website allowing all players and fans to keep up to date in real time with league stats, top point scorers, team standings, game schedules, etc.

We look forward to making use of this valuable tool and hope that the entire SA hockey community does too.

Updated: Thursday, 17 May 2012

The Senior Mens Team departed for Bucharest, Romania last month, 27th March, where they played in two warm-up games against pro-team the Steaua Rangers.

Upon arrival, the team was able to settle into their hotel and then make their way to the arena where they would practice in their lines and get rid of all the rusty legs from the flights. The rest of the team was made up from UK - Cameron Birrell, UTAH - Chris Jeavons, Canada - Josh Reineke (as seen in photo above) and Matthew Cornforth.

Although the arena and rink were of decent quality, the ice surface was not and this took alot out of the players trying to get use to the rather uneven ice surface along with deep grooves running the length of the ice.
However challenging, the team managed and got through their first training session with smiles on faces and ready to play the Rangers the following day. The first game was a tough adjustment and team SA soon learnt that the puck would need to travel alot faster to play against the Rangers. Final score of the first game was 7 - 0.

Not an ideal score line, but this gave the team along with Ronni Wood and Bob Mancini exactly what they needed to create a better hockey team. The 2nd game took to the ice the following day and the Rangers faced a tougher and more confident team SA.
Marc Giot took a nasty hit in the corners (no thanks to the ice surface) and tore his knee rendering him out of the game early in the 1st period. This however didnt hinder the team as they went on to a narrow loss of 6 - 7, a dramatic improvement and exactly the result that was needed to continue to the IIHF Div2 Championships.

The team then enjoyed the surroundings of the hotel before the departed on a rather interesting jounery on a 10 hour train ride to Bulgaria's capital, Sofia.

Arriving 2 days prior to the tournaments commencement, this gave the team ample time to settle in and tend to injuries and equipment malfunctions which didnt rain but poured. Rudi Pienaar, one of the defenceman for the team, was on the short end of the stick as the IIHF ruled him unfit to play with queries about his duel-citizenship. He was not allowed to play even though countless documents were submitted, he however was invaluable to the team as he assisted with the management and stats for each game which proved to tell a story about the teams performance.

Jason Gonsalves also received an unlucky hand as he injured his foot during warm up. However managed to play some of the games, upon his return its found that he has grade 3 tears of both ligiments in the ankle.
Many thanks go out to the Belgian doctor, Karolien De Ceulaer, who attended to various injuries sustained by the South African team. Marc Giot was able to play in 4 of the 5 games thanks to pain management by Karolien along with assisting Andre Marais, Chris Jeavons, Jason Gonsalves and Rudi Pienaar with a torn shoulder.

Tournament scores were as follows:

Bulgaria: 4 - 1
Israel: 6 - 2
China: 6 - 1
Belgium: 14 - 0
Mexico: 2 - 0

The tournament was a success, although Team SA didnt secure their place in Div2 for next year, they have however pin-pointed areas that are detrimental and thanks to USA Hockeys' Bob Mancini, who accompanied the team on tour as the assistant coach, is assisting with the focus and development of the National team for the following 2 years with the goal of winning gold in Div3 and securing a spot in Division 2 in 2014.

Team SA Captain's along with coaching staff:
From Right: Andre Marais(C), Ronnie Wood(head coach), David Watson(A), Bob Mancini(assistant coach) and Marc Giot(A).

Once again a special thank you goes out to Bob Mancini, Ronni Wood, Caryn Maart and Quintin Steytler for all their hard work that has gone into the 2012 team and for the years to come.

To all the hockey friends that were made during the tour, and to name a few: Karolien "Hot-Doc" De Ceulaer (Belgium team doctor), Eliezer "Flipper" Sherbatov and the guy that made the toasted sandwich's at the arena, keep in touch and hope to see you soon!

Team SA.

Updated: Thursday, 19 April 2012

Click on the image above or here on the link to view the 2012 Ladies National Team along with player pop-up information and profile pictures.

Updated: Wednesday, 21 March 2012

U18's downed by Chinese Taipei

A rather rocky start to their tournament, the U18 team were beaten 11 goals to 0 by the Chinese Taipei team.

With the first period a wake up call allowing TPE to attack their net and scoring 6 goals in the first period, SA then returned to only allow 2 in the 2nd and 3 in the 3rd. Not a great start to the tournament but we have hope for the team for their upcoming games, including the host team, Bulgaria, tonight at 19:00 (GMT).

Ladies in Seoul @ the Mok-Dong Arena

Their tournament kicked off on Saturday against the hosts Korea, first period saw them down by 3 goals with Sandy McClurg facing 24 shots in the first and 70 overall. Donne Oxenham scores from assist by Dalene Rhode bringing the score to 6:1 in the 2nd period and SA's 2nd goal scored by Van Eekhoven and assisted by Sheffield and Lombard ending the game at a 10-2 victory for the Koreans.

The Ladies 2nd game was against Spain on Sunday and starting off really well in the first period only letting in 1 goal. Periods were getting progressively worse and Spain managed to score 4 goals in the 2nd and 7 goals in the 3rd period.
Not a great defensive performance by the ladies but this game was a learning curve for them as they stepping into their 3rd game today against Belgium.

A better performance from their previous game, although not being able to put the puck in the back of the Belgian net, they played a solid defensive game and kept the scoreline to 6:0.
The ladies have a day off tomorrow and then play their 4th game against Iceland on Thursday.

Updated: Tuesday, 13 March 2012

The under 18 and Men's Senior National Teams will be playing at the Sofia Winter Sports Palace. Picture of the arena from the inside, below:

Updated: Friday,, 09 March 2012

After a rather bumpy ride at the start of the year, the ladies team has come together nicely with leadership from Nikki Beukus as head coach and Mich Joubert as Assistant coach.

Finally with some solid direction coming from the 2 newly appointed coaches, the ladies are looing good both on the ice and off, with team building exercises and fund raising taking place assisting with what looks to be a great tour ahead.

The ladies have had numerous training camps both in Cape Town and Gauteng and leave this week for their IIHF Worlds Tournament in Korea. We, SAIHA, wish Nikki and the ladies team the best of luck and am sure that they will do themselves and their country proud.

Updated: Thursday,, 08 March 2012

Saturday 3rd March, the Cape Town squad of the SA team made their way CPT INT for the first of 3 training camps before they leave to IIHF Worlds in Bulgaria.

A rather interesting and exciting showcase 10 minutes into their flight when the pilot let everyone know that the planes navigation was not working and had to land back at CPT INT as a precautionary measure. This delayed the players by 4 hours and managed to arrive in JHB with sufficient time to make it on the ice for their first training and joining the rest of the team.

A very powerful and intense program took place the Saturday and Sunday with players rather eager to play well with their new lines mates and focus on learning all systems and plays & put them into game practice.

This weekend will be the 2nd camp for the Mens team with a repeat of last weeks performance possibly just with higher intensity and a full squad, apart of the players joining the team from USA and Canada.

Updated: Thursday,, 08 March 2012

Earlier this week, the SAIHA released the official team roster for the Mens Senior National team.

Click here to view the official PDF document as confirmed by SAIHA President, Jerry Stevens.

Updated: Friday,, 17 February 2012

This past January, ex NHL Oilers Development Director and current USA Hockey Development Director, Bob Mancini, hosted the USA hockey level 1 & 2 coaching course in Cape Town at the Strand Towers Hotel (host hotel of last years IIHF Div3 athletes).

Bob arrived on the Friday late evening, just in time for the commencement of the seminar starting bright and early Saturday morning at 9am. The attendance was made up of Cape Town's core players and officials, who were looking to further develop their coaching & management skills.

Day 1 was a 6 hour intense focus lecture on the USA level 1 covering topics such as Overview, Role of the coach, Comunication, Creating a World Class Hockey Program at 8u and Ice Utilization, ending off with a Q&A session which always seemed to be rather informative and comical.

Bob was then guided through the V&A Waterfront by two of the players where he learnt about Cape Town and more about local hockey, which Bob found rather facinating as it is varstly different from hockey in the States.

Day 2 began with a morning skate, before heading back to the hotel for another 6 hour lecture however level 2 was alot more interactive and 5 minutes into the session everyone was paired up and working on drill development and presenting their ideas to the rest of the class.

Level 2 focused on Creating a World Class Hockey Program at 10u/12u, Communication, Goaltending, Checking and Teaching through small area games. Overall a great success and Bob was pleased with the past two days.

As Bob will be joining the Mens national team as an assistant coach, he joined them on the ice both Monday and Tuesday night working on various elements and restating systems and plays from head coach Ronnie Wood.

This weekend Bob and Ronnie are currently in Gauteng hosting the same level 1and 2 course and working with the rest of the Mens national team in preparation for the upcoming IIHF tournament.

Updated: Saturday, 4 February 2012

If you were wondering, Mr Bob Mancini is the gentleman in the photo 2nd on the right (the guy that is not blue). This photo was taken at the 2004 NHL Entry Draft with Edmonton Oilers first round pick, Devan Dubnuk.

Bob will be in South Africa late January to assist Mens head coach Ronnie wood with the preparation with the national team & will be hosting the Level 1 and Level 2 coaching course as described below:

Coaching Education Program - South African Ice Hockey Association

Level 1 - (6-8 hours)
A) Welcome/South African Hockey Coaching Program
B) Introduction/Overview/Level 1 Coaching (15 min)
C) Role of the Coach – Leadership & Positive Coaching (60 min)
D) Communication - Knowing Your Audience (60 min)
E) Creating a World Class Hockey Program at 8u – Building the Foundation (75 min)
F) Ice Utilization - Station Based Practice Planning and Organization (60 min)
G) Question & Answer/Open Discussion (60 Min)

Level 2 - (6-8 hours)
A) Welcome/South African Hockey Coaching Program
B) Introduction/Overview/Level 2 Coaching (15 min)
C) Role of the Coach - Season Planning/Practice Planning/Drill Planning (60 min)
D) Creating a World Class Hockey Program at 10u/12u - The Golden Age of Skill Development (75 min)
E) Goaltending - Creating a Productive environment for young goaltenders (60 min)
F) Checking - Safety & Ethics (45 min)
G) Checking the Right Way - Off-Ice Training (45 min)
H) Checking – On-Ice Teaching Progression (45 min)
I) Teaching through Small Area Games (60 min)
J) Question & Answer/Open Discussion

A little about Bob:
Bob Mancini is a regional manager for the American Development Model. This is Bob’s second stint with USA Hockey. He previously served as one of the architects for the National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. Bob has worked at all levels of the game, from youth to college hockey, and recently spent two seasons as the player development coach for the Edmonton Oilers. (taken from the USA hockey website)

Updated: Monday, 27 January 2012

This past weekend head coach of the Mens National Team, Ronnie Wood, implemented the first of the teams systems as he explained in detail to the squad based in Cape Town yesterday morning and then flew up to the Gauteng squad practice where the system was then explained and run through during their evening training session.

We are pleased with the direction the team is heading and their next two months will entails countless hours of repetition ensuring that they know how to play as a team, with discipline.

With clear focus in mind, players have been given game dvd's of teams they will be encountering allowing them to study their style of play, along with video clips of they systems they will be executing during the upcoming World Championships.

In approximately 9 weeks time Team SA will be leaving for Romania where they will have 2 warm up games before their opening against Bulgaria at the Winter Sports Palace in Sofia.

Updated: Monday, 16 January 2012

Senior National Team have today confirmed that they will be playing two warmup games against Romanian Elite division team Steau Rangers.

The games will be played on 29th and 30th March 2012 and will give our boys the chance to get geared up for the openng World Championship game against hosts Bulgaria on 2nd April.
Management and coaching staff are delighted to have secured this opportunity for the first time on a World Championship tour.

Coach Ronnie Wood says "In four years we have always wanted proper warm-up games against serious opposition and finally we get it. Our delegates to the IIHF conference established a great rapport with the Romanian President and it has proved very useful indeed. Now we can get a measure of where we are at before our opening game and not just hope that we have hit the mark.

It is imperative that we secure at least two wins in the Tournament which should secure our place in that division. I have said many times that we have the potential to be a decent National Team who punches way above our weight and now is the chance to make the statement to the other countries we are up against."

Last year we played in Division 3 and were unfortunate to lose the Gold medal in overtime to Israel. We prepared well, but without meaningful practice games we are always going to be left wondering. There is no way any of us want to go back to Division 3 and we must give ourselvels every chance to consolidate our place in the higher division. Romania are a Division one country and the Rangers have a few National players on their roster plus three 'imports' from Ukraine, Canada and Sweden. This should provide a real step up in class for South Africa.

Updated: Wednesday, 11 January 2012

"Sweden ends 31-year drought", that was the title of the article on the IIHF's website upon the overtime win for Sweden over Russia at the World Junior Championships. Mika Zibanejad (#20) scores the winning goal in overtime on Russia's Andrei Makarov, giving Sweden its first World Junior gold since 1981.

From the IIHF website:
At 10:09 of the extra frame, Zibanejad exploded off right wing, taking advantage of a Nikita Kucherov giveaway, cutting past the Russian defence and knifing a high backhand past goalie Andrei Makarov. Set up by Patrik Nemeth, this was the fourth goal of the tournament for the 18-year-old Djurgården Stockholm forward, and he celebrated with ecstasy, casting away his gloves in the corner as his yellow-and-blue teammates mobbed him...

Click here to view the rest of the article

The IceBoks team playing in the CMHC went on to win the tournament as they faced Korea in the finals. They beat them with a last minute goal from Macky Reineke, 4 - 3.

The team was joined by Western Province player Jade Johnson as he furthers his hockey career in Canada and a great way to start. This is the first time that a South African team has entered the Canadian Multicultural Hockey Championships and a very well done for their performance.

This December the under 18 South African squad met up for a training camp and final selection stage in Gauteng.

Details of this camp are busy being processed but the final traveling team has been officially announced by the SAIHA. Click here to view via PDF.

Hi To All,
 
Thank you for your patience with regards to the above but as you all know things have been dragging on and I was unable to finalise preparation plans and am in fact still busy with them.
 
The situation is as follows:
 
I have discussed and negotiated with Bob Mancini [USA Hockey] who has agreed in principle to assist not only with the preparation of the National Team but also to accompany us to the warm-up games in Romania and also assist in coaching the games in the Tournament... read more

The IceBoks is a team made up of South Africans living in Toronto, playing in the annual Multi-Cultural hockey championships being held in Toronto from December 27th – 30th.  This tournament is held every year and consists of teams made up of people living in Canada but playing for their heritage nation.  Everyone playing for their respective country has some sort of connection/heritage to that nation.

The level of play is extremely high with some ex-NHLers and professionals playing in the tournament every year.  This is the first time a SA team will be playing in the championships and we hope to be pretty successful.  Some other teams playing in the tournament (just to name a few) are:

Russia
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Macedonia
China
Korea
Japan
Poland

(Article complements of Gareth Macky Reineke)

We have implemented an online hockey equipment browsing tool, allowing people to buy and sell hockey kit.

Simply click on "hockey shop" in the above main menu and browse what equipment has been loaded for sale, alternatively if you would like to sell equipment you can email us. Click here for details how to on the online shop page.

Yesterday, Thursday 1 December 2011, saw the ladies national squad depart for the Kollonade ice arena situated in Pretoria for their 2nd training camp in preparation for their upcoming World Championships early 2012.

The camp takes place over this weekend and head coach Kieren Edge has an action packed weekend up ahead for both him and his squad. The previous camp was held in Cape Town at the Grand West ice arena with the focus being on "basics".

Coach Edge made use of 2 local player/coaches for the ladies midnight skating session, Marc Giot who worked on power skating and edges, & Mich Joubert who worked on puck control. This camp however Edge will be flying solo as he takes their training to the next level working on various "plays", zone coverage and systems.

We wish them all the best in their preparation and good luck to their coach for final selections.