Western Washington Female Hockey Association (WWFHA), the only all-girl, premiere ice hockey association in Washington State, announces the addition of new Washington Wild teams. In addition to the tenured U19 Rep Tier 2, U19 and U14 teams, WWFHA will support a U14 Rep Tier 2 Nationally bound team, a U12 Travel team, and tournament teams for U10, U8 and U6 age groups in the 2015 – 2016 season.
Cindy Dayley, President and Coaching Director of WWFHA, states, “We are thrilled that demand and skill are driving the development of these teams. Our recent partnership with Highland Ice Arena enables us to expand and improve the WWFHA Family.”
Dayley continues, “We have added highly qualified coaches to these teams’ rosters, who will be working closely with our established, stellar coaching staff. Each coach exemplifies WWFHA’s philosophy, mission and vision of being 100% committed to girls’ hockey - focusing on the players, their goals, development, and hockey dreams. Because the coaches are uniformly dedicated to long-term development, we look forward to watching the players grow and progress through the association system as they experience a unique, structured curriculum designed exclusively for female players.”
Each team will participate in and benefit from WWFHA’s off-ice programs, encompassing: dry-land training; foot and ankle advisory sessions from a board certified physician and surgeon; well body, nutrition, and student counseling sessions; yoga and other sport-related training; and collegiate informational workshops--all hosted by specialty professionals.
Washington Wild U14 Rep Tier 2 Team
WWFHA proudly announces the Wild U14 Rep Tier 2 team, which will consist of the top thirteen and fourteen year old girls in the area. This team will practice twice a week at Highland Ice Arena and play games in the elite B.C. Hockey’s Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association (PCAHA). They will travel to various girls’ tournaments, and compete in USA Hockey U14 Tier 2 Districts to vie for Nationals. The Wild U14 Rep team will play home games on weekends at the Sportsplex in Bellingham, per PCAHA rules, while playing away games in lower mainland B.C.
Leading the U14 Rep team will be veteran coaches Rodney Clark and Shaun Miller, with assistant coach Beth Martin.
Coach Clark has been dedicated to developing young hockey players from beginners to juniors for the past 25 years. Clark moved to the area in 1996 after a long playing career, and quickly became a fixture in the Northwest coaching community as part of Sno-King Amateur Hockey Association (SKAHA). Over the years, Rodney guided teams to six State Championship teams, two Regional Championships and 7 tournament victories. He has also mentored and sponsored players who have gone on to play junior, College and Semi-professional hockey.
For the past three years, Clark has enjoyed being a hockey dad and cheering for his daughter Olivia on the Wild U14 team and son Harrison on the Everett U16 AAA team.
Clark shares, “The goal is to get kids to fall in love with this great sport. Our goal as coaches is to foster this by creating a fun, supportive environment for learning and developing. When kids love the game, then they’ll always play at and reach their potential.”
Coach Miller returns to WWFHA for his third season as the head coach of the Washington Wild U19 Rep team, and to coach the Wild U14 Rep team. Coach Miller was born in Seattle and played juniors for 5 years with the Northwest Americans in the WCJHL. He has experience playing in the US, Canada, Germany and Italy. In 9 years of coaching boys' Rep hockey at the Peewee, Bantam and Midget levels, Coach Miller has taken teams to State, Regionals, and Nationals. Miller is a USA Hockey Level 4 coach and has served as an evaluator for Washington State and Pacific District camps. Before joining the WWFHA family, he was head coach of the boys' U18 Washington Hornets.
Coach Martin has been coaching hockey for 5 years. Returning to WWFHA for her second season with Wild U14 team, she previously was the head coach of a co-ed U12 team at SKAHA and taught beginners as well. There, she helped run a program to grow girls' hockey, taking teams to tournaments so that they could experience playing with other girls. She joined the WWFHA family for the 2014-15 season as her daughter made the transition to an all-girls association.
Washington Wild U12 Travel Team
WWFHA is excited to announce the addition of the Wild U12 Travel team will consist of the top ten, eleven and twelve year old girls in the area. This team will practice twice a week at Highland Ice Arena and play home games there as part of the primarily boys’ North Puget Sound Hockey League (NPSHL). The U12 Travel team will also play periodic girls’ exhibition games and participate in tournaments in the U.S. and Canada.
The U12 Travel team will be staffed by a crew of experienced coaches comprised of Matt Cleeton, Jenn Wood and Kendra Cleeton.
Coach Matt Cleeton returns to WWFHA for his second season. Originally from Illinois, he started playing hockey at age four, and made the transition to goaltender at age eight. He played high school hockey followed by four years at the University of Illinois (ACHA D2). While playing in college, he also coached at youth hockey and was an assistant and later head coach of the women’s hockey team (ACHA D2), winning a league title in his third and final season with the team. After graduating, he was an assistant coach for the men’s U of I team. Coach Cleeton then moved to Washington where he served as assistant coach for the Huskies (ACHA D2) for two seasons. Last season, he became head coach, while simultaneously serving as WWFHA’s goaltender coach.
Coach Jenn Wood joins WWFHA for the 2015 - 2016 season. She started skating at age two, but in an era where girls were not allowed to play hockey. Field hockey, ringette, figure skating and broomball had to suffice until she landed at Cornell University, which has a huge and thriving hockey program and community. She has played hockey for the intervening way-too-many years, and started coaching seven years ago when her daughter was a beginner. Wood coached with the Seattle Junior Hockey Association’s (SJHA) beginner program for three years before moving to SKAHA to become the head coach of the Hockey 2 program at the Kirkland rink for the past three years.
Coach Wood is a USA Hockey Level 4 coach, and has served as head or assistant coach at Beginners, Mighty-Mite, Mite, Squirt and Peewee over the past six seasons. She also created the all-girl Ice Hawks tournament teams at those levels, so that the younger girls could experience girls’ hockey while rostering on their regular season co-ed teams. Coach Wood also helped coach the Seattle Women’s Hockey Club for a season, and privately coaches girls and women.
Coach Kendra Grant Cleeton returns to the Wild U14 team for her second season. Coach Cleeton grew up in the Seattle area playing beginner through high school ice hockey. She played primarily for SJHA until her senior year when the team folded and WWFHA offered the first Washington Wild team. Cleeton went on to attend and play hockey for Lake Forest College (NCAA DIII), where she also played four years of softball.
Washington Wild U10, U8, and U6 Tournament Teams
WWFHA is proud to announce practices once a month at Highland Ice Arena specifically for female players at the U10, U8 and U6 age groups. Age-appropriate teams will be formed to participate in various all-girl tournaments. Long-time beginner coaches Jenn Wood and Beth Martin will lead the charge for these younger teams, with help from other WWFHA coaching staff. The goal of the tournament teams is to provide young female players who play co-ed hockey during the season a chance to double-roster on a girls’ team. Each player will experience all-girl hockey where they can develop their skills, gain confidence, have more puck-touches, learn the female game, and socialize with other girls their age in an atmosphere specifically designed for the female player. Emphasis will be on basic skills, team-work and having fun!
ABOUT WWFHA
Western Washington Female Hockey Association (WWFHA) – Washington Wild is a non-profit, 501(c)(3), volunteer-run association dedicated exclusively to promoting girls’ ice hockey and developing female players in the US Pacific Northwest.
WWFHA’s commitment to girls’ hockey is 100% - focusing on the players, their goals, long-term development, and hockey dreams. WWFHA is a member of USA Hockey, Pacific Northwest Amateur Hockey Association (PNAHA), North Puget Sound Hockey League (NPSHL), and B.C. Hockey’s Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Associating (PCAHA).