U15AA Coach Announcement
.jpg)
We are pleased to announce Jamie Graham as the 1st Head Coach for our new U15AA team for the 24-25 season. Jamie has 12 years of experience coaching women's hockey, with the past three years coaching women's U18AA. Prior to that, he coached men's minor and junior hockey for five years following the end of his playing career at Senior AA hockey. During his five-year tenure in men's hockey, he coached Junior C and recorded an appearance as an Ontario Finalist in minor hockey. He coached women's soccer for eight years before his studies at university, where he was recruited to help develop a soccer skills program with Soccer Canada. As a teacher, he coaches a variety of sports including women's and men's high school hockey.
In addition, outside of school, Jamie has run his own off-ice training program for the last seven years called Dryland Training. He works on-ice and off-ice to develop complete athletes. You can see videos on Facebook (Https://facebook.com/drylandtraining/video) and reels on Instagram (@drylandtrainingdurham • Instagram photos and videos). “Athletes need many ways to develop their skills and strength in their body and mind to have the ability to compete,” Coach Graham noted explaining his philosophy.
“As a Coach, I use many different philosophies to get the job done. Overall, I try to develop all players to the best that they can be. I do this by developing plans for each individual player, showing the progress as the year moves along. Also, I try to develop thinking players that can adapt to different situations.”
As a Coach, he believes in the saying “you are only as strong as the weakest link!” Explaining that this idea holds true for all teams. He believes that all a player's need is a chance to develop their skills and experience the game of hockey, and that these skills are developed in “Practicing for a Purpose” and game situations. In his development program, players all receive feedback on their performance in real time.
“Everyone needs feedback to develop as a player. Also, providing them with strategies or suggestions allows them to develop their skills and options for playing the game. This also opens communication between coaching staff and players.”
“By demonstrating respect to them, they can demonstrate respect on the ice, as well as, in the dressing or dealing with tough situations. When players respect themselves, they are more driven to succeed. This allows the player to practice harder and play harder.”
Coach Graham advocates collaborative coaching. Developing a practice plan, the coaching staff all have a role in the process. “The practice plan shows the drills, explains the drills and provides the coaches with wording to help with players’ development. The use of common and consistent key words when running the drills that help the players recognize frequent uses terms and ideas.”
“We practice for a purpose. This means the skills that are needed to develop the systems are reinforced. Once the girls understand the drills, we run drills at the game speed. This way the girls understand the importance of working hard and will see the benefits of game play later in the season.”
“I look at the various systems that I want to teach the team; then focus on the team skills that are needed for the systems. Next, I look at the key skills that the players need to perform those team skills. This provides me with a game plan by starting at the bottom with individual skills, moving to team skills, and team systems throughout the practice.” Coach Graham believes practice is more important than games and advocates a “practice like you intend to play” principle, which leads to success. He adds, “medals are not won over night, it takes practice to be a winner.”
“I also believe in being open and honest with the players; but not brutal. Through discussions, we talk about expectations before practice and games, so that they understand what the coaching staff expects. With these expectations, I emphasis personal responsibility and proper preparation for both games and practices.” Developing their confidence in themselves, and proper routines help increase their success in practices and games according to coach Graham.
“Patience is a virtue that I live by,” explains coach Graham. “Every player develops at different rates. Showing patience is key to a player’s successes or failures. Understanding that even elite players have off-days.” “When having these off-days, helping the player through the problems and keeping the player focused on their goals, helps to keep them in the game. I enjoy seeing the players develop to a level that is higher than they were at the start of the season.”
Jamie is a middle-school teacher and has successfully helped develop a number of female student-athletes to Junior, and Canadian and American university programs. He is also the proud father two daughters, Kassidy and Kalli and his fur-baby, Troika. With Kassidy studying education in Canada, and Kalli attending Trine University in the United States on scholarship and playing NCAA ice hockey, he, along with extremely understanding and patient wife, Krista, manage their dynamic and busy household.
If you have any questions or are interested in playing U15AA please send an email to [email protected].