GAAHockey & Ottawa Ice Partnership

GAAHockey is pleased to announce that we have entered into a partnership with the Ottawa Ice Bantam C girls hockey team for their goaltender training throughout the 2013-14 hockey season. We are extremely excited for this opportunity as it will allow us to aid in the development of female goaltenders in the Ottawa-area.

Led by coach Andrew Szabo, the Ottawa Ice will actually be playing at a level higher than originally planned, and therefore their goaltenders will need to train hard, & frequently.

Working with the Ottawa Ice Bantam C team is no coincidence though. During the 2012-13 hockey season, GAAHockey made such a lasting impression on Ben Courtemanche, while playing for the Ottawa West Golden Knights Minor Atom B team (currently with the Ottawa Sting Major Atom A), that his parents asked Andrew Szabo to contact us to schedule goaltending training sessions for their daughter Genevieve Courtemanche as well. After being vouched for by both the Courtemanche’s and Shawn Spooner, an assistant coach for the Ottawa Ice Bantam team (2013-14) and who had previously partnered with GAAHockey during the 2012-13 winter hockey season while coaching the Ottawa West Golden Knights Major Midget B team, Andrew Szabo decided on requesting the help of GAAHockey.

Asked about the new opportunity, Rick Besharah stated, “We’re extremely excited to begin working with the Ottawa Ice Bantam C team this year. Although I’ve worked with female goaltenders in the past, it’ll be great to get on the ice with another girls’ team. This will allow us to continue our strategy of integration of our goaltending techniques which have been proven to work at the most elite levels, into girls’ hockey in the Ottawa-area. Word-of-mouth can get around so quickly and can help, or destroy small businesses. Thankfully, word of our techniques and coaching methods are proving to get around for all of the right reasons.”