January Pond Post

"The Enemy of Excellence in Youth Sports"

The following is an excerpt from a great article on youth sports. Ironically these are some of the very reasons the Pond Hockey Club was established. Join us in doing what is best for our youth players and the community at large!

"Our obsession with winning is the enemy of excellence in youth sports! We have turned our attention away from developing excellence in our athletes, and now only focus on immediate success. As a result, we do the following:

Play too many games and do not practice enough
Select "talent" for short term gains instead of identifying and developing all athletes and focusing on long term potential
Make cuts and select all-star teams at younger and younger ages, making youth sports an elitist undertaking for early developers and those with the financial means to participate.
Require year round participation to be a part of elementary school age youth teams, which goes against the advice of physicians, psychologists and sociologists.
Teach and coach strategies that provide short-term results at the expense of long-term development.

To read the entire article click here

Adult League Winners

The Adult Fall league champions are...

A League: Mighty Moose

B League: Laying Pipe

C League: DesPondents

Mixed League: Bulls

Spaces for our Winter League are filling fast. We still have a few spaces in the following divisions:

A League: Please email [email protected] if you are interested. We want to get 10 more skaters and a goalie to add another team!

C League: We need a goalie for Thursday night. Please email jason@pondhockeyclub.

Chuck-A-Pucks at The Texas Stars Game

January 9th, 2016

The PHC Mallards will be selling Chuck-A-Pucks at the Texas Stars game on January 9, 2016. All proceeds will go towards the Shootout Foundation. For more information on the foundation, go to www.shootoutfoundation.org. For those of you who don't have tickets to the game yet, please purchase your seats through us and the foundation will receive $5 for every ticket purchased. Purchase tickets HERE

and use promo code: PDMD.

Mallards Peewee A Wins the Shootout Challenge!

The Shootout Foundation challenged the PHC Mallards teams to raise money for the organization. The mission of the organization is to support youth and sled hockey programs in Austin by providing access to more ice time, equipment, professional coaching and competitive hockey experiences that promote life-long hockey players.

The team that raised the most money would earn a lock in at the Pond Hockey Club, entailing all night skates, good food and fun games! The Mallards teams all worked hard to raise funds for the organization. The PHC Peewee A's managed to rake in over $3500 for the organization at their car wash. A big thanks to Ceasar's auto detailing for giving us the space and professional help! The Peewee B's were a close second with a variety of fundraising efforts! The team got creative with holiday photos, customized wind suits and gum ball guessing games. A big thanks to all the teams for supporting hockey in Austin!

The Pond with the Telluride Lizard Heads!

Telluride, CO

Some of our Pond coaches and players headed up to Telluride, CO for the fourth annual Christmas Camp! The camp entailed three days of ADM skill building stations, full ice power skating, small area games and scrimmages. Players also got to enjoy the outdoor Pond for some fun pick up games (the way youth hockey was meant to be)!