springfield

Springfield In Line Hockey
at Gary Fudge's Skateland, 5163 S Campbell Ave.
Youth Roller Hockey, ages 4-14 began Oct 9,‘05

Level AAA - also known as Tier I - is the highest level of competition for very skilled, experienced players in the Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget age levels only. These teams compete for State, Regional and National Championship.

Level AA - also known as Tier II - offers a high level of competition for skilled players in the Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget levels. These teams also compete for State, Regional and Tier II National Championship.

Level BB - is for players with experience at the B level, want a higher level of competition, but are not quite ready for level A. BB is only available at the Mite, Squirt, Pee Wee and Bantam divisions.

Level B - is for players just learning to play the game and wishing to compete in a fun environment. This level is available at all age divisions.

2005-06 SQUIRTS B-1

Jeff Sippy sippy@sbcglobal.net Head Coach
Mike LaBroad slabroad@aol.com
Dan Kastrup ddrmkastrup@worldnet.att.net
Cody Blevins,Student Coach gmpowell@sbcglobal.net
Managers: Anthony & Becky Solari absolari@mchsi.com

2005-06 Squirt B-1 Roster
#1 Nancy Fairbank, #2 Colton Kastrup, #6 Dylan Ball, #7 Jake Badovinac (Goalie)
#8 Noah Boggs, #10 Clayton Smith, #13 Brandon Moon, #16 Drew Thomas
#23 Ricky Morsovillo, #24 McKalee Beard, #26 Zachary La Broad, #33 Jason Sippy
#39 David Rapelje (Goalie), #99 Phillip Solari

The Springfield Jr. Spirit Squirts competed this year in Missouri Hockey's B1 level, facing teams from St. Louis, Jefferson City, and Springfield IL. The squirt level is generally 9-10 year olds, however our team was a unique blend that made what we accomplished during our season exceptional.

Our team is composed of 13 players--Jake Badovanic, Dylan Ball, McKalee Beard, Noah Boggs, Nancy Fairbank, Colton Kastrup, Zach LaBroad, Ricky Morsovillo, Brandon Moon, David Rapelje, Jason Sippy, Phillip Solari, and Drew Thomas.

Of these 13 players, only 6 had ever played competitive hockey before. The remainder came to the Jr. Spirit from Jordan Valley Ice Park's house program. Of these 13 players, 4 were also still of Mite age (6-8 year olds) who played up at the Squirt level and two are girls.

We finished our regular season in 3rd place in our nine team league. We entered our end of season tournament seeded 3rd, where we won our first round 3-2 against the Springfield IL Kings. We then went on to upset the second seed, the Kirkwood Stars, in the semi-finals in a 4-3 victory. We faced the 1st place Affton Americans in the championship, and what a battle it was! We tied 4 - 4 in regulation time, dominated the 4 minute overtime period but could not connect with the winning goal and remained at 4 - 4, and in the end lost the game in a shoot out. We ended our season with a league record of 12 wins, 6 losses and 1 tie.

The Jr. Spirit Squirts are lead by Co-Captains Zach LaBroad and Jason Sippy and Assistant Captain Phillip Solari. They are coached by Jeff Sippy (head coach), Mike LaBroad, Dan Kastrup, David Rapelje, Rick Morsovillo, and Cody Blevins.

The Springfield Jr. Spirit Squirts are a great example of hard work and determination. The veteran players helped to teach and encourage the rookies, and age and skill level never mattered to these boys and girls. They are a "team" in every sense of the word, competitive on the ice and the best of friends throughout it all. Even though they technically lost in the finals of the end-of-season tournament, their accomlishments that got them there are truly a victory.

2005-06 PEEWEE B-1
Jim Wherley jwherley@varsitycontractors.com
Frank Marzolla fmarzolla@msn.com
Dan Ward danbecca@hotmail.com
Manager Jill Knox jill@bransonimax.com

The SYHA Pee Wee team (ages 11-12) also became Missouri State Champions on Sunday February 26th by beating the Jefferson City Capitals 3-1 in the
championship game. In addition to winning the state championship, the team finished the season undefeated in league and tournament play accumulating
a record of 17 wins 0 losses and 4 ties. The Springfield Youth Hockey Association is in just its 5th year of existence, and the Pee Wee team
played against teams from other associations that have been in existence far longer and have deep hockey traditions making this truly a remarkable
accomplishment. Congratulations to each team member on this significant achievement!

2005-06 BANTAMS

The Springfield Jr. Spirit Youth Hockey Bantam team (13-14 year olds) became State Champions on Sunday, February 26, 2006. The Jr. Spirit team
competes in a league in St. Louis that has several teams from the St. Louis area as well as a team from Kansas City and Southern Illinois. The
Bantam team came in first place during the regular season and defeated teams from St. Peter's, Afton and Creve Coure/Webster Groves to become
Missouri Hockey State Champions. The Jr. Spirit's overall record for the season was 23-1-4. Congratulations to Springfield's STATE CHAMPION Bantam
team of the Springfield Youth Hockey Association (SYHA)!

2005-06 Midgets U18, AA,

Coaches Roy Prince Head Coach with Charles Williams and Adam Crnko, assistants

2 Matt Rogers, 6 Cody Blevins, 8Jeff Adams, 10 TJ Altoonian, 11 Alex Scott. 17 Drew Tigges, 21 Jonathon Placencia, 22 Cory Prince, 25 Ryan Jobe, 26 Fritz Vasquez,28 Ryan Preston,
44 Ben Bloom, 55 Gavin Harmstrom, Ben Powell, Goalies; 30 Wes Adcock, 58 Nathaniel Williams

Roy Prince's, wrapup for the 2005-06 season.

The Springfield Spirit Midget-Tier (18 & under) hockey team competed this season in the KC Metro High School Hockey's Varsity league. The
Spirit is comprised of players from several Springfield and area high schools. In their first year of Varsity play, the Spirit proudly ended
with a 12-7-1 conference record, finishing 2nd in the Eastern Conference (4th overall), as well as gaining a playoff berth. This season, the Spirit
boasts two top 10 league scorers (Hillcrest's Cody Blevins-57 points; Catholic's Drew Tigges-42 points), a top 10 playoff scorer (Glendale's
Fritz Vasquez-5 points), and an All-Star nominee in Glendale's TJ Altoonian. Cody Blevins also received Rookie of the year and 1st team
selection.

National USA HOCKEY 2005 Championship Youth Tier II 18U
March 30th - April 3, 2005
Host: Jordan Valley Ice Park, Springfield MO

The showing of the Springfield host midget U18AA team is not an indicator of the calibre of youth hockey in Missouri. They lost all 13 games and ended at the bottom in the Missouri Hockey Midget U18AA final standings. I have no information on how they did in an additional 6 games stated in a news report. They are to be admired for accomplishing what they have but the younger divisions in Springfield as stated below have fared much better.

AK=Alaska Wolves - State Champions (bypasses PC regionals)
RM=Colorado Springs Jr. Tigers- Rocky Mountain Champions
PC=Jr. Ice Dogs - Pacific District Champions, Lakewood CA
AT= Mercer Chiefs, Atlantic Champions, Hamilton NJ
NE=Mid-Fairfield, CT - New England Champions
MI=Port Huron Wild - Michigan Champions
MA=South Boston Shamrocks- Mass. Champions
HOST=Springfield Jr. Spirit - Hosts
MD=Pittsburg Predators, Mid-America Champions
CN=Darien Huskies Darien, Illinois (USA site calls them 'Chicago')
SE= Ashburn Xtreme Ashburn VA, Southeastern Champions
NY=Freeport Arrows New York Champions
Minnkota District, Minnesota & Dakotas not entered.

Junior Spirit Youth Ice Hockey Classic April 6-7, 2002

Springfield fielded a team in Mite, Squirt and Peewee. Teams were from Tupelo Mississippi, Memphis Tennessee, Springdale Arkansas, Oklahoma City and Tulsa Oklahoma, Wichita and Topeka Kansas and Kansas City. I met Todd Laster at this tournament. He was instrumental in bringing youth and college hockey to Springfield. His bio includes play in Edina, MN, Kimball Union Academy Meridan, NH and the U. of Kansas, Lawrence.

Prior ice rinks in Springfield

From Bruce Goettelman by email, December 24, '02

"I went to SMS from 1972 to 1976 and worked at the ice rink during those years. The rink was named 'Ice Chalet' and opened some time in 1972 or 1973. The rink itself was an inflated bubble that was sold to Southeast Missouri State, for use as an indoor track after the rink was closed in 1975/76. A group of ten business men from St Louis were the owners. One of the owners was a man named Jack Spencer who moved down there and ran things. The manager was local, Gary Gilmore who lived with the owner of Bass Pro Shops, had a parking lot striping business and also ran a Christmas tree lot.

We organized two teams from SMS,one from Drury, and one from Evangel and had an informal league for a few years. A few local youth leagues tried to form but we could never attract enough interest. A few exhibition games with teams coming down from St Louis were played (owners kids). The rink was located by a car dealer south of Battlefield Mall. It was a nice facility with Pro shop, locker rooms, concession stand, etc. Public skating resulted in average turnouts. The biggest draw was broomball teams from the local colleges."

This is the rumoured, "long gone ice rink" south on Glenstone near the current Loewe's. A lifetime Springfield resident in his 70's in 2003 informed me along with some others that an existing roller rink had started out as an ice rink. I understand that at one time there was skating at Dowling Park on natural ice, possibly a covered outdoor rink.

Email to Joe Nix, web guru for these pages

Back to my HOCKEY INDEX page