Apprenticeships

Thread starter #1
What are people's thoughts is this something that Devils should be looking at? Sheffield have obviously done it with 2 youngsters last year and from today's signing it looks like another this year. If the U23 rule is here to stay do you think Devils should be starting this now so that in a few years time the players are at a standard to step up to be one of our U23 players? In my opinion I think this is something the organisation should be starting to look at now to build for the future.


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Johnnybravo1927

Well-Known Member
#2
Fully agree but before it can happen there needs to be more of a tie in with the junior devils. At the moment the juniors are run as a separate entity to the devils. Nobody employed by the cardiff Devils has any real involvement with the juniors. None of the coaches work for Cardiff devils and are all unpaid volunteers. The only exception is Ben Bowns and Thomas Murdy do a netminder class
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#3
Although the new owners have been fantastic and I'm loathed to criticise, I feel one area that has been missed is the tie-in with the Junior Devils. Let's not forget the gems that it's produced in the past - Chinny & Stoney to name the most prominent. Who knows what talent is sitting there just needing maybe a little more help / encouragement to flourish. I know in the old days the Devils used to actually get heavily involved and help with the on-ice training - but unfortunately these days that is difficult with the relevant checks and validation that needs to be undertaken when supervising children, but I'm sure something can be done to explore how it could work. Maybe an easy starter for 10 could be allowing the existing Junior Devils coaches to view Lordo in action on a regular basis and explore what could feed down into the Junior system.

Those kids from numerous age groups travel all over the UK putting the Cardiff (Junior) Devils brand name out there. Would be nice for the Senior Team to replicate the same. Again, a few easy wins - how about the Senior Devils Team providing a page to the Juniors in the home programmes - spread the word and list the up and coming home games? How about a bit of free advertising on the screens during period breaks? How about off-ice Q&A sessions in the bar with current Devils Players who are willing to contribute their experiences / lessons learned when they were Juniors?

Could be great if the will is there to make it work!
 

Koop11

Well-Known Member
#4
I agree that this has been the missing link in the unbelievable rein we are in. In fairness to the club, unlike in the past, the juniors are very much separate to the Devils and there has been enough politics within the junior set up for them to not want to get involved.

Moving forward though, I would like to think the new/lack of structure at junior/semi pro level in this country may create opportunities within our organisation that will benefit would be hockey players and the club as a whole.
 

Leighton

Active Member
#5
my son trains with the juniors. they are a fantastic bunch. really committed coaches, patient, knowledgeable and some of the kids skills are tremendous for their age..... and there's a huge waiting list of kids who want to get involved (32 on the waiting list when i asked this week) but cant currently due to not having enough coaches or space on the ice!
 

kingmo19.1

Well-Known Member
#6
Manchester Storm taking the lead in this area with the launch of their academy today with the assistance of Mark Thomas.

Good to see at least one club with the vision to put this in place. Will only become more valuable should the league focus more on British talent in the future.

Come on Devils Management - keep up!!!!
 
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