Junior Reign sled hockey update.

From Todd and Christie Jenkins of the Junior Reign Sled Hockey team:

Our first official season as the Junior Reign Sled Hockey team will kick off at 7:00 PM on Monday, January 9th, 2012! We will be practicing on alternate Monday evenings for now, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. Our brand-new coach is Dave Davies, a Level 4 Certified USA Hockey coach, who has officially signed on to lead our team. He’s on the left in the photo below with Nicholas [Jenkins] and Matt Dunaev, Icetown’s hockey director. We are happy to have Dave on board, and he is excited to be part of Southern California’s inaugural sled hockey program.

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Here are the details we have right now about starting our program. As a disabled athlete, your registration with USA Hockey is mandatory (for insurance coverage) but is FREE for the first year (in 2013 and thereafter it will be $35 annually.) Membership also includes a subscription to USA Hockey Magazine, permission to participate in sanctioned events and training sessions, and special discounts. If you are interested in participating in the program, even if you won’t be available yet in January, we need you to email us ASAP with your full name, address, phone number, email address, birthdate and disability information. This will enable us to go ahead and register you with USA Hockey so that you’ll be in the system and ready to go. We cannot register you without this information.

We will also have a greatly discounted monthly program fee for Icetown. Normally the program fee is $55 per month, but the sled program will only be $25 per month. This will go to pay for the ice time, maintenance, jerseys and other program-related costs. Adult volunteers will need to submit background screening data in order to work with the kids; we will provide the necessary details to all parents and other volunteers. If you want to be a registered volunteer, please email us ASAP and give us the same info as requested above.

Remember that we have TWO events going on this Saturday: the Camarillo Christmas Parade in Ventura County at 10:00 AM, and the Ontario Reign game vs. the Las Vegas Wranglers at 6:00 PM. We will have a couple of sledders riding on a float in the parade, representing the Junior Reign and the Channel Islands Riptide, our sister program that is starting up in Oxnard. For more info on the parade, go to http://www.pvrpd.org/camarillochristmasparade.htm. For info about the Oxnard sled hockey program, email director Rhonda Waidmann at vcsledhockey@hotmail.com.

Some of our athletes will be doing a five-minute sled hockey demonstration after the first period of the Reign game. All proceeds from that night’s holiday jersey auction and the sale of Loud Jumpy Kids’ cool skate-lace bracelets will be donated to Junior Reign Sled Hockey. After the game we will gather at Boston’s Gourmet Pizza at 4th and Milliken to meet the Reign players and celebrate. The Reign have set aside some discounted tickets for our fans; to purchase some (and you should hurry!), contact Brad Spetnagel at (909) 204-5509 and specify that you want the sled hockey discount. This is the ONLY way to get the discount rate; it will not be available through Ticketmaster or the box office.

There are two sled hockey clinics coming up in Southern California: Saturday, January 28th at Channel Islands Ice Center in Oxnard (http://channelislandsice.com/), and Sunday, January 29th at Bakersfield Ice Center (http://www.bakersfieldicesports.us/). Both clinics will be in the same format as our prior clinics in Riverside and Ontario, with national-level clinicians teaching the sport. The times for the clinics have not yet been announced, so we will follow up with that info as soon as we have it.

Now that we have nonprofit affiliation, we are able to provide tax-deductible receipts for all donations. Please direct all interested donors to the address at the bottom of this email so we can provide them with our tax information. Donations can be made payable to IVHA/Junior Reign Hockey Club, with “Sled Hockey” specified in the memo area.

If you have any questions about our program or upcoming events, please contact us at tjenkins@jrreign.com. Thanks for your interest, support and patience as we continue to build the profile of this fun, rewarding sport in Southern California!

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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.