KOHA leaders talk about first year as a USA Hockey ‘ADM Model Association’

By Stefan Kubus –

Brian Tulik made one thing very clear at the annual Michigan Amateur Hockey Association summer meeting in Traverse City: if the coaches and parents don’t buy into the USA Hockey American Development Model, it simply will not succeed within an organization.

Tulik is the director of coaching and player development for the Kalamazoo Optimist Hockey Association, Michigan’s second USA Hockey ‘ADM Model Association’ and currently only one of 11 in the country.

Though it certainly wasn’t easy from the start, the KOHA staff managed to transform both parents and coaches into believers. In convincing the coaches, the lack of state championships within KOHA was all that Tulik said he needed to bring up as motivation. For the parents, the emphasis was placed on skill development, which is exactly what the ADM aims for.

“The biggest challenge we faced was – we’re calling it the parent partnership – parent education,” Tulik said. “The coaches surprisingly actually bought in a lot better than our parents did. Some of that is you’ve got old school parents, some of it is you’ve got people that just aren’t hockey people.

“From our standpoint, we tried preaching the benefits for your child, the skill development. No parent can argue that; they want their kid to be the best player out there.”

Through the ADM, KOHA has allowed more kids on the ice per session, essentially making more ice touches – and puck touches – less expensive. Though it varies slightly by age group, teams are typically on the ice three to four times per week, with off-ice sessions included for the younger age groups. The KOHA staff were firm believers in the looming potential to boost player development this way, a lead reason they wanted to adopt such a program.

“We are fortunate to have a staff that worked so well together in becoming a Model Association,” said Stephanie Dukesherer, director of business operations and co-registrar. “It was truly a team effort, on and off the ice. Our ADM director, Eric Babcock, and the skills team provided tremendous leadership on the ice, while our off-ice staff held down the fort from a communication and information standpoint.”

The KOHA team holds six staff positions – Tulik, Dukesherer, Frank Noonan (director of house ‘C’/co-registrar; MAHA rep), Bob Kirk (director of house ‘B’), Dave Toth (travel director) and Babcock – along with a board of directors and executive committee that can be seen here.

Though he admitted losing families who did not wish to buy in was a cost of making the switch to the ADM, Tulik also said it was a benefit as the association was able to move forward with only those parties who wanted to jump on board and be a part of what was being built.

Some other challenges that Tulik said arose throughout KOHA’s first ADM season last year was the communication between coaches and their skills teams, ice availability and the shared ice sessions with different age groups. But the fact that he had a willing set of coaches and a full staff on board – including his own ADM director – helped minimize any huge issues.

“As far as the implementation goes, there was so much we had to do from top to bottom… we’re certainly better suited for year two, that’s for sure,” Tulik said.

With an organization containing close to 1,000 kids, it seems like becoming an ADM Model Association was a much easier transition for KOHA than it would be for a smaller association in the state. That’s especially understandable when there’s a fear of losing volunteer coaches who don’t want to buy into the ADM model when it’s hard enough even finding coaches at all.

But something Tulik wants other associations to remember is the constant support available from USA Hockey, which made the adjustment process a lot smoother for KOHA than it could have been.

“I’m hoping that people see the flexibility that USA Hockey is having with this,” Tulik said. “It’s an evolving thing… We have 900 kids, some associations are talking 100 kids and are lucky if they have one Squirt team, whereas we have nine. There’s going to be challenges, but USA Hockey is there every step of the way.”