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Oakland Jr. Grizzlies to join HPHL

MiHockey Staff
Photo by Alex Regish/MiHockey


By @StefanKubus – 

The High Performance Hockey League is gaining a new member.

The league announced Thursday that the Oakland Jr. Grizzlies organization will be joining the Chicago Mission, Chicago Young Americans, Detroit Compuware, Detroit Honeybaked and Team Illinois.

“The Grizzlies are very excited about being part of the HPHL,” said Terry Bishop, president of the Oakland Jr. Grizzlies. “It’s great fit from a competition standpoint and equally as important we share a player’s first mentality. The limited time off school and dedication to player development and moving kids to the next level were major factors in our decision to join the HPHL.”

The HPHL – which is sending a total of 16 teams to USA Hockey National Tournaments later this month – is excited to make the addition of the Michigan-based franchise.

“We are delighted to be able to add such a high-quality program into the league with competitive teams at all levels,” said HPHL president Jill Hare. “The Oakland Jr. Grizzlies organization brings a like-minded philosophy on youth hockey that is a great fit with the current HPHL organizations.”

More on the HPHL from the league website:

Six high-profile AAA hockey organizations formed a tier one amateur hockey league to be known as the High Performance Hockey League (HPHL). Competition in the HPHL began playing 2011-2012 year with both a Boys and Girls division.

The League was created to bring together organizations of like mindedness, notably a philosophical commitment to USA Hockey’s American Development Model (ADM) and its Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) recommendations which includes age-specific development of young athletes. The clubs are connected by history, purpose, and proximity, and bound by a mutual interest in creating a highly competitive training and developmental environment with a focus on the following core principles:

  • Minimizing school-days missed.
  • Reasonable travel and cost containment.
  • Embrace and implement the ADM and LTAD models to ensure age-specific training, both on ice and off.
  • Regular measuring & monitoring of the individual player’s growth spurts and the implementation of specific off-ice training depending on the individual player’s point of growth.
The HPHL’s game-counts showcase dates, length of season and post-season competition will reflect this overall commitment. The aim is to foster the highest levels of sportsmanship and competition while serving the overall best interests of all the athletes. The member organizations believe the HPHL will allow their programs and their players to reach new levels of excellence, all the while reinforcing the philosophies and beliefs that the member organizations maintain and seek to build upon.