Hockey

1. Hockey By: Richie Dunphy

2. Youth Hockey • Like most sports there are age brackets in which you go through to have the same age of kids playing together. • Mite – 8 and under • Squirt – 9-10 years old • Peewee – 11-12 years old • Bantam – 13-14 years old • Midget minor - 16 and under • Midget major - 18 and under • Juniors – 16 and up • Reference – USAhockey.com

3. My History in the Sport • I started playing hockey at 3 years old. While most people consider this a very young start for a sport this is actually quite typical in hockey.

4. My History cont. • I played for multiple teams in my life including: • Livonia Knights • Honeybaked • Farmington Flames • Michigan Seals • Mighty Ducks • Livonia Stevenson Spartans

5. Livonia Knights • This is the team that I started my career • I played for the knights at multiple parts of my career • I played with my age group which is the ‘91 birth year • I also managed to play with kids that were older than me and in the ‘90 and ‘89 age group

6. Honeybaked • This was a unique experience for me as this was AAA hockey so I was playing with the best kids in my part of the state of Michigan • I was lucky enough to play and win a state championship • I got the experience of going to a international tournament called international silver sticks in which you play with the best team from multiple states and from all around Canada • I got to play in the largest mall in Canada named the west Edmonton mall so that was a very fun time also

7. Farmington Flames • I played for the Farmington Flames for only one year but arguably one of my favorite and most fun teams to be on • While this team was not expected to be the very best, We managed to work as a team and upset a lot of other teams and ended up bonding because of it • On this team we went to a lot of fun tournaments around the Midwest and had a tremendous amount of fun doing so

8. Michigan Seals • This team was originally a team in which I thought I would only play a couple weeks for before making the jump to high school hockey • In the end it turned out I did not make the high school hockey team and played the complete season with this team • I am very glad for getting cut from the high school team though because I ended up gaining two of my best friends from this team

9. Mighty Ducks • This was just a spring league team that I played for in two consecutive years • It was comprised of some of the best hockey players from my high school and some friends from other high schools that we previously had played with • We were what in the hockey world you would refer to as a bunch of goons. This is because every single game we played there would be at least one fight

10. This was the highlight of my hockey career • Where I grew up (Livonia) you are bred to either be a football or hockey player and its as serious as you can imagine • I had the privilege of playing hockey for this team for my junior and senior year • My junior year we compiled the best record not only in the Michigan high school hockey that year but also in school history at 23-2-2