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Coaches Bio's

Eric Silverman

Director of Hockey 

 

2011-12 will be Eric’s 7th season as the DJHA Director of Hockey.
 
Eric has an extensive hockey background. He grew up playing AAA hockey in New York and left home while in high school to play Junior A hockey for the Sioux City Musketeers (USHL). Eric finished his Junior career ranked as the fourth all-time leading scorer in Sioux City history. From there he earned a scholarship to play Division I college hockey at the University of Alaska Anchorage (WCHA) where he was the Seawolves’ leading goal scorer during the 1996-97 season. After college he spent three seasons playing professional hockey in the ECHL and CHL.
 
Eric began his coaching career in 2002 as an assistant coach at the Division I college level with Iona College (MAAC). Eric has been coaching here in Dallas for 8 seasons and has been a Tier 1 Head Coach for the past 6 seasons. During this time he has seen many of his players advance to Junior A and college hockey. His teams have had lots of success and have participated in Tier 1 State, Regional, and National Championships. In addition to coaching here in Dallas Eric currently is a Head Scout for the United States National Team Development Program (USNTDP) and has worked with USHL Central Scouting.
 
Eric is well-trained in skill development spending five years as a head instructor with Robby Glantz Power Skating. During this time he traveled the country working with NHL, AHL, college, and many youth hockey players on power skating and skill development.
 
Eric resides in Frisco, Texas with his wife Mikki and his daughter Sinclair

Tom Kowal

Midget U18AA (Plano)

 

Tom Kowal will be our Midget U18AA (Plano) Co-Head Coach. This will be Tom's fifth season coaching in DJHA.

 

Tom grew up playing AAA hockey in Anchorage, Alaska.  He went on to play Junior hockey for the Omaha Lancers (USHL) and Division I college hockey at both the University of Alaska-Anchorage (WCHA) and the University of Nebraska-Omaha (CCHA). 

 

After college Tom broke into coaching.  He spent two seasons as an assistant coach in the USHL with Omaha and Tri-City.  He then moved over to the NAHL where he spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the Youngstown Phantoms

David Lee

Midget U18AA (Plano)

 

David Lee will be our U18AA (Plano) co-head coach.  This will be David's 5th year coaching Dallas.  Four seasons ago he was an assistant with the Attack U16AAA team and two years ago was the Attack 96AAA head coach. In addition he coached the Ice Jets 97AA team to the NTXHL Squirt AA Championship two seasons ago. Last year he guided the DJHA 93 AA team to a third place finish in NTXHL, a Labor Day Tournament Championship and a third place finish in the Pelham Silver Stick Finals.

 

David grew up playing hockey in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.  He went on to play Junior hockey in the USHL for the North Iowa Huskies before returning back home to play college hockey.  David currently works as the Director of Hockey Operations for the North American Hockey League in Frisco, Texas.

Ryan Pfeiffer

Midget U18AA (Valley Ranch)

Mike Kelly

Midget Under 18 A

Mike has been coaching in Dallas since he moved here from Chicago in 1998. Last season was his first with the DJHA as an assistant with the Midget Minor A Team.

Mike coached house hockey at the Squirt and PeeWee levels in 1998 to 2000. From 2000 to 2009 Mike coached with the DMHA Titans beginning with a PeeWee A team that stayed together up to when the team aged out as Midget Majors. During this time the team won the Midget Minor A Texoma Championship in 2005 and the Midget Major AA NTXHL Championship in 2008.

Mike has also coached JV High School hockey at Southlake Carroll for 4 seasons before becoming the Head Coach of the Southlake Carroll Varsity Gold Team during the 2005/2006 season. Mike also coached the Flower Mound High School Varsity Gold team in 2009/2010 and the Colony/Lewisville Varsity team in 2006/2007. 

Mike’s coaching experience also includes coaching the Baylor University ACHA Club hockey team for 3 seasons.

His teams participated for 5 seasons in the International Development Tournament in Penticton, B.C., Canada – played in Europe – and numerous tournaments throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Mike is a certified USA Level 5 Master Coach and has attended the 2008 and 2009 NHL Coaches Association Clinics in Montreal and Ottawa.

Mike uses hockey to teach life lessons through individual skill improvement, and disciplined team play.


Lou Fritz

Midget U16 Prep

Lou has been coaching Junior hockey for the past seven years. He is originally from Cleveland, OH where he grew up playing and began coaching. He has coached Youth AAA hockey in Cleveland ranging in ages from squirts to midgets and Junior hockey at the A and B levels. Lou has traveled extensively both to play and coach and has now settled in the Dallas area.

Mark Layton

Midget U16AA

 

Mark is a native of Phoenix, Arizona and comes to DJHA with a wealth of coaching experience.  Mark is a successful entrepenuer and investor as well as the CEO of PFSweb Inc, a Plano TX based public company that provides end to end web commerce services to the world's leading brand names.

Mark is a Master Level 5 USA Hockey Coach and has over 10 years of youth travel hockey experience.  After his multi sport playing years during high school, Mark has remained active in youth hockey as not only a student of the game, but as a sucessful coach and mentor for his teams.  Mark's goal is to teach youth not only about the game they love, but also about important life skills they can gain through the game.

Mark has experience coaching youth from High School (Midgets and Bantams) age to mini-mites and his team have continuously recorded winning season records and tournament championships.  In addition to coaching for DJHA, Mark previously was Head Hockey Coach for Plano East High School.  Mark has previously coached with the Texas Aces and Dallas Metro Titans associations.

Barrett Wilson

Bantam Major 97AA

Barrett brings an outstanding hockey background. He played with the Dallas Stars U18AAA team before moving on to play Junior A in the NAHL. He has been an assistant coach with the Dallas Stars U18AAA team and has spent the past two seasons assisting with the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux in the WCHA.

Barrett is now back in Dallas and will be coaching our Bantam Major 97 team. The Wilson name is very familiar in Dallas Hockey. Barrett's father Rick is currently the Associate Coach with the NHL Dallas Stars and has been with the Stars Organization for the past 16 seasons.  His brother Landon has spent 11 seasons in the NHL including this past season as a member of the Dallas Stars.

Jaz Hayden

Bantam Minor 98AA / Squirt Major AA

John McManaman

Bantam 97/98

Ken Atkinson

Pee Wee Major 99AA
 
Coach Atkinson has been playing or coaching hockey for over 40 years.
He grew up in and played most of his hockey in Calgary for the AAA Royals organization.
He then went on to play Junior hockey in Calgary before moving down to Texas to go to college after working seismic for Mobil Oil.
 
Ken has coached power skating and Cross-ice for the Dallas Stars skate school program as well as I-League for adults and has coached at DJHA for 5 years.  Coach Atkinson has been with Coach Johnson's 95 team the past 2 seasons and went to the national tournament with DJHA this past spring.
His primary focus is skating and skill development.  This with a sound understanding
of the game allows developing players to use these skills to help them succeed in game situations.

 

Mike Salekin

Pee Wee Minor 00AA

Mike is a native of Castlegar, British Columbia. He has had an impressive playing career including NCAA Division 1 Hockey, and Professional Hockey. Mike’s professional hockey experiences include time playing with the Reading Royals, Cincinnati Cyclones, Stockton Thunder, Victoria Salmon Kings, and the Allen Americans. While playing pro hockey Mike soaked up hockey expertise from many NHL Coaches and Players. He spent his off seasons as a head on ice instructor for Total Package Hockey in Huntsville, AL.   
 
Mike received a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing while attending the University of Huntsville Alabama, and later went on to receive his Master’s in Business Administration. While playing professionally Mike effectively developed a startup company called AMP (Athletic Mentoring Program). AMP gave several young athletes proper guidance and helped many obtain athletic scholarships. Mike currently works as a Market Analyst at EXCO Resources.
 
Mike is a very prepared and detailed oriented individual. His coaching philosophy centers around discipline, teamwork, skill develop, and fun. He is committed to excellence as a coach, and strives to get the best out of every single player.   

Richard Sleavin

Pee Wee 99/00 / Squirt Minor 02

 

 

Coach Richard Sleavin enters his 5th year coaching minor hockey in Dallas, 4th with DJHA.  Coach Sleavin believes intensity, work ethic, passion and attention to detail, are important keys of development.  Richard brings a unique perspective having coached both; individual skill development and team preparations.

 

After playing in Europe for parts of 00-01, 01-02, and for the Dallas Sabre's Richard has been coaching Mites through High School and Div. III Club College. Currently teaches classes and private lessons at Dr. Pepper Star Centers

 

Coaching Experience:

 

07-08 DJHA PW A 1st place finish, NTXHL Champions

           Allen HS, JV Gold, Playoff Qualifier

           DJHA 8U Mite Development

06-07 Alliance PW AA, Finalist
           Allen HS, JV Gold, 1st place finish, League Champions

05-06 DJHA PW A, Playoff Qualifier

           Allen HS, JV Silver

04-05 DJHA Squirt A, NTXHL Champions

           UNT Div. III Club, CHSW Champions

03-04 UNT Div. III Club, CHSW Champions

01-Present Dr. Pepper StarCenter, Instructor, Skill Development

97-01 Instructor, Puck Power Hockey

97-01 Instructor, Ice Bound

94-96 Instructor, Hockey Training Institute, Ont. CA

Mike Hogan

Squirt Minor 02

 

Mike was born and raised in Sarnia, Ontario where he played all of his minor hockey.  A personal highlight of his youth hockey was being a captain of the Bantam AA International Silver Stick championship team in 1990.  Mike played many sports growing up including football, basketball and swimming. 

 

Mike moved to the Metroplex in 1998 for school and almost immediately began to coach hockey at the High School level, serving as Irving’s Varsity Head Coach for 3 seasons.  He moved to Frisco in 2000 and became part of the coaching staff for the Frisco Ice Hockey Association where he has now coached for 7 consecutive years at both the Varsity and JV levels.  He has been their JV Head Coach for the past 3 seasons.  This past season, he also helped to lead the Mini-Mite program at the Frisco DPSC.  Mike has obtained his level 4 USA Hockey Coaching certification.

 

After 10 years of coaching hockey, Mike knows that a commitment to basic skills is critical at any level of hockey.  Knowing that the on-ice systems are dependent on the skills of the players makes it obvious that the focus of coaching youth should be on skills.  Add fun to the mix and success will follow.