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Coyotes Youth Hockey Hub Network

CLASS OF 2014


Jacob first stepped onto the ice at jobing.com arena at the age of 7 at a special event before a Coyotes game.  Without enough rental skates to go around, Jacob took to the ice in his athletic shoes.  He loved being on the ice so much that he asked to sign up for “Learn to Skate” and hockey development programs at Polar Ice Chandler.  He played on a house league team and then tried out for and made Chuck Schott’s Mite A Polar Bear team.  Since then, Jacob has played for the Squirt B Chandler Bears, the Polar Bears Squirt A team, the Polar Bears Pee Wee B team, and the AHU Bantam A White Knights.

Some of Jacob’s most memorable moments in hockey include, winning the Texas Star Winter Classic Tournament Championship as a Mite, winning the Ganza Tournament Championship as a Squirt, winning the Sonoran Youth Hockey League Championship as a Pee Wee while finishing “League Champions” with his Ahwatukee Little League Majors team in the same season, receiving the “Pee Wee B Coach’s Award” and  the “Bantam A MVP” award, being selected “Captain” of his Bantam A team, convincing his orthopedic doctor to “wait until Monday” to cast his broken foot so that he could play in a Bantam A tournament weekend, as well as countless games of knee-hockey with his teammates in hotel rooms and hallways.

Jacob is thankful for the many friendships he has made over the years and to have learned from wonderful coaches such as Chuck Schott, Tim Hedquist, Brad and Chance Berman and Kent Schmidtke.   They have taught him the importance of being a team player and having a strong work ethic.  Jacob continues to develop as a player and hopes to play hockey for many years to come.

Jacob is currently playing for the AHU Midget U16 Black Knights under coaches Scott Dunkle and Scott Gusso.


Evan began skating at the age of 3, taking private lessons with a figure skater.  He started in the house program as a mini-mite and progressed through to the travel program on the Polar Bears Mite B team with Tim Hedquist as the Head Coach.  Evan started as a defenseman for the first few seasons and when he reached 2nd year Peewee, he had gotten a taste of being a goal scorer.  Bob Platt led the U12 Peewee AA team to the last Nationals Tournament for Peewee AA in 2012, the boys traveled to Reston Virginia.  Evan continued with Bob Platt  on the Union Bantam team.  2013-2014 tryouts led to Evan leaving his Bantam teammates, and was lucky enough to play for Sean Hill and the club's U16AA team.  Evan aspires to be a General Surgeon and attend Stanford University.


Brennan started skating at the age of 3.  He watched hockey on TV as an infant, even more than The Disney Channel!  He has always loved the game of hockey, whether it was on the television, at a Coyotes game, at Polar Ice, in the street and even in the house!  Anytime was a good time for hockey to Brennan!

Becky Erb  was his first skating instructor at Polar Ice in Chandler.  He moved on to “Kids First Hockey” then played on 2 house teams.  His first was with Coach Greg Avant- The Tigers.  Then Brennan made his first travel team, he was officially a Polar Bear!  It was 2005-2006 with Coach Hedquist at the Mite B level.  He was then fortunate enough to make the Mite A team the following year coached by Chuck Schott.  Never skipping a beat he skated right on to the Polar Bear Squirt A team.  By this time he had been given his first official hockey nickname “Big B”, by Coach Mindy French.  That team has several successes throughout the season, bringing home a couple of banners and took Ist Place in the Sonoran Youth Hockey Association for the 2007-2008 season.  Brennan played defense and in his second Squirt A season and picked up the nickname “The B Train”.  He earned the award of “Top Defender” for 2008-2009 season, it was his goal for that year!

Smitty has always felt a strong sense of loyalty to the organization.  Even though some friends left to skate elsewhere, he never even considered leaving!  We were all very excited when the new rink opened in Gilbert and they created a new travel team “Arizona Heat”.  Brennan tried out for the new team and was offered a spot on the AA team coached by Mike Vukonich along with Rex Fine and Gregg Massonotti.  He grew as a player and a young man so much this year.  The Arizona Heat team was  very fortunate to have the opportunity to go to Boston for a tournament and to skate on the ice at Harvard University!  By this time Brennan had received the unavoidably nickname of “SMITTY”.  He stayed with this team for his second year of Pee Wee hockey and continued to grow as a two-way hockey player.

In 2011-2012 season we became the AHU Knights.  He made The Bantam AA team coached by Jeff Shevalier.    In his second year of Bantam AA hockey coached by Rex Fine he was asked to make a change in positioning and move from a defenseman to a “power-forward”.  He was nervous but looked forward to the challenge.  Smitty had a very successful season, he was  2nd top scorer on the team and had 2 games with hat tricks.  The first was in California vs the LA Jr Kings and the second was in the AHU President’s Day Invitational Tournament vs the Port Moody Panthers from Canada.  In that game all 3 goals came for him in the first 6 minutes of the game.  His team, the AHU Silver Knights went on to finish that game winning 5-1!

Smitty is currently on the U16 Midget Black team and we are all very proud of his accomplishments and dedication to the sport.  Hockey is one aspect of his life that helped to bulid his character and truly understands what it means to be a team player is.  Brennan has always put other first and makes sure to encourage every player at any level.  He has a respect and admiration for each coach that he has played for and has life long memories that are priceless!