Sunshine and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 110F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..
Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 88F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
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The governing boards of both school districts serving Ahwatukee will each have at least one …
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Randy Exelby talks to attendees in between rotations at the Behind the Mask Goalie School in Scottsdale. (David Minton/AFN Staff Photographer)
Randy Exelby talks to attendees in between rotations at the Behind the Mask Goalie School in Scottsdale. (David Minton/AFN Staff Photographer)
Being a goaltender on a hockey team can be isolating.
Most teams only have two goalies on a team, and most do not have a coach specializing in goaltending.
However, for one week each summer for the past 26 years, Behind The Mask hockey shop owner Randy Exelby has saved a sheet of ice so that goaltenders from around the state can receive two hours of goalie-specific instruction.
“I’ve been to several camps in Arizona and out and this is definitely the best one for goalies,” said Henry Stratton, 14, who will tend the twine for Notre Dame Preparatory High School as a freshman this year.
“The coaches really make you feel like you’re one of them,” Henry said, “and they don’t make you feel like you’re an outsider. They make sure that every person gets better and not just specifically a few people.”
For five days, goaltenders started their mornings by lacing up their skates, strapping on their pads, sliding their carbon fiber or plastic masks over their heads and taking the ice for 30-minutes of goalie-specific power skating – which some goalies have attributed to sharpening their game while ironically dulling their blades.
“I think the power skating is an important part of the position that a lot of goalie instructors don’t really go over,” said 14-year-old Aidan Mullarkey, who plans to patrol the crease for Mountain Ridge High School this upcoming season.
“I like that this camp focused on that for at least 30 minutes of each ice time and I think working hard, getting gassed and learning better edge work is a good part of this camp,” Aidan added.
After carving the ice by making c-cuts with their feet, skating to lines on the ice where they would drop to their stomachs and recover and partaking in myriad skating drills, the goaltenders would head off to stations where they would face pucks slung by skilled shooters from and by a machine that shoots pucks as fast as 100 mph at one station. That was unanimously a favorite drill among the campers.
“I definitely liked the puck shooting machine drill because it gave us a chance to react to some strong rebounds and make some nice saves,” Henry said.
Although the puck machine station was a camp favorite, Exelby noted two things about the campers he saw stonewalling shooters this year.
“We had a lot of younger goalies this year. So, we had 13 goalies that were ages 7 to 9 and 23 of our goalies were under 11,” Exelby said. “So, we had a new generation of young goalies, which was great and I’m really impressed with how hard they worked, how well they listened and how much they improved.
It’s almost like we’re cultivating a new generation of goalies, which is great.”
Although some goalies could be seen red-faced and dousing themselves with water after each drill, it is because of one lesson that Exelby hoped to impart to the young netminders.
“It’s easier to do a drill once 100% than three times at 80%,” Exelby said.
“Just work hard because when you’re not working hard, somebody is,” added 15-year-old Joaquin Keelor, who plans to keep the goal for Corona Del Sol high school next season.
Those two nuggets of advice were not the only lessons Exelby and his team of coaches — many of whom attended the camp as students before — imparted to this year’s students.
“We just try and get goalies to move out and challenge the shooters to make themselves look big and then just to stay up on their feet and react to the puck,” Exelby said.
As a former journeyman of pro hockey who appeared in two NHL games — once for the Montreal Canadians and once for the Edmonton Oilers — Exelby’s knowledge goes a long way with the young minds at his camp.
“Randy has experience as being a former NHL you know, pro goalie, and just unwinding his experience down to the instructors, which trickles down to the kids in the camp. So, I think everyone just benefits from all the wisdom that’s here,” Aidan said.
On the last day of camp, all of Exelby’s lessons culminated in a last-man-standing shootout where goaltenders competed against each other to see who could stymie the most shooters.
Exelby hopes that these students will carry lessons they’ve learned into their next season of hockey and that they were able to form friendships that will last a lifetime and shine above team rivalries.
“I hope that the students take a work ethic away from this camp, foremost, and what we stress too is that we want them to take away friendships where they meet goalies and they’re going to see a goalie from this camp at another rink and they say ‘hey, I remember you from the goalie school.’ We try to teach them that this camp is all about working hard, having a good attitude, having fun and making friendships.”
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