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Butler Dawgs Partner WIth Pittsburgh Hockey Academy

By DW, 02/12/19, 11:00AM EST

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PHA IS excited to announce that Dean Whittingham,  Co-Founder and Director of Hockey of PHA and Vice President of Frozen Pond Management, Inc. will take on a new role as Director of Youth Hockey at Frozen Pond Arena.  

Dean will be working closely with both BVYHA and PHA organizations in an effort to leverage resources, assets, economies of scale and share best practices to help deliver a best in class youth hockey programming portfolio focused primarily on player and coach development.

Coach Whittingham’s love for the game of hockey began while growing up and playing amateur hockey from Mite to Junior in Toronto, Canada, including 5 years in the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) at the AA/AAA levels.  

Dean’s experience in both youth hockey coaching and administration include:

Head coaching positions for amateur hockey teams from Mite through U18 for the past 15 years, and currently serves as the Head Coach of the PHA Icemen U15 AAA team;

Coaching positions for High School Varsity, JV & Freshmen teams at Pine Richland High School, where Dean was a major contributor in forming the Pine Richland Development Hockey Program;

Director of Hockey Operations for 8 years with NPYHA.  During his tenure, Dean's initiatives and leadership included:

  • Development and Launch of Western PA's first ADM program;
  • Implementation, re-design and oversight of the hockey tryout process for over 400 youth hockey players across over 20 amateur teams;
  • Implementation of in-season player and coaching development evaluation process;
  • Power Skating and Skill Development Strategy and Instruction.

 

Upcoming Initiatives that Dean will spearhead include;

  • Oversight, Management and Execution of the Butler Valley Dawgs Tryout Process;
  • Implementation of a formal coaching development curriculum;
  • Implementation and offering of Pre-Tryout Training and Skill Clinics for youth hockey players of all ages and at all levels;
  • Development and Launch of a Mite Development Program;
  • Power Skating & Skill Development Strategy and Instruction for both skaters and goalies for both BVYHA and PHA organizations; 

 

Dean has also held several industrial sales executive and management positions in Canada and the US, and currently lives in Pine Township with his wife Ellen and their two kids, Kyle (Penn State Class of ’21) and Bethany (PRHS Class of ’20).