Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey

David Moss joins the Meijer State Games team

 

By @MichaelCaples –

The ice hockey tournament for the Meijer State Games of Michigan has a new leader, and he’s a familiar face to the hockey community in the Great Lakes State.

David Moss has joined the Meijer State Games staff as an honorary chairman, helping guide the annual tournament through a few new changes for the 2019 edition of the annual event.

A Detroit Catholic Central and University of Michigan alum who spent nine seasons in the NHL, Moss brings a unique perspective to the Meijer State Games team; he told MiHockey he’s very excited to be involved.

“Eric Engelbarts of the Meijer State Games reached out and asked if I’d be interested in being involved,” Moss said. “I sat down with him and talked to him more about it and I just thought it was a really good opportunity to give back to the game of hockey in Michigan.”

The Meijer State Games of Michigan annually brings together more than 8,500 athletes in 50 different sports to the Grand Rapids area for the Winter and Summer Games. The hockey tournament takes place in the Summer slate of events, allowing players to wrap up their own fall and spring seasons and compete in the State Games in an off-season tournament with new teammates and friends.

“I think it’s neat,” Moss said. “They get to go to an Olympics-like ceremony. It’s a really cool event for young hockey players and young people to experience, and all the while they’re going to get to play some competitive hockey and hopefully it’s an event that’s scouted. It’s a chance for kids to feel like they’re an Olympic athlete and have some fun during the off-season.”

This year, there will be six divisions for the Ice Hockey Tournament – high school boys, high school girls, 14U boys, 14U girls, 12U and 10U. For the high school age groups, both high school and travel hockey players are invited to participate.

The tryouts will take place in May, with teams being formed from the seven existing MAHA regions with one additional at-large team created. All of the athletes will be evaluated by an independent committee of ACHA coaches to create a fair and balanced selection process. Those coaches will then be assigned to each of the teams.

Tryout dates and locations can be found here – https://www.stategamesofmichigan.com/hockey/tryouts/ – and you can use a code of ‘MIHockey10’ for a 10-percent discount on registration costs.

“It’s cool – it’s an Olympic-style event, which is great,” Moss said. “They do a lot of cool things for the kids, and the hockey side, we’re doing some neat things this year with ACHA coaches being involved and giving the kids the opportunity to showcase their skills in front of good coaches.”