SYHA New President

The SYHA Board is pleased to announce the new SYHA President, Jeff Stoner. Please see the letter below from Jeff.

To the players, parents, and coaches of the SYHA,

I wanted to express my excitement and honor to be able to serve as the president of this organization. I wanted to take a minute and share a little bit about myself and my philosophy for this great sport.

Personal background:

My family has been in this program for the past 6 years. My kids started in the Little Blackhawks and now both goalies at the 8u and 12u level. I have been involved with coaching age groups up to the 12u level. I am a USA Hockey Certified Level 4 and Bronze Goaltending coach.

I have been serving in the IL Army National guard for the past 15 years, Firefighter/Paramedic at the Taylorville Fire Department and serve as the Christian County Emergency Management Director. I also have been the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Division 50 President and a Local 3144 Union Officer for the last 2 years.

My Philosophy:

We need to ensure our focus is on player development, fairness, team cohesion, coaching development, creating a positive player/parent environment, financial transparency, honor, and respect. We as an organization cannot let personal bias, friendships or politics define how we are run. We have to ensure that everyone in this organization understands that the players come first, no matter what.

There will be issues that arise, and I will ensure that these are handled with the upmost discretion, respect and fairness to the players, parent and coaches. Issues and conversations can get heated, which is understandable, hockey is a very passionate sport. As long as they are voiced with dignity and respect to all parties there will be no issues. But we have to have ZERO tolerance for disrespect, discrimination, harassment, abuse or threats toward a player, parent, coach or board member in this organization or other organizations that we encounter. This type of behavior has a negative impact on our players, which is the ONLY reason we are here.

    In closing, this organization has been established for one reason: To facilitate the development of youth hockey players to be able to play the sport they love. This should be the compass that directs us all to the decisions that are made for this organization.

Thank you and Go Kings!

Jeff Stoner