INSIDER REPORT - GBMH’s WEEKLY GOALIE SCHOOL IS SHOWING “SUCCESS TRENDS & ENCOURAGES COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT”

Glace Bay Minor Hockey’s goaltending coach Ryan Boutitlier is encouraged this season by both the above-average participation and the steady progress in the skill development of the young net-minders who attend his weekly goalie clinic. Boutitlier states “the Monday afternoon goalie school has gone wonderful thus far this season as the young goaltenders have dedicated their time to their development and we have seen a major improvement since September”. On average the weekly clinic has attracted an average of 21 goalies with the most peaking at 28.
 
“Goalie participation seems to be a good mix overall however the younger atom, novice and pee wee age players appear to be the hungriest to improve their skills” says Boutilier. Also as a point of interest, coach Boutilier has been very impressed by the fact that they have five female goaltenders who attend the sessions on a regular basis. Ryan comments “I feel that this group of young girls are very observant in what is being taught and continue to build on skills each week and overall our minor Hockey Female Divisions are in very good hands with this young group”.

Part and parcel of teaching the goalies practice skills in a weekly clinic, Ryan is also the father of two young boys (Zachery & Noah) who have a spirited interest in hockey. He loves to take his boys and drop by the rink randomly to watch his goalie students perform in a game situation. Boutilier states that he takes personal pride in witnessing his goalies demonstrate their newly learned skills or in some cases improve on their quickness in game situations.  He states “I like to see each goalie play twice during the season and I tend to slide in unannounced so there is not extra added pressure on the goalie and give feedback the following Monday at the goalie school”.

Ryan Boutilier is not only Glace Bay Minor Hockey’s dedicated goalie instructor but many local hockey enthusiasts know that he is also the “head bench coach” for the local Glace Bay High School Panthers hockey team. Ryan who came up through the minor hockey system as a “standout Rep goalie” fully realizes that volunteers played a key role during his many years of hockey development.
With that being said, Boutilier has created his own “volunteer program“ amongst his High School player roster where he has encouraged his players who are all previous GBMH Alumni players, to give some time back to our association. He comments “everyone of my players attend the goalie clinics to assist in drills and show the youngsters that they would like to build a nice relationship between the Panthers and the GBMH youngsters”.  To their credit, our organization has seen many former graduate players beyond high school come back and volunteer their time, 
 
Boutilier has been involved in coaching in at various levels for about the past fifteen years. Obviously his greatest satisfaction has been his targeted and specialized coaching in “goaltending”, especially in developing the young goalies. He states “when I look back over the past 15 years of coaching I have to be pleased with the output of goaltenders that we have developing and who have advanced onto the elite teams in Cape Breton”. For example three of the four goaltenders of our Cape Breton Tradesmen Midget AAA (Logan Cooke – QMJHL draft) and Breton Trophy Cougars Bantam AAA (Kaine Drake/Cody Smith) were former association clinic goalies.
 
Ryan is quick to point out that his High School hockey program has also been the beneficiary of the GBMH Goalie Clinic as this year he has Taylor Slade and Brent Kelloway playing between the Panther pipes. He says “Taylor and Brent have also been wonderful in the development of our minor hockey goalies, both are there each week offering their services and our young goalies really enjoy this”.
Kudos to both Slade and Kelloway for their dedication and role-modeling to our youngsters!.  

For Ryan Boutilier training young goaltenders has always been a passion of his, and our GBMH association is very appreciative of his efforts and it is our hope that he will continue for many years to come. Ryan took a well-deserved two year hiatus from our minor hockey goalie school ( 2011 and 2012) with the passing of his beloved dad, Edison Boutilier. Ryan’s dad, Edision was a standout Junior Miner goaltender for Glace Bay, back in the 70’s). Ryan states “dad was my right hand man in all of our previous Monday sessions and going to the rink and not having him there was very difficult in the early stages. Dad was a wonderful goaltending instructor with the young kids and has definitely been missed”.
 
GBMH hopes all of our goalies read this article understand and appreciate the quality of goaltending assistance that is available to support their learning. To all those youngsters out there who may want to become a goalie our association welcomes and encourages players at all ages to consider goaltending as a hockey option.
 
In closing, our GBMH association would like to extend a special thanks to Ryan for his many years of coaching. We are truly grateful to have such a dedicated person with the interest, compassion and skill-set to guide our goalies to reach their “hockey goals”.