By Staff
BRADENTON, Fla. -- In only its second year of existence, the IMG Hockey Academy Midget AAA 18 and under team won the Tier 1 Southeast U.S. Regional. The Academy team beat the Nashville Southern Ice Lightning 7-0 and the Palm Beach Panthers New England Select tournament team 3-1 to capture the tournament championship.
Only 12 teams are allowed in the National Tournament with IMG Hockey Academy representing the Southeast District. The Academy will play a three-game round robin at the National Tournament starting with the Minkota Champions (Shattuck St. Mary's), Rocky Mountain Champions (Dallas Stars) and the New York Champions (TBA) before moving into the playoff rounds. The preliminary rounds are for seeding purposes and the playoff rounds are single elimination.
Good things continue to happen to the IMG Hockey Academy Midget AAA team and its students this year. Andrew Broughton has recently signed a tender to Play Tier 1 Junior A hockey for the Soo Indians in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) and Jeff Hazelwood signed a tender to play for the Tier 1 Junior A Chicago Steel in the United States Hockey League (USHL). In addition, Jeff Hazelwood was offered and has committed to play for the University of Maine on scholarship for the 2004-2005 season. Other Junior A or Major Junior teams in the U.S. and Canada are aggressively pursuing at least three other players.
Creighton Scarpone of Buchanan is a member of the Academy Midget AAA team.
Only five players from this year's team are graduating, with all five going on to play Junior A. With key players coming back from the two Midget programs and the Bantam team becoming one of the best in the Southeast region, look for many good things to come for the IMG Hockey Academy teams and their players in the future.
The IMG Hockey Academy is an IMG Academies' training program, as are the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, the David Leadbetter Golf Academy, The Soccer, Baseball and Basketball Academies, the International Performance Institute, IMG Academies Mental Conditioning and the Boca Raton-based Evert Tennis Academy.