The following article was written by Eels Alumni Joey Munroe. Joe works as an intern in Washington DC He had been with the Eels since he was a mite.
Here is vision of this weekend home openers
The defending Florida Eels Premier Divisional Champions is looking to defend their title at home as they face off against the Atlanta Madhatters on September 18th and September 19th in a two-game set. Meanwhile, the Elite team who finished in second place last year just a few points shy of winning the Florida Division looks to make a statement this weekend as well. The Eels are considered the Flagship Junior program in their Division with both teams setting their goal on a return to Nationals.
We are the only program in the Florida Division to have had both our junior teams from their historic franchise advance to nationals in the same season. This happened several times. Although the last two years the premier team went unaccompanied, the organization’s hallmark is advancing players to the collegiate level. The USPHL has led over 2,400 players to college with 98 teams in the league. While our two teams have advanced 283 to the collegiate level, during the 2020 season we had over 22 players further their hockey careers to play in college. This is an outstanding accomplishment for a storied franchise, such as the Florida Eels. Our success is measured on how we prepare our players for the collegiate and professional level, it is not just about the national appearances.
Our players have been training hard all off-season long, these past three weeks have been an extensive time for our players, but they are well-prepared for their home opener this upcoming weekend. There is no other program training their players as much as us. We provide four weeks of training camp with 7–8-hour days on average of 4 hours.
We have players from across the world, including Western Canada, Vancouver Alberta Calgary, Quebec, and Montréal. We also have players from Sweden and Russia. In the United States players come from Michigan, Utah, Alaska, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Chicago, California, Texas, and Florida.
Our players have bought into the Eel’s culture and have dedicated their lives to get to the collegiate and professional levels. It isn’t easy to play for a successful franchise like the Eels. We demand dedication, unwavering determination, and the commitment to selfless play. Well, Atlanta we are ready for you, we don’t and won’t take this weekend for granted. Our organization doesn’t endorse complacency, we have an outstanding program with an excellent coach, who is a former NHL alumnus. We want to see you see pack the stands this weekend and bring the energy.
