The USA Underwater Hockey Governing Committee election results are in. The following four people have been elected to the open positions:
Ben Erickson
Tyera Eulberg
Andrei Savu
Paul Whittekind
Congratulations to Ben, Tyera, Andrei, and Paul.

–Election Subcommittee
–USA UWH Governing Committee

Patty Green
Jennifer Smith
Terry Sutton

Get out the vote! This year, four people will be elected to the USA Underwater Hockey Governing Committee. We hope all USA UWH members will participate in the election.

To vote, simply print out a ballot: Download your ballot HERE
Vote for four candidates.

Then mail it, postmarked by September 30, 2011 to:
USOA Hockey Ballot
c/o Ray Tucker
PO Box 228
Rome, NY 13442

No USA UWH Governing Committee member (current or hopeful) will see any of the ballots. For more details, please download and read the ballot.

The candidates for the four open Governing Committee spots are:

Damir Djidic
Current Club: Chicago, Ill.

Damir Djidic is in his third year of underwater hockey with Chicago UWH and is absolutely stuck to the sport. By being on this committee, he hopes to use his abilities and talents to help improve the sport and make it much more popular. He is committed for life, and being that he is in his mid-twenties, he hopes to help see the sport achieve worldwide recognition during his time as a player. When Damir wins the lottery, he plans on building a suspended pool with a see-through material; perfect for spectators.

Ben Erickson
Current Club: Minnesota

Ben Erickson started playing UWH in 1982 and watched the game develop from a push game with a Y stick to what it is today. He has been the organizer of the Minnesota Loons for 20+ years and co-director for 3 national tournaments. He was a member of the gold medal Men’s Masters World team (‘02, ’04, ‘06). For the past two years he has been the Vice Chairman of the USA UWH Governing Board.

Ben is committed to continue growing and developing the sport of UWH. With his two years on the governing board, many years of playing the sport and hosting three national tournaments, he feels he understands USA UWH, and looks forward to the challenges and rewards of being a board member.

Tyera Eulberg
Current Club: Colorado

Tyera Eulberg has been playing hockey for 10 years now. During that time, she played at Worlds in Sheffield, UK and Medellin, Colombia, and served on the Development Committee and one term on the Governing Committee.

Tyera did not intend to run in this election, but was persuaded by the upcoming America’s Cup in 2012 — she is interested in fostering high-level US women’s hockey, especially on the international stage.

Andrei Savu
Current Club: Atlanta, Ga.

Andrei Savu has been playing hockey since 2008. He helped to start the Atlanta club, and has been a very active part of it ever since. He loves working toward helping hockey become a bigger and better sport in every way. Andrei is currently working on establishing a second club in Atlanta, getting sponsors to support our growth, and spreading the word as much as he can to attract more players. He is interested in joining the governing board because he wants to make a difference.

Kevin Ward
Current Club: Chicago, Ill.

Kevin Ward is a Chicago Firefighter, and has been playing UWH for about 4 years. He has many ideas on how to improve and promote our sport, and has a lot of spare time. Kevin thinks he would be an asset to Underwater Hockey in general and would work to promote our sport in Chicago and America.

Paul “Doc” Wittekind
Current Club: Roger Bacon High School, Ohio

Paul Wittekind began playing underwater hockey at Ohio State University in the early 1990s. After moving to Cincinnati, he founded the underwater hockey team at Roger Bacon High School in 1997. He coached the U.S. Junior National Teams at Worlds in 2002 and 2006. He served on the UWH Development Board for two years and on the Governing Committee for two years.

Paul’s hope is that the Governing Committee will continue to help organize regional tournaments and clinics for all teams, to foster the development of new teams, to support our national teams in international competition, and to further the growth of our sport at all levels.

A big thanks to LA for hosting a wonderful tournament! There were 16 teams: LAA and LAB, Florida, Minnesota, Club Puck, San Francisco A, San Francisco and Friends, Roger Bacon Varsity, Roger Bacon JV, University of Illinois, Seattle, Colorado, Atlanta, San Diego, Atlanta, Michigan State, and George Mason University. After the first round teams divided nicely into A and B divisions. Before medal round, top of Bs played bottom of As. The water was crystal clear and we had very very few injuries.

A Division:
1st Place – Los Angeles A
2nd Place- Florida
3rd Place- Minnesota

B Division:
1st Place- Roger Bacon Varsity
2nd Place- San Francisco and Friends
3rd Place- Illinois

Other Announcements;

1) LA will be hosting PCCs the weekend of November 13th.

2) Woody Lee, long long time US chief ref, world rules, etc etc etc is retiring.

3) John Kulsa, Seattle, is new USA uw hockey chief ref. John is long standing player and member of US gold medals (3x) open masters team and 1994 mens elite bronze medal team.

4) Patty Redig was announced as newest member of the SPOP (Sheila Princess of Power) womens uw hockey honor society.

5) Jen Gall, USA competitions director, announced 2012 Nationals will be June 22-24 at GMU in Washington DC area and a host of other upcoming tournaments. Check the calendar!

The University of Illinois hosted their annual spring tournament on March 5, 2011. There were five teams in attendance and the final standings were:

1. Chicago

2. 400 Pound Monkey (a combined team of alumni, players from DC and Pittsburgh)

3. MSU

4. UIUC Blue

5. UIUC Orange

Check out the following link for poolside photos: http://gallery.me.com/brandon.papworth/100854

To All USOA Underwater Hockey Players:

Some general information: Your USOA dues and the Hockey Development Fund contribution (CenCal dues too) are tax deductible. USOA is an IRS 501(c)(3) charitable corporation: USOA tax ID 51-1175361

I only send tax receipts to those who ‘contributed’ more than $50 in the year, and I write all receipts by 1 January for previous year. I have written the 2010 receipts, and they were mailed. Those mainly affected are the Colombia teams members and staff.

Another point, if you are a USOA officer/director/elected committee member, your non-reimbursed office related expenses are deductible: travel to attend meetings, phone, postage, printing/copying, etc.

Unfortunately, if you take the ‘standard deduction’ and do not itemize on your income taxes, the tax receipt is only good for starting fires or making paper airplanes. If you do itemize, the deduction goes on Schedule A, line 16 Contributions:
501(c)(3) Underwater Society of America …. $XXXX

And you should have receipt where possible and journal of activities in support of your deduction. Questions? Contact me and I’ll try to answer. I am not, repeat not, an accountant, so I am working from experience – 2 audits!

Carol Rose
President USOA