2013 USAUWH Nationals will be held July 12-14, in Milwaukee, Wisc!
The tournament website is up, with all the details: http://usauwhnats.us

Get your team registered today!

A very tardy update of the USA Underwater Hockey Governing Committee elections in 2012. The following three people were elected to the open positions:
Jorge Millan
Kat Search
Terry Sutton

They join Ben Erickson, Tyera Eulberg, Andrei Savu, and Paul Wittekind to make up the 7-person committee. For any questions or concerns, please contact the entire committee at governing@usauwh.com.

–Election Subcommittee
–USA UWH Governing Committee

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

All current members will receive an “eBallot” to their email. Simply mark your votes and email it to tuckerr@twcny.rr.com . Include “USAUWH Election” in the subject line. Vote for three candidates only.

(To join USA Underwater Hockey, sign up at https://usauwh.com/member/newaccount.php ; If you have any questions about your account, email Wendy_Okafuji@usauwh.com)

You can also vote with a paper ballot: Download your ballot HERE

Then mail it, postmarked by October 6, 2012 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.

If duplicate electronic and paper ballots are received, your paper ballot will be discarded and your electronic vote will be counted.

The candidates for the three open Governing Committee spots are:

Ajit Dodani
Current Club: Washington, DC

Ajit Dodani has been an increasingly avid underwater hockey player for the past 3 years. Having participated in numerous tournaments and met many players in the sport, he believes himself to be a capable representative for the organization. Over the next few years, there is potential to increase the exposure and volume of active players, bringing the scale of underwater hockey activity to par with much of Europe. Getting exposure can be achieved through many avenues – Ajit would like to push small sponsorships as a means to build outside investment in our sport. Having the credibility afforded by being on the U.S. governing board adds weight to these efforts. He would like to explore various approaches to communicating fresh news/blogs/videos for underwater hockey to encourage excitement. Ajit would also like to explore alternative strategies to spreading awareness of underwater hockey during his term.

RD Milhollin
Current Club: Fort Worth, Texas

It was sheer luck that RD Milihollin found out about underwater hockey. The director of a pool where he was hoping to teach SCUBA diving introduced me to the team playing there and he was in the water that evening. That was about 1998, and since then RD have been a regular player with the DFW team, averaging about a tournament per year. He is also a proud member of the first place B division team at the 2012 US Nationals.

RD firmly believes UWH is a great sport for a variety of reasons, and see no logical argument why it should not be included in physical fitness programs at school districts across the country. He is concerned that the driving emphasis of organized UWH in the US is on the support of world’s-level play, and that as a result less is being done to facilitate starting new and strengthening existing teams. He believes a more effective long-term outcome would be achieved if a more grassroots development strategy were adopted. If there were more people playing UWH at more places in the US, the pool of players qualified for international competition would naturally increase, and a more sustainable base for further growth of our sport would be more firmly in place. RD would advocate for adoption of specific, measurable goals for expanding underwater hockey in the US, and development of a formal strategic plan to help achieve them.

Jorge Millan
Current Club: Atlanta, Ga.

Jorge Millan has been involved with underwater hockey since the summer of 2008. He has been a member of Swordfish Underwater hockey, at some point with the task of being the fitness coordinator. During his time with Swordfish, Jorge has participated in many tournaments, both with the Swordfish team and potlucks. During tournaments he has made a point to referee as often as possible and in the immediate future this is an aspect of the game he will continue actively working on.

Jorge’s vision for underwater hockey is that of growth. He believes the future of any sport lies in the young players who are nurtured into the sport and who grow up to become life-long participants. Jorge would like to develop an approach to start UWH clubs at a high-school level throughout the country, with the hopes that having a larger player base, the level of competition and the exposure of the game will improve. He believes that a master-plan can be developed so that those interested on growing UWH at the H.S. level would have a better chance of success.

Kat Search
Current Club: Washington, DC

Kat Search started playing underwater hockey while in Grad School at the University of Illinois in 2006, thanks to Matt Blair’s suggestion. She got a job at home in 2007 and have been playing with the DC Beltway
Bottomfeeders ever since. Kat had the pleasure of playing on the Open World Women’s team in Colombia, and the Amazon Women’s team at America’s Cup. She has been setting up women’s games at U.S. tournaments for the past couple years and is a member of the newly formed Women’s Advancement Committee. Kat is interested in growing U.S. UWH with the female population, as well as working towards creating more high school level teams.

Terry Sutton
Current Club: San Francisco, Calif.

Terry Sutton Started playing hockey in 1982 in Chicago. He has also played with Ohio State and now Club Puck and the San Francisco Sea Lions. He played on Open Masters World team 3 times, 1994-2000. He coached Open Masters World teams 3 times, 2002-2006 (3 Gold Medals).

Terry served as a member of Development Board, 2007-2009, and chairman of Governing Committee 2009-2012.

Terry has a great deal of hockey experience (both playing and organizational) at all levels – local, national, worlds. The work of the Development Board and the Governing Committee has resulted in progress in many areas. Terry would like to use my hockey (and life) experience to help the Governing Committee build on this work and that of other dedicated individuals to improve the quality of hockey at all levels in the US.

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.