Recently I received from Director of Player Personnel Steve Davis a pamphlet regarding Somang Hockey (somanghockey.com), a hockey academy located in Quebec. Somang offers high quality hockey instruction to its players, combined with an extremely competitive schedule. Somang matches this quality off the ice as well, providing its student/athletes with a state of the art educational experience. Players choosing to compete for Somang will reap the benefit of its exposure as well. In addition to competing in the USPHL, its teams compete in tournaments across North America against the best teams Canada and the United States have to offer.
This is the detailed information Steve sent to me, please give it a read:
Now in our 6th year, Somang Hockey is rapidly emerging from our base in Terrebonne, Quebec as one of the top programs in North America for the development and advancement of players. We have teams at the U14 Elite, U14 National, U15 National, U16 Elite, U16 National, and U18 National as well as Prep levels.
Somang players are on the ice every Monday to Friday morning from 6-7 am before heading off for school, a schedule they keep from September to mid-May. All of which amounts to a whopping 200 hours of on-ice training per season under the watchful eye of our hockey director Francois Landreville. Francois has been training pro players for over 27 years and is rightfully regarded as one of the finest hockey minds in Quebec.
Each team also plays a schedule of upwards of 80 games against top-tier opponents from across North America. Our older teams play in the USPHL and the United Tier 1 League featuring some of the very best programs from the Northeast. The remainder of games are played against top programs from the US and Canada. Simply put, Somang plays in some of the best leagues in North America and against the top opponents.
This high number of games (more than any other program in North America) provides players with the opportunity to not only hone their skills against top tier opponents, but also gives them the opportunity to enjoy a visibility with scouts and next level programs that few programs enjoy. Moreover, Somang’s location ensures that players have access to coaches from the NCAA and ACHA as the majority of these schools are within five hours of travel.
This formula has already wielded interesting results as no less than 30 of our players have signed or received offers from Junior (Junior Major, USHL, USPHL, NA3HL, NAHL, WSHL, and Junior A) and university teams in the last three years alone. Moreover, what sets the program apart from others is the fact that it continues to help players advance even after they have moved on from the program. All of this is overseen by Steve Davis, our Director of Player Personnel. With his large network of contacts, Steve is very important to us and to the players. Very present in the Somang environment. In other words, once a Somang, always a Somang!
In terms of academics, which is regarded as being just as important as ice hockey, Somang works closely with North Star Academy Laval, a private school located about 20 minutes away from its training facility. Both the school and Somang are committed to ensuring that athletic success is accompanied by academic prowess and work very closely together to make it happen.
All of the out of town and international players live with Canadian families that already have kids within the program. Such an arrangement not only helps players adjust to life in Canada faster, but also to the program and culture. This is a much better arrangement than any dormitory and in most cases involves a lower cost. The international aspect of the program is evidenced by the fact that kids from disperse nations such as Hungary, Korea, Japan, Netherlands, Scotland, Mexico, France, USA, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, USA, Slovenia and of course Canada proudly wear the Somang colors.
For more information about the Somang Program, please email president@somanghockey.com or call 514-779-9401 and Steve Davis, director of player personnel, steve.davis26@hotmail.com or 514-222-5480.