News – Sheridan Media
The Sheridan Hawks are getting ready to hit the road for the upcoming 2023 North
American 3 Hockey League Showcase tournament.
The 2023 NA3HL Showcase, will take place from December 17-19, 2023, at the Super
Rink in Blaine, Minnesota. The Super Rink is the largest ice arena of its kind in the
world. The state-of-the-art facility, a $21 million project totaling over 300,000 square
feet, features eight sheets of ice under one roof.
This season marks the 13th year the NA3HL will hold a league-wide Showcase, which
features some of the best junior talent in the United States. The tournament schedule
will pair up evenly matched teams against one another based on the current standings
and is also designed to have cross-divisional games with balanced competition.
The Hawks will be departing Sheridan on the morning of Friday, December 15 for the
long drive to the Minneapolis metropolitan area. On the way, the team will make a stop
for some ice time in Litchfield, MN, to get in a little practice and stretch the legs before
climbing back on the bus for the remainder of the trip.
Head Coach, J.J. Santagata is excited to get to the Showcase and see how the team
does against teams from the other divisions in the league. “I think we are going to be
pretty competitive, and we are hoping to come away with some wins. The guys are
enthusiastic, they’ve been working hard in practice to get ready and are looking forward
to the challenges of playing teams we have never seen before.”
The Hawks first game will be on Sunday night, Dec 19, at 7:15 MST versus the Mid
Cities Jr Stars. The Stars are located in Euless, TX, and play in the South Division.
The following evening on Monday, the Hawks take on the St. Louis Jr. Blues, from the
Central Division. Sheridan wraps up the Showcase on Tuesday morning when they
play the Danbury Jr Hat Tricks, out of Danbury, CT and the East Division.
The NA3HL is in its 14th season in 2023-24 and serves as one of the top training
grounds in the country by providing the best coaching, exposure and developmental
vehicles available for student-athletes in Tier III junior hockey. It is one of only two USA
Hockey-sanctioned Tier III junior leagues. No other league of its kind has had more
movement and advanced more players onto play in the North American Hockey League
(NAHL) than the NA3HL. Thanks to additional and enhanced initiatives in cooperation
with the NAHL put in place several years ago, more players from the NA3HL play,
practice, and earn NCAA Division I scholarships with the NAHL than any other league.
The Hawks have had many players move on to the NAHL or go on to play college
hockey after their time at the Whitney Rink in the M&M’s Center. Last year the team
advanced 7 players to college and one to the NAHL. In the four previous seasons since
the team’s inaugural season 34 former Hawks players have gone on to play in the
NAHL, USHL, collegiate hockey or professionally.
All the games at the NA3HL Showcase will be broadcast live and in HD on NAHLTV.
More Like this
Last modified: December 13, 2023