River Falls Youth Hockey Association

Hello,

My name is Mike Kealy and I was nominated by the River Falls Youth Hockey Association (RFYHA) Board to serve as president for our association this next year.  I would like to take a moment of your time to introduce myself.  I was born and raised in River Falls and graduated from RFHS in 1991.  At the age of five I began playing hockey in the RFYHA.  My skating years with this association brought me through Atoms, Mites, Squirts, PeeWees, Bantams and high school.  Looking back; I have many great memories with the association including - traveling with family and friends from rink to rink, playing in over night tournaments, and building many life long friendships.  Today, I have three children who are part of our association.  Madison and Michael are in the first grade at Rocky Branch Elementary; they have been playing for two years and will be playing at the Mite level next season. My youngest, Morgan, is four and she will be skating next year as a first year atom.

I attended UW-Stout and graduated in 1998.  I completed my masters in education from St. Mary’s University in 2004.  For the past 11 years I have been a junior high school technology education teacher in the South Washington County School District.  Currently, teaching 8^th and 9^th grade at Lake Junior High School in Woodbury. 

For the past 15 years I have coached hockey on and off.  In 1993 I began my coaching career as a Squirt C head coach in River Falls.  My resume also includes head varsity coaching experience at both boys and girls programs, college recruiter at UW-EC and most recently the Atoms Director for the RFYHA.  My life has been and continues to be centered around hockey.  I watch, coach and play hockey as much as I can – it’s a great sport and a wonderful activity for kids!

As president of our association I want you to know that I will work very hard.  Being familiar with the program as a whole will help and I will continue to learn all the ins-and-outs of the program as quickly as I can.  Some strengths I bring are:  my organizational skills, the ability to communicate effectively, and strong social skills.  My two top priorities are to get the RFYHA financially stable and continue to create a wonderful environment for our youth.  This will be a group effort bringing together the board, the 110 families who are part of the association, community leaders, business people and the alumni.  We need to work together to lighten the load that is upon us.

Thank you for your time and energy!

Sincerely,

Mike Kealy