Mike Holmes - Midget 18A
Mike Holmes played two years 1972-73 and 1973-74 with the Penticton Broncos of the BC Junior A league, voted second team all star as team captain in his second year. Went on to Northeastern University on Hockey Scholarship from 1974 to 1978.
At Northeastern Holmes had career totals of 25 goals and 127 assists in 108 games over four varsity seasons, Holmes is the University's career assists leader and currently sits in tenth place on the all-time scoring list. NU's all-time leading scorer for defensemen . Was Rookie of the Year as a freshman. Was named captain of the Huskies as a junior and lead the team in scoring with 10 goals and and 33 assist for a career best 43 points in 28 games and was named Most Valuable Player for the 1976-77 season . An amazingly consistent career at Northeastern paved the way to a tryout with the Boston Bruins. Holmes went on to play two full seasons in the Bruins organization in Grand Rapids MI, earning Best Defenseman honors both season. Holmes was elected to the Northeastern Hall of Fame in 1991 for his accomplishments in the sport of ice hockey. Holmes has coached at Tri Valley the last 8 years and has been Director of Coaches for 4 years.
John Burgess - Squirt B
John was one of the coaches in our Mite In-House program this past season. Prior to the coaching experience with Tri-Valley, John has coached minor hockey at the Atom / PeeWee level in Ottawa and at the PeeWee level in Calgary. John has also "organized and co-ordinated" adult rec hockey teams - mostly tournament teams when living overseas in Asia. John also has head coaching experience with the San Ramon Soccer club for the past 4 years.
John has played hockey in some form pretty much all his life. He grew up playing in the North Gloucester club in Ottawa and has continued to play recreational hockey as an adult - including finding opportunities to play while living overseas in Europe and Asia.
John, his wife Terri and two children - Taylor (9) and Megan (7) have lived in San Ramon for the past 4 years. Prior to that they were working and living overseas for 8 years with approx 2 years each in France, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Italy. Terri and John are originally Canadian.
John Somers - Mite X
John grew up in Western New York playing hockey at all levels. Entering his sixth year as a member of the Tri Valley coaching staff.
Dan Merrick - Squirt A
Dan started playing hockey at the age of 3 and at 5 he played for Tri Valley Minor Hockey in Dublin thru Bantams, played AAA(tier)in Bantams, at 16 was invited to U.S Olympic try outs. At 17 was selected to Team California. Played in Europe for two months,then returning to play for Cal, and other minor teams that were in the ECHL at the time. Has three boys 17,10,5. Has been coaching for twelve years, at every level and has enjoyed success and winning at every level.
Bobby Long - Bantam B
Bobby Long-----Played for Tri-Valley from 1974 to 1988, won Tri-Valley's first State Championship in 1982 on the Pee Wee AA team. Was an assistant coach of Bantam AA and Midget AA teams for Tri-Valley in early 1990's. Head Coach the past two season for the Tri-Valley Pee Wee B team, captured the NORCAL and CAHA titles this year. Have been an official for 25 years, refereeing games from Mites through Juniors, CAHA Playoffs, State Tournaments, and College games.
Paul Bates - Bantam B
Paul has coached with the Tri Valley Blue Devils for the past 10 years and holds a USA Hockey Level 4 Certification. Originally from Scarborough, Ontario, he has played/coached for over 42 years and played while attending the University of California at Berkeley. Paul and his wife, Lisa are former hockey rink owners and have enjoyed providing facility and developing the game of hockey for dozens of Northern Californians.
Dennis Bellucci - Midget 16A
Dennis Bellucci grew up in New Hampshire playing youth and high school hockey in Manchester and has over 15 years hockey experience as a player and a coach. This will be Dennis's sixth season at Tri Valley and his fourth season in the Midget 16 Division. Dennis' teams have won CAHA , two NorCal Championships, Cal State Games, San Jose Winter Classic Champion and Runner Up, and Shootout at the Ice in Anaheim. As an assistant coach, Dennis' teams were NorCal Finalist, third in CAHA, and also a champion at the Shootout at the Ice.
Randy Stewart - Midget 16A
Randy holds a Level 5 Master Coaches Certification. Randy may be only currently active level 5 coach in Norcal. Randy has coached at San Jose and Tri Valley. For the past several seasons, he has worked with the Midgets at Tri Valley. Randy has been a head coach and an assistant coach. He brings vast hockey knowledge where ever he can help out the most. Tri Valley has produced many of the best hockey talents in Northern California thanks in large part to Randy.
Ken Vonderach - Peewee A
Born and raised in Northern California, Ken Vonderach started playing hockey in his early 20's. Ken started coaching when his oldest son was 6. Since then Ken has attended many clinics sponsored by USA hockey, and has held the capacity of Assistant coach and Head coach at various levels up through PeeWee. Highly organized and enthusiastic, Ken brings high energy to the ice, and will get the most out of his players. During his 7 years of coaching, his accomplishments include 2 Nor-Cal Championship Titles-Squirt B 2004-2005 Season/Peewee B 2005-2006 Season, 2 State Championship Appearances- Squirt B Runner up 2004-2005/PeeWee State Champions 2005-2006, and 2 Silver Sticks Championship Appearances-2003/2004 TAHA Region-2005/2006CAHA Region. Ken has coached in both California and Texas with the Tri-Valley Blue Devils, The Texas Aces, and the Dallas Ice Hawks.
