Academy Ace Makes Final Cut
A 17-year-old Billingham teenager has made the final squad of 19 for the Great Britain Under 18 Ice Hockey Squad. Jimmy Moutrey a member of Tees Active Sports Academy and also plays for the Billingham Bombers and battled his way through 2 intense trials held in Newcastle and Sheffield in December to make a squad of 22 of the best young Ice Hockey players in the country.
This was followed by a series of training camps held in Sheffield where the 22 ice hockey hopefuls were observed and assessed by the Great Britain coaching staff. Jimmy, a left-winger obviously impressed the Great Britain management at these sessions and the Moutrey family were delighted when the young Billingham Bomber was selected for the final 19 to compete at the World Championships in Senok, Poland in April.
Great Britain will be competing in Division 1 with teams from Norway, Denmark, Japan, Poland and the Ukraine this intense time will see the Great Britain team playing 5 games in 6 days.
This young ice hockey star will be meeting up with his teammates for an intensive weekend training Camp in Peterborough where coaches Mick Mishner and John Kynaston have arranged two warm up games, one against the Peterborough English Division 1 team and on the final day of the camp, they will play the Peterborough English Premier League team.
Jimmy said “I am delighted to have made the last 19 although I know it will be extremely competitive at the Worlds, with the Ukraine possibly being our toughest opponents. The GB team are taking a very young squad with 10 players including myself still eligible to play in next year’s tournament.”
After a short family skiing holiday, Jimmy will return to play for the Bombers at Billingham Forum Ice Arena on Sunday 25th against Blackburn Face Off 6.15pm.
For further information on skating and ice hockey contact Billingham Forum on (01642) 551381.