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Open Borders and GK Hockey
On December 17, 2024, the Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF – Ontario’s governing body of all sanctioned ice hockey) confirmed that, effective 2025-26 Season, there will be open borders across Ontario – at all levels of representative hockey. It means that any player is free to play wherever they want in the province for representative hockey. The primary justification for this move is player/parent choice, who are essentially the customers of the product of hockey. With a change of this magnitude, there is an obvious concern for the preservation of hometown hockey. At GK Hockey, we accept the challenge of Open Borders and have been preparing the association for this, leading up to the decision laid out this past December. This is now our opportunity to market our association to current and prospective families, players, coaches, developers. Please have a read on what GK Hockey was, is, and will be as we move forward with open borders here to stay.
Philosophy
We believe in the positive progression of players, both their skill and character. We are an organization that holds our members to a high standard and want our players to develop character and life skills through their pursuit of excellence in hockey. Everything we do is grounded in these principles.
Organization Structure
Coaching
GK is committed to bringing the most qualified, skilled, and successful coaches in the area. Along with this commitment, is also a commitment to continued education and training of our coaches and their staff. We are also very blessed to have some of the deepest hockey talent and knowledge in our own City, and many of these individuals are sought after for coaching positions within our organization. We have a good mix of parent and non-parent coaching staff on our teams. Many of our parent coaches have played in the OHL, Tier 2 Jr, CIS, NCAA, AHL, NHL, Europe and many other pro leagues. Many of our coaches have also coached at high levels in their previous careers in the OHL, AHL, CIS to name a few. Kingston is a hot-bed for hockey talent and our organization works diligently to seek out opportunities with these individuals to get involved with GK Hockey.
Coaches for 2025/26
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U10
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Brett Holmberg
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With over a decade of experience in instructing and coaching hockey and soccer players, Brett has served as the head hockey instructor and on-ice performance specialist at a leading hockey school. He has also been a soccer development and regional head coach. His athletic background includes playing Jr. A hockey and competing in semi-professional, university, and college soccer. Brett grew up in Ajax, Ontario playing for the Ajax/Pickering Raiders AAA winning the OMHA championship as well as playing for the top high school hockey team in the country. Brett currently coaches full-time working with youth and professional hockey and soccer players developing their performance and game sense to the best of their abilities.
"My objective is to help players reach their full potential while creating memorable life experiences along the way" - Brett Holmberg
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U11
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Sean Langdon
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Originally from Ottawa ON and played AAA Minor Hockey with several centers in the HEO Hockey League. At 16, Sean was drafted into the Ontario Hockey League by the Kingston Frontenac’s and played for 4 seasons in the Ontario Hockey League for Kingston and Sudbury.
In 2003 he had a tryout with the Ottawa Senators and then went on to play CIS at York University while completing his post-secondary degree.
Sean has been involved in coaching with competitive hockey programs from the AAA to AA levels including multiple years with KAMHA since concluding my playing career. Sean coached the U10AAA team in 2024-25.
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U12
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Tony Cimellaro
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A Kingston native, Tony coached 2 seasons in the Western Professional Hockey League, and in the United Hockey League. He coached the Kingston Frontenac’s from 2003 to 2010, was a part of the Queen’ Golden Gaels coaching staff until 2017. He then took a position as an assistant with the Belleville Senators.
Tony played with the Kingston Raiders/Frontenac’s and Belleville Bulls. He was a member of various European leagues from 1993 until 2000.
Tony has a son who is involved with the Greater Kingston Junior Gaels as a player.
He is the current U11AAA Coach
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U13
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Danny Taylor
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Born in Belarus, his family moved to Ottawa when he was 2 years old. He has called Kingston his home for 20 years.
Danny has 20 years experience in major hockey in 7 countries as well as Canada, and in the NHL. He played for both the Guelph Storm and Kingston Frontenac’s.
He was the netminder for the 2018-19 Belleville Senators, and a member of the Belarus men’s national hockey team in 2021.
Danny has 2 sons who are players involved with the Greater Kingston Junior Gaels.
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U14
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Kevin Griffin
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In the words of his players, Coach Kevin is dedicated, funny, hard worker, supportive, smart, trustworthy, passionate, enthusiastic, patient and is a real BEAUTY! Kevin has coached for GK for the past 15+ years. He is currently the longest serving GK coach.
Griff has been a Jr A scout for about 20 years, coached Jr A and Jr C, and has been a Jr C General Manager.
Kevin is the Greater Kingston coach with the most ETA Championships ever. He's also a High-Performance Certified Coach and has coached for over 25 years, with a son who graduated GK and played Junior hockey himself.
Kevin does not stop his coaching when he leaves the rink, he provides many team building opportunities for the players, ensuring they all feel like they belong.
Mr. Griffin likes to ride the snowmobile in the winter time, spends as much time being a father as he does a coach.
Coach took a few years off of coaching to be on the GK Board of Directors
Kevin is a huge asset to the Greater Kingston Junior Gaels and we are all very happy he decided to leave his passion and profession as a baseball super star and come to work with the players and families of GK.
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U15
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Reid Trueman
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Reid has lived in the Kingston area his entire life.
Proudly, he is a product of the Greater Kingston Hockey System. Reid was a member of AAA hockey teams from U11 to U18.
He then played three years of Junior Hockey with the Athens Aero’s.
In 2024, he accepted the position of Assistant Coach with the U14 AAA.
His coaching philosophy revolves around the principles of hard work, teamwork, and continuous improvement. He believe in creating a positive and inclusive environment where players are encouraged to challenge themselves, learn from mistakes, and develop both their technical skills and physical health.
Strong communication and trust within the team is a philosophy Reid will bring to the team, as hockey is a sport that thrives on collaboration.
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U16
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Maxim Proulx
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With more than a dozen years as a head coach, associate coach and assistant coach at all levels from U10 to U18 and HL to AAA, Max has seen it all. He has also been a Hockey Canada Licensed Skills Development Specialist, and a goalie coach for over a decade.
Max worked with OMHA as a coach facilitator and field evaluator. He has also occupied functions in hockey administration, from public relations, tournament director and development camp director.
His experience has prepared him to run a complex training program for our GK players.
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U18
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Jeff Culhane
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Jeff grew up playing competitive hockey and soccer in Belleville, Ontario. After completing his education, he accepted a position with HPEDSB and has taught high school since 2001.
Jeff has coached AAA at the U10, U11, U14, U15, U16 and U18 levels and has helped players graduate to the Junior A, OHL and NCAA levels.
In 2024, his U15 AAA team captured the OMHA championship.
Jeff loves the game and looks forward to icing a competitive U18 team in Kingston this season.
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Development Program
In 2023-24, GK Hockey did a full review of how the organization provides development to its players. The review included examining who our key developers currently are, which developers are out there we should be working with, what key areas do our players and teams have deficiencies in, when should we be doing our development during the hockey season, and how do we deliver a new development model that aligns with today’s hockey.
After doing this analysis, GK created a new development plan framework which included dedicated funds for each team to access, a list of GK Approved Developers that align with our vision, a process for coaches to submit their team specific development plan for final approval, a process on how to book developers, extra ice, submit invoices for reimbursement, and a continuous tracking model for the director. This has been running very smoothly the last 2 seasons and there have been key performance indicators in our league standings and player standings to show that these processes work when coaches leverage them.
Leading into the 2024-25 season GK Hockey also took their development strategy one step further by hiring a dedicated Development Coordinator who was tasked with creating a player development matrix for each age group that coaches and developers can use as a template to ensure continuity from one year to the next . We proceeded to hire Dale Clarke to take apart our current development systems and reimagine the whole landscape of what we want to accomplish – which is by the time our players get to U16 and U18, do they have the skill sets to make those teams competitive and make a seamless transition to Jr hockey. Coaches would assess their players, define key deficiencies the team and individuals have, based on key skills they should have from the Hockey Canada development pathway. Dale would work with these coaches to fine tune practices and development sessions to correct the deficiencies and by the end of the season, the expectation was the team and players corrected the deficiencies with lots of reps and correction.
Stepping into the 2025/26 season, the fine tuning begins for the organization and development is now the cornerstone to our organization. For this coming season we have secured Mike Murphy as our head of Goalie Development for a three year term. Mike is signed exclusively to GK hockey and will not be working with any other AAA organizations for the duration of his contract. We continue to seek out skills coaches to add to our cadre of expertise. Below please find the coaches currently affiliated to GK hockey for skill development.
Developers
The following are skills coaches and developers who have been pre-vetted by GK hockey and work with our players. The vetting process involves ensuring that they have current certifications and possess the knowledge/skills/abilities to properly develop GK players.
Defense Specific
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Dale Clarke – former player Jr A (Wellington), NCAA Div1 (St. Lawrence), NHL (St. Louis), AHL (Worcester, Hershey, Cincinnati), ECHL (Peoria)
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Ben Munroe – former player GK Alumni, Jr A (Kingston), OUA (Queen’s), current assistant coach Queen’s Men’s hockey.
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Doug Andress – former player Jr A (Brockville), NCAA Div1 (Ohio State), ECHL (South Carolina, Johnstown), AHL (Springfield), Europe (Germany)
Power Skating
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Ben Russenholt – former competitive figure skater, now an instructor since 1987, 6x National Champion as a coach, NCCP Level 3 Instructor, Provincial Level Certified Figure Skating Instructor, currently working with many local minor hockey associations and players.
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Nicole Coons – former competitive figure skater, an accomplished local figure skating instructor and power skating instructor serving the Kingston, Belleville area.
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John Boultbee – former coach Jr A (Wellington Dukes, Quinte Hawks), power skating coach for University of Michigan Wolverines, various minor hockey associations.
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Sylvie Kendall – former competitive figure skater, now a local figure skating instructor with Skate Kingston, with Provincial/Regional coaching credentials, now working with local figure skaters and minor hockey players.
Skills
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Darcy Greenaway – former player GK Alumni, OHL (Frontenacs), OUA (Queen’s), providing skills/skating instruction in the Kingston area.
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Mike Hartwick – former player GK Alumni, OHL (Windsor/67s/Guelph/Hamilton), CIS (UoPEI), Pro-Europe, Coach (Napanee Raiders), providing skills/skating instruction in the Napanee & Kingston area.
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Vince Tarantino – former NCAA III (SUNY Potsdam), IHL (Fort Wayne), skills/scout (OHL Niagara Ice Dogs), Skills (OJHL Trenton), providing skills/skating instruction in the Quine & Kingston area.
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Chris Longo – former player OHL (Kingston, Peterborough), AHL (Portland, Springfield, Cleveland), IHL (Cleveland), ECHL (Jackson, Toledo), current ast. Coach Kingston Frontenacs.
Goaltending
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Mike Murphy – former player GK Alumni, OHL (Belleville), AHL (Albany, Charlotte), NHL (Carolina), KHL (Spartak). Currently signed exclusively to GK hockey thru 2028.
Queen’s University and the Kingston Frontenacs Partnerships
We are currently involved with Queen’s University and their sports program. This partnership continues to grow every year. Our players have the opportunity to attend all varsity sports games (with a parent) at no cost. The University is also working with the Men’s and Women’s hockey teams to have their players interact with our players on and off the ice. Our oldest age groups will benefit by having the chance to ask questions about the student athletes’ experiences after minor hockey.
Queen’s also provides the association with expertise and assistance in helping us find strong students for positions as on ice trainers, medical knowledge and hockey experience. Our continued partnership with Queens Men’s hockey teams has allowed us access to their coaching expertise for our coaching staff, ensuring constant chances for development as the season progresses.
In our partnership with the Kingston Frontenacs OHL Hockey Team we are able to take part in game day 50/50 fundraising opportunities Rink of Dreams, where our minor teams can play on the OHL rink, meet the players and get the feel of what it is like to be behind the bench.
This and other seasons, players who have been through the OMHA or other junior systems have taken on small roles of mentorship to speak to our U15, U16, U18 players as they seek out junior hockey opportunities. The General Manager of the Frontenacs, Kory Cooper, has been a tremendous asset to our association by providing feedback on players, assisting in coach selection and giving advice on how to continue providing great opportunities to our players. Fronts Ast. Coach Chris Longo working with our teams as a GK approved Developer.
Member Benefits/Discounts
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Exclusive partnership with Pro Hockey Life right here in Kingston. Members receive 5 free skate sharpening vouchers, and 3 vouchers for 15% off equipment (sticks, skates, protective, etc).
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Partnership with Hockey Stick Man in Belleville with discounts on Blackout hockey sticks.
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Partnership with Pier Sniper Hockey Sticks for name brand pro stock hockey sticks.
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Launching of our Members Benefits Portal where our Fundraising Director has worked with local businesses to garner discounts for GK members when showing the JrQ card.
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https://greaterkingstonhockey.com/Pages/1738/Members_Portal/
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QShop @ Queen’s – when showing your JrQ card, members receive a % discount on many items.
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Honourable mention to Dave McNamara and his continued support of GK Hockey. Dave’s local restaurants (Merchant, Union, Baja) play host to many fundraisers for our hockey teams. Dave’s newest venture – Haymakers – found inside Invista/Cataraqui arenas, provides our families and players with great meal options while on the go.
Revamping GK Apparel for our Membership
GK is undertaking a refresh of the apparel process for the 2025-26 season. This will involve an improved range of items that are a strong mix of custom and quality, at competitive prices. The ordering and fulfillment process is also being revamped to allow greater flexibility for item procurement. GK teams will have a professional appearance as they enter arenas for home and away games, allowing them to represent the Association with pride. Keep an eye out on our website for the awarding of apparel contracts with GK Hockey for the upcoming 2025-26 season!
This sums up the organizational structure and philosophy of the Greater Kingston Hockey Association. If there are any questions please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].