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Team and player
State Champions

8A Casey’s Crushers
MVP – Jeremy Gabriele
Top Offense – Joey Strada
Top Defense – Jack Bayless
Top Goalie – Luciano Pascale

8B Team Excalibur
MVP – Gavin Gallagher
Top Offense – Luke Pancrazi
Top Defense – Kevin Hamilton
Top Goalie – Garrett Ruby

10A Mission AZ Stars 97’s
MVP – Michael Mahan
Top Offense – Ben Jackson
Top Defense – Bobby Curley
Top Goalie – Aaron Gittings

10B – ASC Bladerunners
MVP – Austin Mills
Top Offense – Tyler Miller
Top Defense – Austin Kuehl
Top Goalie – Kyle Zimmerli

12A – Mission AZ Stars Red
MVP – Megan Amimoto
Top Offense – Daniel Diaz
Top Defense – Bodhi Bilandzija
Top Goalie – Anthony Ciurro

12B1 – Rollerplex Panthers
MVP – Robbie Goldsmith
Top Offense – Nate Haveman
Top Defense – Josh Burkeen
Top Goalie – Nate Lewis

12B2 – Casey’s Crushers
MVP – Nash Rossi
Top Offense- Jesse Land
Top Defense – Brandon Osgood
Top Goalie – Brandon Gleason

14A – Team Excalibur
MVP – Kasey Caruso
Top Offense – Andrew Belcher
Top Defense – Corey Cranmer
Top Goalie – Rebekah Zuniga

14B1 – Rollerplex Panthers
MVP – Jayme Haveman
Top Offense – Ryan Finley
Top Defense – Ryan Taney
Top Goalie – Court Render

14B2 – Excalibur Bronze
MVP – Dakota Martin
Top Offense – Connor Strege
Top Defense – Brian Center
Top Goalie – Eddie Cini

16A – Excalibur 91’s
MVP – David Marmorstein
Top Offense – Jake Lund
Top Defense – KC Barter
Top Goalie – Aaron La Cavera

16B – Yuma Blaze
MVP – Jake Carney
Top Offense – Alex Karic
Top Defense – JT Tapia
Top Goalie – Nick Carroll

18u – Prescott Storm
MVP – Zack Haley
Top Offense – Jake Lund
Top Defense – Ian Quick
Top Goalie – Conmor McShane

The top “A” divisions were contested by 3 programs at state finals this year as compared to only 2 a year ago.  Casey’s Crushers, who seem to have a lock on the 8u division, won in a tight finale against the Mission AZ Stars 4-2.  Mission AZ Stars, however, had their top players on fire at finals in the 10u and 12u “A” divisions as they cranked out a 5-0 victory over Casey’s Crushers in the 10u divsion and a 5-2 victory over the Excalibur 95’s in the 12u “A” division.  But it was Team Excalibur that had no trouble at all as their teams cruised to state titles in the 14u “A” division with a 7-2 win over the independent Hitmen team and in the 16u “A” division with a victory over the Prescott Storm 6-2.

Teams, for the first time at state finals, were awarded TOP PARTICIPATION banners for having attended each and every one of the scheduled qualifiers that were offered.  The AIHA is honored to acknowledge the following teams for their commitment and participation: 10u Prescott Storm, 12u Prescott Storm, 10u Casey’s Crushers, 10u Yuma Blaze, 12u Casey””’s Crushers, 12u Crazy 8’s, 14u Crazy 8’s, 16u Crazy 8’s, 10u Rollerplex Panthers, 14u Rollerplex Panthers, 16u Rollerplex Panthers.

Yuma Blaze 10u team is inspirational in their quest for a state title
The Yuma Blaze 10u team began their season as all other youth teams begin their season in the AIHA.  Play your best, learn from your mistakes and have fun.  They were a team that attended every AIHA qualifier and virtually no player on their roster missed a qualifier.  As it turned out, paying attention to the little things paid off for Yuma Blaze 10u’s.  They won, without a doubt, the closest, most highly contested championship of the entire State finals.  After not having won a single qualifier all season, they advanced to the finals in spite of losing their elimination game to the Prescott Storm.  With their scoring leaders Kyle Land and Morgan Taylor, the Yuma Blaze topped the Prescott Storm 5-4 in the finals after Morgan Taylor scored the winning goal with about 1:20 left in the game.

Crazy 8’s phenomenal bookend goalies

When the 16u Crazy 8’s coaches Scott Patterson and David Sticker directed their team at the Yuma qualifier, it was originally thought that the team””””s good fortunes were a result of both coaches dressing up in suites and ties.  Little did anyone suspect was that there was a roster addition of a certain goalie by the name of Kyle Monus that was about to change everything for the Crazy 8’s. It was not that their only rostered goalie, Austin Scott was relegated to backup, quite the contrary.  The two goalies became two of the most lethal gate keepers in AIHA history.  Both goalies shared outstanding goalie honors throughout the rest of the regular season.  But in a cruel twist of fate, Kyle was too ill to participate at state finals, however, their pillar of strength, Austin Scott, played tough between the pipes an was vital in bringing home the state title with the Crazy 8’s beating the Rollerplex Panthers 4-3 for the 16uB division.

Top Offensive leaders far and above the rest

If you were fortunate enough to catch the 10uA or 14uA divisions, you could have caught a glimpse of the two most prolific scoring threats for the 2008 season at the state finals.  Actually, Alex MacDonald, who plays for Casey’s Crushers, played on both the 10uA and 12u teams.  He had an eye-popping 105 total points (65 goals, 40 assists).  Shea Taylor, who has had a fantastic career playing for the Crazy 8’s, put a total of 71 points (51 goals, 20 assists) into the net for 2008.

Arizona’s first world team player makes a huge impact in Dusseldorf, Germany

When Allison Era received a call from women’s world team coach, Jeff Prime, about trying out for a spot on the most prestigious inline hockey team in the world, she couldn’t believe that her golden opportunity had come knocking so soon.  Not only was Ali the youngest player ever to try out for a spot on Team USA for this year””””s world championship in Dusseldorf, Germany, but at 15 years of age, she was to be the youngest player ever to play on the women””””s team.  In reality, Ali deserved every honor that was to come from here experience.  She worked out 3 days a week and she was on the floor and playing inline hockey 6 days a week.  Ali began her hockey career at the Castle Sports Club at the age of 8 years old.  this season, Ali played on the 14u and 16u Excalibur teams, both winning the state championship.  At the world championships in Dusseldorf, Germany, she was called upon by Team USA, to get into the game against Spain and Japan where she scored 2 short handed goals.  But the best was yet to come in the bronze medal game against France.  Ali scored the only 2 goals to lead Team USA to a 2-1 victory for the world bronze medal.  Not bad for the youngest player on Team USA.