Former Team ALLIANCE U16 Coach Named to Team Canada Staff for the 2016 Youth Olympics, News (Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario)

De Silva who resides in Kitchener, ON is the current Head Coach of the Minor Midget AAA Kitchener Jr. Rangers and has a long history of Coaching within ALLIANCE Hockey and throughout Hockey Canada.  De Silva was an Assistant Coach with Team ALLIANCE U16 in 2014 and Head Coach in 2015.  Coach De Silva has held the Head Coaching title with the Jr. Rangers since 2013 and prior to that had Head Coaching positions with the Jr. B Elmira Sugar Kings and Waterloo Siskins.  He has also spent many years in a variety of positions at the minor and junior hockey levels for a variety of Associations.  De Silva’s international experience includes the 2011 3 Nations Cup that was hosted in Helsinki, Finland where he was an Assistant Coach for Team Canada.

“I'm very honoured and humbled by the opportunity and will undoubtedly bring my experiences back to the Minor Midget AAA program”, said De Silva following the announcement.

 De Silva will be working alongside Team Canada Head  Coach Martin Raymond.  Martin has coached with  Tampa Bay of the NHL, Drummondville of the QMJHL  and was an Assistant Coach with Team Canada who  won gold in Toronto/Montreal at the 2015 World Junior  Hockey Championships. The other Assistant Coach is  Michael Dyck who was Head Coach of Team Alberta at  the 2015 Canada Winter Games and has coaching  experience in the WHL.

The Team Canada Staff will spend a few days of  preparation in Calgary prior to the players' arrival on
 February 7^th.  The Team will practice and play an  exhibition game before they fly to Norway on February  10^th.  The 2016 Youth Olympics competition will run      from February 12-21, 2016.

Congratulations again to Coach De Silva and we wish you the best of luck in Norway! Go Canada Go!

For more information: 2016 Youth Olympics