Lambton Jr. Sting Coach's Corner: U15 and U18
Let's get to know our U18 (Derick Hare) and U15 (Jason Polera) coaches a little better...
Derick Hare
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He immediately fell in love with the game of hockey as a kid, and later fell in love with coaching. Sixteen years later he has coached from IP to AAA with joy teaching the players.
Derick was raised in Hamilton, where he played hockey with the Hamilton Huskies AAA organization. He played against Wayne Gretzky, who was 10 years old playing for Brantford while Derick was 9 playing for the Huskies. He had a cup of coffee with the Oakville Blades (Jr B), but injured his knee during camp at 16. That was the end of that, unfortunately
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One of Derick's sports highlights was playing Jahangir Khan (who was the number one squash player in the world) at his home club in St. Catherines (ON) “White Oaks Resort” where he was the pro. Derick described his experience with the following statement: "Got my butt kicked LOL!" As a squash player Derick has won Ontario Championships, New York State Open, and qualified for National Championships.
Derick has volunteered with many organizations throughout his life. His belief is “if you are in a position to help someone, you should!”
Since he was five years old his favourite NHL team has been, of course, the “Boston Bruins”. He loves the black jersey with the big “B”.
Derick's favourite quote is “Enjoy the moment, not everyone can do this.”
Jason Polera
Coach Polly is certified by Hockey Canada, holding the High Performance 1 Certification, and has earned over 30 professional development points since 2018. His experience and knowledge has been acquired over his 37 years in the game of hockey.
This is Jason’s 11th season with the Lambton Jr. Sting Hockey Club, 7th as Head Coach.
In 2019, Jason was an Assistant Coach for Team ALLIANCE in the 2018 U16 Hockey Canada Program of Excellence OHL Gold Cup, and also participated in a coaching role during a Hockey Canada Program of Excellence/OHF U15 Development Camp.
Jason has 24 years of competitive hockey experience playing AA, AAA, High School, Tier 2 Jr. A, OHL, as well as Minor Professional in the ECHL and UHL. He also played roller hockey for the Mission Roller Factory Team and traveled across North America competing in various national championships.
“I really enjoyed all of the different experiences each level of hockey has given me.”
Jason’s fondest team memory is winning a Gold Medal with his high school hockey team at OFSAA, and his greatest personal accomplishment was scoring over 100 goals during his 4-year OHL career and winning a Top Goal Scorer Award in his second year with the Windsor Spitfires.
Jason retired with an OHL Education Package and moved to Sarnia to attend Lambton College’s CPET program, where he played Canadian AAA Senior hockey with the Petrolia Squires competing for the Allen Cup.
Jason grew up in Toronto, so naturally his favourite team is the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Coach Polly’s goal is to prepare and provide his players with the best opportunity to play the level of hockey they aspire to, while helping them gain life skills to become the best people they can be.
“Being able to give back to the players in my community with all of my hockey experience and knowledge is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I enjoy teaching, developing, and motivating my players to be the best they can be, and look forward to helping them build towards their hockey goals.”
Jason's favourite quote is “90% of hockey is mental, the other half is physical."