skip navigation

Silver players watch the Warbirds in pool play

Squirts Catch Marshall by the Tiger Tail

By Fremont Ice Association, 02/03/25, 9:30AM CST

Share

Both Squirt Gold (Warbirds) and Silver (Flyers) attend Squirt A and B Marshall Tigers Battle at the Baron.

Yes, there were some wins and losses on the ice, but the real success was off the ice as well. 

Both the Squirt Gold (Warbirds) and Squirt Silver (Flyers) attended the Squirt A and B Marshall Tigers Battle at the Baron Tournament together for the first time, and were able to cheer each other on as well as hang out. Many of them have been teammates in previous years either through Fremont’s mite program or Flyers Silver teams.

In the 2020-21 season, Tactical 88 joined forces to sponsor a a team coached by former professional hockey player Jeff Hoggan, to be under the Fremont Ice Association banner, while offering a model to bring together area players to compete with the likes of Minnesota age groups at the A level and AA/AAA in the midwest, culminating in a USA Hockey National Championship in 2023-2024 at the 14U level. The Warbirds are now involved with teams at the 15U, 14U and 10U levels while integrating into the existing Flyers Gold, Silver and Black/White models.

For example, every Wednesday, both Squirt Gold (Warbirds) and Silver (Flyers) skate together and do skills and drills led and prepared by the Warbird coaches before splitting into team-specific practice.

“We heard feedback from our Silver (Select/B) teams, they wanted access to coaches from across the program so we tweaked our squirt model to allow for that,” said FIA President Warren Peters, who is also a coach.

The Squirt Warbirds and Silver Flyers finished the Battle at the Baron tournament with identical 2-2 records and 5th Places officially.

“Going to play in Minnesota and North Dakota is extremely fun because of their culture of hockey,” said Jason Buzzell, whose daughter plays on the Squirt Silver team. “It’s akin to getting to play football in Texas. It’s also challenging as Minnesota teams can be upwards of six months older than our teams due to a different age model allowed by USA Hockey for them, but it really pushes our kids to face tougher and older competition. Essentially ‘playing up’ for a weekend.”

Both Squirt teams have just a few weekends left in the season, including both attending their “destination tournament” in Colorado during the President's Day Weekend before wrapping up at the end of February and early March closer to home.


Squirt Silver players watch the Squirt Gold (Warbirds) in one of their pool-play games.


Coach Austin Smutz on the bench with Squirt Silver in their first pool-play game against Owatonna B1.


The Warbirds were the only team to score more than one goal against eventual tournament champion Rochester Red Squirt A.