Okay…So, I’m sure you are coming to this website and wondering what qualifies me to be giving the hockey goalie advice. My name is Tony Bebber, and I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I played at a higher level than I ever did, and I’m also not going to tell you I would have made it to the NHL had I not had a career ending injury. I am a goalie that has played for over 20 years and has played at a pretty high level and have quite a bit of coaching experience.

I grew up playing goalie in the hockey deprived state of Colorado until I was 16. Once I turned 16 there weren’t many options to play against stiffer competition so I decided to move to Canada where I played Junior ‘A’ in the Metro Toronto Junior Hockey League (which is now the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League) I was one of the youngest goalies in that league and was pretty much the backup goalie for my time there.

The next year I decided that I would like to try and go somewhere that I will get more game experience, so I moved to Spokane Washington where I played Junior ‘B’ for the Spokane Braves in the KIJHL (Kootenay International Junior Hockey League). It was a pretty good Junior ‘B’ league and I was the starter there and played in about 45 games. This year gave me some good experience and I also had the opportunity to practice with the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League.

The next year, I decided to take a different route and went to play a year of high school in Minnesota. I played for St. Cloud Apollo High School and had a great year where we went undefeated in our conference, but my season was cut short with a knee injury.

After that year in Minnesota I got some more exposure from Junior scouts and I ended up getting drafted into the USHL by the Fargo-Moorhead Ice Sharks. I was also contact by some Division 3 colleges in the Midwest and was recruited by St. Johns University in Minnesota. I made the decision to play another year of Juniors to see if I could get some Division 1 college exposure, so I decided to go to the USHL. I went there as a backup and it didn’t look like I was going to get much game time, so I decided that I wanted to see if I could go somewhere that I would be able to start. I was then traded to Billings, Montana to play for the Billings Bulls, where I played for a few months after which I really got tired of all of the BS involved in Junior hockey and decided to hang up the pads.

About a year or two after that, I was called by the Richmond Renegades of the ECHL, they were in need of an emergency goaltender and their owner had known me from years back. They had flew me out and I practiced with them and backed up for a few games before their goalie returned and they sent me back. I didn’t get any playing time, but that was a fun experience to get to see and take shots from guys at that level.

So, basically as you can see, I am a goalie who never made it and bounced around a lot trying to make it. I’m not at all bitter though. I learned a lot and it is my goal to share with other goalies what I have learned and some of the mistakes I made.

Putting my playing experience (or lack there of) aside, I also have quite a bit of coaching experience. I have been coaching goalies since I was 17. I worked for 3 summers as a goalie coach for GDI (Goaltender Development Institute) under Ian Clark who is the goalie coach for the Vancouver Canucks. Since then I have coached goalies of many different age levels in Colorado. Currently I work full time as a web designer, but I am still involved in hockey and am on the ice as much as possible.

To sum it all up…I don’t claim to be the best goalie in the world, but I do have plenty of knowledge that I think can help the hockey goalie of all ages. I know a lot of drills that can help coaches or parents without much knowledge of goaltending instruct their own goalies and I will be sharing those on occasion, and I am currently in the process of developing an e-book of goaltending drills which will be very extensive. Subscribe to this blog and check back regularly if you want to keep up with everything that is going on at Stop Pucks