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Sno-King Announces New Hockey Director!

Sno-King Members,

I’m very pleased to announce that we have appointed Doug Kirton as our new Director of Hockey for Sno-King Amateur Hockey Association.

Doug has an extensive hockey background, a strong passion for the game and is committed to building an even stronger program here at Sno-King. He’s got a lot of great ideas on how we can improve our program and I’m looking forward to working with him. I’m very confident that he’s going to be successful.

Doug has spent the last year helping General Manager Jamie Huscroft at Castle Ice in sales and marketing. He was also involved in the day to day operations of the facility and managing some of its programs. Doug was involved in coaching as well, offering private and group lessons to much of the local hockey community. Before joining Castle, Kirton worked for a local recycling company in sales and marketing.

Here are a few words from Doug.

"Coming to SnoKing is a great opportunity. The association has a long and storied tradition in this area. The club has three ice sheets to offer its members, which is rare in this part of the country. I intend to use these assets to continue increasing our memberships and developing new and exciting programs for our youth hockey players."

Doug has been successful at every level of hockey earning many honors along the way.

He played 3 years of Junior “A” hockey for the Orillia Travel ways, where he was named All-Star-Team in both 1985 and 1986, was top scorer between 1983 and 1986, and won the Canadian Championship title in 1985. Kirton then received a full ice hockey scholarship to Colorado College, 1986 thru 1990, where he received a BA in History.

He was named MVP in 1990 and received All-Academic Team honors in 1989 and 1990.

Kirton was drafted in 1986 by the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and attended the Devils’ training camp in 1990 before being sent to the minors.

Kirton played ice hockey for 10 years in Germany, starting in 1991, in both the German Elite and German Bundesliga leagues. Kirton played for the Straubing Tigers (Bundesliga League) from 1991-1997, where he was selected “Top Foreign Player in History” and had his jersey retired by the team in 2000.

He then played for the Frankfurt Lions (Elite League) from 1997-2000, and for the Landshut Cannibals (Oberliga League) in 2000.

In 2001, Kirton returned to the United States to play for the Atlanta Thrashers minor league team the Greenville Growl in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL), and played alongside his brother, Scott. After a short break from hockey, Doug returned to the ice in 2005 for a short stint in Japan with Sapporo Polaris.

Kirton served as a hockey instructor at various summer hockey camps in Canada and Europe and has been actively coaching private lessons for the last few years at Castle Ice arena. He enjoys family time, golfing, public speaking, reading, and is bilingual (English/German). He lives in Sammamish, Washington with his wife Keri, and their two girls Kourtney and Alexa.

Please join me in welcoming Doug to the association.

He can be reached at hockeydirector@snokinghockey.com or via the office phone. 425.821.7133 x3

Regards, Gord