2023-2024 Season- Coaches

10u B/BB- Coach Dmitry and Coach Shannon

10uA- Coach George

Coach George has been coaching youth hockey for over 30 years. In New York City, he was head coach of the St. Bernard’s School ice hockey team from 1988 through 1999. During that time, he was also a coach, teacher, tutor and mentor for the Ice Hockey In Harlem community hockey program. While living in Los Angeles, he coached in-house hockey at the LA Kings practice center. He has been a coach with the San Francisco Sabercats since 2004, and has coached every age group from 6u/8u through Golden State 18AA. Along with Coach Casey O'Sullivan, he is currently Co-Director of Hockey Operations.

Coach George played for the Columbia University hockey team in college and the Columbia Business School hockey team while in graduate school.

12uB/BB- Coach Daro and Coach Ryan

Coach Ryan Keiper began skating with the San Mateo Cougars organization at the age of 10 before switching over to the Sabercats as a Peewee. Ryan played alongside several other Sabercats coaches under Coaches George and Dave throughout high school and for GSE. After graduating, he served as a hockey instructor for the Skatebowl Camp at Yerba Buena for three years and recently returned to San Francisco after completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan. This is Ryan's first year coaching at the travel level and he will serve as an Assistant Coach for the 12U BB team. Ryan is thrilled to be back with the Sabercats organization and begin his coaching career.

 

12uA Coach Tim and Coach Aaron

Coach Tim Nelson started skating at the age of eight in Southern California. He played youth hockey at his local club (Burbank) until he aged out at 18 playing tier hockey. At the age of 16 he started assisting in the hockey skating school program at Pasadena. In 2000 he took over the skating school classes and started giving power skating lessons. He has been coaching nonstop ever since. He has been head coach at the Mite, Squirt and PeeWee levels. Tim has his level 4 USA Hockey certification.  His coaching philosophy for the past 17 years is to help the players fall in love with the game while they learn the satisfaction that comes from hard work.

14uB/BB- Coach David and Coach Paul and Coach Meghan

Coach David Duble grew up in North Haven, Connecticut tagging along to rinks with two older brothers and a dedicated hockey coach father at a very young age. He began playing youth hockey at age 7 and traveled throughout the New England and Mid-Atlantic states representing the Greater New Haven Youth Hockey Association from squirts through midgets, winning two Connecticut state championships along the way. Dave played two years of high school hockey at North Haven High School, picking up another state championship, and two years at Choate School. After playing three years of junior varsity hockey at St. Lawrence University and graduating in 1985, Dave moved west to California. Now in his second year of coaching with the Sabercats, Dave still plays organized hockey while raising two kids, Antonia and Quinby, with his wife Victoria.

Coach Paul Switenki grew up on the lakes, ponds, indoor and outdoor rinks of Minnesota where he progressed through in-house, travel and high school hockey. Summers included stays at Herb Brooks’ Minnesota Hockey camp where the instructors stressed power skating, fundamentals and European tactics and systems. He attended Penn State University where he studied Architectural Engineering and held a work-study position at the campus ice rink, which turned
into his first coaching experience. There he was exposed to and helped run an in-house program that in 1990 was ahead of its time, stressing station-based practices and cross-ice games — much like USA Hockey does today. He also coached U8-U18 travel teams while at Penn State, and U12 and U10 travel teams while a graduate student at the University of Colorado. His first job was in London, England, where coached a women’s team - the Haringey Coyotes. He returned to the US in 1998 and settled in San Francisco just as Yerba Buena Ice Skating Center was opening its doors. With Marek Page and Tim Grice, Paul helped grow a young Sabercat program. He coached the first Sabercat U18 team (2000-2003), U12s (2003-2007), In-house (2008-2009) and U8s (2009-2011). He took some time away from hockey to be with his young family but is now back, working with his favorite age level, the U8s. Paul has achieved Level 4 USA Hockey certification.

Paul’s favorite teams are the 1980 US Olympic Team, the Minnesota North Stars (before they became the Dallas Stars), Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers and, of course, the San Jose Sharks. He loves the current version of NHL, where referees call penalties like they should and skilled players flourish.

Couch Meghan Halloran grew up playing hockey in Darien, Connecticut. She played youth hockey with the co-ed Darien travel team before switching over to an all-girls program, the Mid Fairfield Stars, as a u-12. While playing for the Stars, Meghan also went on to attend Deerfield Academy and was a team captain her junior and senior years. Following high school, she attended Williams College where she played varsity hockey and competed against other top programs at the Division III level. At Williams, Meghan led the team in points every season, received numerous all-conference and all-american accolades, and was the focal point during the team’s run to the NCAA Elite Eight her sophomore year. She also served as a captain her junior and senior years.

Meghan began coaching hockey the summer before attending college as a hockey camp counselor for kids ages 5-13, in addition to coaching at the girls’ New England Development Camp. Now, after graduating Williams in 2022 and moving to San Francisco, she has joined the Sabercats for her first season.

14uA- Coach Michelle and Coach Adam

Coach Michelle Chee started coaching peewee hockey for San Francisco Sabercats during 2003-2004 season, when she was still a teenager and playing as member for the midget team. After two years, she moved to the east coast to attend college and volunteered as a "Learn to Skate" coach when time permitted. The "Learn to Skate" program was focused on local Hartford-area students and came during their school PE periods to learn how to skate.

Following graduation, she moved abroad to Asia. After some time away from the ice rink, she surprisingly found a small but passionate hockey community in Hong Kong. She began coaching and organizing the youth hockey league, which served about 400 players ages 4-18. She was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to coach the select teams, which played tournaments in Taiwan, Japan, and other locations in China.

She stepped away from coaching for a couple of years after moving back to the United States but now she's back as an assistant coach for the squirt and bantam teams here in San Francisco.

16uA- Coach Rich and Coach Trevor

Coach Rich Maggiotto is currently the head coach of our 16UA team and has been with the Sabercats since 2015. Rich attended and played for Bowdoin College (NCAA, ECAC Div III) in Maine, where he remains one of the program's top ten goal scorers in its 100+ year history (2nd in Goals/Season, GWGs, and PPGs). Previous to San Francisco, Rich coached hockey at Middlesex School (USHS Prep), a boarding school in Concord, Massachusetts, and for several summers at Appleby College in Oakville, Canada. He grew up outside of Toronto, Canada playing youth hockey for the Mississauga Reps (MTHL AAA). He is currently USA Hockey Level 4. When not on the ice, Rich is a father of two boys and, over the past two decades, he has founded and/or led a number of digital media and technology companies in the Bay Area.

 

High School- Coach Nathan and Coach Aidan

Coach Nathan Tam first started playing with the Sabercats organization when he was four years old. He spent a lot of time at Yerba Buena growing up, along with his figure-skating sister. After playing with the organization for roughly fourteen years, he was encouraged by his former coach, George Caliendo, to try out coaching with the Sabercats in the summer of 2021. He has been coaching at the 14U, 16U, and HS levels since then