Williams and staff to return for 23/24

The Strathroy Rockets are very pleased to announce that Jason Williams will be returning as our Head Coach for the upcoming 2023-24 GOJHL season. Jason will be entering his 3rd full year as Rockets coach after joining the organization during the pandemic season. He currently lives in Lambeth with his wife Julie and 2 children and is the owner of PHD Hockey Essentials. Jason played in our league as an AP while playing for the Mount Brydges Bulldogs before going on to play in the Ontario Hockey League with the Peterborough Petes after being a 2nd round pick in the 1996 OHL Draft. On September 18, 2000, he was signed by the Detroit Red Wings as an undrafted free agent. Over a span of the next 16 seasons, Jason would go on to play in over 150 games in Europe, 375 AHL games and 455 games in the NHL with Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Columbus, Dallas and Pittsburgh. He won a Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in the 2001-2002 season.
“We are excited to have Jason and our entire coaching staff (Darren Williams, Dante Copps and Matt Hackett) return and for them to continue to provide valuable experience and leadership for our players as we continue our focus on player development within our organization” stated Director of Hockey Operations / General Manager Kent Coleman. “We have made some positive steps over the past year and we are excited about the group of players that we are assembling for this upcoming season as we continue to move our program forward.”
A few highlights from this season:
– we increased our point total from last year by 21 making it our highest total since the 2014-15 season
– increased our win total by 9 and had the most overtime games played in our conference
– had the youngest team by age in our entire league
– had 13 of our players attend Ontario Hockey League camps
– had another player – Dylan Richter sign with an OHL team making that 9 players over the last  6 years to move on from our Rockets organization in addition to 5 attending schools in the USA
– numerous Division 1 Schools inquired about some of our players in addition to OHL, BCHL and AJHL teams
– our players and staff attended a Detroit Red Wings game just before Christmas
– the community was buzzing again about the Rockets as shown by your support in attendance
Keep checking our website and social media sites as we have some exciting things planned over the next few months including our Spring Camp on April 29 and 30th and our 3 on 3 Fun League for Minor Hockey players starting in mid July.
Welcome back Jason, Darren, Dante and Matt!