Why choose the American Hockey Academy (AHA) at CATS Academy Boston? CATS is an international boarding school located in Braintree, MA, only a few short miles from the city of Boston. CATS prides itself on being one of the best high school choices for college and university acceptances. Since the school opened in 2014, the students are averaging on four major university acceptances a year with a total of $9 million in scholarships received by seniors. Aside from college preparation, the school has like-new single dorms with private bathrooms, dozens of classrooms (for arts, music, etc.), and multiple fields and courts for extracurricular activities. Here students will be immersed in cultural diversity, small class sizes, and countless club options with fun weekend excursions. Mix this with AHA, not only will you have the high school academic and cultural experience of a lifetime, but three times the amount of ice hockey than a regular high school team at this level. Student athletes will have a 50+ game schedule, with three hours of practice time a day, featuring weekly skills and skating sessions with highly specialized coaches. At their home rink, located in Canton, MA, AHA team members will have access to two sheets of ice surface, a gym, and private AHA team locker rooms.
Like CATS academic advisors, the AHA coaches will be available 24/7 to their team as coaches and mentors. On our team of coaches, we have Russ DeMariano, owner of the Boston Jr. Terriers and AHA home rink, the Canton Sportsplex. He is a former collegiate hockey player at Arizona State playing for the independent D1 Sundevils. DeMariano has coached various teams for over 25 years, including former assistant coach for the D1 high school, Archbishop Williams (also his alma mater), and the current coach for the U18 Boston Jr. Terriers national bound tier 1 team, among other notable organizations. He holds an MBA from Suffolk University. Next up is Derackk Curtis, director of hockey operations and general manager for the Boston Jr. Terriers, and also former head coach of Archbishop Williams. Like DeMariano, Curtis has many years of coaching experience and working with players of all levels (from high school to NHL), including Sandwich High School, who he led to win the Massachusetts State Championships in 2008. Curtis is a member of the Ridley College Hall of Fame. Third on our coaching lineup, is Kevin O’Brien, AHA Director of Recruiting. Kevin played college hockey for New Hampshire College. He is a level four USA hockey coach, with over nine years of youth coaching experience of all ages up to U16. Currently, he is the freshman head coach for Archbishop Williams High School. In addition to this, Kevin is the lead skills instructor for the Boston Jr. Terriers since 2015, a senior skills instructor for Grahame Townsend Hockey, and is a U17 National Development Team Leader.
AHA is currently still recruiting for the 2021-22 academic year for their U16 and U18 teams (’04, ’05, and ‘06 birth years). They are also actively recruiting for the following 2022-23 year as well, where the academy plans to expand to the 8th grade level and above (’04 through ’09 birth years). You can find the AHA coaches at the following upcoming events this summer: Global Las Vegas (6/21-6/24), Mid-Atlantic Festival (6/25-6/27), Northern New England Festival (7/6-7/8), 20th Annual Jr. High Festival (7/9-7/13), 41st Annual Sophomore All-Star Tournament (7/9-7/13), and the Southeast MA/RI Festival (7/13-7/14). If interested and this seems like your place to advance to the next level, please contact [email protected] today or visit the coaching staff at one of the listed recruiting stops this summer.
