Empire Players/Coach of the Month Selectees, February 2010

Coach: Tim Plant
Team: Green Mountain Glades
Coach Tim Plant of the Green Mountain Glades led his team to an unbeaten month in February, going 8-0-1. The Glades are riding a 9 game unbeaten streak into the playoffs, and have secured the fourth seed in the always tough Eastern Conference. Tim played his collegiate hockey for the University of Vermont from 2001-2005. He was named Assistant Captain of the squad for the 2004-2005 season. Upon graduating Tim jumped right into coaching. Starting his coaching career with the Glades youth programs, Tim moved up to the Junior ranks last season where he served as an Assistant Coach for both the EJ team as well as the Empire team. This marks the first season as the bench boss for the Glades Empire team for Tim.

Player: Hayden Fitzpatrick
Position: Defenseman
Team: Buffalo Stars
Fitzpatrick leads the Buffalo defensive squad in scoring. In February he put up 3 goals and 8 assists in 7 games. Hayden, a senior at Lewiston Porter High School, has made the USA development camps at age 14 and 16 and has competed in the Empire State Games with the Western Region. He was also a member of the Western Conference All Star squad this past January. Fitzpatrick's goals include moving up to Junior A, securing a Division I school and pursuing a career in Criminal Justice.

Player: Cody Learned
Position: Forward
Team: Junior Bruins
Learned, a captain of the league champion Bruins had a productive February putting up 28 points in his 9 league games during the month. Three of these points were of the game winning goal variety. This Amherst New Hampshire native has steadily shot up among the scoring leaders in the league after missing two month with an injury. He led the league in points per game average with a 2.27 production rate. Learned finished the year with 66 points in just 29 games, second in the league in game winning goals (6) and was a league all star.