Youth Goalie Aims High

This was an article in the Saginaw News dated Thursday June 10, 2010:
"Youth Goalie Aims High, 14 year old gets taste of elite hockey"
Between the pipes and on the ice is where Devin Williams has always felt comfortable.
Thats a good thing, because he's been spending alot of time there lately.
"I liked being in the net,"Williams said, "It was just different from everybody else."
Williams, a 14 year old Saginaw Township resident, has been garnering plenty of ttention for his skills as a goaltender s he climbs the rungs of youth hockey.
Last month, Williams attended the third annual Warren Strelow National Team Goaltending Camp in Ann Arbor. The camp brought in 36 of the best youth goaltenders from around the country for four days of fundamentals work.
Strelow was the goaltending coach for the 1980 United States Olympic Ice Hockey Team, and spent 21 years as a goaltending coach in the NHL. USA Hockey sponsors the camp in an effort to develop elite goaltenders for its national teams.
"I was pretty excited to be asked to go there," Williams said.
The camp's affiliation with the USA Hockey program had Williams especially excited. A year from now, Williams said he hopes to be invited to the USA National Team Developement Program, which grooms some of the top American junior hockey players for college and professional hockey.
So far, the feeling would appear to be mutual. On top of being invited to the Warren Strelow camp, Williams also participated in the USA Selects program last year, which included a trip to the team's national player development camp in Rochester NY and has been invited to work out at the USA Hockey complex in Ann Arbor during the summer.
One of the reasons the USNTDP has caught Williams' eye is the international travel aspect. Their U-17 team took a trip to Slovakia last season, while the U-18 team traveled to Belarus, Russia and Finland.
But before he's old enough to join the USNTDP, Williams will play with the Motor City Metal Jackets AAA Midget Minor team in Troy, when he is a freshman at Heritage.
Williams moves on to the Motor City program after graduating from the Bay County Blizzards, FLint Phantoms and the Belle Tire program out of Detroit.
Last season, Williams finished with a goals against average under 3.0 and got a taste of high-level youth hockey. "I learned how fast the game was at the top levels," Williams said.
And he is confident he has the skills to take himself to the highest levels. "Im good at moving in the net and reading plays," Williams said.