Sheridan Hawks Gear Up for Exciting 2023 NA3HL Showcase in Minnesota

The Sheridan Hawks are getting ready to hit the road for the upcoming 2023 North American 3 Hockey League Showcase tournament.

The 2023 NA3HL Showcase, will take place from December 17-19, 2023, at the Super Rink in Blaine, Minnesota. The Super Rink is the largest ice arena of its kind in the world. The state-of-the-art facility, a 21 million project totaling over 300,000 square feet, features eight sheets of ice under one roof.

This season marks the 13th year the NA3HL will hold a league-wide Showcase, which features some of the best junior talent in the United States. The tournament schedule will pair up evenly matched teams against one another based on the current standings and is also designed to have cross-divisional games with balanced competition.

The Hawks will be departing Sheridan on the morning of Friday, December 15 for the long drive to the Minneapolis metropolitan area. On the way, the team will make a stop for some ice time in Litchfield, MN, to get in a little practice and stretch the legs before climbing back on the bus for the remainder of the trip.

Head Coach, J.J. Santagata is excited to get to the Showcase and see how the team does against teams from the other divisions in the league. “I think we are going to be pretty competitive, and we are hoping to come away with some wins. The guys are enthusiastic, they’ve been working hard in practice to get ready and are looking forward to the challenges of playing teams we have never seen before.”

The Hawks first game will be on Sunday night, Dec 19, at 7:15 MST versus the Mid Cities Jr Stars. The Stars are located in Euless, TX, and play in the South Division. The following evening on Monday, the Hawks take on the St. Louis Jr. Blues, from the Central Division. Sheridan wraps up the Showcase on Tuesday morning when they play the Danbury Jr Hat Tricks, out of Danbury, CT and the East Division.

The NA3HL is in its 14th season in 2023-24 and serves as one of the top training grounds in the country by providing the best coaching, exposure and developmental vehicles available for student-athletes in Tier III junior hockey. It is one of only two USA Hockey-sanctioned Tier III junior leagues. No other league of its kind has had more movement and advanced more players onto play in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) than the NA3HL. Thanks to additional and enhanced initiatives in cooperation with the NAHL put in place several years ago, more players from the NA3HL play, practice, and earn NCAA Division I scholarships with the NAHL than any other league.

The Hawks have had many players move on to the NAHL or go on to play college hockey after their time at the Whitney Rink in the M&M’s Center. Last year the team advanced 7 players to college and one to the NAHL. In the four previous seasons since the team’s inaugural season 34 former Hawks players have gone on to play in the NAHL, USHL, collegiate hockey or professionally. All the games at the NA3HL Showcase will be broadcast live and in HD on NAHLTV.