Timmons commits to UConn hockey
Though Jordan Timmons will leave the Pittsburgh area later this summer to begin his junior hockey career with the Muskegon (Mi.) Lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League, odds are he’ll return to a familiar place to begin the season.
The 17-year-old McDonald native spent the past two years with Pittsburgh Penguins Elite youth teams, which are based at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, helping the Pens win a Tier I U-18 national title at the beginning of April. Muskegon’s regular season will open there with games against the other eight USHL Eastern Conference teams.
Timmons, who also played for the school team at South Fayette, has stayed busy in the meantime. Since attending the team’s prospect camp later that month, Timmons has spent most of his time working out and attending regular skill and skating lessons.
“Just trying to get on the ice whenever I can,” Timmons said.
Muskegon selected Timmons with its first pick, 15th overall, of the USHL Phase Two draft in May.
He was one of 30 players to receive an invite to Lumberjacks training camp next month. Their final regular season roster will contain no more than 23 players.
Wednesday the forward committed to play collegiately at Connecticut. He also had scholarship offers from Michigan Tech and Massachusetts. Timmons said college coaches began reaching out to him during this past season, when, according to eliteprospects.com, he scored 23 goals and had 15 assists in 28 regular season games.
The volume of interest increased during the national tournament in the spring, when he scored six goals and registered seven assists over six games.
He received all of his offers within the past couple weeks, and went on a visit to UConn’s campus a week ago.
“They don’t commit very many players. They commit the right players,” Timmons said, “which I think is a really good approach to building your team.”
What he also finds appealing is the Huskies’ developmental record. According to Timmons, six former UConn players will participate in NHL prospect camps this summer.
Such a presence in the pro ranks, despite UConn not being a traditional college power in its conference, Hockey East, has Timmons excited about the possibility of playing there, whenever that might be.
It’s common in youth hockey for players to stay at the junior level for multiple seasons before moving on to college.
“The player development there is unbeatable,” he said. “That’s going to help them in the future.”
Timmons expressed confidence in UConn’s ability to continue to improve in the near future.
“Within the next couple years, I think it’s going to be a very competitive team in an (already) very competitive league,” he said.
At a school board meeting Wednesday night, the California Area School Board voted to continue Trojans varsity cross country and tennis programs, as well as middle school soccer and softball, for the upcoming school year.
The board had raised the prospect of dropping the programs at a recent meeting in a move to cut costs.
The tennis program in particular has had success in recent years, both individually and as a team.
John Monroe finished fourth in WPIAL AA boys singles this spring, just missing qualifying for the PIAA championship. As a sophomore, Monroe competed in the 2015 state tournament, advancing to the second round.