PHP > Junior Panthers (Central York Girls Hockey Association)

The Central York Panthers would like to congratulate our 2025-26 Jr Panther Keira Johnson on her commitment to play NCAA Division 1 women's hockey for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers. Keira is an outstanding student-athlete that is making a major impact with our Panthers High Performance (PHP) program. Keira is in her third season with the Jr Panthers and has been a huge reason for the success of the Jr Panthers over the past 3 years. We know how much effort Keira put into getting to this point and we couldn’t be happier for her. This was always a huge dream for Keira and she ...

The Panthers are happy to announce Christine Bailkowski as the U13AA coach for the 2026-2027 season. Christine has a long history with the Panthers, both as a player and a coach.

The Panthers are thrilled to announce Christine Dafoe as the 2026-2027 U18AA coach. Christine is currently the head coach for the U18A Red team and is an associate coach for the U18AA team. This year she was also named to Team Ontario Red coaching staff for the Women's National Championships

The Panther High Performance Program is pleased to confirm that David Heath will again coach the U15AA team for the 2026-2027 season. In 2024-2025 David's U15AA finished first in their loop and was ranked among the top 10 teams in Ontario. So far in 2025-2026 the team is building on last season's success and is again first in their loop and ranked in the top 10 teams in the province.

On November 26th, we are launching a new fundraising campaign in partnership with Ascend Fundraising Solutions called "Victory Vault". The goal of this campaign is to reduce the cost barriers for female athletes looking to start playing hockey. Ultimately, a successful campaign would allow the CYGHA to completely waive registration fees for new players! The campaign web site can be found here: www.victoryvault.ca

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Steve Dempsey

Head Coach

Steve Dempsey

Bio

Steve Dempsey will be going into his fifth season with the U22 AA team and is taking over the U18 AA program as of May 2023. Steve has a similar approach with each team as both teams are within the CYGHA Panthers High Performance program. For the past five years he has focused his energy on both recruiting and building an elite homegrown high performance program that offers players the opportunity to train and practice in a unique pre-university setting. Steve has focused his energy on both recruiting and building an elite homegrown high performance program that offers players the opportunity to train and practice in a unique pre-university setting. Focusing on family core values like accountability, selflessness, attitude, and respect he is determined to build a program that resonates with like minded character focused players.

Previous to taking on this position, he was an assistant coach for 12 years with the York University Lions women's hockey team beginning in 2009 working with Dan Church, the former Canadian Olympic Coach.

Steve was responsible for taking the lead role with the defense and the penalty kill units. Under Steve's guidance he has helped several defenders receive Ontario and Canadian First and Second Team All-star positions. The penalty kill unit was ranked as one of the top 5 penalty kill units in the country twice during his time at York.

In addition to his work with the Lions, Steve has been a Head Coach with the Ontario Women's Hockey Association High Performance U16 and U18 programs. In 2014 and 2019 his team went undefeated during the summer development camp.

Internationally, he has also worked with the New Zealand National Women's team program as a mentor coach. In 2012 he helped New Zealand to their best IIHF World ranking and their best finish at the IIHF World Championships.

Steve Dempsey is a fully certified NCCP HP1 and HP2 level coach and has been certified in Hockey Canada's High Performance Program.

He has been coaching for over 35 years in competitive, house league, and high school settings in hockey, soccer, and softball.

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416-550-7779

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Alex Copley

Coach

Alex Copley

Bio

Growing up a Panther, Alex was able to progress right through our association until Midget AA, and then went on to play Junior in the PWHL.

All of her hard work paid off and she realized her dream of playing university hockey and played for the York University Lions while earning her degree in Human Resource Management.

Throughout high school and while earning her degree Alex worked as a lead goaltender instructor for McGuire Goaltending, and Top Performance Goaltending. Her experience as a player brings a great deal of knowledge and understanding to the table when working with our Panthers.

Last year was Alex's first year serving as the Junior Panthers Goalie Coach, and as the CYGHA’s lead goalie instructor. Alex likes to work on all facets of the game with her goaltenders, and will be emphasizing skill development, hard work and growth on and off the ice this year with the Intermediate AA team.

She herself is a lifelong learner and has been recruited to work at several elite goaltending camps that are led by Hockey Canada U18 and Senior Team goaltending coaches. She closely follows the “Hockey Canada” goalie development program so that her goalies are prepared for Provincial and National team opportunities.

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George Trifon

Coach

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Mark Dubeau

Coach

Mark Dubeau

Bio

Mark is entering his 18th season coaching for the Panthers organization, at every level from Novice House League to Intermediate AA.

Mark is D1 Certified and has been an assistant coach with the Jr. Panthers for the past seven seasons.

Mark has also served on the CYGHA Board of Directors and Executive for the last seven years and is currently the CYGHA President.

He strives to create a positive and fun learning environment for players and to share his passion and enthusiasm for the game.

Peter McBride

Coach