The Colorado Springs Tigers AAA organization is looking for host families to billet out of area players and be instrumental in helping the Tigers teams build a winning tradition.  The Tigers AAA have 2 teams, 16U and 18U.  We need to house hockey players ranging in age from 16 – 20 years of age.  In order for these boys to play hockey for the Tigers organization, they need to be placed with local host families. 

Host families provide a home away from home for our young athletes.  For many of the players, this will be their first time away from home and they must have a stable living environment for their move to Colorado Springs. 

These boys come into our lives at a very impressionable age and our job as an organization is to help them become exceptional young men as well as excellent hockey players.  The players arrive from all over the World in mid-August and will be here through early April. 

When a family volunteers to host a Tigers AAA player, they are required to provide a player with his own room (or a shared room with another player) and provide the player with his meals.  In exchange, the families receive a stipend to help pay for groceries, utilities, and other additional expenses.  

Host families are expected to treat the player as "one of the family" and not a "renter".  The same goes for the player, as far as cleaning up after themselves and keeping their room tidy.  We have team guidelines and policies that will be provided to host families and all out of town players.  We expect our billet families to uphold and enforce team rules.  We expect all billet players to adhere strictly to the rules of their particular house. 

Among some of the benefits of becoming a host family: 

• Billeting can be a very exciting and rewarding experience for all those willing to open up their homes to dedicated players of the Tigers organization. Many families who have billeted in the past look back at their experience with fond memories. In fact, many families still keep in contact with their players as they continue with hockey and/or college.
• Many host families have players of their own who will want to play higher levels of hockey in the future.  Tigers players can be excellent “big brothers” to younger players in the home.  Often times the host siblings are the ones who benefit most from the experience of having an older player around to act as a role model.
• Each host family is paid $400 per month per player to cover room and board.

Lori Van Arkel, the team's billeting coordinator, matches each player's personality and backgrounds with quality billet homes.  Furthermore, each potential billet is carefully screened and presented with our team's expectations of the billet family.  Personal visits may be done during the season to ensure that both player and billet family are meeting those expectations.

If you are interested in learning more about hosting a Tigers player, please contact:

Lori Van Arkel at (719) 210-6364 or sox56@aol.com , or

16U Head Coach, Cody Campbell at (719) 360-7623 or cody.campbell@tigersAAAhockey.com.

18U Head Coach, Kevin Holmstrom at (719) 332-0728 or kevin.holmstrom@tigersAAAhockey.com.