Bend Bullets Hockey

Jason Domitrovic - Head Coach

Jason’s philosophy: “Build individuals and a team will develop.”

Jason was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is a diehard Penguins fan. He discovered hockey when Mario Lemieux was drafted first overall by the Pens and has fallen in love with the game more and more each day. He also lived in hockey crazed places like Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Southern Ontario areas where he grew up playing Ice hockey, Roller Hockey, Street Hockey, Floor Hockey, Knee Hockey and all kinds of hockey throughout childhood and into adulthood. As a former pro roller hockey player, head coach of the RIT collegiate team, and head coach for the Buffalo Junior Wings Major Junior A hockey program he has been a part of some of the winningest and most well respected programs in North America.

Jason moved out west to sunny California where he ran the largest and most well known roller hockey tournament series in the world, NARCh (North American Roller Hockey Championships). Each year NARCh would host regional championships all over North America all in the selection of inviting the best teams in the country to the NARCh Finals where over 300 plus teams would come to participate. Later Jason went on to run the OC Blades which was one of the winningest youth hockey programs in the country and has produced several NHL hockey players. One of Jason's greatest accomplishments was founding the massive tournament known as State Wars Hockey Inc which was created to give every hockey player a fair and equal chance to tryout and represent their home state at the yearly event called, STATE WARS. He also built and developed from the ground up one of the most successful current day inline hockey programs know as KIHA in Hawaii. Notable players coached: Rocco Grimaldi (NHL Florida Panthers), Joel Ward (NHL San Jose Sharks), Beau Bennett (NHL Pittsburgh Penguins) Chase De Leo (NHL Winnipeg Jets), and Patrick Kane (NHL Chicago Blackhawks)

HOCKEY POSITIONS HELD BY JASON:

Head Coach Bend Bullets, Bend, OR
Co-Founder/Owner & National Director of State Wars Hockey Inc
Designer & Hockey Director of KIHA Warriors Hockey Program & Kapolei Inline Hockey Arenas Kapolei, HI
Head Coach of the OC Blades Huntington Beach, CA
General Manager & Hockey Director of Coast 2 Coast Inline Hockey Arenas Huntington Beach, CA
Head Coach Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Div I Collegiate Roller Hockey League
National Competition Coordinator for NARCh (North American Roller Hockey Championships) San Diego, CA
Founder/General Manager/Head Coach of the Buffalo Jr Wings Hockey Program Buffalo, NY
Professional Hockey Player for the Buffalo Wings

PLAYERS COACHED BY JASON:

Rocco Grimaldi – NHL Colorado Avalanche & Team USA U20, U18, U17
Chase De Leo – NHL Winnipeg Jets & Team USA U20
Patrick Kane – NHL Chicago Blackhawks & Team USA
Joel Ward – NHL San Jose Sharks
Garrett Haar – NHL Washington Capitals Draft Pick & WHL Portland Winterhawks
Brian Williams – WHL Tri-City Americans
Aaron Murray – BCHL Wenatchee Wild
Coby Downs – SJHL Battlefords North Stars
Austin Shannon – University of Nevada Las Vegas
Lauren Kilroy – NCAA Mercyhurst University
Chris Welch – NCAA Niagara University
Cayla Barnes – Team USA U18
Ryan Schlerf – Anaheim Jr Ducks
Mike Ratchuk – NHL Philadelphia Flyers Draft Pick & Team USA U18 & U17
Troy Loggins – NCAA Northern Michigan University, USHL Sioux Falls Stampede & NAHL Wenatchee Wild
Alex Barron – NCAA Quinnipiac University & USHL Indiana Ice & Waterloo Blackhawks

John Kromm - Assistant Coach

John grew up in a, very little known, hockey hot bed of Nashville TN where he began playing at a young age. At first, coaching was just a way to get more time on the rink and John began his coaching career as an assistant coach to his younger brothers team from the time he could drive to the rink. Through high school John continued to play, coach and give private lessons to younger players and learned that coaching provided a great sense of satisfaction in giving back. John has played both ice and roller growing up but really excelled through the roller avenue mostly because of a lack of ice opportunities. John has been coaching advanced travel level teams for over 20 years, winning national championships both has a coach and as a player. In 2000 John began his career with the Bend Bullets which was founded in 1996 and to this day bleeds blue. John played and coached for 5 years before moving back to TN to pursue other opportunities. In 2006 John was hired as the head coach of the MTSU college roller hockey team which competed in Division I of NCRHA in the South Eastern Conference. In 2010 he moved back to Bend, Oregon to rekindle the roller hockey program locally. After growing to roller program to over 150 kids locally as the hockey director of Cascade Indoor Sports he left rink management to pursue a career in real estate. Now, he coaches full time for the Bend Bullets travel program, and runs the development program to help recruit and develop the next generation of Bullet players.

Derek Meyer- Assistant Coach

Derek got on skates when he was 6 when his grandparents took him skating for the first time at the local skating rink. Because inlines did not exist in the beginning of his skating career he skated on quads. Derek started speed skating at 10 and started play “Hardball” at 11. Hardball used cane stick much like field hockey, quads and a ball. Derek belonged to the local speed skating club and hockey club for quite a few years. He picked up his first pair of inline skates at 13 and that is when it all began. Quads became a thing of the past for him as soon as he realized he could fly on inlines. Derek skated over to the local tennis courts where much of his early roller hockey career started. “I would skate over to the tennis courts with buddies and we would play hockey for hours. The high school hated us as we would chew up the courts.”

At 12 the Boys and Girls Club had a new hockey league and Derek joined. At age 13 Derek was still speed skating and actually, got the opportunity to skate against Apollo Ohno (yes the olympic speed skater). “I beat him off the line because I was a hockey player and new how to start quickly. Then he lapped me.”

Back in the 1990’s roller hockey was big in Oregon. Salem had two teams in almost every division, Portland had three or four. Mt Hood had a team, Corvallis, Eugene and Bend. There was no shortage of local tournaments and the competition was awesome. Each of these towns all had organizations much like the Bullets do today.

At age 18, Derek started a team called “Strange Brew.” Derek pulled in a couple guys from Portland, from Salem, from Eugene and from Bend. You might know one of the guys from Bend. His name is Eric Colter.

Strange Brew brought home Oregon’s first national championship for roller hockey. Back then it was the AIRHS nationals that was the big spot.

Derek has a long history of hockey, and a deep love of the sport.

“I used to think it was strange to think about going to a hockey tournament and not playing (coaching). And now I can say without a doubt it is one of the most fulfilling things I have done in my entire life. Helping these kids grow is absolutely fills my bucket. Helping our hockey community grow in Central Oregon has become an absolute obsession.”

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