Roman Marakhovski – 15U Head Coach

15U Spartans Team Head Coach

Marakhovski has over 10 years of professional hockey experience and over 475 professional games across the U.S. and Europe. Marakhovski has played and trained with professional hockey teams in the former Soviet Union and attended training camps and played in exhibition games with the Ukrainian National Team.

During his professional playing days, Marakhovski had stops in Russia, France, Greensboro, Corpus Christi, Augusta, Louisiana, Johnstown Pennsylvania, Columbus Georgia and finished up his career in Atlanta with the Gladiators.

Following his professional career, Marakhovski served as the head coach for two seasons with the 18U Thunder AAA Hockey Club, several years coaching various AAA TPH Thunder teams, and seven years as the skills coach for the Atlanta Gladiators.

Damian Surma – 16U Head Coach

16U Spartans Team Head Coach

Michigan native who graduated from St. Frances Cabrini in Allen Park, MI. Played 4 seasons in the OHL for the Plymouth Whalers. Played 13 years of professional hockey, which included a stint with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. Played 3 seasons overseas in Italy.  Coached two years of ‘AAA’ hockey with the Compuware and Victory Honda organizations. Comes from a big, close-knit family, with upwards of 100 family members.

Greg Austin – 18U Head Coach

18U Spartans Team Head Coach

Greg Austin has been coaching College, Midget AAA, and High School hockey athletes for over 20 years. He played Maritime Junior A hockey at Halifax for 2 years and has received USA Level V and Canada Level III coaching certifications.

For Immediate Release: Queen City Announces Return of Spartans hockey program for 2019-2020 season!

The Queen City Hockey Association (QCHA) is proud to announce the return of the Tri-State Spartans hockey program for the 2019-2020 season. Last week, QCHA applied for the reinstatement of the Tier I Tri-State Spartans multi-city model program. Furthermore, QCHA will contract with Total Package Hockey (TPH) to run the day to day operations as they previously did for four seasons starting in 2014-2015 when the program first started.

We are thrilled to once again work side-by-side with Total Package Hockey in bringing back the Spartans program,” Todd Adrien, President of QCHA said. “In working alongside TPH, we have a hockey-operations partner committed to the process of developing players and advancing them to the next level. We look forward to working together to grow the brands of QCHA and the Spartans program.

In announcing the return of the Spartans, QCHA is proud to continue its “Multi-City” approach to building competitive ‘AAA’ hockey teams, supporting players and their families from Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Dayton, Evansville, Lexington, Louisville and Butler County. This approach will ensure playing opportunities at the Tier I level for individual families in the area, while assembling teams that can compete at the Tier I level.

This model is about creating high level playing opportunities for dedicated, driven, goal-oriented student-athletes who possess the character, work ethic and skill set to play at the ‘AAA’ level,” stated Chris Lipsett, who occupies many leadership positions for TPH, and will be the Director of Hockey Operations for the Tri-State Spartans. “Our goal is to build a competitive program that readies our players for success at the next level. Our belief is that if we focus on the individual and team development process, results, including player advancement will take care of itself.

Advancement is something Total Package Hockey takes great pride in. Though just 17 years old, 45 #TPHTrained student-athletes have been selected in the NHL draft. 280 have committed to the NCAA level, 189 of which are Division I. In addition, 99 players have been selected in the OHL draft and 353 have signed tenders or been drafted in the USHL and NAHL.

Spartans Assistant Director of Hockey Operations Iain Fraser says the Spartans program will pick up where they left off by offering an elite schedule of Tier I Elite League events, along with scheduling relationships with top teams in the country. All of this in an effort to allow players to live at or close to home and still have consistent access to top competition.

While nothing trumps culture, coaching and the environment we foster with our Spartans teams, the competition we go up against can play an important role in the rate at which development occurs,” Fraser said. “We will continue to build highly competitive schedules, utilizing our relationship with the Tier I Elite League, for our Spartans teams to take advantage of and develop. Competition fuels development.

The Spartans will be releasing more information about the return of the program over the next several weeks, including team and tryout announcements, coaching assignments and exciting program offerings.

Tri-State Spartans 2019-20 Staff

The Tri-State Spartans would like to introduce the 2019-20 coaching staff! These coaches bring many years of experience and a vast amount of knowledge in the game of hockey to the young student athletes in the region for the upcoming Tier I season. The AAA coaches not only have years of experience and success behind the bench, but they have had even more on the ice as players at the highest levels including D1 all the way up to the NHL.

Executive Director – CHRIS LIPSETT
Director of Hockey Operations – IAIN FRASER

Tri-State Spartans Tier I 2019-20 Coaching lineup – To view Coach Bios CLICK HERE
18U/01-02 – GREG AUSTIN
16U/ 2003 – DAMIAN SURMA
15U /2004 – MIKE BERGER
14U/ 2005 – CHRIS LIPSETT
13U/ 2006 – IAIN FRASER & JARRETT DEULING
12U/ 2007 – RON LEEF
11U/ 2008 – COLIN MILLER AND JARRETT DEULING
10U/ 2009 – FRANK BANHAM

Director of Goaltending – RYAN GAYSO
Director of Defensive Skills / Midget Coaching Advisor – KELLY PERRAULT
Director of Power Skating – DEREK CROUCH