Here at STA, we value our coaches and bench staff to give the best development for our players. We would like to show appreciation to our supporting staff that will be assisting our head coaches for the 2025-2026 season. This also gives our parents a little background of the coaches behind the bench. So lets start off with our U16 supporting staff.
Our U16 staff that will be alongside Marcus Quinlin(
Marcus' background) next season will be:
Mitch Skilton
Born and raised in Shelburne Ontario, Mitchell has had the opportunity to surround himself within premier athletics at both the collegiate and Elite Minor Hockey levels through his time in both Windsor and Ottawa, Ontario.
With a strong passion for coaching and player development, Mitchell has worked four years with the Ottawa Senators Hockey Programs where he worked directly with many AAA athletes, some of which have graduated to junior hockey at the OHL, Jr.A, and Jr.B levels. In this role, Mitchell assisted with on-ice skill development and worked directly with every AAA team within Ottawa Myers Automotive AAA and Eastern Ontario Wild AAA. Mitchell also served as a lead coach for power-skating, shooting and puck control clinics as well as Defensive camps for the Senators Hockey Programs.
Over the past 3 seasons, Mitchell has served as an Assistant Coach for the 2010 & 2011 Ottawa Jr 67’s AAA teams as well as the 2010 Upper Canada Cyclones AAA organization. During these three seasons, Mitchell collected a U14 AAA Hockey Eastern Ontario Championship (HEO) with the Jr 67s in 2024 and helped lead the Upper Canada Cyclones to a playoff birth in 2025.
Mitchell was also selected to the Hockey Canada HEO Program of Excellence, in which he served as an Assistant Coach for the 2009 (U16) AAA team at the Cross Boarder Challenge in 2024. Mitchell is also a current scout with the Jr.A Georgetown Raiders of the OJHL and a former scout with Future Considerations (FC Hockey) covering the QMJHL region.
Mitchell will be coaching the Defenceman with the U16 Southern Tier Admirals this upcoming year as well as assist with all Southern Tier Admirals skill development sessions with every team from U10-U18.
Don Herrington
Don is a Hockey Canada High Perfornance 1 certified coach as well as a USA Hockey Level 4 certified coach with almost 40 years of coaching experience at the AAA and Jr hockey level.
Don owned and operated High Performance Hockey (HPH) School, which was dedicated to developing Professional, OHL and NCAA calibre players. Many players from that school went on to play Pro, Major Jr, NCAA, and even at the USNDTP program. Alumni include Patrick Kane, Cam Talbot, Carter Verhaeghe as well as Matt Ellis and Ben Vanderklok who are both currently on National Hockey League coaching staffs.
Mitch Mendonca
Mitch is entering his 3rd year as an assistant coach with the 2010 STA age group where the team has qualified for the OMHA championships the last two seasons. Prior to that, Mitch played high level hockey in USports for Brock and in the OHL for the Belleville Bulls and Hamilton Bulldogs as well as winning a OJHL and Dudley Hewitt Cup Jr A championship with the Welllington Dukes and a GOJHL Golden Horseshoe Conference championship with the Niagara Falls Canucks.
Mitch is a proud STA alumni who captained the 1998 birth year team that won multiple OMHA AAA championships. Mitch can relate to the players going into their draft year on what it takes both on and off the ice to get drafted. Mitch will also help bring his on-ice expertise and help with the Southern Tier skill development sessions.