Instructors & Team Members

Craig grew up in southeast Michigan where he began playing organized hockey at the age of 3. Craig played travel hockey through Juniors and finished his playing career as the Captain of the Oakland University Grizzlies.      

Craig's coaching career started at his former high school, Grosse Ile before he got behind the bench at Oakland. Craig spent three seasons as the head coach of OU from 2002-2005. In his 3 seasons at OU, Craig led his teams to an above .800 win percentage, 2 GMHL Regular season titles, 2 GMHL playoff titles, 3 national tournament appearances including a national title in 2004 and finalist in 2005. In his time at OU, the Grizzlies lost only 1 regular season game on home ice and had a 23 game unbeaten streak in the 2003-2004 season. 

Craig founded the Oakland University D3 team in 2004 and was central region coach of the year that same season. In 2005 Craig was inducted in to the Oakland University Hockey Hall of Fame. 

Craig spent four seasons with the Little Caesars AAA program. In his 3 years as head coach at LC, Craig led his teams to numerous tournament titles as well as back to back to back state finals. Craig's teams won state titles in 2007 and 2008 before qualifying for the national tournament in those years. Craig helped guide the team to a national title in 2008. 

The 2009-10 season had Craig as the video coach of the Toledo Walleye. The ECHL franchise was the farm team for both the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks. As the video coach for Toledo he also spent time working on player skills and enjoyed doing color commentary for the team's radio broadcasts.

2010-11 Craig coached the Yellowstone Quake Junior A team in Cody Wyoming. In his one and only season in Wyoming Craig led the team to a playoff appearance despite a host of injuries and player call ups.

2011-12 Craig returned to youth hockey in the Detroit area by working with the 1997 Michigan Ice Hawks. In his season with MIH, the team finished in the top 3 nationally after a season of multiple tournament titles as well as league and playoff titles. 

2012-2014 Craig began training in Aspen Colorado for the Rocky Mountain Snow Kings. A team sponsored by Jeff Soffer, Craig traveled weekly working with kids on their basic hockey fundamentals. The team consisted of kids from Michigan and Colorado that Craig had trained and paired the groups together in tournaments across North America. 

2014-2015 Craig helped coach the Belle Tire AAA 03 team where they finished #1 nationally after a very successful campaign. The team finished the season as state champions after not losing or tying a single game from December 1st through middle of March.

In 2016 Craig took on a new endeavor with the Michigan Ice Hawks 04 team. Under his leadership the team won several tournaments before winning the LCAHL playoff title and ended the year as the state champs. The state title was Craigs 4th state title with his third different organization. 

Currently Craig is training the Meijer 2007 AAA team and the 2006 Troy Sting in addition to working with players throughout the state of Michigan on their individual skill sets.

Email: cfurstenau@r3hockey.com

Operating Director and head of player development at R3 Hockey Academy Flint. Sam is from Grand Blanc, Michigan, and has won three State Championships and two National Championships playing with Little Caesars Amateur Hockey. Posa played four seasons of Major Junior in the Ontario Hockey League. He spent the majority of his OHL career with the Windsor Spitfires, where he was a member of the spectacular 2010 team that not only won the OHL playoff championship but also went on to capture the Memorial Cup. During his final season of major junior (2012-13), he was chosen to serve as the team’s captain; until a trade deadline deal traded him to the Guelph Storm.

Posa kicked off his pro career in 2013-14 with the Missouri Mavericks, who at the time played in the Central Hockey League. Mid-way through that season, however, Posa elected to leave the Mavericks for the University of Windsor, where he played parts of two seasons before returning to professional play mid-way into the 2014-15 season when he joined the Indy Fuel of the ECHL. Posa also played sixty-three regular-season games with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL (16-17) and Reading Royals (2017-18).  Posa’s professional career also included playing in Europe for Cortina SG (Italy-A) and in France playing for Ducs d’Angers (2017-18). Most recently Posa was Player/Assistant Coach for the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) Champions, Huntsville Havoc. In addition to his professional career, Sam has had seven (7) years of player development experience as an Instructor at Furstenau Hockey Development.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• 3 time Michigan State Champion
• Back to Back National Champion
• 15th round 298th pick 2008 - OHL Priority Selection
• 2009-2010 Memorial Cup Champion
• 2011-2012 Windsor Spitfires best defensive defenseman
• 2011-2012 Windsor Spitfires best defenseman
• 2011-2012 Windsor Spitfires player of the year
• 2012-2013 Windsor Spitfires Captain
• 2013-2014 Queens Cup Champion
• 2018-2019 Presidents Cup Champion
• 2019-2020 All SPHL Second-Team

Email: sposa@r3hockey.com

Jordan is a Goalie Instructor at R3 Hockey. He joins us after a long career of both playing and coaching. Growing up in the Flint area, Jordan spent much of his youth hockey experience playing for the Flint Icelanders before playing his final two years at Belle Tire U18. From there he went on to play two years for the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the United States Hockey League. His junior experience allowed him to further his playing career at the NCAA Division 1 level, playing for the University of Alabama in Huntsville (WCHA) and the Miami University RedHawks (NCHC).

For the past two seasons Jordan has been coaching with Elite Goaltending Development, youth teams in the Flint area, as well as the area’s most Elite high school team Flint Powers. Additionally, Jordan works with several high-level high school, junior, and college goaltenders. 

In his spare time, Jordan enjoys spending time with friends and family, golfing, hunting, and fishing. Jordan brings an attitude of energy, hard work, and commitment which he instills in his players. 

“My ultimate goal is for each of my goaltenders to achieve their full playing potential, develop as both players and people, and enjoy every second of the process.” 

Chris is an Instructor at R3 Hockey Academy Saginaw. Coach Leibinger has just finished his third year of pro hockey with the Rapid City Rush of the ECHL. Also, Chris is a Michigan Tech graduate and completing four years on their varsity D1 hockey team. He has worked as the strength and conditioning coach for the Heritage High school hockey team. Here he used a variety of workouts including:

• Full body programs
• Plyometrics
• Speedwork & agility 
• Conditioning

All of Chris's workouts are oriented towards hockey players and the sport. Currently, Chris is a coach for Saginaw Heritage High School and 07 Meijer AAA.