The Minor Hockey Thread

[Nancy]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Had a few more thoughts regarding the Royals / Global Academy thing as I was driving home last night:

1. Elite team rosters are not finalized until later in September. School year begins in early September. If Royals players are expected to attend school at Central Memorial they would need to register prior to knowing they were even on the team) or change schools a few weeks into the school year. Neither makes a lot of sense to me.

2. National Sports Academy which is another high level sports program (albeit different philosophy than Global) also is based at Central Memorial. So two competing programs both utilizing the same high school. Gotta wonder how much of this is a shot by Global to take out NSA.

I had skimmed through the materials to see if there was any mention of the academy being optional, but I did not see that.

[habernac]

I know refs are human. We all miss things out there. The only time I get upset is when I can tell they don't give a #### out there.

I'm a coach as well. You know how many times I had anything to say to the refs this year? Once. So take it easy. I'm not out there berating or yelling at them or following them to their car. I'm allowed to have an opinion.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Nancy

I had skimmed through the materials to see if there was any mention of the academy being optional, but I did not see that.

I also skimmed the material, I think I noticed two things
1. if a parent recognizes their kid is on 'the bubble' they do mention the option of starting at your usual school and consider transfer 'if' successful

2. I believe if I looked hard enough I could see a glimmer of evidence that this was optional (although clearly not promoted as such). I believe there is an option to attend another school but you would need a first period 'spare' to do the practices and then I guess dash back for period 2. presumable many days at end of school you would be dashing back. unspoken is all of the other formal and informal stuff you would be missing and - just wild speculation here- cant imagine that may not impact a players place in the pecking order

[Nancy]

Presumably anyone attending Bishop Carroll (the self learning school) would have no problem participating. They had their own Hockey Canada program there, I wonder if they could end up losing most of their kids to the Global/Royals program.

Just noticed that Royals territory includes Silverado. That would be an insane commute every morning to the school or arena, even with a car. (BTW, the main arena, surprisingly, is Optimist and not FCA.)

I wonder if the NWCAA will be next, they already have the Global program at Springbank.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Go Canes! Good luck in the Telus Cup.

St Albert Slash also defeated their BC counterparts from Vancouver to advance to the Esso Cup which is the female equivalent (MAAA).

Best of luck to both Alberta teams, representing the pacific region at Nationals.

Bumping my post.

Lethbridge (Male MAAA) took bronze in the Telus Cup.
St. Albert (Female MAAA) defended their national title at the Esso Cup. First time a team has won back to back championships.

Congrats to both teams, it was a good year nationally for Alberta at the Elite level of minor hockey. That is a good sign for the game here.

[Northendzone]

So my sons spring hockey team played a game today versus the team from the south. I found the game entertaining to,watch as it was mostly Midget AAA players and above playing.

I did not expect my son to play in the game; however he had the opportunity to,play and I thought he was steady and held his own in the game. His comment was that the pace was very fast.

[Nancy]

Anyone know what the outlook for Southland arena is? It had a mechanical failure a couple weeks ago and is still closed. Also, I drove past Fairview last week and there seems to be no activity there. It would be tough to start the year down two arenas.

Interesting year for minor hockey in Calgary, with Novice going half ice and Peewee being restructured to just 7 divisions and split into North and South leagues, and a new Peewee AA division. Also, the outlaw HSL league is launching this fall and these programs appear to offer substantially more ice time than traditional hockey.

[Lubicon]

I wasn't aware Southland was down, that would be a huge hit losing two ice surfaces. Hope they get the issue fixed, my beer league plays games there and we have lost enough ice as it is over the past few years.

Fairview is in a tough spot. The City doesn't want to rebuild a single arena for cost reasons and I don't think the community is keen on giving up green space to make room for a twin (assuming the City would move ahead with building one here).

That HSL sounds interesting and i have to wonder what the future would be for those kids once they get older. It looks more like a showcase league that a formal league. Once the kids get older (bantam and above) they would need to make a choice about playing within the Hockey Alberta structure, going the Academy route, or maybe this league gains traction at the higher age levels. Kids will need to make a choice as they cannot play in two leagues at once.

Lots of changes at the local MHA level, I think most of it is for the best. half ice novice makes sense, restructuring pee wee probably makes sense for parents. If I've learned one thing it's that nothing stays the same for long and change is not the end of the world.

[troutman]

Are there any house leagues or informal hockey for midget aged players?

[puffnstuff]

Originally Posted by troutman

Are there any house leagues or informal hockey for midget aged players?

Try Hockey Calgary, Recreational hockey council.

https://www.hockeycalgary.ca/stream/...hockey-council

[Northendzone]

always torn about this time of year as the conditioning camps are starting up this week. i am torn because i know that summer is getting closer to being over and i love watching him play; however, evaluations are a long stressful drawn out process

My sons (first year midget) has his first tryout on the 25th - so second last year of minor hockey.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Nancy

Anyone know what the outlook for Southland arena is? It had a mechanical failure a couple weeks ago and is still closed. Also, I drove past Fairview last week and there seems to be no activity there. It would be tough to start the year down two arenas.

Interesting year for minor hockey in Calgary, with Novice going half ice and Peewee being restructured to just 7 divisions and split into North and South leagues, and a new Peewee AA division. Also, the outlaw HSL league is launching this fall and these programs appear to offer substantially more ice time than traditional hockey.

City of Calgary website indicates both ice surfaces at Southland will be down until September 30. That's a lot of ice during a time when things are really ramping up. They say they will try and accomodate teams with ice at other City facilities but I don't see how there will possibly be enough to make up for it. Minor hockey takes a hit but beer leaguers will too. My league has two game per weekend at Southland, that is a loss of 6-8 games that they will need to make up or more likely we will just lose as beer league is pretty much the bottom of the pecking order.

It's been a tough few years for arena's with the City doing (badly needed) upgrades on several of them and the resulting loss of ice while this happened. I'm not aware of any that are currently closed so perhaps a blessing here. Village Square, Frank McCool, Ernie Star, and Stew Hendry all recently upgraded. Not sure if the City has plans for more.

[Lubicon]

Not sure this is the appropriate thread but seeing as the title would imply it covers all minor hockey this is as good a place as any.

Minor hockey coaches in Ontario are now apparently mandated to discuss gender diversity with their team prior to the season. Not sure this should fall to the coaches or whether this specific topic should be addressed at all (respect for all should be coached).


https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/min...sion-1.4795895

[Deegee]

Spoiler!

Hope this is okay to advertisement my tournament. I have run several successful tournaments, both inside and outside of minor hockey.

This aims to be a low cost tournament with several games over the winter holidays when most associations shut down.

Hope those with kids in Atom, Peewee, or Bantam considering entering a team. Didsbury and Carstairs are located less than an hour north of Calgary.

[8sPOT]

My son is entering his first year Atom and I'm an assistant coach again.

This is the first year that goalies are set for the year, but I'm wondering about other positions? I swear when I played Atom I picked Forward or Defense and played there for the year. But that was also centuries ago.

Anyone know what the general rule is for Atom? Keep rotating through positions for the year? Rotate for the first bit and then settle into positions? Haven't talked to the head coach about it yet but just curious what the consensus is.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by 8sPOT

My son is entering his first year Atom and I'm an assistant coach again.

This is the first year that goalies are set for the year, but I'm wondering about other positions? I swear when I played Atom I picked Forward or Defense and played there for the year. But that was also centuries ago.

Anyone know what the general rule is for Atom? Keep rotating through positions for the year? Rotate for the first bit and then settle into positions? Haven't talked to the head coach about it yet but just curious what the consensus is.

I'm about 6 years removed from Atom but definitely we had more or less fixed positions (the occasional kid was still settling in a little bit), and this was not at the highest levels.

[habernac]

100%, loooob. I'm only a couple years out from Atom, we had dedicated forwards and defense.

[Nancy]

My son is four years out from Atom and I can tell you definitely that our hockey association did not have fixed positions in Atom and had a polcy requiring rotation, but that rule was largely ignored. I think the HC recommendation is also against fixed positions at that age.

PS, sport chek is having their friends and family event right now, it's a good opportunity to buy the top level gear that they aren't normally allowed to put on sale.

EDIT: Just checked the Hockey Calgary rule books and it only requires rotation at Novice.

[8sPOT]

We are part of the Strathmore Minor Hockey league so there could be a difference but it does seem the general consensus is to lock into positions, which I think is the way to go personally.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by 8sPOT

My son is entering his first year Atom and I'm an assistant coach again.

This is the first year that goalies are set for the year, but I'm wondering about other positions? I swear when I played Atom I picked Forward or Defense and played there for the year. But that was also centuries ago.

Anyone know what the general rule is for Atom? Keep rotating through positions for the year? Rotate for the first bit and then settle into positions? Haven't talked to the head coach about it yet but just curious what the consensus is.

Our association does not evaluate Atom players by player position but coaches would generally play them in a position they preferred if the numbers allowed.