Mar 12, 2019 | Richard Beilhartz | 8328 views
Novice News for Next Season!
Important new Information for Parents of Players age 8 and under in the 2019/20 season...
As some of you may have heard, Hockey Canada has implemented new expectations for all players (male and female) ages 4 through 8 for the 2019/20 season and beyond. Beginning in the fall, all players age 8 and under will be playing only cross ice or half ice hockey, with programs focusing less on winning games and more on developing basic hockey skills. There is detailed information on the OWHA website as to the key concepts:
http://owha.pointstreaksites.com/view/owha/development/initiation-program1
http://owha.pointstreaksites.com/view/owha/development/novice-program
Several local league centres in our Kitchener Waterloo Local League have piloted these new programs this season, and are due to share their learning with us in the next couple of months.
In addition, we will be seeking input from Centre Wellington Minor Hockey as to how their implementation, begun this season, has worked.
We have made inquiries but, so far there is no detail available from Lower Lakes Female Hockey League (LLFHL) or OWHA on how a Novice Rep program will look for the upcoming season.
At this point, with Spring Tryouts only a little over a month away, the decision has been made, by ourselves and several other centres, to offer Novice Rep Tryouts in the Fall. This will provide time to implement whatever decisions are made by LLFHL and OWHA. It seems fairly clear that there will likely not be a competitive Novice stream as of 2020-21.
Also, as of 2020-21 Atom tryouts must be held after Labour Day, versus our current Spring Tryout model.
Please be assured that the Board of Directors and Committees are working on the details for the Grand River Mustangs' upcoming season. We all share the same goal - to instill a love of the game and to help our players develop both on and off the ice!