It’s a pleasure to
welcome players, parents and our many volunteers to the start of the 2012-13 minor hockey season in Stouffville!
At this point it looks like our House League program is just about full for most divisions, and if you haven’t registered as yet I’d advise you to do so ASAP. Like every year, we will do our best to find everyone a spot, but it is getting increasingly difficult to accommodate late registrants, and we’d ask you to please be patient if we have to put you on a waiting list short term.
We are very pleased to announce a few significant improvements to our House League program this year....
- We will again be providing the younger players with some specialized skating instruction with the assistance of Unitas Powerskating.
- A series of weekly goaltender clinics will start around the middle of October for the benefit of all goalies seeking to improve their skills at this highly demanding position.
The cost of both powerskating and goaltending clinics is included in the registration fee.
- Shortly after Thanksgiving together with Steve Smith, the WSMHA will be sponsoring an 8- week hockey skills training program specifically designed for younger House League players.
More information re: fees and how to register will be available in early October.
- Last year the Peewee, Atom and Novice teams played exhibition games against their counterparts from East Gwillimbury and we will be continuing that very popular initiative in 2012.
- Finally, we are expanding our Rostered Select offering from two to potentially seven teams this season. Rostered Select allows interested House League players to play up to four exhibition games per month as well as three tournaments per year against Select teams from other centres.
Information re: tryouts for these teams is available on this website.
From a rep perspective, this is Stouffville’s second year as a AA centre, and if the initial results from early bird tournaments and exhibition games are any indication, our AA and AE teams are ready to build on the momentum that was particularly evident in the second half of last season.
- We have added two A teams at Minor Midget and Midget to provide an additional competitive option for our older players.
- The WSMHA will again supplement the efforts of our coaches with specialized skating, hockey skills and goaltender development training for teams from Tyke through Minor Bantam.
- A new rep play-off format has been introduced on a one year trial for AA, A and AE teams in an attempt to avoid teams being eliminated from competition before the end of January.
This year the regular season will be extended to the end of January, but only the top four teams will proceed to OMHA Playdowns. All other teams will start York Simcoe Play-offs. Playdown participants will return to York Simcoe Play-offs as they are eliminated. Championship series in all divisions will wrap up towards the end of March. This new format will make regular season games that much more important for teams with Provincial championship aspirations.
As always, we encourage everyone to keep one thing in mind: minor hockey at all levels is first and foremost about the kids having a great hockey experience.
From an Association perspective, we welcome your suggestions as to what the WSMHA can do to further enhance our members' experience.