Brand new to club hockey

[mom2five]

As a newbie to ice hockey I am super grateful for these boards to catch up on this new world of ice. My '03 son has played roller for several years and has begged to switch to ice. We started with a learn to play in May and he is currently playing in-house. He is severely dyslexic and has poured himself and all his free time and self earned lawn-mowing money into catching up via stick times and private skate lessons. (He can stop on both sides now, but it's still apparent he came from inline!)    He loves this sport. We have no delusions of grandeur, just a hard-working kid who wants to play at a higher level than rec where kids understand and love the game as much as he does. He sees himself involved with hockey at some level for the rest of his life.


Fast forward to two weeks ago when I started doing research on club hockey and discovered that even though he just turned 14, this would be his last season of Bantam (that's how clueless I am/was about youth hockey). So I start calling around and talk to PE at JR who tells me they have until Dec 31 to add players to the team. Whoah! Ok, this might happen this year instead of next. My son attends a practice and holds his own and is offered a spot on the B team. Hold on, let's do some more research, this is a huge investment for half a season, after all.


I make some more calls, talk to some parents as well as his in-house coach who is a former club/travel coach and parent, and read lots and lots of posts here. He attended another B practice for a team new to SCAHA this year and then two practices for a well established A team. The A team coach has offered an extended tryout to see if he can show development in his skating ability over the next couple of weeks with some private lessons so that he is up to speed and safe to play with these higher level kids.


I've been told the clock is ticking for him to be eligible for playoffs. Any more insight or advice is welcome. My son is definitely pushing for the A team, while I tend to want to hold back and play it safe and settle for a B team. Considering we didn't even think it was a possibility for him to play at all this season we are taken a little off guard by these options.

[Pistonkev]

Welcome to the boards. Your son and his hard work and desire is a very great story and we are pulling for him. 

I think doing privates would be great assuming the person you are working with us good.

As far as the playoff it used to be you had to have x amount of games in by Dec 18th or 15th to be eligible or maybe I am thinking of Tier two rules.   

[area51]

Your son just needs to be signed by Dec 31st and play in 10 games before playoffs.
make sure the team you sign with has enough tournaments and SCAHA games scheduled so he can be playoff eligible.

[Racetonowhere]

I don't have much advice other than to say, forget about A or B, or playoffs, and go with the coach that you think is the best  fit for your son, will give him the most playing time  and will encourage his love for the game.  You can worry about that other stuff next year.
Good luck to you and your son. I'm pulling for him and hope that  you will let us know how things turn out.

[SkatingDad]

Most A teams will have 7-8 regular season games after December 31st.  If the A team you are skating with is doing a Presidents Day tournament, that will make your son playoff eligible. 

[Transplant]

As a 2003, it is possible that your son is in High School.  You should also see if a high school program fits with your needs.  If they have a JV team (or a JV-Development team if your son is still in 8th grade), there are likely to be a number of kids who came from in-house programs.  I don't know if the HS league has different roster finalization deadlines but, looking forward, there isn't much at the 16U-A level so your son would either have to jump to AA or enter the high school league anyway.  Going straight to HS would keep you from having to re-purchase jerseys/socks and maybe helmets/gloves to match the new team.

[Pistonkev]

As a 2003, it is possible that your son is in High School.  You should also see if a high school program fits with your needs.  If they have a JV team (or a JV-Development team if your son is still in 8th grade), there are likely to be a number of kids who came from in-house programs.  I don't know if the HS league has different roster finalization deadlines but, looking forward, there isn't much at the 16U-A level so your son would either have to jump to AA or enter the high school league anyway.  Going straight to HS would keep you from having to re-purchase jerseys/socks and maybe helmets/gloves to match the new team.

This and the jump from Bantam B or A to Midget AA is huge.

[mom2five]

Thank you for the welcome and helpful feedback! He had a fantastic session with a young private coach today- his favorite so far. It's amazing how much kids can improve with just a bit of attention from the right person, whether it's my older daughter in voice lessons, or hockey, or whatever.

One hockey director mentioned to me today that it might be possible to still join a local tournament this weekend even though he's not signed/committed to a club team yet. I'm not sure how that's possible or how to go about finding a team. Does that mess up his or the team's eligibility in any way? Are there any repercussions to doing that?

He also stated there is a huge jump from Bantam to Midget AA and said that the HSHL would probably be his next best option for next year. My son is currently in 8th grade and I know our city has a JV-D team, but I hadn't considered that yet- thanks for the heads up on that! We homeschool so I think that leaves us open to more teams, but I'm not sure on those rules yet. More research!

We're checking out one more B team tomorrow night and will hopefully have our decision made and check written before the next SCAHA games after everyone gets back from Thanksgiving tourneys.

[lcadad]

The single most important thing for your son at this age is that he can play the game with his head up and not looking down at the puck.  Hopefully his roller hockey has given him that.  Positional play is very different in roller vs ice, but at his age, the expectation is that he will be able to learn what coaches expect from him very quickly.

Given your parameters, the more time he can get on the ice the better.  A lot of kids do privates and semi-privates to work on their skills development and it seems you have found some coaches that are providing that.  Just get him on the ice as much as possible and have him play in every in-house, spring and summer program you can find.

I agree with others in that the coach is the most important thing.  You need to also understand the dynamics of the team you are joining.  There is no point in having your son join a team where he ends up sitting on the bench a lot.   If it's possible, see if he can have a tryout period with both the teams you are considering as a practice player, purely to assess his ability to compete with the other players on the team.  This would give you an opportunity to see the coaches in action and how ready your son might be for that level. 

Once you sign with a team, the rules are very restrictive, but at this juncture, he's a free agent and you can play in tournaments for teams without much in the way of constraints, other than his having a USA Hockey registration afaik. 

I personally would not advocate JV.  The games I've seen are pretty messy due to the high variation in age and skill level. 

You have a small window for pre-midget travel, and I'd recommend you jump on it, as it's going to be a tremendous learning experience for your son.  If you read through the SCAHA rulebook, the various dates for roster changes metioned by other folks are listed:  http://www.scaha.com/scaha/downloads/SCAHA-Guidebook.pdf

[mom2five]

Thanks again for the advice and well wishes. We are finally all set and he is on the official SCAHA roster for an A team. He'll have his first two games on Sunday! Looking forward to it.