Tryouts are less than a month away, and the Board thought this would be a good time to update the Association.  We’ve been hard at work getting ready for the season, and there’s already a lot to report.  Please feel free to ask any Board member questions you have about any of these items.

Number of teams—Last season we had six teams: one at midget, two at bantam, two at peewee, and one at squirt.  Our hope has been to field the same number of teams this year.  Everyone should be aware, however, that as we are looking at the bantam and peewee numbers at this point —and specifically at the number of goalies and coaches—we may not have the ability to form two teams at those age divisions.  We have lost three goalies from bantam and peewee since the end of last season.  Also, at peewee in particular, we have had several kids move out of town and it isn’t clear there are other kids ready to fill the spots necessary to have two teams.  Hopefully, the issue will take care of itself as tryouts get even closer.  That has happened in past years, when new kids came to tryouts and became a big part of our teams.  This year, we just don’t know yet.  It may be the case that we have more kids than we can keep on one team and not enough to field two travel-level teams.
After last season’s peewee and squirt tryouts, parents told us they wished they had known about the possibility that the numbers might not support two peewee teams or the impact that play-up requests made at the tryouts would have on both the peewee and squirt divisions.  We have implemented play-up guidelines that will address the issue of kids playing up, and those are posted on the website.  We would rather be up front about the numbers issues than have people be surprised at the tryouts if it turns out we are not able to field two teams at bantam and/or peewee.  We are working hard on this issue.

Fundraising expectations— Amy Fritz drafted a communication, which is posted on our website, explaining new requirements relating to fundraising.  In the parent meetings last season, we talked about the possibility that we would require families to give time or money towards fundraising as a way to keep fees down.  As Amy’s note states, this season the Association will have a rule requiring families to devote six hours to fundraising or pay an extra fee of $250.  This rule serves two purposes.  One is that we need to make a hard push this season to raise money so that we can keep the fees down again next year.  The other is to try and make fundraising part of the culture of the Association, not something that involves the same handful of families doing the lion’s share of the work every time.  Some of the details are still being worked out, and anyone interested in being part of that discussion can contact a board member to voice your interest.

Registration—Online registration will open shortly.  The sooner people register, the better.  That will help the Commissioners and coaches assess the numbers, which is going to be critically important as we evaluate the number of teams we might have and how we slot them for the Labor Day tournament and potentially for the season.

Parent code of conduct—Towards the end of last season, we told parents that the board intended to create a new, more stringent parent code of conduct.  The new code is part of the registration materials that will go online shortly.  All parents will be required to sign the code as part of the registration process.  We decided to do this to put more teeth into the code than the standard USA Hockey form provides.  The revised code makes clear to parents and spectators that we expect some things that have happened in past years not to happen again, and also makes clear that violations of the parent code of conduct will have consequences from now on.  For the overwhelming majority of people, the old code worked fine and the new code won’t be anything you need to think twice about.  If you read the code and wonder if some of it is directed at you, chances are it is.  To view a copy click here: http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0020/0982/Parent_Guardian_Code_of_Conduct.pdf

Labor Day tournament—The North Texas Hockey League has made the Labor Day leveling tournament mandatory for all teams planning to play in the league.  Most divisions will play in Dallas, and we understand that some will play in Austin.  We don’t know yet which divisions will play where.  In past years, teams planning on slotting at B for the season were not required to play Labor Day, and some of our teams that planned to play B skipped it.  That is not an option this year, and all families and teams need to be aware of that.