Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Last Update: September 28

This morning I emailed the player lists and parent contacts to the Peewee A and Peewee B coaches.

I also emailed the first weekend ice times.

This brings to a conclusion this years peewee sort outs. The process started with the reception of the peewee player list on August 11 and finished September 28.

We can now flip to using our TeamPages sites and the new KMHA web site. So this concludes the second year of the Peewee Convenor Notes blog.

I thank everyone once again for your support and wish everyone a great season.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Update: September 27

I got lazy and did not do the daily update for a bit.

Sunday we finished Peewee sort outs with five games, three Peewee B games and two Peewee A games.

Sunday night and Monday we worked on finalizing the coaching staff for each team. We decided on the last head coaches on Monday night and finalized the last team staff not until tonight. Each team has a great head coach and two great assistant coaches.

Once I had a complete coach list, I was able to send some team information emails that I had been "saving up" on Monday. 

Monday night was also spent finalizing the scores from the weekend and creating the draft player lists. I created the initial player lists using a program following Peewee House League Balanced Team Selection.

Tonight we tweaked the lists to balance the team staff as we said above.

Tonight was the coaches meeting, 7:00PM in the KMHA Boardroom at the KRC. We were able to squeeze the meeting in one hour exactly. The Novice guys apparently went over two hours last night for their meeting.

We then were able to get the peewee coaches complete their equipment pickup at 8:00 PM.

Then off to Darcy McGee's for a quick post coaches meeting with the coaches beverage.

I was able to complete the spreadsheets for the Peewee C teams tonight. The C coaches have been emailed their player lists and parent contacts.

Peewee A and Peewee B team spreadsheets are also done. One final check by the coaches and they can have their lists tomorrow morning.

I have yet to give the ice times out for Saturday and Sunday afternoons, will do that tomorrow too.

Question of the day: Who are the Peewee head coaches?

Answer:

A1 Cameron Creech
A2 Max Caron
A3 Mike Murray
A4 Terry Belland

B1 Ian Ives
B2 Jeff Moffatt
B3 Patrick Dennehy
B4 Sean McCabe
B5 Steve Robak
B6 Terry Lavineway

C1 Anthony Hunter
C2 Cliff Groen
C3 Don Macdonald
C4 Mike Dixon

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Update: September 24

Today was the longest consecutive stretch for sort outs with seven games. Starting early and leaving after means over eight straight hours at Jack Charron.

Tomorrow we finish Peewee sort outs with five games, three Peewee B games and two Peewee A games.

Question of the day: Boris is on my team this year since he was on my team today right?

Answer: The two games this weekend (game four and game five for each player) have randomized lineups. These are not the final teams being given a test run, the players are still mixed up for each game. Tomorrow if you are playing you will see that the teams are different yet again. Final teams will be sent next week after sort outs.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Update: September 23

After a small break we are back at it tonight.

This weekend we have games with the final Peewee A, Peewee B and Peewee C players. Tonight we started with the four Peewee C teams playing in two games.

It was great two see two evenly matched games. If this were other years, we would have stopped at two weeks and we would have seen final teams today. This year we are going with one more week to make sure we get the balance right.

Since I am a C coach I am now allowed to evaluations to find the top and bottom two or three on each team to help with balancing. It was interesting that one of the other coaches and myself had the exact same top and bottom for the four teams with the exception of one bottom.

Tomorrow we have a full seven games at Jack Charron.

Question of the day: When do we know what team we are on and who our coach is?

Answer: I have a coaches meeting scheduled for Tuesday night at 7:00PM so I plan to have the lists to the coaches before that. So likely Wednesday and maybe before that.


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Update: September 20

This morning early before work I was able to press send on the emails confirming each players level for the season (Peewee A, B or C) as well as the ice times for next weekend.

Now that players are assigned to levels, I can work on finalizing the coaches and the team officials for the fourteen teams.

I also am arranging the helpers for week three.

So tonight was spent exclusively in emails again for five straight hours.

I do not seem to have a question of the day today.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Update: September 19

This is going to be a short post, keeping those daily updates going...

The emails are ready to be sent tomorrow (Tuesday), just need some final confirmations before pressing send.

Question of the day: What is the schedule after week three?

Answer: Every team has a practice Sat Oct 1 and Sun Oct 2. The regular season games start the week after, first game for A2 is Fri Oct 7.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Update: September 18

Today was the final seven games in week two. It makes for a very long day, 5:25AM wake up call for the first 7:00AM game with the last game not over until after 6:30PM.

Today was a little less organized as I would have hoped, but with my team of helpers I managed to pull off the goal of having a full set of evaluations for the players. I did not have to do any evaluations this year. I did the plans but my awesome team of evaluators did the scoring.

This means I have a huge list now of evaluation scores for each player. Five different evaluators for the skills sessions, and as many as nine different evaluators for each player for the games.

The quote of the day I had from one of the atom evaluators I was speaking with was that "the numbers do not lie". I collect all these numbers and put them in the spreadsheet. Trends are clear. I have more than enough information to assign players to teams.

I finished off the day today on ice with the B/C games, with a lot of players who will be placed at Peewee C. I have a soft spot for the new players who just want to play hockey, giving their best effort and going to the extreme of blocking shots in a game that we are not even keeping score. These players are here to have fun and have no disillusionment of making the NHL next week. This gives good prespective to what we are all here for, fun and the simple enjoyment of the sport with your teammates.

This leads us to the question of the day:

Question: OK, so when do I find out what team I am on?

Answer: I will need a day or so to total up the evaluations and review the evaluations with KMHA hockey problems. The plan is to send your son's level and next week's ice times by the end of Tuesday. A reminder that the schedule is already on the KMHA web site.

The plan for next week is two games so that we can do final team balancing. For example, your son may be placed in the Peewee B level on a Peewee B team. The B team will play two games against other B teams.

After the two games in week three, we will do final balancing of the teams and assign your son to a team.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Update: September 17

Today we had five games. Tomorrow we have seven games. Every peewee player participates in a game tomorrow.

I do not have much I can go on about today, other than the fact that we still have pinnies leaving the arena. Do not forget to return the pinnies.

Question of the day: Are goalies evaluated in the games?

Answer: Absolutely. As with the players, goalies are evaluated against their peer goalies in the game they are playing in. As a matter of fact, we have been using the guide on the KMHA web site.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Update: September 16

Today we had two Peewee A tryout games on the big Mattamy ice. Since I had lined up a great set of helpers for the two hours, I felt I could take off and referee the two continuous play games tonight.

I was quite surprised how fast some of these players are. On a shift change, I always take the puck to the opposite side away from the benches to allow a safe change with no collisions. A couple of times I was surprised to get the puck taken off my stick, I did not think these players could get across the ice that fast. Even worse was when I gave the puck on two occasions to the wrong team. I did not pay attention and did not think a red player could skate the entire ice past all the white players to get to me first.

Tomorrow is five games in a row. At least I get to sleep in a little.

Question of the day: What is the difference between body checking and body contact?

Answer: Hockey Canada has the following two definitions:

Body Checking:
Body Checking is defined as an individual defensive tactic designed to legally separate the puck carrier from the puck. This tactic is the result of a defensive player applying physical extension of the body toward the puck carrier moving in an opposite or parallel direction. The action of the defensive player is deliberate and forceful in an opposite direction to which the offensive player is moving and is not solely determined by the movement of the puck carrier.

Body Contact:
Body Contact is defined as an individual defensive tactic designed to legally block or impede the progress of an offensive puck carrier. This tactic is a result of movement of the defensive player to restrict movement of the puck carrier anywhere on the ice through skating, angling and positioning. The defensive player may not hit the offensive player by going in opposite direction to that player or by extending toward the offensive player in an effort to initiate contact. There must be no action where the puck carrier is pushed, hit or shoved into the boards.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Update: September 15

Today was two body checking clinics. I had many comments that players had fun and there certainly was a lot of laughter and carrying on out there.

It is unfortunate that some of these players are only going to be able to play in one body checking game. There are only four teams worth of peewee A spots, everyone cannot be in peewee A.

There was some gratification afterwards when I saw a couple of players that I coached in 2008 at the atom C level that were in the Bantam body checking clinics. They are pretty fantastic hockey players, coming from being new to hockey several seasons ago.

Tomorrow we have two games, I like these small blocks.

Today's question of the day I had in my list. I had a question from a parent before the season and I was not really sure the answer, so I looked it up tonight.

Question: How much is new goalie equipment?

Answer: My youngest Dylan is a peewee goalie. I have been getting bits and pieces here and there with some used stuff too. So I really do not know how much it would cost new.

Suppose someone swiped Dylan's stuff and I had to rush to Pro Hockey Life and get completely new equipment for the game Saturday. I was able to price everything online. Some of the equipment online was on sale too. I priced out more or less the equipment Dylan is wearing.

Goalie Pads$214.99
Goalie Trapper (Glove)$109.99
Goalie Blocker$109.99
Goalie Chest Protector$199.99
Goalie Pants$109.99
Goalie Mask$299.99
Goalie Throat Protector$44.99
Goalie Skates$179.99
Goalie Stick$54.99
Goalie Bag with wheels$119.99
Goalie Neck Guard$49.99
Goalie Jock$49.99
Goalie long johns tops + bottoms$49.99
Total$1,523.88
With 13% HST$1,721.98

Wow on the answer to that one and a big ouch.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Update: September 14

Today's peewee work was spent exclusively doing email. I do not know how many emails I went through but I sent 75 emails in two hours before I went to play hockey. The last few sent were quick one line replies. Played hockey, lost 5-4, had a post game beverage and then back home at 12:18AM to do more emails.

I was very appreciative that the first eight in the inbox when I got home were simple Thank You emails from parents. I am very fortunate to have a hockey community that is very supportive.

The two body checking clinics for tomorrow are in great shape. Most of the emails were getting the confirmation from players that clinics were either done before or registering players into the clinics for tomorrow. I have everyone registered and have helpers ready to go. During my first year, my organization of the body checking clinics was pretty much a disaster. Great shape this year, lemon shape last year.

I am somewhat behind in the organization for my helpers on the weekend. I will need to get the confirmations completed tomorrow. 

I had this question from many parents today, so this is a great question of the day.

Question: You said game four is a body checking game, what about game three?

Answer: The Sunday 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00 morning games are the body checking games. All the other games will continue to be following the same continuous play rules as last week. There is no body checking in any of game three.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Update: September 13

This was the busiest day today with seeming endless emails and the more important week two schedule emails.

Before I talk about week two, lets finish with week one and the "Can I see my son's evaluation scores?".

Going back to September 11 and the "We had two out of 210 players score a perfect 25 points.", there was actually a hidden reason to revealing confidential scores and I probably should have came out and told you where I was going with that to start with.

I am pretty positive that some of the parents watching the passing drill thought it was a pretty screwed up drill. I would agree that the lower ranked players found it way too difficult to be successful. I had comments as such.

The point however of the "perfect 25 points" crack was to point out that we do have some strong peewee A players who can successfully do the drill with confidence. This is a good observation that peewee A players were able to do this passing drill.

Now on to week two and the week two emails.

For those who followed me last year, you remember I introduced a "no sending group emails after midnight" rule. Last year I tried sending an email at 1:30AM, made a big mistake and ended up having to send another bunch of emails the next morning. I figured there was not enough time after yesterday's ice times to send emails before midnight, so I scheduled for Tuesday.

I successfully pressed start on the email job at 11:53PM tonight and it successfully finished three minutes and seventeen seconds later. So I still met the deadline of emails sent on Tuesday, but just barely I suppose.

There were several things that made this email difficult and caused the delay.

First off the full registration of players is a bit of a pain as I need to make sure that each of the two teams in each of the fourteen games has 15 players. I have a report, but the report was only for game one so I had to go back and fix the report for games two and three and then fix the teams. It would be so nice if the players sorted into 14 even groups in the spreadsheet.

Even worse is our situation of having too many strong goalies. I needed to make sure that each of the goalies gets an equal opportunity in the games with the stronger players over the weekend. There was no other way to do this than by hand, assigning one goalie at a time to each team in each game.

The next item to worry about was communicating to the parents the only thing we have really accomplished after week one, that being the upper group and the lower group.

Last year the biggest mistake I made was when I told players they were "Peewee A candidates". This email was manipulated into an assertion that I had somehow told players that they were in Peewee A after only two ice times. I am positive I have been careful this time, but to reiterate, no player has earned their spot in any level yet. All we have decided is that some players can tryout for A and some can not.

Then there was finally the additional check that the emails said the right things about the body checking clinics. That took time as well.

Tomorrow I will go through everyone's replies, finalize the checking clinics and email the volunteers for the weekend.

We finish off with the question of the day:

Question: Does this mean there are A , B and C games this weekend? I suppose I will be able to tell that my son is in a particular level?

Answer: There are 90 players in the "could be peewee A" group. This is three games worth of players. 60 will become peewee A and 30 will become peewee B.

This leaves four games worth of "not peewee A". I have done my best to mix up the players as best I could. I still tried to keep the new players away from the stronger players, but for the most part the games are mixed.

Week three's games will be the final A , B and C games so players will know what level your they have been evaluated to.




Monday, September 12, 2011

Update: September 12

Today we were back to three hours to end week one of peewee sort outs.

We started with the final game one and yet another game with perfect attendance. We finished the player skills with only four players missing and finished game one with only four players missed. That is a 98% attendance, pretty great.

Next we had two hours of goalie skills evaluations. It is somewhat ironic that the atom guys also had their goalie skills evaluations tonight at the KRC. Atom on the arena side while peewee was on the rink side. It was also funny that three of my peewee sort out helpers were also helping with the atom sort outs tonight.

Even funnier was when convenor Mark and myself had a moment where we both were arguing over the same evaluator who we thought was doing "our" evaluations. We finally came to an agreement where each of us had five evaluators.

If that was not enough, atom and peewee had a battle of the sign in table and whose system was better.

In the end, peewee rules with the nice red and white pinnies while atom is the big looser with their ugly green thingys.

Around Wednesday last week I was a little worried about how the goalie evaluation planning was coming along. I had planned to outsource the evaluations like I did last year. I am not a goalie guy, even though my son is a goalie. I would rather have an expert take this task on. It was only on Friday where the team came together and I am very grateful that the one of the peewee AA goalie coaches volunteered to lead the evaluations for us.

I am very happy with the solid evaluation scores we received. Evaluating goalies in games is nice, but nothing compares to having individual scores for fifteen different goalie skills. 

All I need to do next is enter the scores, sort and send the next two game emails tomorrow.

We finish with the question of the day, I received this from a bunch of parents.

Question: Can I see my son's evaluation scores?

Answer: Negative on that one, you do not get to see your scores, they are confidential.


Sunday, September 11, 2011

Update: September 11

Today was an early 5:00AM wakeup call for two early games. Two fantastic contests.

That left an entire day to do other stuff. Last year when doing the convenor thing I recall I had no time to watch any of the NFL opening weekend, not even highlights. That was the first time in a foreverdom for myself. Today I got to watch lots of football, finishing with a late night of Romo blowing it again. Ha Ha to any Dallas fans out there.

I finished entering all the evaluation scores I have into the computer. All the player skills marks are in. Recall the player skills were five stations at five points each. We had two out of 210 players score a perfect 25 points. We also had two score 24 and eight with 23 points.

The player skills were evaluated by the same five teams at each station over the two days. This has resulted in very accurate player skills evaluations and every player had the same evaluators. We have also been able to get six game evaluators for every game, including the 6:15AM game this morning. Six game evaluators is 50% more than we used last year. We are very fortunate to have an outstanding number of coaches and helpers pitching in for our sort outs.

We finish week one tomorrow with the goalie skills and one final game one for thirty players.

Question of the day: Do I have to play in the peewee A body contact division if I don't want to.

Answer: No, just let me know. When I send the email Tuesday I will ask those highly ranked if they do not want to play body contact. I will then sort them to the lower level. Your son may also change his mind early in the season. I expect that I have way more players who want to play peewee A than I have spots.




Saturday, September 10, 2011

Update: September 10

We are now complete with the player skills evaluations. Three more hours today and 103 players later we have a complete set of player skills marks.

The good news for tomorrow is the light load of only having two games. The bad news is the 6:15AM and 7:15AM start times. As expected, I received a bunch of observations that 6:15AM is not such a good time. This is a good lead into the question of the day.

Question: I thought peewee does not get early 6:00AM ice times anymore? Last year Peewee did not have these right?

Answer: At minimum peewee is scheduled one game and one practice anytime during the week, 6:00 AM until 8:00 PM weekends, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM weekdays.

Peewee takes their share of the early morning 6:00AM, 6:30AM and 7:00AM "bad" ice times. To get some kind of idea how many of these we get, I can tell you what has happened the last four years.

2010-2011 A1, A2 and C1 each had the most with three of these bad ice times. The average was two.

2009-2010 B2 was given one 6:00AM practice and a two 7:00AM games for the season. So three bad times.

2008-2009 C2 received five bad times and the average was two bad times.

2007-2008 Four years ago one team had four bad times.

So you can see the trend. I would expect the usual three to five bad ice times over the course of the year.

Usually these ice times are practices and frequently players miss them. It should be noted that attendance at the early morning practices makes a huge difference in terms of player and team development.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Update: September 9

Lots of emails tonight means I blew my post before midnight streak.

We are half way through the first week of sort outs and I now have a complete player list. Competitive tryouts completed tonight. We have 14 full teams of players, 15 players per team. We also have 21 goalies for a total of 231 boys in house peewee this year. We had 225 last year (and we also have a waiting list), so registration is up for peewee.

Tonight was the first three hours of player skills. I got to help Cam by drill demonstration in the passing station. This was pairs passing around the circle. Even after demonstrating the same drill for three hours, I was not satisfied I would have received a perfect five mark. This station was pretty challenging.

Tomorrow is the next three hours of player skills.

We finish with the question of the day. I know I have answered this somewhere, but by popular demand comes:

Question: How many A teams are we going to have?

Answer: We have fourteen teams and are going with four Peewee A, six Peewee B and four Peewee C.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Update: September 8

It was a relatively quiet night, as reflected by the "early" blog post. Recall last year I was up most night's until way past midnight. It is much easier the second time through this sort out process as a second year convenor.

We have six hours of skills sessions coming up, three tomorrow and three on Saturday. This year has been a schedule challenge. We have a full registration of players and I have to squeeze 35 players on the ice for each of the skills hours. This meant zero flexibility for requests to switch spots.

I have had a huge number of people read the Sort Out Player Skills Evaluation Plan for tomorrow, 233 page views so far to be exact. Given we have 210 players to evaluate, I am confident a number of the players will know what to do. This will help the evaluators greatly.

This year we made changes to the evaluation plan and added a passing station. We will change the drill from the yo-yo pass to pairs passing around a circle. This way two players are passing in motion. We are also going to ditch the backwards skating passing. Sorry for not putting that in the plan but I did call it a draft so we could change our minds. Cam and myself will demonstrate at the station tomorrow anyway.

I still have some competitive players in tryouts who will be coming down to house tomorrow and maybe even Friday night. If they are reading, they are on the ice Saturday at 12:00PM for their skills session. I was somewhat evil and put all the players coming down from the tryouts in the 6:15AM game on Sunday.

Not much else to add except for the question of the day:

Question: When are the body checking clinics?

Answer: The two clinics are Thursday September 15 at 6:00PM and 7:00PM at Sensplex Scotia. We will be inviting those players who had strong marks after the first two evaluation sessions. Players will be further assessed on their willingness to engage in the physical part of the game. Game four will have body checking for the stronger players.

The body checking clinic is mandatory for those players who wish to play at the peewee A level. If you have taken the clinic before, you do not need to take it a second time.

To be clear in advance, attending a body checking clinic does not mean you will play peewee A. It just means you have completed the mandatory player clinic to be allowed to play in peewee A.



Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Update: September 7

Today we started sort-outs with four games and a fantastic turnout. We had 131 out of 132 players and goalies out tonight. It is really going to help when I have accurate marks for four ice times for everyone.

For the most part, the planning went very well. Huge mistake of the night was when we realized that I emailed one of the referees an email with 7:00PM in the body and 5:00PM in the subject. He thought 7:00PM and I was thinking 5:00PM. By miracle though, his son was on the ice at 5:00PM, so he was at the rink to ref the game. Big thanks goes out Paddy for coming through in the "surprise you ref in ten minutes".

Huge problem number two was when three of my pinnies left the building. Not good. Guess I am printing signs for Friday for each exit. Return pinnies to the sign in table before you leave the rink. I need them for the next ice time.

Otherwise things went very well and I would call it a success.

Question of the day:

Question: Can you tell me when week two's schedule will be announced?

Answer: There are goalie skills evaluations and a game one on Monday September 12. That means I will need Tuesday night to total the evaluation scores and send out the emails. So unless you are a night owl you will read an email on Wednesday morning that your son has a game on Friday night.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Update: September 6

One more sleep before sort-outs!

Sort outs finally start tomorrow with four games.

Not much to update, only fourty four emails sent out tonight. A few final preparations for tomorrow, evaluation sheets printed and collected the pucks.

May as well just do the question of the day:

Question: Last year in atom our team did not have a dedicated goalie, do we have enough goalies this year in peewee?

Answer: Yes, we currently have twenty one goalies which is enough for one for each of our fourteen house teams. Each peewee A team will have two goalies and then we will go from there.




Monday, September 5, 2011

Update: September 5

As promised, I have posted detailed player skills, goalies skills, and game evaluation plans. I indicated both skills were drafts but I do not anticipate big changes. I am just having the evaluators check them over.

I have emailed all the evaluators for week one, with the exception of the goalie skills.

I have volunteers but never enough so keep those emails coming if you can help. I am going through the "I want to help" emails tomorrow for the sign in table as well.

I have sent hopefully the final email to everyone this week confirming the no females in the dressing room policy, bench help request and note about the sign in table.

I will be collecting parents at the rink to help out on the benches and run clocks during the evaluation games. There is no coaching, you open the door, let five players in or five players out and they do their thing.

If you have considered assistant coaching (or coaching), now is a good opportunity to stand on the bench and get the real hockey experience. Sitting in the stands is too far away from the action.

We finish with the question of the day.

Question: Is the Peewee C division in the Lanark Carleton league again?

Answer: I am not sure if it has been formally announced, but we plan to interlock (play games) with Nepean A and Nepean C this year. I am not sure if we are interlocking with Stittsville B again, but we would welcome this chance again. So no Lanark Carleton league this year.

FINAL: Sort Out Goalie Skills Evaluation Plan

Hi Team

Here is the plan for the goalie skills evaluation. We used these plans last year and I have marked DRAFT pending goalie mentor approval.
These are also posted on the KMHA web site.

You can click in each of the images below to read them.

Warmup - 15 minutes



Three Stations, goalies cycle stations every 12 minutes:

Center Station:



Near End Station:



Far End Station:

DRAFT: Sort Out Player Skills Evaluation Plan

Here are the player skills evaluation drills. Five stations, five drills, five points each, maximum score of twenty five.

Backward Skating and Pivots
Forward skate with puck. Pivot facing end to backward at circle line. Backward skate to through circle. Pivot to forwards again facing end. At board, go in reverse on the way back: backwards, forwards, backwards.

Score five - Demonstrates drill with confidence.
loose a point - difficulty with pivot, looses significant speed, clearly cannot pivot both ways, does not follow instruction to face one end when pivoting.
loose a point - difficulty backwards skating, skates upright, bends back not knees, knees not bent, does not use c-cuts.
loose a point - cannot pivot, stops or steps to turn to go backwards.
loose a point - cannot skate backwards, shuffles or steps.

Key points for on ice help:
Players need to be reminded that they need to always pivot facing the same end, facing the clock.

Shooting

Player skates with puck to top of circle, turns towards a pair of cones, finish with a shot on net. The objective is to demonstrate a proper wrist shot with power and accuracy as many times as possible.

Score five - player demonstrates repeated wrist shots with accuracy near the corners of the net.
loose one point - cannot raise the puck from the ice.
loose one point - no accuracy, misses net, hits the middle of the net.
loose one point - does not prepare shot or demonstrate weight transfer to gain power, shoulders stay square to the net, pushes puck.
loose one point - does not demonstrate full motion in the wrist shot, does not draw stick back, does not follow through.

Key points for on ice help:
Make sure the players are taking proper wrist shots and at the cones well outside the net. No slap shots. Challenge players to hit different parts of the net.

Crossovers and Tight Turns
Forward skate around circle with puck, both directions.

Score five - Demonstrates drill with confidence.
loose two points - do not see the player performing crossovers through the turns, both directions.
loose a point - player does not maintain constant speed around circle. Player does not accelerate through turns, slows down.
loose a point - player demonstrates poor puck control when going around the circles, cannot control puck on backhand, puck does not stay in circle.

Key points for on ice help:
Critical that players are started in opposite directions to avoid direction bias.

Stopping
Forward skate to blue line with puck, stop facing stands, skate forward to broomball line/cone, stop facing stands, Skate back to blue line, stop facing stands, skate back to red line.

Score five - Demonstrates drill with confidence.
loose one point - player does not stop with both feet, does a snowplow stop with one foot.
loose two points - player does not demonstrates stops in both directions facing stands.
loose one point - player does not crossover start after stopping, just turns and skates, does not demonstrate quick change in direction.

Key points for on ice help:
Critical to remind players need to stop facing stands to demonstrate they can stop on both sides.

Passing
Coach or player stationary on red line passing to players. Player being evaluated skates forward, received pass and send pass in motion. After passing, player does backward skate and receives a second pass, returns pass. This forward pass + backward pass is common called the yo-yo passing drill.

Score five - Demonstrates drill with confidence.
loose one point - player does not move both hands in the direction of his target when passing, does not point to direction of pass and no follow through.
loose one point - player does not receive pass by tilting the top edge of his stick towards the puck, does not cup the puck and draw back.
loose one point - player slaps at the puck as it he passes, a noisy pass. A pass should be done without making any sound.
loose one point - player cannot pass and receive going forward.
loose one point - player cannot pass and receive going backward.

Key points for on ice help:
Critical to remind players need to stop facing stands to demonstrate they can stop on both sides.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Update: September 4

We are now three days from the start of peewee sort outs. Now is a good time as any to start posting the daily (nightly) Peewee Convenor Note, just like I did last year.

We have a full registration of fourteen teams of players, that is fifteen skaters per team. We do have a player waiting list, not sure how long. We are short a few goalies, we currently have twenty one in peewee house, which is enough for at least one per team.

I was at all emails working (not bouncing) and only one player who had not confirmed my first two emails. This number has increased a little with tryout releases, but I think I am in better shape than last year here.

Every peewee player has now been emailed their game one time and skills evaluation time. The final sort out schedule has been posted on the new KMHA web site.

Players who are in competitive major B and minor B tryouts have not been emailed yet. As players are released I will send them their scheduled times, these players have been allocated sort out spots Saturday and Sunday.

If you have not received your peewee house email yet and are not in competitive tryouts, you will need to contact me.

The Sort Out Game Continuous Play Rules have been posted for Wednesday's game. These are the same guidelines we followed last year.

I only have a few final details to finish before Wednesday:

I need to email to thank the Mom's in advance to be co-operative and understanding regarding the no females in the dressing room policy. This KMHA, ODHA and Hockey Canada policy will be enforced all year at the peewee level and above, starting day one. Likely there are some atom parents aware of this policy, so an email is in order.

I also need to email about the sign in desk procedures. The sign in desk for a player is as follows:
1) Player comes to the desk.
2) Player signs out his pinnie and sign in desk marks the sheet as pinnie out.
3) Player does his ice time.
4) Player returns his pinnie and sign in desk marks the sheet as pinnie as in.
I need to remind players that they are responsible for the return of their pinnie. Bulk team returns of pinnies by one of the dads, while seemingly helpful, caused the loss of several pinnies last year. Since I do not want to track down pinnies, they come back to the desk one at a time by the player.

I need to send a final email to all the volunteers to remind them about their positions this week.

I also need to add a note about the daily updates on the blog, just like I did last year.

One thing I am also doing this year is posting a question of the day. One thing I discovered last year is the number of wild and wacky questions that come up from parents. Each night I am going to post a question and answer for the day. I have a list, but if you have any questions, let me know.

Here is a good example for today's question of the day:

Question: I am confused what team I am on, why am I on two different teams?

Answer: This was really not a great start. I sent emails saying that your son has:
His first game is:
Team8 Wednesday Sepember 7 8:00PM Sensplex Scotia Game One
He will have his player skills evaluation:
Team5 Friday Septmber 9 8:00PM John Mlacak Player Skills Evaluation

Team8 for the game Wednesday makes sense, you are assigned a team for the game and one team in a dressing room.

Team5 for the skills actually makes no sense, there is no team for the skills evaluation sessions. There are thirty five skaters on the ice for each player skills session. You are really in group Skills5. I went back in my second batch of emails and called it Skills5. Skills5 will be in one of the dressing rooms since I divided the group into two that hour (Skills5 and Skills6).

I would not even worry about teams, the important thing is the time and location. The sign in desk will direct you to the right dressing room and assign you the correct pinnie.

Cheers...

FINAL: Sort Out Game Continuous Play Rules

For game one and game two of peewee sort outs, we follow continuous play hockey rules.  

Player Positions
  • The two teams are wearing red and white pinnes with the numbers on the front. 
  • While on the bench, the players order themselves in order of pinnie number, low to high. For example, a red team will have pinnie numbers twenty nine to forty five. 
  • Pinnie number twenty nine will be positioned at the out door. 
  • Players always stay in pinnie order to assist the evaluators in the stands. 
  • On the bench, the next five players decide which position they will play. For example, red may have number twenty nine to thirty three up next. Twenty nine calls center, thirty calls left wing, thirty one calls left defense, thirty two calls right wing and so by default thirty three gets right defense. 
  • The next shift, the players cannot call the position they have already played. Players are expected to rotate in all positions during the game. This is to demonstrate knowledge of the game, positional play and flexibility expected of peewee players. 
  • Following from above, the bench has an out door and an in door. The players go out, play for a shift and then are signaled off. Players exit the ice and get on the bench through the in door. 
  • The nature of play is that coaching is not required. The players on the bench should be responsible enough for their own positions. 
  • Two parents may volunteer to be door openers, one for the in door and one for the out door.  
Rules of Play
  • A change of possession is defined as: All players of the offensive team must back completely outside of the blue line of the offensive zone to allow the defensive team to begin a fresh play with the puck. 
  • If a goal is scored, whistle will blow, a change of possession occurs, scoring team backs out and defenders take control of the puck and start break out. 
  • Similarly if the goalie freezes the puck, whistle will blow and change of possession. 
  • On offside, referee will signal delayed offside. If offending team touches puck, whistle will sound for offside and defending team will be allowed the puck. (change of possession) 
  • If puck is iced, the whistle will blow, defending team gets control of the puck and opposing team must allow them to gain control (change of possession) 
  • Body Contact (for clarification purposes): No BODY CHECKING. No direct board contact is allowed. No contact is permitted when moving in opposite direction.

Role of Referee
  • One coach referee is on the ice to ensure continuous play and enforce change of possession. 
  • It is expected that the referee will signal a player change every 60 to 90 seconds his whistle. 
  • He should not signal a shift change on events like break aways and scoring chances. 
  • Shifts should be done during breaks in play.  
Clock
  • A parent may wish to keep score on the clock, but otherwise a time keeper and scorekeeper is not required. 
  • There are no game sheets, there are no end changes.
  • There should not be a "90 second buzzer", no player wants to get buzzed on a break away during their game.
Goalies
  • In the case of a game with two goalies, the goalies should shift every four player shifts, which would be approximately every six minutes. 
  • The two goalies may decide to split a game as is normally done in peewee if one goalie wants to play the second half of the hour.
What the evaluators are looking for
  • The evaluators are looking for players to showcase their hockey skills.
  • Positional play, it is obvious which position the player is playing by his position on the ice.
  • In the play, player demonstrates intensity and aggressiveness on the fore check and back check. The player keeps up with the play, and they are involved.
  • Aggressive, player demonstrates Intensity and aggressiveness on the puck carry. Did the player make a play or show high intensity (net drive) moving the puck (versus a dump or “hot potato” pass).
  • Passing and receiving, player passes the puck and receives the puck.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

FINAL: Week One Peewee Sort Out Ice Times

Here is the final week one schedule for Peewee:































CountDateTimeArenaHomeAwayNote
Week One - Wed Sep 7 - Mon Sep 12
1Wed Sep 75:00PMSensplex ScotiaTeam1Team2Game One
2Wed Sep 76:00PMSensplex ScotiaTeam3Team4Game One
3Wed Sep 77:00PMSensplex ScotiaTeam5Team6Game One
4Wed Sep 78:00PMSensplex ScotiaTeam7Team8Game One
5Fri Sep 96:00PMJohn MlacakSkills1Skills2Player Skills
6Fri Sep 97:00PMJohn MlacakSkills3Skills4Player Skills
7Fri Sep 98:00PMJohn MlacakSkills5Skills6Player Skills
8Sat Sep 1010:00AMKRC ArenaSkills7Skills8Player Skills
9Sat Sep 1011:00AMKRC ArenaSkills9Skills10Player Skills
10Sat Sep 1012:00PMKRC ArenaSkills11Skills12Player Skills
11Sun Sep 116:15AMSensplex MattamyTeam9Team10Game One
12Sun Sep 117:15AMSensplex MattamyTeam11Team12Game One
13Mon Sep 125:30PMKRC RinkTeam13Team14Game One
14Mon Sep 126:30PMKRC RinkSkillsG1SkillsG2Goalie Skills
15Mon Sep 127:30PMKRC RinkSkillsG3SkillsG4Goalie Skills




I had to do a little juggling as I still have forty four players in competitive tryouts who will drop down to house next week. Some of the tryouts end on Friday September 9 in the middle of the house sort outs.

I have been able to arrange the schedule so that nobody should miss their skills or game one during the first week of house sort outs.

Note that the team for skills has no meaning, it is just your dressing room. The time is important as each player has a specific ice time to attend.