Tryout Information

Tryout/Evaluation Schedule for 2015-16 Season 

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Parents –

The 2014-15 season is coming to an end and with that we are happy to announce our tryout dates for the 2015-2016 season! There is a lot of important information about the process, so please read this entire message.

This season we have decided not to hold Mite tryouts. We will schedule pre-season evaluations for the Mites later in the summer and will set a number of small roster mite teams in order to break the players into skill appropriate levels of play. We have also decided to determine if we have enough interest in a Midget team for the first time. If you have a Midget aged player, please be sure to read our detailed plan below.

There will be two tryout dates per age level. It is important that players attend both dates. If there are circumstances that don’t allow for attendance at both sessions, please let us know in advance.

Online registration will be up on our site in the next few days and you will receive a reminder email when registration is live. Tryouts will cost $75 per player if pre-registered and $100 per player if paying at the door. Full equipment is required for all tryouts.

Similar to past years, our goal is to continue to grow our organization and by doing so we will be better able to provide appropriate level of play for all members. With this in mind, please spread the word about our tryouts to other hockey families and encourage them to attend.

Tryout Dates are as follows - all are on the main rink at Playland:

Squirts 10 U (2005-2006)Saturday, April 11th @ 5:15pm & Sunday, April 12th @ 5:15pm
Peewees 12 U (2003-2004)Saturday, April 18th @ 5:15pm & Sunday, April 19th @ 5:15pm
Bantams 14 U (2001-2002)Sunday, April 12th @ 6:45pm & Monday, April 13th @ 9:00pm
Midgets 16 U (1999-2000)Sunday, April 19th @ 6:45pm & Monday, April 20th @ 9:00pm
Squirt 10 U (2005-2006) Make up - Sunday, April 19th @ 6:30pm-7:15pm  

Regarding the Midget team, we have been asked to attempt to put together a team and know of interest that will get us close. If you have a Midget-aged player, you are encouraged to plan for an alternative in case we are unable to get enough interest.

Roster Limits

Each team will take a maximum of 15 skaters and 2 goalies and the board maintains the flexibility to increase this to 16 skaters if necessary. We implemented this last year but ultimately took larger than these numbers on more than one roster. Going forward this will not occur.

The Tryout Process and Team Placement detailed below are created so you can understand how the final team rosters will be formed. If you feel your son or daughter are at risk of not making one of our teams, please feel free to contact their current head coach for some advice. If you decide you need to tryout for another organization and your dues is paid in full, we will provide you with a release that will be required by any other program for your player to attend its tryout.

Tryout Process and Team Placement

Parents and Players always have questions about this process and how players are placed. We feel it is important that there is a full disclosure of this process in advance of tryouts. Our goal as an organization is to hold unbiased tryouts and give every player an equal chance at making the team.

Following is the step by step process we will utilize to determine team placements for next season:

1. Prior to tryouts, each head coach will rank each of their current players on a number of factors including skill, hockey sense, work ethic, discipline and sportsmanship.
2. We will hold 2 days of tryouts per age group with independent, non-parent evaluators, evaluating each player anonymously. Each player will wear a jersey without a name and be given a pinney with a number that will identify the player for the evaluators. Our current plan is to either have C.J. Tozzo and his staff or players and coaches from the Manhattanville College hockey program to act as the evaluators at each tryout. Evaluators are asked to focus on various hockey skills, hockey sense and work ethic.
3. During each tryout we have each evaluator grade the individual player based upon a predetermined rubric.
4. After the tryouts, the evaluators will meet and discuss their assessments and try to come to a consensus on team placements along with a top to bottom ranking of every player evaluated at each age level. If there are discrepancies between multiple evaluators’ assessments, we will discuss to try to come to an agreement.
5. If there are still discrepancies, the coaches’ pre-tryout ranking will be reviewed to make placements.
6. Once suggested team placements have been made by the independent evaluators, those results will be provided to our tryout and placement committee who will consist of all of our non-parent head coaches (Joey Merigliano, Andy Capuano, Fred Bruck and Mike Vetere) to make sure glaring mistakes have not been made.
7. Parents are notified of the placements and asked to accept or decline the roster offer within a short period of time.
8. Rosters do not need to be finalized under HVHL rules until December 31st, 2015. Occasionally parents will make a decision to tryout elsewhere and accept another program’s roster offer. Therefore, this can cause some movement between teams (assuming we have more than one team at the age level) and/or open up a roster slot for a player who previously was not offered a full roster slot.

We hope the disclosure of this process helps explain how it will work and gives you confidence that we will make the tryout process fair and independent.

Cuts

Our goal is to find a home for everyone within our organization but unfortunately that is not always possible. Outside of our Intro and Mite programs, our organization has grown to a level that could require cuts in order to stick with our roster limits.

We will be able to accommodate more players if we achieve our goals of having enough interested players to field two teams at the Squirt, Peewee and Bantam levels. But until we see who registers and attends the tryouts, we are unsure if we can accomplish these goals. We are very close with our current numbers, so again spreading the word is very important.

If cuts are necessary because of numbers, they will be made according to the above detailed placement process. We will continue to work on what we might be able to offer players who are potentially cut. We will share more information about this as it becomes available and will sit down with any family impacted by this to try to help find an appropriate home for that player if we are unable to offer one.

Coaching

The board has made a decision that the Squirt, Peewee, Bantam and the potential Midget teams will all have independent paid coaches. These coaches could be one of the current non-parent volunteer coaches within our organization or someone not currently coaching in our program. In order to qualify for one of these positions the coach will need to make a commitment to our program that will require him or her to attend the vast majority of practices and games. Current parent and non-parent volunteers will still act as assistants. As we determine the name of the coach at each level we will share it with you.

Please stay tuned for more information about tryouts and other information over the coming days and weeks.

Have fun with the rest of the season.

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