House and travel hockey families,
We appreciate the thoughtful feedback shared through our house and travel surveys. Based on your input, we’re taking steps to improve our programs for the 25-26 season. Here’s how we’re putting your feedback into action.
House Hockey Programs
What we’re keeping:
- Bantam/HS; schedule on Sundays/Wednesday, practices/evals at beginning of season, and efforts to ensure teams are balanced
- Two 8U groups (ensures maximum puck touches and ideal coach-to-player ratio)
- House league pictures with Jason Larson Photos
- Coach development; in-person and virtual training
What we’re adding:
- Volunteer credit system in place of the previous volunteer fee structure.
- Improve communication from house league coaches / use of TeamSnap for Bantam/HS teams
- Peewee House; decrease number of participants on the ice to improve quality of experience. Explore creative ways to schedule practice and game times.
What we’re letting go:
- The volunteer fee structure has been discontinued. All costs will now be included in one base registration price.
Travel Hockey Programs
What we’re keeping:
- Travel team pictures with Jason Larson Photos
- GameSheet virtual scoresheets for league and tournament games
- September tryouts / pre-season practices
- Strive for a balanced travel and home game schedule with regard to travel distances, competitiveness, and variety of teams
- Coach development; in-person and virtual training
What we’re adding:
- Volunteer credit system in place of the previous volunteer fee structure.
- Pre-tryout practice sessions included with the price of registration, scheduled for the first week of September.
- Bantam, High School and Girls 19U; add Hudl software for game film review.
- High School Tryouts; progressive tryouts will be utilized. Communication regarding the progressive tryout will be provided during the pre-tryout meeting. Progressive cuts are a multi-stage player selection process, where players are gradually released (cut) from a tryout over multiple sessions instead of all at once.
- Increase initial team deposit to travel team accounts from $75 to $150 to help account for travel team expenses.
- Website updates; improve navigation
- Improve communication regarding financial obligations. Additional information and graphics will be posted to the website and outlined in the MAYHA guidebook.
What we’re letting go:
- The volunteer fee structure has been discontinued. All costs will now be included in one base registration price.
- Parents will no longer be expected to operate the clock and use GameSheet during league games. All home games, including league games, will have paid scorekeepers.
Looking ahead, our Youth Hockey Committee has been working to finalize the 25-26 MAYHA Guidebook. Once approved by the Board of Directors, it will be published on our website by July 1. Many of the updates listed above will be reflected in the new guidebook. We appreciate the feedback we’ve received from the community, and we continue to make improvements based on those conversations.
Stay tuned for the full guidebook release, and thank you for being part of the continued growth of our program,
Grace Hoene
Youth Hockey Director