News

EYHA Adult “C+” League Meeting

Thursday, May 20^th 2010 – 5:00 PM

PRESENT:

Brian Potts – New Team

John Swanson – Whalers

Dave Baker – Misfits

Bob Demchak – Icewolves

Dan Kaiser – New Team

Carter - ??

Mike Bryan – Big Hair

NOTE: Last year, the Rotorheads, Unwinders, and North Coast played in this division, but none of these teams was represented at the meeting. A representative from North Coast attended the “C-“ meeting the previous week in order to give feedback instead. Rotorheads and Unwinders did not reply to the meeting invite and no communication with those teams has taken place.

The Whalers, Icewolves, Big Hair, Carter, and new teams represented by Dan Kaiser and Brian Potts are looking to register in the “C+” division for the 2010-2011 season. North Coast and Misfits were undecided about registering in the “C+” vs. the “C-“ division as of this meeting.

Captains/ Team Representatives were asked “what went well last year” and “what would you like to see continue in 2010-2011”. Responses included:

Sunday Games – Teams liked having a relatively consistent schedule, where they knew that almost every Sunday evening they would have a game.
Number of Games – Teams thought that 28 regular season games was ideal.
Playoff Format – Teams enjoyed the “single elimination” style playoff format.

Captains/ Team Representatives were asked “what did not go well last year” and “what would you like to see improve in 2010-2011”. Responses included:

Officiating – Teams felt that there were a number of officials throughout the 2009-2010 season that seemed disinterested with officiating adult recreational hockey, and did not put forth much effort during the games and did not conduct themselves in a professional manner. The teams would like to see officials that are interested in officiating adult hockey and would prefer that officials that are not interested in officiating adult hockey not be scheduled to officiate adult games. One suggestion that was presented was creating a method whereby team captains could provide feedback (evaluations?) on officials to the EIRI board after games.
Suspensions / Game Misconducts / Match Penalties – Teams indicated that at multiple points during the previous year, suspensions resulting from Game Misconduct penalties and/or Match Penalties went unserved. Reasons suggested for this were poor communication between the league and the officials regarding penalties which would result in a suspension, lax oversight on the part of the league, poor communication between the league and players/teams involved, and the fact that suspensions were not publicly available and some players/teams may have attempted to use this lack of public knowledge to avoid serving a suspension. Suggestions to improve this situation in the future included meeting with the local officials’ association to ensure better/faster communication of Game Misconduct and Match Penalties, listing suspensions publicly on the league website, enforcement of suspensions by imposing additional discipline when a player “skips” serving a suspension, and proper communication of suspensions to the appropriate team captains.
League Parity – Teams were upset with the lack of parity between teams and players last season. Most of the parity problem seemed to be driven by late-season roster additions.
Roster Finalization – Teams were not pleased that some teams apparently continued to add players and/or make roster changes after what they perceived was a roster “freeze” on January 1^st.
Roster Availability – Teams indicated that the lack of any available rosters lead to questions of who was actually rostered on certain teams. The suggestion was offered that all team rosters (and all changes to them) should be posted online. This would eliminate teams “sneaking” players into late season or playoff games – in the past, teams that did this had always said the players were on their roster, but there was no method to prove or disprove that they were.
Scheduling – Teams were not pleased with the frequent schedule changes last year, and were also upset with the fact that schedule changes were often communicated with little notice or not communicated at all.
Game Delays – Teams indicated that they were displeased with multiple situations over the past season where the game was delayed by players engaging the on-ice officials in lengthy discussions. Teams felt that often times the very purpose of the discussion was to delay the game rather than discuss an interpretation of the rules as provided by the rulebook. Suggestions for improving this situation included working with the local officials’ association to encourage the on-ice officials to promptly conclude (or postpone until intermission or after the game) any discussions that will not affect the game going forward (i.e. lengthy explanations of why an official made or did not make a call when the official is not going to change their decision), or to use a stop-clock.

There was a lengthy discussion on looking to control what players are appropriate for and permitted to play in the “C+” division in the coming season. The following suggestions were agreed to by the captains in attendance:

Players from other divisions are encouraged to “sub” when needed, but any player rostered in a division that is 2 or more divisions higher (for “C+”, this would be any player rostered on a “A” or above team if that division is held) would be ineligible to play as a sub in said division. Goaltenders are excepted.
Initial team rosters will be submitted no later than August 31^st, 2010 (exact date TBD) and will be published online for all division captains to review.
The schedule will be arranged so that at the beginning of the season, each team will play each division opponent once until all teams have played all opponents. At that time (early October?), a division meeting will be convened where captains will meet and discuss with the commissioner any players that they think are inappropriate for the “C+” level. Captains will form a consensus as to which players are inappropriate at the “C+” level, and players found to be inappropriate at the “C+” level (or entire teams, if needed) will be afforded the opportunity to move to a higher division, but will not be permitted to continue playing in the “C+” division.
Once the division meeting is held and any inappropriate players are moved out of the division, team rosters (including substitute players) will be published online and additions/changes will only be permitted with the approval of the commissioner until the USA Hockey mandated roster freeze (Jan 1?).

The teams expressed a significant interest in using paid timekeepers/scorekeepers at a cost of $10-$12 per game. Various options were discussed including working with the Erie Ice Referees to provide this service, and offering the opportunity to local youth hockey players and parents as a fundraiser. The commissioner will work on this item and report back to the captains at a later date.