News

EYHA Adult “C-” League Meeting

Monday, May 10^th 2010 – 8:00 PM

PRESENT:

Mark Bartlett – Bartlett

Natalie Waddell-Rutter – Ice Dogs

Nelson Riesdoph – FOP

Shane Murdock – New Team

NOTE: Last year, the Hawks, PSB-Behrend, and T-Rex played in this division, but none of these teams was represented at the meeting. The Hawks have indicated that they will not return as a team in 2010-2011, but no communication occurred from PSB-Behrend or T-Rex.

The following teams from the “C+” division were also represented – these teams were either considering moving down to “C-“ division for 2010-2011 or attended to provide feedback as they were unable to make their own division’s meeting:

Dave Baker – Misfits (C+)

Dean Pepicello – North Coast (C+)

All Bartlett, Ice Dogs, and Shane Murdock’s new team) are looking to register in the “C-” division for the 2010-2011 season. FOP is undecided on registering in the “C-“ or “C+” division for 2010-2011.

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

Rink Variety – Teams liked playing at more than just one facility throughout the season.
Younger Officials – Teams thought that many of the younger officials were professional, consistent, and put forth effort in the games they called this past season.
“Home” Rink – Teams liked having a “home” facility for the most part so that they did not always have to check the schedule to see what facility they would be playing at (or possibly show up at the wrong facility).
Consistent Schedule – Teams liked having a relatively consistent schedule, where they knew that almost every Sunday evening they would have a game.
Teams Registering as a Group – Teams liked the fact that “entire teams” were registered as units rather than taking a bunch of individual players and dividing them into teams.
Player Count – Teams liked that under the current price structure they could roster around 15 skaters and one goaltender, which they felt was an appropriate team size.
Number of Games – Teams thought that 25 regular season games was ideal.
Playoff Format – Teams appreciated the “2 game guarantee” round robin playoff tournament with the additional “championship game”.

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.
League Parity – Teams were upset with the lack of parity between teams and players last season. Some of the parity problem was driven by players/teams that were clearly above a “C-“ skill level participating in the division.
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.
Substitute Players – Teams indicated that there were problems with higher-skilled “substitute” players participating in the “C-“ division. A suggestion was offered that substitute players must come from only the next higher or lower division – any player rostered on a team that is 2 or more divisions higher or lower than said division would be ineligible.
Tiebreaking Procedures – Teams asked that tiebreaking procedures for playoffs be posted prior to the playoffs commencing.

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 “B” or above team) 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.