All coaches are required to be certified at the appropriate level for the upcoming season. All 2013-14 AHAI CEP Clinics are open for registration ONLY on the USA Hockey website. 

Click HERE for full listing of AHAI/USAH CEP Clinics 

Dates & Locations.

There are only three weeks left to register for this season's 2 and 2 Challenge!  USA Hockey's goal is to have 500 youth associations committed to their comprehensive growth program.  Committed associations participate in:

Welcome Back Week

Try Hockey For Free Days

(November 2 & March 1)

Transition Program

By committing to participate in these programs, USA Hockey will recognize the local association for their leadership and reward them with free starter equipment packages.  Click HERE for the 2 and 2 Challenge Program Guidebook. 

USA Hockey announced Monday that rinks and organizations can now register to host Try Hockey For Free events for the 2013-14 season. The first Try Hockey For Free Day will be Nov. 2, 2013, as part of Come Play Hockey Month. The second opportunity will occur March 1, 2014, during Hockey Weekend Across America, presented by CCM. Try Hockey For Free Day, supported by the NHL and its member clubs, is a program designed to provide youth hockey associations and local ice hockey rinks a national platform to introduce new kids to the sport.

Over 16,000 kids ages 4-9 tried hockey for the first time during last year's events, and USA Hockey is looking to build on the excitement of the upcoming Olympic Winter Games to host a record number of participants this winter. Liberty Mutual Insurance and Total Hockey are the official sponsors of Try Hockey For Free Days.

To register to host a Try Hockey event, click here. 

With the mite landscape changing a bit this year, our mite parents have a lot to think about this upcoming season. With change comes confusion and misinformation. I want to touch on a few areas that hopefully will help parents find the best development opportunities for their player.

Let me start by saying, the future path of any hockey player or athlete is not totally determined by what the athlete did at a young age. It is well researched and documented that athletes, as well as students, develop differently and usually at an older age. What I'm trying to say is, from my experience, there is nothing stopping a U8 house player from playing AAA midget. My son is an example. He played house league until 2nd year squirt and Travel A and AA until U16 where he then made a AAA team as a 16 year old. He worked hard, had good coaching and played Tier II Junior Hockey before going on to school. There is no sure path, and there is really no need to rush to play at a level that the player is not quite ready for. With that in mind, a few questions have come up recently regarding mite players.

Can a U8 players play on a non-USA Hockey team? The answer is Yes.

The catch is that no registered USAH/AHAI Association (club) can utilize any of the Association's assets to support a team outside of the club - that means ice, registration, fee collection, referee scheduling, practices and things like jerseys and socks must not be provided by the Registered Association/Club. The largest issue we have had in the past with teams or players that play outside of USAH is Governance. By Governance I mean oversight. Who is overseeing the screening of managers or coaches? Who is handling the training of coaches? Who is going to handle an issue between players, coaches or parents? Who is certifying or training referees? Governance is a very important consideration.

Can a U8 player go to a new Association this year? The answer is Yes.

Here are the qualifications that parents need to know before moving:

At the travel (Tier II, NIHL) level Associations/Clubs can only add 2 new players from outside the association to each team at the mite level. New to the Association means the player played for another Tier II club. Players moving to Tier II from Tier III (house) do not count against this rule.

At the Tier III (house) level, players can move, but the Tier III leagues have rules that are similar to the Tier II. Only so many players from outside the club can be placed on the same team. Understand what the Tier III league rules are before moving.

The Tier II (travel) Two Choice Rule means that a player has two options (Associations/Clubs) that they can play for until the age of 15. For instance, a U8 player who at age 7 plays for club "A" then plays for Club "B" at age 8, can only play for those two associations until the player becomes a Midget (age 15). Also, do not let coaches or clubs tell you it is easy to receive substitute choices. That is a false statement and there is strict criteria used to gain a substitute choice. There is no "choice "rule at Tier III (house).

As I wrote in the last newsletter: For Mite families, when looking at programming, consider what is being offered at your local club. All of the Tier II and Tier III clubs offer what they consider to be the best development for the younger players. All U7 and U8 players will have the opportunity to play both cross ice and full ice games this season with their USA Hockey registered associations. The programs offered by each club should allow every mite aged player to develop, grow, and most of all have fun this season. Families should not need to seek other options for their mite players. Talk to your local program about their plans for the Mite levels for the upcoming season. 

Kids across the country are back in school and back to sports. It's important to be educated on the ways to keep your kids safe when they play the sports they love. In particular, parents, coaches and young athletes should all be aware of the signs and symptoms of concussion. We spoke with Dr. Elizabeth M. Pieroth, a Board Certified Neuropsychologist at NorthShore University HealthSystem and consultant to professional sports teams including the Chicago Blackhawks, about this important topic. 

Q. What is a concussion?  A concussion can occur with any blow or force to the head that causes mental status changes; disorientation, confusion, memory loss, slowness in thinking. Concussions occur in both boys and girls.

Q. What are the signs and symptoms?  The signs are those things that are observed by others - such as coaches, parents or teammates. The symptoms are those things reported by an athlete. Click HERE for list of signs and symptoms.

Q. What should parents do if they think their child has suffered a concussion?  The first thing to do is to remove the child from practice or the game immediately. The saying goes, "When in doubt, sit it out." Next, call a medical professional to talk about the diagnosis and treatment.

Q. Why should kids play sports? There are so many wonderful benefits for children, including: physical activity, self-discipline, improved grades, friendships with teammates and increased self-esteem.

As you know, USA Hockey changed its rule about helmets, specifically regarding the expiration of the helmet "certification" based on the HECC approval ratings. At the outset, it is important for parents to know that this issue is one involving their children's HEADS.  In this day and age, the medical information regarding the consequences of concussions and their long term effects upon someone who has suffered a concussion is enormous.  The age old belief that a young player, or anyone for that matter, could simply shrug off a concussive hit to the head with absolutely no consequence is simply incorrect. Concussions are perhaps the most common form of injury to contact sports players yet only recently has the medical information regarding the long term effects of concussions really been brought to center stage. In this vein, the ability to lessen the incidence of concussions or perhaps lessen the severity of concussions is of vital importance. The first step in the process for accomplishing these goals is to identify the importance of proper equipment for the head, namely the helmet. According to the literature, helmets are not designed to last forever nor maintain their protective qualities forever.  USA Hockey has identified that helmets have a "useful" life and has amended its rules to reflect the manufacturer's and HECC's recommendations. Now, turning to our dilemma as officials and the implementation and enforcement of this rule, we all can see the difficulty with the rule itself. First and foremost, the player and his/her parents are responsible for wearing the proper equipment.  The onus for doing so rests squarely on the player.  Now I recognize that the younger the player, the more the responsibility rests on the parents.  And perhaps parents require more awareness of the concussion issues but I would like to think that the parents have their player's safety issue as a priority. Click HERE to continue reading.

Don Allord

Benevolent AHAI Golf Dictator and Chairman of the Weather Committee

View All the Golf Outing Photos by Sully on Facebook!