Q: How are teams made?

A: The process of creating teams is based the principle of teams being even… on paper.

We hold evaluations sessions before the seasons starts and players are rated.  Evaluation scores and knowledge of players from prior seasons are considered and teams are assembled as evenly as possible based on evaluation scores.  There are some unknown players who don’t attend evaluations so we can only count them as ‘average’ and fit them in accordingly.

GCBHL has historically offered ‘Friend Requests,’ and where possible they have been honored.  We will review this policy going forward since it significantly complicates the team assembly process.

Once teams are assembled, the Directors review and tweak teams to arrive at the final rosters.

Coaches are assigned to coach their children… if there were too many coaches on one team, the player and coach were moved to have at least 1 coach per team.

One thing that is helping us is that we had a couple late registrations which will help equalize teams.

We are considering using a coaches draft for next season.  We will have coaches use their own knowledge, and factor in size and ice hockey experience as a consideration during evaluations.  We’ll also consider eliminating requests and allow sibling requests only.

Q: Are the teams being stacked so these teams can be more competitive at provincials? How many Tigers are on any one team?

A: No - there are no stacking of teams, and provincial teams are selected completely independent of league teams.

GCBHL regular season is a House League so there is no benefit to giving a preferential roster to any team over another.

In our Minors/Majors division, these teams are mixed so will end up being split for provincials anyways.

Our league is fortunate to have one Tigers prospect in our league but in ball hockey he doesn’t play his ice hockey position.  Further, even if we did have multiple WHL players, we’d welcome them with open arms.  Elite players are perfectly suited on any team to act as role models and ‘playing coaches’ to work with and help develop lesser skilled players.

Q: Why is there a large age gap?

A: Most divisions consist of players in groups of 2 birth years but there are a couple exceptions:

Peanuts are all 6 years old or under.  The oldest age year was given the option to register in the full floor Blasters division since there can be a significant skill difference between an older 6 year old and a 4 year old.

Major/Minors was combined for the second season again - if we don’t combine, we would have 3 Minors teams (not such a bad thing), but only 2 Majors teams.

Last season there was a Minor/Majors team that had a low winning percentage and the most difficult playoffs path but they were able win the championship game.  We hope to we can strike lightning again this season but with 5 teams.

Q: We thought that there’d be more designated goalies

A: So did we.

We made significant efforts to recruit goalies but finding volunteers isn’t easy.  A lot of ice-hockey goalies wanted to play out and some that did volunteer don’t have a lot of experience.  We invested in almost $2000 in goalie gear and offered discounts for designated goalies.  As the season continues, the goalies will gain more experience and confidence which should lead to an exciting payoff season.

Q: Wondering about the number of players. We now have 16 plus a goalie? Does this line up with other teams? More than 15 makes for an awkward number.

A:  As mentioned above, last year we struggled with having too many players per team in Minors/Majors. 

This season however, we capped the teams at 12 players for Peanuts and 16 players for the rest of the teams.  Experiencing excessively large teams we made the choice to turn late registrations away if we needed to.  Simply adding a team isn’t as easy as it sounds - to make use of an efficient schedule we have to run games back to back, plus an odd number of teams means an extra game somewhere else during the week.

Also, we typically find that 1 -2 kids are absent each game but sometimes (especially the older players graduating high school, or with part-time jobs) there are 5-6 missing and sometimes they’re all there.

Q: Why does my child’s team have 13 players but other teams have 15?

A: This was never the intention.  Teams should have only ever have maximum 1 player difference.  It could be because the player never showed up or became injured at some point.  If this is the case, we ask the coaches and managers to reach out to the players and see if there’s an issue with attending.

Q: Will there be equalization?

A: Yes. No. Maybe.

There’s no easy answer.  In the past we’ve done one or the other but there are always people disappointed in moving… or staying.  We have a couple ideas, especially in the Avengers division.  Coaches in the Minors/Majors division are also working on something but it helps when 3 of the board members have connections there.

The McBreartys have volunteered act as Avengers division directors and will reach out to the coaches to come up with solutions.  It could mean coach and/or player moves but will be 100% voluntary.  One thing to keep in mind during movies is that everyone makes playoffs.  Coaches of Avengers should get together this Saturday either before or after the games.

We will soon have a Blasters/Crusaders parent on board but if you can help out at any of these levels as Division Liaison, please let us know.  You will help us identify issues and disparities and work with the coaches to find your own solutions - we can’t do it all - and with buy-in from all involved, there will be less disappointment.

One important point is that we can’t allow blockbuster moves - one or two players in a division should be enough, and we can’t move players on a personal requests.  That slope is too slippery.

Q: There are a few players who play too rough and other players could get injured.

A: We have received several concerns about player safety and unsportsmanlike conduct.  We can’t specifically discuss names or specific situations but we do have a process in place and the capacity to review individual incidents using LiveBarn - a streaming and video on demand app that streams all games at the Moose.

We have several measures in place to help deal with discipline:

• Players, coaches, parents, officials and are expected to sign and follow their respective Fair Play codes.
• The board of directors is the Discipline Committee and can only act on written detailed complaints and be confirmed by independent sources. (We have a couple situations that are currently being investigated)
• Discussions happen as soon as incidents are reported and any disciplinary action is determined at the board level.
• We use LiveBarn to review situations when warranted.
• We have implemented referee supervisors to support younger officials.
• We have issued 2 suspensions notices this year and 1 warning.

If you have a specific concern, please email us with a description of the event including date, time (time of game or time of day).  We can use LiveBarn video as a coaching tool for officials and there’s potential for coaches and players too.