Greetings parents/players and welcome to the tryouts for the
Peewee A1 team,
Tryouts are a stressful time that inevitably lead to some hard
feelings. It shouldn’t be this way. 51 of these kids are going to make a rep team
in Oakville and that is awesome! All 3
teams have solid coaches who are going to ensure that your son/daughter
develops hockey skills, becomes a better teammate/person, has fun and makes
friends. If a return to HL is your fate this
year that is no big deal as MOHA has one of the best HL programs in Canada.
By now you are saying, 'alright Coach, enough - how does this work?' Okay, there are 3 tryouts:
· Friday, April 22: 6:55PM - 16 Mile 4: pinny #s of those asked to return for 2nd tryout will be posted at moha.ca on the Peewee A1 site under ‘Team News’ (http://moha.ca/Teams/3034/Pages/15029/Team_News/).
· Saturday, April 23: _6:55PM_ - 16 Mile 3: Meetings with some who are staying and all who are being released.
· Sunday, April 24: 11:25AM - 16 Mile 4: Meetings with every kid and parent(s).
The 1st tryout will assess kids’ skating, fitness, compete level, defensive and offensive skills. According to registrations, there will be over 90 kids trying out for this team. Current A players will not attend the 1st tryout so we can get a good look at the challengers. We will get down to about 40 for the 2nd tryout and down to 28-30 for the final tryout.
The 2nd and 3rd tryouts will be high-intensity scrimmages. I am looking for kids who play big in big games so I will be attempting to create a big game atmosphere. In the stands I will have 4-6 guys who have played/ coached hockey at high levels. These totally unbiased 'hockey guys' will simply be jotting down the pinny numbers of kids who stand out. NB – ‘standing out’ does not mean hogging the puck, taking long shifts or playing dirty!
I will be picking kids based on the following rough criteria - 20% their previous regular season, 40% their previous playoffs and 40% their performance in the scrimmages.
With so many kids trying out, many of you will ask, 'how can you fairly assess my kid in an hour or two?' The answer is, ‘I can’t’, which is why I have done some homework. To date, I have:
· Watched 12 HL games, 6 AE games, countless A and AA games and a number of mixed scrimmages.
· Studied the HL scoring records and talked to many HL parents.
· Reviewed every A and AE gamesheet to see who scores and, more importantly, when they score. There is a big difference between scoring in playoff games vs. scoring against weak opposition or in 15-0 wins at tourneys.
This exercise has taught me 2 things – one; I clearly need to get a life and two; there is lots of parity at the A, AE and HL Red level. There are HL Red kids that could/should have been playing A, AE kids who could/should be playing A, etc.
Guess what? Despite our best efforts, this will happen again. Coaches have to build TEAMS and that involves a mix of left and right shots; offensive and defensive kids; fast kids and grinders; creative/ flashy players and steady/dependable players. As well, this is a year when kids change a lot. So, there are kids who will be cut who will go on to AA and AAA in years to come and who will make me look like the dumbest coach in the world this coming year in head to head games.
Prove me wrong…nothing will make me happier! This is all about kids developing!
Good luck!
John Verdon