WELCOME TO IYHA




	Home Teams / Schedules News IYHA Tournaments Directions / Rinks Board of Directors Coaches Corner Registration Info Ithaca Girls Hockey Page updated 8/16/05
			IYHA Registration Hello IYHA Members, Believe it or not, it?s time to start thinking about the 2005/2006 hockey season. Registration will be held Sunday, September 11^th from 9am to 1pm. Please make every effort to attend! Registration Day is a lot of work and it really helps the Board in our planning efforts to have as many registrations in hand as possible, by the end of the day on September 11^th. A $50 late fee will be added to all registrations for Travel, UNYHL, and Snowbelt from returning members submitted after September 11^th. We will extend a grace period to House, Initiation, and new members up to our Open House on Oct 22^nd. This year, in response to our members and to facilitate registration, we are also offering the option of registering by mail. This can be done by going to our website at www.ithacayouthhockey.com, downloading the registration forms, filling them out, and returning them to IYHA at PO Box 391, Ithaca, NY 14851. So, if you can?t attend Registration Day, all you need to do is download the forms and register by mail by September 11 (for returning players to Travel, UNYHL and Snowbelt.). Please note that all players planning to register for the new Midget Travel short-season team MUST register by mail and these registrations MUST be received by Aug. 28^th. This is due to the fact that tryouts for this team will begin on August 30^th. The team will need to start practicing in the first week of September, prior to Registration Day, in order to complete their season. (More information regarding the Midget short-season team follows below.) Overview Of This Year's IYHA Program Much is the same, but we have made a few changes that we hope will improve things. Our ice rates went up at The Rink this year to $160/hour from $150/hour. This is the first increase at this facility in a few years and much needed by their budget. Therefore, the IYHA Board has gone through our budget and schedule with a fine tooth comb to find ways to economize. We are quite pleased that many fees did not go up and, those that did, were raised only a small amount. Our budget is a matter of public record and was developed at a series of meetings open to the membership. If anyone has any questions or would like to review the budget, please contact a BOD member. We encourage your feedback. First, the age divisions for this season are as follows: Initiation Program: Birth date in 2001 or older Mite Division: Birth date in 1997 or younger Squirt Division: 1996 and 1995 birthdates PeeWee Division: 1994 and 1993 birthdates Bantam Division: 1992 and 1991 birthdates Midget Division: 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987 birthdates House/Initiation Programs: The Initiation Program is for our youngest players and is meant to teach kids how to skate and give them some hockey fundamentals. The emphasis of this program is to have fun while learning about hockey. We expect Initiation players to skate twice a week for a total of 2 hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The Initiation programs will not begin skating until November, after the Soccer season has ended, and will end late in February with no ice times scheduled during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday weeks. Registration fees for the Initiation Program are the same this year as last year, $175. In the Mite Division, we plan to offer a House program. In the House program, players are divided into teams which are relatively small in size. Each age division will have one single hour practice slot each week on Friday evening plus one game on the weekend. This year we will be coordinating our Mite House Program with Elmira?s Mite House Program. This will mean that once or twice a month an Ithaca House team will play an Elmira team. At the end of the season, there will be a year end event similar to last year?s Stanley Cone event. The Mite House program will not begin skating until November, after the Soccer season has ended, and will end late in February with no ice times scheduled during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday weeks. The Mite House Program has gone up a bit, to $275. FYI: For players Squirt age and older we, unfortunately, do not offer a House program because we enter teams in the Snowbelt League at these levels. IYHA chooses to participate in Snowbelt in these age brackets because these brackets traditionally have lower enrollment and Snowbelt offers the best opportunity for a fun, competitive season. For players between the ages of 11 and 18, who are looking for pure, local, House hockey, we have a Recreational Program. The Rec program meets once a week on Monday evenings to play a game of ?pick-up? hockey with no checking. The participants will be registered with USAHockey, but they will not be organized into registered USAHockey teams. The program is meant to be hockey just for fun with no checking allowed. This year?s Rec fee is set at $195. Travel Programs: For the Mite through Midget divisions, we offer hockey in the Travel, UNYHL, and Snowbelt leagues. The Travel teams compete at the toughest level and players on these teams are selected at the Travel team tryouts. IYHA fields Travel teams at the Mite through Midget age divisions. With the exception of Mites, these teams participate as State Tournament bound teams in the NYSAHA Central Section. That means that they play teams in Central Section which range from Clinton to Oswego to Elmira. All commutes are less than 2 hours. At the end of the season, the Travel teams compete in a Sectional Championship which begins with a Pre-Sectional tournament. Winners of their Sectionals go on to a State Championship and, for PeeWees, Bantams, and Midgets, there is a National Championship. One new Travel program is planned for this year - a short season Midget Travel team which will be a major age, tournament bound team, with a Sectional in early November. Note that this is a new format for Central Section. The Midget Travel team will need to meet its 20/10 game requirement prior to the end of the November Sectional, so, they will be off and skating immediately after Labor Day with tryouts beginning on Aug. 30^th. Please note that all players planning to register for the new Midget Travel short-season team MUST register by mail and these registrations MUST be received by Aug. 28^th. The Midget Travel Sectionals will be held in November on the 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th. This will conclude their season, unless they win Sectionals. If necessary, they will reconvene in March to prepare for States. Their season is 10 weeks long with 9 home games and their fee is set at $610. Bantam, Pee Wee, Squirt Travel: As usual, these Travel teams will practice twice a week. This year, however, there will be some sharing of ice giving them two 1.5 hour practices a week, one of which will be on a full sheet of ice and one with some sharing. Squirt, PeeWee, and Bantam Travel teams will have a 21 week season with 17 home games. Practices will begin in the week of Sept. 26 and end with the weekend of Feb. 25^th. Pre-Sectionals are scheduled for the weekend of Feb 11^th and Sectionals are Feb. 25^th. Through very careful scheduling and budgeting we are pleased that the fee for Squirt, PeeWee, and Bantam Travel has not increased and remains at $1050. Note that a Travel team?s season may be extended if a team advances beyond the Sectional tournament. This year the BOD has budgeted for some contingent ice which should be sufficient to provide practice ice for a team advancing to States. The Mite Travel team is a little different than the other Travel teams. This is because Travel programs for Mites are not recognized by USA Hockey. IYHA fields a team at this age division because many of our neighboring associations do so and there has been sustained interest among our members for this program. Mite Travel is different in that it does not work toward a year-end Section Championship, as none is organized by NYSAHA. Instead, the Mites generally attend an invitational tournament at the end of their season. Many Central Section associations have a Mite Travel team, so the travel commitment is similar to that for Squirts through Midgets. The Mite Travel team practices less than other Travel teams with just one 1.5 hour practice a week. This year their season will be shorter and is set at 16 weeks with 13 home games. Hopefully, this will make it easier for some families to participate. Due to the shorter season, the fee for this program has been reduced to $600. UNYHL: This year IYHA will field Squirt, PeeWee, Bantam, and Midget UNYHL teams. The UNYHL (Upstate New York Hockey League) is designed to be a developmental league for players who hope to play at the Travel level someday. They are often referred to as Tier 2 Travel teams and players are selected at a tryout after the Travel teams have been selected. The UNYHL teams have a season much like the Travel teams, with the exception that they do not have a year-end tournament which leads to a State Championship. The UNYHL season ends with the McKie Cup Tournament and the winner of this tournament is declared the UNYHL Champ. The UNYHL league is its own entity and does not relate directly to Central Section; however, many of the teams in Central Section field a UNYHL team as well as a Travel team. So, the travel involved with a UNYHL team is much the same as for a Travel team. This year the UNYHL teams will practice twice a week; a 1.5 hour practice which includes some sharing plus a 1.25 hour full ice session. Like the Travel teams, the Squirt, PeeWee, and Bantam seasons will consist of 21 weeks of practice with 17 home games, but will start two weeks later during the week of Oct. 10. Therefore, their season will end two weeks later on the weekend of Mar 11^th. UNYHL has not yet set the date of the McKie Cup Championship, but, we expect that it will not be later than March 11^th. Again, through careful scheduling and budgeting the UNYHL registration fee for PeeWees and Bantams has remained at $990. The Squirt UNYHL fee has been reduced to $950 because, due to scheduling issues, that team will need to share ice more often than the other UNYHL teams. Note that the length of the Midget UNYHL program has been reduced this year to 16 weeks with 14 home games. This was done because this team will be coordinated with the Midget Travel team. The concept is that players will participate on the Travel team through the Midget Sectional in November. After that, many of the Travel players will move to the Ithaca High School team. Those who do not participate in with the High School team may continue the season with the Midget UNYHL program. Consequently, the Midget Travel and Midget UNYHL programs need to be coordinated schedule-wise; that is, they will use the same practice slots and game slots in the weekly schedule. In addition, shortening the Midget UNYHL season reduces the combined fee for families of players participating on both. The fee for Midget UNYHL has been set at $850. This means that the combined fee for Midget Travel and UNYHL is $850 + $610 or $1460. Snowbelt: IYHA will field Squirt, PeeWee, Bantam, and Midget Snowbelt teams. Snowbelt teams are open-enrollment travel teams, that is, they are open to all interested players and there are no tryouts for these teams. The Snowbelt season ends with a Championship tournament, called the JAM, which crowns a Snowbelt champ. Snowbelt is designed to be a lesser commitment for players and/or parents. Consequently, these teams practice just once a week. Because we expect lower enrollment for the PeeWees and Bantams, their practices will overlap. Each team will practice for 1.5 hours where part of the practice is full ice and part is shared. The Squirt Snowbelt team will share their practice ice with another team and practice for a total of 1.25 hours a week. The Midget team will maintain their 1.25 hour full ice practice. The Snowbelt league does not allow games to begin until November, so the Snowbelt season is shorter than the Travel and UNYHL season. This year we have scheduled 20 weeks of practice with 16 home games starting on Oct 25^th and ending on Mar 5^th. As a result of a spring meeting with Snowbelt families and the BOD concerning budget issues, it was decided that shared ice for the teams with less players made sense and that the teams could fundraise their own tournament money. Therefore, the $1300 tournament contribution has been eliminated from their budgets. This allowed us to reduce the fee for Pee Wee, Bantam, and Midget Snowbelt teams to $595. The Squirt Snowbelt fee is $475, because they will be sharing more of their practice ice. It is our hope that these reduced fees will attract more youngsters to join the IYHA or be able to continue their hockey experience. Notes: -All IYHA coaches are required to register with IYHA and be certified for the level of hockey they are involved with. Coaches at the initiation and mite house level are required to have completed the level 1 coaching clinic prior to being on the ice. A list of clinics can be found at: http://www.usahockey.com/coaching/clinics/main/coaching_clinics/coachclinics/ It is recommended that you plan on attending a clinic early in the fall, as they will be full as we get closer to the season. -The Travel and UNYHL teams need to conduct try-outs. In the past there has been an extra charge for try-outs, however this year, in response to input from members last year, the Board has worked to eliminate this fee. There is no extra charge for try-outs. -Parents of players participating in any of the travel programs should be aware that there are many additional costs of the program which each team must self-fund. For example, travel teams typically participate in several tournaments, including their year-end championship, throughout the season. Presently, the IYHA budget allows for a total of $1300 in tournament fees for Squirt through Midget UNYHL, and Travel teams. Mite Travel has a $700 tournament budget. Tournament registration costs in excess of these budgets have to be self-funded by the team. Often tournament schedules require a team to spend a few nights at a hotel. At times, group transportation, such as a bus, may need to be organized. None of these expenses are included in the IYHA registration fee and, so, must be team funded. -In addition, when a Travel, UNYHL, or Snowbelt team has a coach who does not have a child on the team, it is IYHA policy to reimburse that coach, if he/she requests, for lodging expenses incurred during the season. Parents should be aware that these expenses can have an impact on a team?s budget. Thanks for reading through all of this. I hope you found it to be informative. Please feel free to contact any of the board members with questions or concerns. Thanks, IYHA Board 2005-2006 President: Louise Watson Lmw417@twcny.rr.com Travel VP:nbsp; Michael Boggs, mtb4@cornell.edu UNYHL VP: Bill Troy, wtroy@danica.com Snowbelt VP: Beau Saul, beausaul@yahoo.com House/Initiation VP: Craig McAllister, cm248@cornell.edu Treasure/Registrar: Tim Cretney, tim.cretney@casella.com Communications\Secretary: Tournament Planning: Dan Elberty, elberty@frontiernet.net Scheduler: Sharon Kasel, MAKHockey@aol.com

	POWERED BY THE COMPUTING CENTER		© IYHA, 2003/2004 >ABOUT THIS WEB SITE