Long, losing winter

Not sure how to survive this season because in minor hockey, luckily, I've never been here before.
Our kids have played on losing soccer teams before, but this is the first time in 11 seasons of minor hockey I've had a son who's playing on a team that can't win. Not just a losing record here. We're talking about a team that cannot expect to win a game, period.
It's a bit of a change from one year when he was on a team that went undefeated through the regular season or won an Ontario championship (of which there are many at several different levels and in many geographical areas). Nor is it like the Ontario "A" teams he was on which hit above their weight in a league of "AA" teams.
This is juvenile hockey where everyone plays (that's good) but the painstaking process of analysis, assigning points for skills and creating house league teams of equal skill went out the window. No draft, no thought. Just a divvying up of names based on where they played before and clusters of friends who wanted to hang out together for the winter, including a team of guys born in 1992 who wanted to be their own team.
It's taken as seriously as spring 3-on-3 leagues, which means it's only exercise.
Oddly, the many part-timers got clustered on my son's team meaning the coach is constantly asking for players from two other neighbourhood teams to volunteer to play and fill out the minimum roster and avoid defaulting. That's actually kind of good - the influx of talent makes the games competitive, but still not winnable.
Unfortunately, the schedule was written with conflicting or back-to-back games which means asking a lot of kids to play for their team, then help another.
Life's further complicated by two kids, the coach's son and the single goaltender, can't now play because they're hurt.
Juvenile hockey has only recently returned to London and I'm not sure what the best way to organize it is. Obviously people on winning teams where the kids who paid their fees are actually showing up like the current setup.
Part of me wished the team would be collapsed and the kids who really can make the time commitment to play distributed to the other teams. But that would mean less ice time in already quick 50-minute curfewed games.
Maybe we should just turn off the scoreboard and let them scrimmage.

Broken door policy

Always something new when the minor hockey kids get bigger and arenas get older.
Miffed by the referee's call, an opposing 18 (or 19) -year-old player took out his frustrations on the rink door at his home arena while playing my son's juvenile team Friday.
The slam was only something a motivated teen could do and when the door bounced back, one hockey dad tried to latch it, followed by one referee, followed by another hockey dad who, despite being an engineer by training, decided to revisit earlier attempts to kick the door into submission so the game could continue.
Last season we wouldn't have cared so much, because in competitive midget hockey a game is a game, no matter how long it takes to play. In house league juvenile, at least in London, a game is 50 minutes of rented ice time. Six games in and we still haven't gotten a complete game in without the curfew buzzer.
The referee saw the broken door as a chance to knock off for the night early, but enterprising hockey dads soon realized arena staff might have a tool and a technique. He did, and fixed it so the door couldn't open.
But the game could continue, perhaps to the chagrin of the ref.

Juvenile hockey reborn

Kudos to minor hockey volunteers in London, Ont., for relaunching the city's juvenile hockey program. In its second season after being resurrected, the recreational program for 18-, and 19-year-old players seems to be yielding spectacular results, at least within our home association of West London.
My son started in tyke when there were five house league teams in West London. This year, he's joined the juvenile program which is fielding three teams this season in the city-wide Community Hockey League.
Considering the players are at an age where many have left town for university or college, are working part-time or even full-time jobs, discovered other sports to spend money on, or dedicate all their spare time to their squeezes, having this number of teams from one city neighbourhood is impressive.
Years ago, juvenile hockey in London was organized in an interesting way, but it was ultimately unpopular with the people who mattered the most - the customers, aka the kids playing the game.
Under the old system, after spending years representing the neighbourhoods in which they lived, all juvenile-aged kids were placed in a draft. Kids found themselves in changerooms without friends and playing with people they had competed against for years. Interest faded, despite the convenience of a steady Sunday night schedule.
The program returned last season with neighbourhood associations organizing teams. In West London's case, there were enough kids last season to form two teams. The core for each focused on kids from each of two major high schools.
This year in West London, one team has clustered all players born in 1992 - guys who have played together, off and on, since they were six. The two other teams divvied up kids born in 1993 to form, hopefully, equally talented squads while trying to accommodate requests for groups of friends to play together.
My son, who's now in university but living at home, will be playing with at least one kid he hasn't been a teammate of since tyke, maybe one or two he played A-AA with, and some he played AE with.
It's a mixed bag and a specturm of talent. But they're all doing it for the right reasons - fun, friends and fitness - and just like in tyke, they hope to win a lot and be the champions, but if it doesn't happen the season will still be a success.

Twilight season

Playing his twilight season in minor hockey brings new scheduling issues for my juvenile/hometown university student son.
Keen to play city juvenile, even if it means no body contact and being in a house league instead of a competitive loop, his big issue is the schedule. University classes trump all other activities, and if there are a lot of games on Tuesday nights when he has classes, it's game over.
Always keen to lace 'em up, he's also added to the mix by signing up for the University of Western Ontario intramural league. He's already reconnected with teammates who were with him on teams when he was a tot, or older, to represent Kings University College at UWO, along with new friends from near and far. That league always plays Monday nights and, he says, will trump juvenile commitments.
It's good he's still interested in playing and finds it fun, but we're rapidly moving along to new priorities.
Keeping kids involved in minor hockey through their teens is a challenge, even here in the heartland of minor hockey. For example, our home West London Hawks are unable to field an "A" major midget team this year due to a lack of qualified players born in 1994. This comes on the heels of a remarkably successful run by local boys born in 1993 who fared well in an A-AA league last season.
But back to my main point. We'll see how this season goes - my son might be one of those dreaded part-timers or fade from the scene altogether.
Usually by this time, he's been confirmed as a competitive team member. First sorting skate for juvenile is two weeks from today.

Juvenile deadline

The deadline is almost here and I'm still waiting for a decision from my older, hockey-playing son about whether or not he wants to return to the ice to play juvenile.
The on-again, off-again minor hockey program for 18-year-olds who don't have the time or talent to play Junior Development or Jr. C or B is on the upswing in London after collapsing in a bog of disinterest and dishonour a few years ago.
Back then, kids who wanted to play juvenile were subject to a city-wide draft which put on-ice foes from different neighbourhoods together on the same teams, disrupted friendships and eliminated the joy of representing the association some kids had played for since tyke.
The new system sees teams fielded representing neighbourhood associations and, usually, tries to accommodate friendships, although I hope not at the expense of competitiveness.
Other communities, Collingwood for example, have rebooted their juvenile programs to keep kids in hockey. That and the fact that more registration money is needed to keep programs viable as numbers fall in younger age groups.
In London, playing juvenile means playing by house league, not competitive, rules. Therein lies the rub for my son, along with the fact he'll be starting university classes at Western. His joy, his biggest contribution as a West London Hawks defenceman was a spirited willingness to play the body. That won't be the best skill in house league rules juvenile.
Whatever he decides will be fine, although if he doesn't play I'll miss the minor hockey experience greatly. I'm thinking his ultimate decision rests will whatever his friends and past teammates decide.