Kudos to decision-makers involved with minor hockey in London, Ont., for coming up with a better way to organize teams in the heartland of hockey.
Devoted and season-long readers of this blog might recall the chaos, anger and hard feelings born during a money-grabbing, team stacking tryout process last fall in which the London Junior Knights organization exercised its right to skim the best players from the city's neighbourhood hockey organizations with no regard for what families wanted.
The season unfolded as predicted. Junior Knights teams won. Ho hum. Neighbourhood teams were generally (but not always!) mere sparring partners.
Now, as publicly explained today by London Free Press sports columnist Morris Dalla Costa, the Junior Knights will reduce the number of teams it fields to one elite AAA team per age group and one AA "farm team" of skilled competitive players. All other kids get to play for their neighbourhood "A" teams without the silly threat of bouncing them "all the way down to house league."
Of course, due to low registration numbers, A and AA teams will still be lumped together to form viable leagues.
Best of all for families who like to vacation or have kids in summer sports, the tryout process will happen in the spring, not August like last year. Minor hockey volunteers will like this, too.
Devoted and season-long readers of this blog might recall the chaos, anger and hard feelings born during a money-grabbing, team stacking tryout process last fall in which the London Junior Knights organization exercised its right to skim the best players from the city's neighbourhood hockey organizations with no regard for what families wanted.
The season unfolded as predicted. Junior Knights teams won. Ho hum. Neighbourhood teams were generally (but not always!) mere sparring partners.
Now, as publicly explained today by London Free Press sports columnist Morris Dalla Costa, the Junior Knights will reduce the number of teams it fields to one elite AAA team per age group and one AA "farm team" of skilled competitive players. All other kids get to play for their neighbourhood "A" teams without the silly threat of bouncing them "all the way down to house league."
Of course, due to low registration numbers, A and AA teams will still be lumped together to form viable leagues.
Best of all for families who like to vacation or have kids in summer sports, the tryout process will happen in the spring, not August like last year. Minor hockey volunteers will like this, too.
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