Minor Hockey Talks - Hockey Forum

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 1:32 pm I feel bad for these AA players thinking they are AAA calibre. Every year trying out for AAA, don’t you get it? Don’t your parents get it?

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 5:42 pm As insane as it sounds, there needs to a centralized tryout system. Ideally ID skates for players looking to leave their organization. IE formal birthday skates. Coaches can go and make formal offers for tryouts. They also need to be able to lock in their kids early and the kids they want to improve on are replaced through the process.

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 7:14 pm It’s the opposite. Parents are stringing coaches along.

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 6:26 pm

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 5:42 pm As insane as it sounds, there needs to a centralized tryout system. Ideally ID skates for players looking to leave their organization. IE formal birthday skates. Coaches can go and make formal offers for tryouts. They also need to be able to lock in their kids early and the kids they want to improve on are replaced through the process.

Tryouts should be open to all. If you have kids committed already they don’t need to attend the first day. Make cuts after every session and don’t string kids or parents along.

Guest wrote: ↑Fri May 23, 2025 8:32 am

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 6:26 pm

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 5:42 pm As insane as it sounds, there needs to a centralized tryout system. Ideally ID skates for players looking to leave their organization. IE formal birthday skates. Coaches can go and make formal offers for tryouts. They also need to be able to lock in their kids early and the kids they want to improve on are replaced through the process.

Tryouts should be open to all. If you have kids committed already they don’t need to attend the first day. Make cuts after every session and don’t string kids or parents along.

What should happen is when your tryout registration open, you should have to list how many open spots there actually are.

These tryouts are now a cash cow and each team will maximize the money they make.

I like the idea of a centralized tryout system but it does seem like a lot of work.

Maybe there's one online portal where you register for tryouts, and like college, you list your top 3 teams you want to tryout for, and the team has 30 invites. You will need to be invited to tryout.

Guest wrote: ↑Fri May 23, 2025 8:32 am

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 6:26 pm

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 5:42 pm As insane as it sounds, there needs to a centralized tryout system. Ideally ID skates for players looking to leave their organization. IE formal birthday skates. Coaches can go and make formal offers for tryouts. They also need to be able to lock in their kids early and the kids they want to improve on are replaced through the process.

Tryouts should be open to all. If you have kids committed already they don’t need to attend the first day. Make cuts after every session and don’t string kids or parents along.

What should happen is when your tryout registration open, you should have to list how many open spots there actually are.

These tryouts are now a cash cow and each team will maximize the money they make.

I like the idea of a centralized tryout system but it does seem like a lot of work.

Maybe there's one online portal where you register for tryouts, and like college, you list your top 3 teams you want to tryout for, and the team has 30 invites. You will need to be invited to tryout.

Guest wrote: ↑Fri May 23, 2025 1:34 pm

Guest wrote: ↑Fri May 23, 2025 8:32 am

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 6:26 pm

Guest wrote: ↑Thu May 22, 2025 5:42 pm As insane as it sounds, there needs to a centralized tryout system. Ideally ID skates for players looking to leave their organization. IE formal birthday skates. Coaches can go and make formal offers for tryouts. They also need to be able to lock in their kids early and the kids they want to improve on are replaced through the process.

Tryouts should be open to all. If you have kids committed already they don’t need to attend the first day. Make cuts after every session and don’t string kids or parents along.

What should happen is when your tryout registration open, you should have to list how many open spots there actually are.

These tryouts are now a cash cow and each team will maximize the money they make.

I like the idea of a centralized tryout system but it does seem like a lot of work.

Maybe there's one online portal where you register for tryouts, and like college, you list your top 3 teams you want to tryout for, and the team has 30 invites. You will need to be invited to tryout.

I think the ultimate solution will be to have fewer Rep organizations. They will need to be bigger areas and will be set up like the Whitby. You can sign up for any organization you want, and they will run rep teams from AAA down to B. The org will have to look at how many kids they have in an age group and determine how many rep teams to run. Kids would then try out and be placed in the right category. Right now there are way too many organizations running rep programs and that adds to the confusion as to where to sign up. It's silly that these small towns are running their own tryouts and getting such a random variation of talent. For example, Peterborough could take the small centers surrounding it, like Douro, Lakefield, Ennismore and Milbrook and run the tryouts for all categories. Then, throughout the year, the coach and all decision makers at the AA level could evaluate kids during the season and make a recommendation that they should try out for the AA team.

Organizations could also do some interesting things this way, maybe run an in house Chistmas tournament and place A kids with the AA kids so coaches could evaluate kids and see who could make they jump. They could also run clinics allowing kids to go to the level above to see if it makes sense. Right now kids are placed in silo's and have no idea where they stand compared to kids in the area. To many small orgs trying to run rep and this approach is not working anymore. There is a desire for players to be playing at the appropriate level.