A Message From The President On The 2020-2021 Hockey Season
Dear MYHA Community:
Happy Friday. By the House of Paynes calendar and for many of you as well, today marks day 55 of work-from-home, stay-at-home… although it feels as if this social distancing stretch has been both much longer than that… and much shorter.
Somehow the days go by exceptionally fast. How did we fit in all in? The hockey, the spring sports, all the extracurricular activities? I don’t know but I do know that we all miss it… our kids especially.
And while we don’t know exactly what to expect down the line, nor can we promise anything, we are going to look forward… and hope for the best different-normal hockey season for 2020/21.
It’s still early but USA Hockey, MA Hockey, and other youth hockey programs around the country are formulating strategies and sketching out protocols for what a return to the rinks might look like.
Our home rink, Lynn Connery, is also looking forward and aiming to open on August 17th. Following their timeline, which will be driven by state guidelines, we plan to adhere to the following schedule.
Week of 8/17 – 8/23 (Week 1)
- Like last year, we will run one week of preseason skills to let our participants find their legs and hockey hands
Week of 8/24 – 8/30 (Week 2)
- 8/24 & 8/25: Try-outs with 3rd Party Evaluators
- 8/26 – 8/30: More pre-season skill sessions
Week of 8/31 – 9/6 (Week 3)
- Divide age groups into 3 teams: Red, Black & White
- Run a week of regular practices
*Selection Committee will meet this week and select teams by skill level: AAA, AA, A
Week of 9/7 – 9/13 (Week 4)
- 9/7: Announce Teams (Labor Day – No Practices)
- 9/8 – 9/13: Normal practice schedule
MYHA Community Asks – Please complete the following by May 15th
USA Hockey registration – a requirement to be part of MYHA – is now open. And a USA Hockey number needs to be acquired by those that completed MYHA registration in April.
Our new system talks directly to USA Hockey so registration numbers input into a field in our MYHA process will automatically be sent to USA Hockey – saving countless hours for our Registrar, Matt Waldman.
A huge thank you to Shelly Bedrossian for implementing this connectivity via our new Team Snap website!
As a reminder we will field a Midget team and all-girls Hollyhock teams at all levels U8 > U14. Finally, for those Learn-to-Skate/Whack-a-Puck graduates – don’t forget to register for Learn-to-Play X-Ice Mites!
For those that registered prior to 5/1
- Go to USA Hockey and acquire your participant’s 2020/21 registration number:
https://membership.usahockey.com/
- Then, please return to our new MYHA site and fill out the USA Hockey registration number form on our registration page which has three fields.
https://marbleheadyouthhockey.org/registration/
For those who have not yet registered PLEASE register by May 15th
- Go to USA Hockey, register, and acquire your participant’s new 2020/21 registration number:
https://membership.usahockey.com/
- Go to our MYHA site to register your participant(s) for the appropriate program. The USA Hockey registration number is a required field in our current registration process.
https://marbleheadyouthhockey.org/registration/
MYHA’s normal deposit will be required but the automatic monthly billing cycle will not commence until September 1st .
Let’s all hope we are a go for the barn visits and ice sheets at the end of the summer. And for those that know club-hockey participants who may be looking for a home or reconsidering – encourage them to come back to their roots and our MYHA community.
Make the most of the balance of the Spring (apparently Winter this wknd!) and your Summer… and be on the lookout for President Payne’s 10,000 shot, summer-sniper, stickhandling challenge June 1 > Sept 1.
Until then, attached is a link to some pics from this past season to remind us of our collective hockey spirit – some big smiles in there.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/01q-zwsGDxwqVS2yWsdPL2ZfA
John Payne | President MYHA and Board of Directors