South
Kent Minor Hockey families,
We
are writing to provide an important update regarding our U8
MD division for the upcoming hockey season. After careful
review and league-level discussions, the decision has been made to not field a U8 MD team this year.
Why
was this decision made?
We
know some of our young players and their families were looking
forward to a competitive U8 season, but external league factors have
made running the division unfeasible:
-
League
Vote: The Four Counties Hockey League recently held a vote
regarding the future of the U8 division. Unfortunately, the majority
of the league members voted against running a formal U8 division for
this season.
-
Lack
of League: There is no structured league for a U8 team
to participate in in our proximity at the B level. Without a league
to play in, we cannot provide the consistent game-play experience
our families expect and deserve.
We
are exploring two alternative developmental pathways. The first
is a tiering of our U9 Local League teams. This would place
players on tiered teams based on ability. The second option is
a U9 Select Team. This team would be able to play additional
exhibition games against other centres that also have U9 Select Teams
and they would also be able to participate in tournaments as a Select
team.
For
the past few seasons, we have had a U9 MD 2 Team. The OMHA has
drastically reduced the availability of these teams and we are
not able to run an MD 2 team for the upcoming season. However, we feel the two U9 options outlined above provide a very
strong, if not better, option for the long term development of our
players.
Our
numbers at our youngest age groups are very strong which gives us
flexibility in terms of the programming we can offer and we are well
positioned for success and growth in our U9 and younger programs.
We
will post more information as it becomes available.