Novi Youth Hockey Association

House/Travel Coaches,

Please remember that you may have been scheduled ice on Nov. 8 at Novi Red or Novi Blue.  For this one day, this is a place holder and is not your ice time. The ice time belongs to the NYHA for our Game Day scheduling.

Over the next month we will be structuring the schedule per our events (Scoro-Moms, Shootout etc., other events), number of teams participating (we have over 40 NYHA teams) and other factors (Mites will not play at 9 p.m.). Suffice to note that your total game time allocated will likely not be long enough to fit a LCAHL league game – most Game Day matches are 45 minute scrimmages but can vary depending upon how the day unfolds from a time perspective. 

Just a recap:

·         Ice on Nov. 8 is NYHA ice required to organize Game Day – it does not belong to your team

·         Your team’s total game time may not be long enough to fit a legal LCAHL game  - applies to all Travel teams & House teams (Squirt and above)

·         If you cannot participate on Game Day – we need to know quickly

·         Integrate Game Day into your LCAHL scheduling – leave the day open

·         We will match Novi house teams against one another except in the case of an odd number of teams in any one division.  We will look for one NYHA team to play a non-NYHA team in this case (Stay tuned on this).  Travel teams need to find another team to ‘scrimmage’ for Game Day

·         We will attempt to accommodate any special timing requests but cannot promise anything until we know exactly how many teams and other events have to be accounted for

Game Day is special to many in the association – it is a unique tradition known throughout Michigan and within USA Hockey.  Players and parents alike enjoy the ability to see player names announced, Moms on the ice for Scoro, end-of-the-game shootouts and the myriad of other activities going on.

There will be meetings closer to Nov. 8 as plans formalize and we staff for the event. If you have any questions – please contact Michael Robinet.

Several key dates have now been established.

• Dec. 14 (midnight) - LCAHL cutoff for the playdown games
• Dec. 16 - Squirt NYHA Playdown game
• Dec. 17 - PeeWee NYHA Playdown game
• Dec. 18 - Bantams NYHA Playdown game
• Jan. 4, 2009 - District 4 credential meeting

A library of A.C.E educational materials is available through the NYHA Office. A list of those items can be viewed by clicking on the "Resources" link below or in the left navigation panel.

This year the NYHA like many associations is goalie ‘challenged’.  In our Mini-Mite and Mite divisions, all members are encouraged to play goal and there are no ‘goalie only’ members.  [Remember that in these programs no one member may play more than 50% of the games unless they have governor approval.]  In the Squirt division, we have 6 full time goalies and 1 part time goalie for 7 teams.  In the PeeWee division, we have 6 full time goalies for 9 teams.  In the Bantam division, we have 9 goalies for 6 teams.  [On those teams with two goalies, the duties must be shared equally.]  In Midget B, we have 2 teams and 2 goalies; and in BB one team, one goalie.

The Centers for Disease Control has a variety of materials available on concussions for coaches, parents and players. See below one of the items. Access these materials through the CDC Web site by click on this link:

http://www.cdc.gov/concussioninyouthsports/