Welcome to the 2014-2015 Bantam House league season. I, Eric Vaz, am your (late in arriving) Convenor
for this year. If, at any time, you have
any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via the League
website. The intent of my first post is to introduce myself and answer the question on everybody's mind...
For those of you who are new to the Cambridge Minor Hockey Association, our league is run according to rules and regulations mandated by the Canadian Hockey Association, the Ontario Hockey Federation, Alliance Hockey, our own constitution as well as procedures that have proven to work well for us over the years. We have many goals at Cambridge Minor Hockey. In the broadest terms they are to develop players and create an environment where they can have fun. Fun, after all, is why they signed up in the first place! Fun is inherent simply because hockey is a fun game! It is all of our jobs to create an environment where it can flourish by seeing that EVERY player is treated with fairness, respect and given equal opportunity.
Going forward, I will use the website as a central point for broadcasting information.
Now, to the question on everyone’s mind… What is the team structure going to be?
Good news! A decision has been made. We will be moving forward with the current 5 team structure.
We will be doing this for the following reasons:
1) First and foremost, there was no clear mandate from the Kids to change things. Of the children polled on Sunday evening, one team was unanimous "for", one "against" and the rest were mixed.
2) There have historically been occasions where reduced roster sizes compromised the enjoyment of teams and league balance where attendance habitually fell below 10 skaters. (the revised format would have had teams of 10 and 11 skaters) This becomes increasingly complicated and of concern during tournament and playoff periods that coincide with holidays and school breaks. As an example, many children have already indicated that they will not be able to play this weekend.
3) Early play (and to some extent the scoring) has demonstrated the current teams to be fairly balanced. The coaching staff felt that there appears to be decent parity.
In summary, after mainly considering the desires of the kids and the potential for challenges with the revised rosters, we have come to the decision that there is limited risk to a fun and competitive season by running five seemingly well balanced teams. That is what the kids want! I would like to thank our VP of House League and the Coaching staff for being both patient and passionate about making sure we have the best situation for the kids. It was a process we needed to go through to ensure the right decision was made.
Now that the structure has been finalized, the league will start to populate the future games past November. Please continually check the website for updates. I also encourage you to have the calendar pushed to your electronic devices and online calendars.
Here’s to a great 2014/15!
Eric