Hello GMHA Membership,
I hope everyone is well, I would like to congratulate the Novice A team as being the finalist in the York Simcoe Championship, they competed hard against EG but just fell a little short. It was a pretty good run this season for the team and they deserve a big congratulations for making it to the finals. I know there has been rumours out there on the future of our organization and after a 3 month conversation with the OMHA I can now confirm for the upcoming season we will be an A centre.
This has been a long process and after 3 months of consultations the OMHA has decided that because of our low numbers and the record of our organization over the last number of years they feel we would be better suited for the time being as an A centre. The number of players for a AA centre should be 750 not including hockey school or IP registrants, this year we had just over 640 players and that was including hockey school and IP. The numbers alone place us as an A centre. We were always the smallest AA centre and over the last few years the registrants have declined making us not being able to have the required numbers, or in some cases enough kids in each division to have teams.
The OMHA and York Simcoe will allow any team that we feel will be competitive to play in the AA loop going forward. If a team stays in the AA loop it will be able to compete for an OMHA championship and be able to compete in AA OMHA tournaments with approval from Peter Harmsen. Jason Spencer will send out a following email to coach’s to explain how tryouts will work and to find out if any teams wish to stay in AA.
When our registrations increase we will be allowed to move back up to a AA centre. The board has worked very hard over the last few weeks with Peter Harmsen to come up with a plan to move forward and we are hoping in the next few years our numbers increase and we will be able to move back up to the AA loop. We are going to keep up with our development program and try to introduce new things next year so that our players can return to being competitive in every game, with a goal for each team to win an OMHA or York Simcoe championship.
With the upcoming season there is a rule change regarding player movement for minor PeeWee ages and above. A player now will be able to tryout at any York Simcoe Centre, but you will only get one chance. If you tryout at another centre and get released, you have to come back to your home centre. So this year our players can go tryout at any AA centre but they can only use their player movement card once and after that they have to come back to Georgina. ATM(authorized to move cards) and permission to skate forms will be available sometime next week and we will post when they arrive.
I know a lot of people will be upset about moving to A but playing A hockey will allow our teams to be more competitive, allow them to be in every game, and it will also give them a chance to win and feel good about themselves. Players put in a lot of hard work into the game they love and at the end of the day if a team loses way more then they win how much fun are the kids having. Not to mention us as parents, we pay a lot of money and spend a lot of time traveling and I think we would all agree we want to see our kids succeed. Playing in the A division will allow them to do this and feel good about themselves because they can compete.
We as a board are following the OMHA’s recommendations and I hope in the really near future we can once again have the numbers to move back up and become a AA centre where we can be competitive again. I have copied an email from our OMHA executive director with some questions and answers we thought everyone would have regarding this move and the options available. Hopefully this answers everyone’s questions.
Questions and Answers
1. When does a team have to decide on moving up to AA
· Centre can make the decision prior to tryouts or once tryouts are completed and their roster chosen
2. IF THEY decide before tryouts... Can they pick players From A
· No – Georgina is now an “A” Base Category Centre
· Georgina can take NRP players from centres that are “BB” and below and “AA” centre players not offered a roster position by home “AA” centre.
3. Can player go to AA even if our team moves to AA
· Yes, as above Georgina is now an “A” Base Category Centre (minor peewee and above only are eligible for NRP exemption to play in another centre) Even if they know the team will participate in “AA” Division of York Simcoe as they are not bound to Georgina because we are now an A Centre but they can choose to stay and play AA in Georgina if they choose not to exercise the NRP Option.
4. Can a team playing AA play in A tournaments... Because we are an A center...
· Yes but Tournament Committee may not accept the application to participate in the tournament if the team is participating in “AA”
Thank you for everyone's help this year and we hope our transition to A is for a short period of time and in the near future we will be able to move back to the AA loop with a greater number of registrants so we will be able to compete at the highest level possible.
Regards,
GMHA Executive Board