This is one that has been here before in various forms. However, I have to ask what some of the HS and club coaches for that matter, do with players that have practices that coincide with each other. Seems to me that the reasonable solution is to have the player split this time 50:50 if he intends to continue with both teams. What are your thoughts? I will expound on this more as people chime in.

From my experiences talking to parents is: The club coaches tell the kids "You better be at our practice" and the HS coaches say to the kids "You better be at our practice".

Okay Matt,

I see that being said as well, and it usually has more to do with the coaches ego feeling that he has the superior team. My take on this is that far too many people (coaches & parents as well)take themselves far too seriously (or is that think too highly of themselves)and don't just come to the realization that this after all is just a game. My belief is that if a player decides that he'd like to do both school and club, then a compromise of some sorts between the two teams needs to be resolved. A 50:50 split of the time which is in direct conflict seems to me to be the best resolution. But that is just me.

I agree, a player should be allowed to play both and should be able to make the decision of which scenerio is best for them on any given night. There should be a compromise....how is that compromised reached?

Last year strides were made...I believe that High School hockey agreed not to play/practice on Wednesday's so that Midget and Bantam teams could schedule practices on Wednesday's and have their whole team there without conflict. I think its a good idea to do it again, if it worked last year.

In theory, coaches should be able to work together. However, we all know that is not the case. I think the more established and self assured coaches will make allowances for students to play both club and high school hockey. The problem is that some of coaches are not mature enough to realize they are just hurting students.

A perfect example is high school and Junior Flyers. Bud has been coaching for a long time. He has a great reputation and his teams are always at the top of midget AAA Nationally. I think they go to nationals every year. In fact, they probably have a standing invitation to the National Tournament every year. Bud and the rest of the Junior Flyer Coaches encourage their students to play both. In fact, the Junior Flyer Schedules are always in the hands of the high school schedulers before the high school schedules are worked on.

On the opposite end you have the Little Flyers. Their midget coach thinks students should only be at his practices, high school be damned. Every year including last year, I hear Little Flyer Midget students tell me we are going to nationals this year. The reality is they never go to nationals. This coach is forcing these students to not play high school by telling them his team is going to nationals and if you don’t draw his line you will not be going with the team.

The Little Flyers are not the only ones who engage in this practice. However, this practice is despicable. A coach practically blackmails students to not play for their high school or they won’t be playing at nationals with the rest of his club team.

Junior Coaches can be just as bad. They tell their students make a 100% commitment to us and I will get you into an NCAA program. The student ages out of junior and he has no NCAA programs knocking on his door. In the meantime the student has paid almost 20K to play 3 years of junior and he is no closer to the NCAA then he was when he graduated high school.

The no high school night was a step in the right direction. It did help to alleviate the high school students burned, but more work needs to be done. I just think some of the coaches are unwilling to budge.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Top Cat,

It was Tuesdays and what happened with a lot of teams was not only did the club team practice on Tuesday but then the HS team still had to face the "which practice do I go to?" question when the clubs practiced on another night of the week as well. So aside from HS giving up a night of the week I didn't really feel that there was any difference from years past.
It isn't ego or thinking that one team is better then another, it is simply that how can a coach effectively develop a team if practice is not mandatory? You're probably thinking well they are practicing even if they are not practicing with your team. But if I plan on extra skating becuase the team played lazy one game but Rusty Bucket isn't there with his teammates because he is at his other team's practice how do you think the other guys are going to react? Also if I am a guy that always shows up for practice but Rusty is only there half the time what I am thinking is why am I here? Rusty isn't and his time is no more important then mine. Next thing you know you're looking at a very bad situation in the locker room and the coach is virtually powerless to do anything. The best fix would be a split season but if that can't happen maybe there could be designated days for club and designated days for HS. But it has to work both ways not just HS giving up a day. It should be a comprimise. Maybe each side gets 3 days and the odd day is off limits to both sides. Just a thought.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Koolaid Drinker,

Top Cat,

We seem to be in complete agreement. It is not just the Little Flyers Midgets & Junior teams that seem to be guilty of this. I've been led to believe that Jr. Flyer players up and down their organization are now being told that they cannot miss practice period. This has more to do with their second practice slots on Thursdays, which are combined with Minor & Majors. Now how can you (Jr. Flyers) ask one thing, get it and then turn around and say it's another way? This is just my opinion (for what that's worth), but aside from Bud's team, the other Jr. Flyer teams do not field the best available players at that age group (from the entire pool of players), just the best that tried out. In reality, I feel that some of the best Tier 2 midget AA & bantam AA clubs would certainly be on equal or comparable footing to the Midget Minor or Bantam Major Jr. Flyer teams. Sorry Matt if this starts a firestorm.

No need to apologize....I like a subject with subtance. How many times do I have see, who will be good at AAA this year? This has meaning.

Some high school teams are now being forced to accept Sunday night practice slots which causes a problem for club players who may not be able to make that practice depending on the time and location of their Sunday game. For the goalies especially; coaches want their goalie at their practice. What makes this more difficult is when the goalie knows he's not playing the Sunday game for his club team and could be at practice with his school team but cannot go because his committment is to his club team.

Hi,

It's interesting to read all the discussions about high school and club practices. Although there is a fair amount of cooperation between the high school leagues and the clubs in game scheduling there certainly is conflict in practices. One simple solution may be to have 2 days reserved for club practices, and 2 days reserved for high school practices. The problem becomes a 24/7 committment by the players, and that leads to burn out. One question that I have is "Why the adversarial relationship at all?" What could be done to improve that? Maybe USA Hockey needs to take a leadership role in that area and promote High School, Clubs, Tier 1/2, and Juniors working together to develop players as the best way to elevate the level of play in the US of A.

When my son played before going off to college he did play for the Chester County Skating club for a couple years. They did utilize the split season concept and that worked well at the time. It allowed him to focus more, and have time to do things with his friends. This reduces the amount of burn out and contributes to more fun which we adults forget is really important when your growing up.

I do know that many young people, given the chance would love to be able to commit more to high school hockey. They love the concept of playing for their school, being involved in the school spirit. In addition they love being able to play meaningful games in front of their peers. I've seen many, many varsity games played in the ICSHL where the rinks are just jammed with people. The Henderson/Kennett regular series, and the Flyers Cup drew 500-800 fans on a regular basis. That never happened when we were involved with club hockey. It might improve fan bases if the clubs tied into the high schools more, not less.

I know of one HS team that will be practing at 5:30 AM. It does 2 things: ice costs are less and there are no conflicts. I know rink managers are happy to sell ice at that hour and are more than willing to sell it at a good rate.

It does more than two things....It forces kids to wake up at 4:00 am to go to hockey practice on a school day. Is that really a good thing for the kids?

They just need to go to bed earlier and not stay up on line sending im's and sending text messages on thier phones all night. Most players I think would like to get practice out of the way early and not have to worry about practicing at night. You know it gets in the way of time with the "ladies"

Dude, as a former player, former coach and current high school teacher, I can assure you no one likes to get up that early.

Why doesn't USA hockey step into this matter? They have power to make a rule that everyone must follow. Am I the only person who feels that when youth hockey is faced with a problem USA hockey stands there and does nothing?