Conditioning and Assessment schedule

2014-15 Atom conditioning and assessment schedule;
A warm welcome to all new and returning Ottawa East MHA Atom players registered for the 2014-15 season. I trust everyone has enjoyed a wonderful summer, and is ready to get back to school and hockey!

I will be returning as Atom convener for a second year, and look forward to meeting those of you I haven’t had an opportunity to get to know over the last seven years that I’ve been involved in Ottawa East as a parent, coach and convener.

Let me start by apologizing for what will be a fairly lengthy e-mail, as well as stressing to you that you actually need to read all of it! One of my primary objectives as a convener is to ensure that I am very thorough and clear in the way I relay information, as well as being completely objective and fair to everyone throughout the process of administering the Atom division. Sometimes that might involve lengthy e-mails and/or explanations….but fear not, most of you will only have to put up with me until the teams are formed!
We are getting an earlier than usual start to the hockey year this season, with conditioning sessions starting this week, followed by the first phase of the assessment process next weekend. The schedule for the coming week is detailed below.

Conditioning Sessions; while not mandatory, all players are strongly encouraged to attend these sessions in order to get their “skating legs” in advance of the assessments, and these sessions are the only two that we have scheduled before we begin assessments. The sessions will be led by a group experienced Ottawa East coaches, all of whom are expected to be returning as coaches at the Atom level this season.

Please be mindful of the fact that the sessions are broken down by surnames - this is done to have an appropriate number of skaters attend each session, ensuring sufficient space on the ice surface for players in each group to get the optimum benefit from the session. This being said, unless specific arrangements have been made with me in advance, please attend only the session for which a player is designated, as only players designated for those sessions will be permitted on the ice;
 

• a conditioning session for players whose surnames begin with the letters A through L will take place on Wednesday, September 3rd, 7:00pm at Bernard Grandmaitre Arena.

• a conditioning session for players whose surnames begin with the letters M through Z will take place on Friday, September 5th, 6:00pm at St. Laurent Complex

Assessments; the first phase of the assessment process is the time trial portion. This phase has the players perform a series of Hockey Canada skating and puck-handling drills, being timed in each stage by on-ice assistants.
While the time trials do not ultimately determine which level (A, B or C) a player is assigned to for the year, please be aware that they do play a very significant part in the initial assignments/groupings that will be used to assess the game skills of individual players. With very few (if any) exceptions, players who do not attend the time trial portion of the assessments will default to the lower tier of the groupings for game skills assessments. For this reason, it is very important that players participate in the time trial phase of the assessments - we have a reasonably short period of time/window of opportunity to asses game skills in advance of the deadline for the formation of teams, so it is very important that we have as much opportunity as possible to assess each players’ individual skill level prior to assigning players to levels and teams.

Please note that players are required to check-in and obtain a pinney prior to participating in the time trials. This ensures that on-ice assistants do not identify players by name (a process which continues throughout the assessment process). In order to ensure sufficient time for check-in and player preparation, I ask that players arrive at the arena at least 30 minutes before their scheduled ice time. The time trial schedule is as follows;
 

• time trial assessments for players whose surname begins with the letters A through L will take place on Saturday, September 6th, 4:00pm, at St. Laurent Complex.

• time trial assessments for players whose surname begins with the letter M through Z will take place on Saturday, September 6th, 5:00pm, at St. Laurent Complex.

As noted, following the time trials, players will be assigned to individual groupings for balance of the assessment period, which will be comprised entirely of game skills assessments. I cannot stress enough the importance of participating in the time trials and game skills assessments, as this is the phase which will ultimately determine the level and team a player will be assigned to. Assessors for these sessions are selected by me, and will typically be very experienced hockey people whom I am certain are both objective (none will have children playing at the Atom level) and very qualified to assess player skill. I am hopeful that I need not remind anyone that approaching these individuals (in any way) while they are conducting assessments will not be tolerated, but it’s worth noting here anyhow.

I will use assessments over several sessions to establish the appropriate level for players, following which we will be working towards balancing teams that may be playing at the same level. All of this has to be done by the 26th of September, which is the deadline to determine teams, so we have a lot to get through in a relatively short period of time (although my objective is to have teams determined in advance of the deadline so we can use the remaining Atom-designated ice time for team practices).

That said, while we are still a week away from determining any groupings, we do know the dates on which the various groups will be skating, so it might be best to set aside the following dates/times on your calendars until further notice, and stay tuned for specific details that will come following the time trial sessions;
 

• Tuesday, September 9th, 6:00pm - assessments - group skate/controlled scrimmage
• Thursday, September 11th, 6:00pm - assessments - group skate/controlled scrimmage
• Friday, September 12th, 6:00pm - assessments - group skate/controlled scrimmage
• Saturday, September 13th, 11:00am to 1:00pm- assessments - controlled scrimmage
• Sunday, September 14th, 4:00pm to 6:00pm - assessments - controlled scrimmage/balancing games
• Thursday, September 18th, 6:00pm - balancing games/team practices
• Saturday, September 20th, 9:00am to 11:00 am - balancing games/team practices
• Sunday, September 21st, 4:00pm to 6:00pm - balancing games/team practices
• Friday, September 26th, 6:00pm - team practices (teams to be determined)
• Saturday, September 27th, 11:00am to 1:00pm - team practices/exhibition games (teams to be determined)
• Sunday, September 28th, 4:00pm to 6:00pm - team practices/exhibition games (teams to be determined)
• Tuesday, September 30th, 7:00pm - team practices/exhibition games (teams to be determined)
• Thursday, October 2nd, 6:00pm - team practices/exhibition games (teams to be determined)
• Saturday, October 4th, 12:00pm to 2:00pm - team practices/exhibition games (teams to be determined)
• Sunday, October 5th, 5:00pm to 7:00pm - team practices/exhibition games (teams to be determined)

specific goaltender training dates are being planned - dates will be shared upon confirmation

So - thanks very much for your patience in reading this whole thing - I hope I haven’t put anyone to sleep! I am very much looking forward to a great year of hockey in the Atom division, and will see you at the rink in the coming week…and beyond!

Kindest Regards,
Steve Moffatt