There's been some youth hockey talk across some other threads, but I made this one to focus on hockey. With three kids playing and as I get more involved in my town's program, I figured this is a good place to sound off and look for advice.
First topic - I took on a role as our programs coaching director. This involves me working with the coaches to get them certified, keep them in the loop on practice schedule changes, organize tryouts. A lot of general stuff. Most of it is for the mite (8u) level coaches who may be a bit green.
I'm currently putting together a tryout plan for all of our levels. It only really "matters" for our mite and squirt (10u) teams, as they are the only ones that have the numbers to support multiple teams (40ish kids in mites, 28 or so in squirts). My biggest concern heading into tryouts is sorting out the new teams. We bring in independent evaluators who will rank the kids on various sets of skills. I also plan on soliciting end of your assessments from coaches on all of their kids. I was wondering what people thoughts were on what the biggest driving factors should be at those ages. What should carry more weight? Evaluator score? Coaches assessment? I ask because I got some push back on the coaches assessment piece from others on the board. Saying it could show bias. I don't disagree completely as a parent/coach could rate their kid higher to tryand get on the top team. But, I also don't like the idea of having a kid come out for two one hour tryouts, and basing their future team on those performances alone. What do you think a good balance is?
First topic - I took on a role as our programs coaching director. This involves me working with the coaches to get them certified, keep them in the loop on practice schedule changes, organize tryouts. A lot of general stuff. Most of it is for the mite (8u) level coaches who may be a bit green.
I'm currently putting together a tryout plan for all of our levels. It only really "matters" for our mite and squirt (10u) teams, as they are the only ones that have the numbers to support multiple teams (40ish kids in mites, 28 or so in squirts). My biggest concern heading into tryouts is sorting out the new teams. We bring in independent evaluators who will rank the kids on various sets of skills. I also plan on soliciting end of your assessments from coaches on all of their kids. I was wondering what people thoughts were on what the biggest driving factors should be at those ages. What should carry more weight? Evaluator score? Coaches assessment? I ask because I got some push back on the coaches assessment piece from others on the board. Saying it could show bias. I don't disagree completely as a parent/coach could rate their kid higher to tryand get on the top team. But, I also don't like the idea of having a kid come out for two one hour tryouts, and basing their future team on those performances alone. What do you think a good balance is?