Is this shady or normal for hockey parents?

[Yukon Joe]

Wait, so your kids team has to practice at various rinks during the season?

Absolutely.

I mean games are one thing, obviously. We live on the south side, but we can have games on the north side, or out in suburbs, or even way out in the country.

But practices? There's probably a half dozen or more rinks where we'd have practices. Generally speaking they'd be on the south side, but beyond that could be anywhere.

There's no such thing as a "home rink".

Not that these names will mean anything to you, but we could have practices at Terwillegar, Kinsmen, George Hughes, Confederation, Tipton, Millwoods, Meadows, or Londonderry...

 

[Slats432]

Wait, so your kids team has to practice at various rinks during the season?

Very common in Edmonton. There are 76 ice sheets in the Edmonton and surrounding areas. City of Edmonton 981,000. Metro Edmonton 1.32M people.

 

[Yukon Joe]

Very common in Edmonton. There are 76 ice sheets in the Edmonton and surrounding areas. City of Edmonton 981,000. Metro Edmonton 1.32M people.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that the rest of the world doesn't think about hockey the way Canadians do.

So we have 76 ice sheets (Taking you at your word, sounds about right) in a region of 1.3 million. This year we have an exchange student from Spain living with us. Super sweet kid. But in all of Spain, a country of 47 million people, there are 14 ice sheets.

And that's without counting outdoor ice sheets (which obviously Spain doesn't have any).

And there are still lots of Canadians who don't care about hockey! I know plenty of people who couldn't care less about the sport. But enough of us do, passionately enough.

I mean just talking to other posters here - just the notion that ice rinks are owned and operated by the city is quite different from in the US.

 

[Minnesota Knudsens]

That’s pretty cool that they do that - gives the kids more competition then the same 5-6 teams.

I remember my daughter almost had a huge meltdown when she was 8 and played in a house league game.

She was in ADM and developing well, her skating was really good and her skill was just starting to emerge, etc

The rink she played ADM in, would “call” up last year ADM girls to play in a game or two with their house league girls team.

My daughter got her call up and we had never seen the girls house league team…

They were god awful and my daughter was trying to pass to these girls and make plays… but the girls couldn’t handle the passes or they would fall down.

I’ll never forget one play when my daughter chased down a loose puck and her teammate came in and took it off her, then that girl blindly threw it to the other team.

My daughter threw her head back and slammed her stick… I was like oh f*** stay calm child.

She came off the ice after the game and I knew what was coming…

“These girls suck” “they can’t even skate and robble robble!”

A grandma walked by staring at my daughter losing it and I was like “why me” and kept trying to calm her.

The coach of the team turned the corner and saw my daughter freaking out and asked me what was wrong and I made up some shit about how she “hates to lose”.

The coach laughed and told her she played well then took off.

That was the first and last house experience I had with her.

Not exactly the best experience for either of us.

So this happens all the time in our house league due to skill gaps. Like I said in a previous post, you can have a kid that just barely got cut from a rep team skating along side a kid that can barely skate (which seems wrong for a number of reasons).

Coaches will often try to balance lines to make his team more competitive. So you might have a really talented kid playing on a line with 2 awful wingers. The talented kid usually runs around playing D the entire shift to make up for the kids that aren’t so good.

When my son played House League, I’d ask him, “Why didn’t you pass to Billy, he was wide open in front of the net?” and he’d say, “Billy would’ve just messed it up dad”. And he wasn’t wrong. But also, trying to play the whole game by himself was terrible for development. Not to mention frustrating for him.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Very common in Edmonton. There are 76 ice sheets in the Edmonton and surrounding areas. City of Edmonton 981,000. Metro Edmonton 1.32M people.

Absolutely.

I mean games are one thing, obviously. We live on the south side, but we can have games on the north side, or out in suburbs, or even way out in the country.

But practices? There's probably a half dozen or more rinks where we'd have practices. Generally speaking they'd be on the south side, but beyond that could be anywhere.

There's no such thing as a "home rink".

Not that these names will mean anything to you, but we could have practices at Terwillegar, Kinsmen, George Hughes, Confederation, Tipton, Millwoods, Meadows, or Londonderry...

Do you know the practice schedule before the season or do you randomly get told which rink to go to like a week before practices?

We have around 50+ sheets of ice within 30-45 mins from us, but I assume the difference here is all but two rinks in our area are privately owned.

We have two outdoor rinks that the city/county own, but they don’t rent out to any hockey org.

Like I mentioned earlier, the privately owned rinks rent the ice to a majority of the hockey programs around here and those rinks become that org “home” rink for games and practices.

It was nice when my daughter played for her old org because the rink was literally 2 mins away, so she had all of her weekly practices and home games there.

Her new org is way smaller and owned by two Canadians ironically - they bought an old run down rink and renovated it, then started a really great AA and AAA hockey program.

The rink is like 20 mins away, so all practices and home games are there.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

So this happens all the time in our house league due to skill gaps. Like I said in a previous post, you can have a kid that just barely got cut from a rep team skating along side a kid that can barely skate (which seems wrong for a number of reasons).

Coaches will often try to balance lines to make his team more competitive. So you might have a really talented kid playing on a line with 2 awful wingers. The talented kid usually runs around playing D the entire shift to make up for the kids that aren’t so good.

When my son played House League, I’d ask him, “Why didn’t you pass to Billy, he was wide open in front of the net?” and he’d say, “Billy would’ve just messed it up dad”. And he wasn’t wrong. But also, trying to play the whole game by himself was terrible for development. Not to mention frustrating for him.

My daughter never played house, but we got cornered after one of her practices when she was in Squirt by the 12u girls travel coach.

He asked her to play for his team and she was already playing on a boys travel team, so I was pissed off this guy didn’t come to me first.

My wife said we should just let her play to be around other girls and there wasn’t very many games, so I stupidly gave in.

At the first practice a couple parents from the 12u girls team were talking to me and said how excited they were my daughter agreed to play for them.

I was like what the hell… how do they know who my daughter is and why would they care?

I found out pretty quickly why they were happy my daughter was coming aboard as she and one other girl were the only ones who could generate any offense.

It wasn’t as bad as the house league girls team as these girls could at least skate decent, but their skill level was lacking.

My daughter said the same stuff as your son, but I tried to tell her she needs to share the puck and make the girls on her line better.

She basically wanted to quit by mid season but I told her she had to tough it out.

Was a long… painful season.

 

[jetsmooseice]

It just goes to how awesome, yet frustrating, Canadian hockey can be. It's all organized city-wide. There's no "home rink" for my kid's team - practices can be almost anywhere in the city (although they tend to be in our rough geographic area). Because it's all city-owned rinks they do prioritize ice times for kids (although by U13 the times are getting later and later). There's an awful lot of positives.

Yet just because of the sheer size it can be incredibly bureaucratic. There structure is Local club-Hockey Edmonton-Hockey Alberta-Hockey Canada, all of which can and do make rules that you need to follow.

That's an interesting difference compared to Winnipeg. Here your practices are at the rinks in the geographic area of your local club. Games can be played around the city, but practices are always in your zone. The only exception is if you opt to rent ice time for extra practices, which more often than not means driving out to the small towns just outside the city, where ice time is typically much cheaper.

My daughter plays ringette and because there are way less kids playing (it's kind of a miracle ringette still exists in a world where women's hockey has taken off), the zones are a lot bigger. She routinely leaves town to play against rural teams which is something my son generally doesn't do, except for tournaments.

On the government run rink thing, I will say that up until 10-20 years ago nearly all rinks around here were run by governments or some organization affiliated with government (community centres running a city-owned rink, etc.). But a lot of the newer rinks are privately owned. And they are generally a hell of a lot nicer. The typical City of Winnipeg rink is a run down dump from the 60s or 70s, while the typical new privately owned rink is nice, bright and clean.

 

[Yukon Joe]

Do you know the practice schedule before the season or do you randomly get told which rink to go to like a week before practices?

<snip>

It was nice when my daughter played for her old org because the rink was literally 2 mins away, so she had all of her weekly practices and home games there.

We get a schedule maybe a month out - so not the whole year's schedule, but also not just a week in advance.

Yeah that's the one thing - there's one rink like 5 minutes from our house. You could walk there on a nice day. I love it when we get practices there - but we don't get many.


Oh I should also mention - beyond the practices mandated by our club, teams will have their own budget. There's a hard limit on "cash calls" but you can fundraise almost as much as you want. Our head coach last winter went hard - and rented a lot of extra ice time. So much so the club was questioning why we had so many practices. But those extra ice times could be absolutely anywhere, and often were. I got to find some "interesting" small towns this past winter as a result.

 

[Yukon Joe]

That's an interesting difference compared to Winnipeg. Here your practices are at the rinks in the geographic area of your local club. Games can be played around the city, but practices are always in your zone. The only exception is if you opt to rent ice time for extra practices, which more often than not means driving out to the small towns just outside the city, where ice time is typically much cheaper.

<snip>

On the government run rink thing, I will say that up until 10-20 years ago nearly all rinks around here were run by governments or some organization affiliated with government (community centres running a city-owned rink, etc.). But a lot of the newer rinks are privately owned. And they are generally a hell of a lot nicer. The typical City of Winnipeg rink is a run down dump from the 60s or 70s, while the typical new privately owned rink is nice, bright and clean.

So the rinks don't necessarily line up with the community zones. There's a really nice 4-sheet facility, and a few 2-sheet facilities nearby - but not in our zone. So our practices are almost always on the right side of the city for us, but definitely not always within our zone map.

Our zone map is also kind of shaped like a pizza slice - so even for arenas that are within our boundaries they're not necessarily the closest to us (living out by the edge of the pizza slice).


City of Edmonton has built some very nice and new facilities - another one is scheduled to be finished by 2028 (not in our zone though) - but also has a collection of aging 50 year old facilities in "mature" neighbourhoods. There are a couple of very new and nice private rinks though - one owned by a neighbouring First Nations community, another owned by the Silent Ice group (they own the Seattle Thunderbirds, plus the JPHL and HSL). My rec league has been taking advantage of those rinks quite a bit (because the city otherwise reserves the best ice times for kids, and gives us old farts all the 10pm and later times). Curious to see if that trend will continue.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

We get a schedule maybe a month out - so not the whole year's schedule, but also not just a week in advance.

Yeah that's the one thing - there's one rink like 5 minutes from our house. You could walk there on a nice day. I love it when we get practices there - but we don't get many.


Oh I should also mention - beyond the practices mandated by our club, teams will have their own budget. There's a hard limit on "cash calls" but you can fundraise almost as much as you want. Our head coach last winter went hard - and rented a lot of extra ice time. So much so the club was questioning why we had so many practices. But those extra ice times could be absolutely anywhere, and often were. I got to find some "interesting" small towns this past winter as a result.

That’s pretty rough, but I guess you get used to it.

I figure I’ve been to a hundred or more rinks around North America since my daughter started travel, so I’m glad I don’t have to run her all over the city for practices.

 

[Strangle]

I’ve been around the game all my life, so I know this gets done a lot, I’m just trying to get opinions of if people think it’s shady or not.

When my child got into hockey 7 yrs ago, I warned my wife not to get too close to any of the parents because I knew what was coming eventually.

Now the shit hit the fan after tryouts this year and she feels betrayed and angry at several parents.

Our kids have been playing together for 4 years or so on the same team and 3 kids went out and secretly tried out for another team and left, even though they were already committed like the rest of our kids.

My wife and a couple other parents feel like they were stabbed in the back because now there are three holes on the roster and most of the best players in the area are already committed to other teams.

I said to my wife I get your anger and agreed these parents should have been upfront about their intentions and never committed.

However many hockey parents are out for their little Johnny and f*** everyone else, and that’s just the mentality they have… and I’m just used to that, so I wasn’t mad.

I so think it’s really shady, but these parents think what they are doing is right and trying to convince them otherwise is a fool’s errand.

Try not to take your kids activities too seriously, you seem too invested in this hockey team for kids

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Try not to take your kids activities too seriously, you seem too invested in this hockey team for kids

Your reading comprehension needs work.

I made my OP because I was the only parent I know of from the team NOT upset about what happened.

However, due to posts in this thread/other people I know, I’ve reevaluated since then that I shouldn’t excuse away lying/shady behavior just because it’s a kids hockey team.

Your word is your word, be that to a friend, in a business deal or when signing a contract committing to a hockey team.

 

[Pablo Messier]

Your reading comprehension needs work.

I made my OP because I was the only parent I know of from the team NOT upset about what happened.

However, due to posts in this thread/other people I know, I’ve reevaluated since then that I shouldn’t excuse away lying/shady behavior just because it’s a kids hockey team.

Your word is your word, be that to a friend, in a business deal or when signing a contract committing to a hockey team.

While I agree with you, this kind of stuff bothers parents a heck of a lot more then it does the players. What bothers players is getting jobbed playing time.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

While I agree with you, this kind of stuff bothers parents a heck of a lot more then it does the players. What bothers players is getting jobbed playing time.

Yes and no.

My daughter just sees it as an opportunity for more ice time.

However the kids who left have been together since Squirt, so many of them felt betrayed and are really pissed off.

They aren’t even talking to the kids who left and apparently one of the kids who left got punched in the head by one of these former teammates.

My wife knows the mom of the kid who left that was punched and said they have had a really brutal few weeks because of how former teammates are treating her son.

I obviously don’t agree with this behavior and my daughter has hitting camp with this kid soon, so I told her she better be friendly with him.

 

[PrimumHockeyist]

It's definitely normal. Hell it's normal for a lot of non-sport situations as well. Out of college I was competing for a spot in a symphony in the Chicago area and ran into a guy I know pretty well that plays the same instrument that I do. He ended up being the one that got selected for the position in Chicago. Two weeks later I run into him again auditioning for a spot in DC which kindof surprised me since he already had the Chicago offer.

Sounds like an orchestrated scam

 

[patnyrnyg]

Absolutely.

I mean games are one thing, obviously. We live on the south side, but we can have games on the north side, or out in suburbs, or even way out in the country.

But practices? There's probably a half dozen or more rinks where we'd have practices. Generally speaking they'd be on the south side, but beyond that could be anywhere.

There's no such thing as a "home rink".

Not that these names will mean anything to you, but we could have practices at Terwillegar, Kinsmen, George Hughes, Confederation, Tipton, Millwoods, Meadows, or Londonderry...

Down here, this set-up would be considered "travel hockey" by 95% of the population.

 

[patnyrnyg]

Try not to take your kids activities too seriously, you seem too invested in this hockey team for kids

I was actually speaking to a few people about sports parents the other day. Topic was who were crazier/est. Of course, we spoke about our own parents during the conversation. Of course, hockey parents come up. And, I think it comes down to $ and time. Yes, hockey is an expensive sport. So, parents want to feel like they are getting something for their money. When my daughter started playing, I picked the brains of a few friends who had already gone through it and the one thing they kept saying was not to just look at the price and just go with cheaper. Have to consider what you are getting, within reason of course. Aside from the money, it is a time investment for the parents. With each team she has been on, parents stay during practice as it doesnt pay to drop-off, and return at end of practice. As a parent, you are spending money and investing your own time. It is only natural to take it seriously. Not necessarily W's and L's, but again what your kid is getting for your time and money.

 

[patnyrnyg]

Your reading comprehension needs work.

I made my OP because I was the only parent I know of from the team NOT upset about what happened.

However, due to posts in this thread/other people I know, I’ve reevaluated since then that I shouldn’t excuse away lying/shady behavior just because it’s a kids hockey team.

Your word is your word, be that to a friend, in a business deal or when signing a contract committing to a hockey team.

I think you and the other parents that did not leave do have a reason to be upset. You think you have a team, kids are happy and then bingo. One kid has left my daughter's team since tryouts and the team was made. Not a big deal, but 3 or 4 more do so? Problem. Although, I would also be upset with the process. Parent of the player that left had already signed a contract committing to our team. Was given a release, but the org could have played hardball and not grant it. Or, require parents to pay in full before granting the release. Their usual response to someone who threatens to leave is, "If you are paid in full, we will give you back your contract." No idea what they did with the parent as that is between the parents and the organization. Heck, if my daughter and the other goalie left, everyone else would be screwed. There is 1 other goalie in the org at that age group, but he is just coming off 1 year of in-house, he is not really ready for travel hockey,

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

I think you and the other parents that did not leave do have a reason to be upset. You think you have a team, kids are happy and then bingo. One kid has left my daughter's team since tryouts and the team was made. Not a big deal, but 3 or 4 more do so? Problem. Although, I would also be upset with the process. Parent of the player that left had already signed a contract committing to our team. Was given a release, but the org could have played hardball and not grant it. Or, require parents to pay in full before granting the release. Their usual response to someone who threatens to leave is, "If you are paid in full, we will give you back your contract." No idea what they did with the parent as that is between the parents and the organization. Heck, if my daughter and the other goalie left, everyone else would be screwed. There is 1 other goalie in the org at that age group, but he is just coming off 1 year of in-house, he is not really ready for travel hockey,

I made my OP thinking I’d get responses like “what’s the big deal, this happens all the time”.

I just became numb to the insanity of hockey parents being around them all my life in one manner or another.

I have posts littering this thread with my disdain for the crazy hockey parents, but we are investing 10k+ in our kids for this season, and as you said that doesn’t even factor in the extensive time commitment.

So I’ve come around to realizing what these parents did was some low down shit and the parents who remained weren’t overreacting.

Now because of their selfish behavior, my daughter’s team has to play short handed, and since hitting starts this season, they will have kids out for sure during the season.

Just no way around the fact that the three kids who left and their parents did my daughter’s team dirty.

For the parents that pulled their kid from your daughter’s team, was there any blowback from other parents?

 

[Yukon Joe]

Down here, this set-up would be considered "travel hockey" by 95% of the population.

Really? Every one of those rinks would be at most a 20 minute drive from my house. For league games there were a couple that might have been 45 minutes (and maybe one that was 60 minutes at the extreme).

I guess I understood "travel hockey" to be out of town games that would require a hotel room.

 

[patnyrnyg]

Really? Every one of those rinks would be at most a 20 minute drive from my house. For league games there were a couple that might have been 45 minutes (and maybe one that was 60 minutes at the extreme).

I guess I understood "travel hockey" to be out of town games that would require a hotel room.

Yeah. Same here is that on a saturday or sunday morning I probably have easily 15-20 rinks which I can get to in 30-45 minutes. Difference is each rink has their own travel program (some have 2) and the league is not run by the city or the state. Only time hotels are required are for tournaments. Although, sometimes a parent may elect to get a hotel room for a regular league game. Atlantic City has a team in our league. THAT would be a 90 minute drive easily. If we had an early game there, might drive down the night before and get a room, but that would be up to everyone individually.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Really? Every one of those rinks would be at most a 20 minute drive from my house. For league games there were a couple that might have been 45 minutes (and maybe one that was 60 minutes at the extreme).

I guess I understood "travel hockey" to be out of town games that would require a hotel room.

Travel Hockey is basically anything that isn't played at the home rink.

 

[patnyrnyg]

I made my OP thinking I’d get responses like “what’s the big deal, this happens all the time”.

I just became numb to the insanity of hockey parents being around them all my life in one manner or another.

I have posts littering this thread with my disdain for the crazy hockey parents, but we are investing 10k+ in our kids for this season, and as you said that doesn’t even factor in the extensive time commitment.

So I’ve come around to realizing what these parents did was some low down shit and the parents who remained weren’t overreacting.

Now because of their selfish behavior, my daughter’s team has to play short handed, and since hitting starts this season, they will have kids out for sure during the season.

Just no way around the fact that the three kids who left and their parents did my daughter’s team dirty.

For the parents that pulled their kid from your daughter’s team, was there any blowback from other parents?

I dont think so. Let's just say the effort this kid displays is only when he has the puck. Was the only kid on the team "benched" for a lack of effort. Our coach doesnt really believe in benchings for 10U and wont bench a kid that age for mistakes. But one game where I was doing to scoreboard, he pulled him mid shift, while the other team was rushing up the ice. Said to him, "if you want to stand there and watch the game, you can do so from here." He scores alot against bad teams and beginner goalies. In our division, we had 3 other good teams all who had good goalies and 2 that started slow and improved dramatically. Against the 3 other good teams and the second time we played the other 2, he did nothing. But scored 3-5 against the weaker teams and beginner goalies. He has openly said, "I dont really like playing defense" and that "defense is not his job, he is a forward." Father condones it.

BUT, there is a team in Jersey that is known for "If your check clears, we will put your kid on whatever team you want." He went there, they put him on AA. But, he will be lucky to register a shot on goal at that level, let alone actually score. Have hear that about this team from 4 different people who dont know each other, who have older kids so have been involved with the youth hockey here a lot longer than I have.

 

[Yukon Joe]

Travel Hockey is basically anything that isn't played at the home rink.

Interesting. I have learned something today.

So in the US, "house league" means you only play at literally one rink, while "travel hockey" means you play at different rinks, but all within your city or urban area.

In Canada, all hockey is "travel hockey" then.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Interesting. I have learned something today.

So in the US, "house league" means you only play at literally one rink, while "travel hockey" means you play at different rinks, but all within your city or urban area.

In Canada, all hockey is "travel hockey" then.

Not necessarily, you can travel pretty far. A lot of it depends on what other programs are around the area. In many areas, hockey is a very "suburban" sport so the associations/rinks can be pretty spread out. I think the difference is in Canada it doesn't appear like Associations belong to one specific rink, which is the norm in the U.S. I guess the biggest difference is House League you have a spot, whereas in Travel you have to "make" a team. Theoretically, a house league could be affiliated with a bunch of rinks nearby and it would still not be "travel"