Minor hockey players get some freedom

It doesn’t get them to their final destination, but they like the way the compass needle is pointing.

Local minor hockey organizers are encouraged by a pilot project to eliminate registration boundaries between “paired” hockey associations in the City of Hamilton.

Effective for the 2018-19 season, Stoney Creek Minor Association members can play for Stoney Creek Minor Hockey Association rep teams and vice versa, while Dundas Minor Hockey Association and Flamborough Hockey Association players are now eligible to try out for teams in either organization. A similar shared-boundary pairing of the Glanbrook and Ancaster minor hockey organizations is expected to happen the following year.

City council’s Healthy and Safe Communities Committee received a recreation staff report on the two-year pilot project at its meeting last week.

“It’s a start,” says Mike Spadafora, General Manager of the Hamilton Huskies. “It’s a step in the right direction. There may always be movement restrictions in hockey, but they shouldn’t happen in our city, for residents of our city.”

Kristina Dodd, president of Dundas minor hockey, says, “Overall, it’s going to be a very positive thing. If nothing else, it’ll open doors.”

The doors local hockey organizers want to open lead directly to full freedom of movement for the city’s minor hockey players.

While Glanbrook, Ancaster, Dundas, Stoney Creek and Flamborough have been part of Hamilton since the amalgamation of 2001, there are still hockey-specific borders set long ago by southern Ontario’s two umbrella organizations: the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario and the Ontario Minor Hockey Association.

Those borders limit players from the AA level down to AE (alternate entry) and MD (minor development) levels to playing for the organization where they live, unless they are granted a release, which is a complicated, often unsuccessful, process.

The Huskies are in the Alliance and can draw players from only

Wards 1 through 8 in the city, while the OMHA houses the Glanbrook, Dundas, Stoney Creek, Flamborough and Ancaster organizations. Declining hockey enrolment, — making it harder for some centres to compete — players being compelled to play in a lower level than their skill set would merit, and an increasing desire from players’ parents to have unrestricted movement within the city, have combined to drive demand for open borders, organizers say.

“We’d like to see open boundaries right across the city so players can play where they want to in this city,” says Jeff Reynolds, chair of the Hamilton Minor Hockey Council, which represents a number of Alliance hockey associations, including the Huskies.

Girls hockey in the province does not set local boundary lines.

At a March meeting convened by city recreation staff, local hockey organizations drafted a pilot project which would remove all boundary restrictions within the city. After the Alliance and OMHA reviewed it, the OMHA came back with the ‘pairing’ compromise. It is a two-year pilot project, with an OMHA review after the first year.

Under the compromise, the Huskies will ice AA teams for which Stoney Creek players may try out, and Stoney Creek’s A teams will be open to players within Huskies territory. Similarly, Dundas and Flamborough players can play in either organization. Dundas will have A teams from novice to major midget, while Flamborough will have AA teams, and perhaps AE teams..

Steve Johnson, the Stoney Creek association president, says some benefits have already been seen, with between 50 and 70 hopefuls at all levels of AA tryouts.

“The game of hockey is evolving and minor hockey associations have to evolve, too,” Johnson says.

“The numbers are declining and as a not-for-profit business, freedom of movement allows us access to our customers.”