It's hard to believe that the 2022-2023 Playoffs are just around the corner!  Before we head into playoffs, I wanted to provide a little summary of the year so far, as well as give an update on a few items.

Tryouts

One of the biggest requests from our members heading into this season was to have a fair and transparent tryout process.  During the summer, Aaron Hiscock, VP Competitive, worked with a group of our Board Members to create a new, robust tryout policy document, which was provided to our membership before the tryout process began.  The purpose of this document was to provide our members with an understanding of how tryouts would work this season, discussing items such as our new evaluation software, objectives of evaluation, roles and responsibilities of selection committee, and player selection process.   

This season was the first season since I've been involved with SMHA that there were two rounds of competitive tryouts: early tryouts for the U13AAA and U15AA leagues starting mid-Sept and regular tryouts commencing the beginning of October.  Between the early tryouts, regular competitive tryouts, recreation evaluations, U9 evaluations and IP evaluations, many hours were spent by our volunteers in the rink and behind the scenes.  I would like to thank all of the volunteers for their contribution to making this year's tryouts run as smoothly as possible.

As with any new process and/or systems, there are always learning curves and ways to improve the process.  We received a lot of valuable feedback after the tryout process, and we will be working on taking this feedback and working it into the tryout policy for next year.  If you have any constructive feedback on how to improve the process for either competitive, recreation, U9 or IP, please send your comments to President@FlyersHockey.ca.

SMHA Tournaments

SMHA brought back tournaments this year in a big way, by planning four tournaments for this season.  We saw our first tournament back in the Sackville rinks at the end of October with the Flyers Fall Face-Off (U11B, U13A and U13B), followed by the Holiday Jamboree in December for the U9 Division.  The feedback I heard from these tournaments was very positive, and people are glad to be back in Sackville for tournaments.  A big thanks to Blair Cole, SMHA's Director of Tournaments, Rod Sturge, SMHA VP, and their team for all of the hard work planning these tournaments!  

There are still two more tournaments being held in Sackville this season.  

• The Memorial Tournament - February 17-20 (U15B, U15A, U15AA, U18A, and U18AA)
• The Flyers March Meltdown - March 10-13 (U11C, U13C, U15C and U18C)

Please check out the schedules, wear your flyers gear, and come down to support our fellow Flyers teams in these tournaments!

Bylaws

Our Director of Admin, Jennifer Forster, has started a comprehensive review and update of the Bylaws.  The first draft was provided to the Executive at the end of December.  After great discussion, there are a few tweaks to make, and we are hoping to get the final document out to membership in the coming weeks.  A date will be set for a special meeting to discuss and vote on the bylaws once the final copy is complete.  Stay tuned....

Update on Season 

At the start of January, the combined MMHL and CMHL records for each level of SMHA were as follows:

           Wins      Losses    Ties

U11 -    44            40           5

U13 -    76            34          20

U15 -    56            24          11

U18 -    32            35           9

We have a lot of teams who will be battling for a chance to bring home Metro or Provincial titles.  Thank you to all coaches, managers, and team staff for all you have done this season so far.  Without you as volunteers, we would not be where we are today!

HNS Green Armband Initiative and New Officials

You may have seen new armbands on some of our officials over the past few months. These new green armbands are to be worn by all officials under the age of 18, and any first-year official regardless of age.  The objective of this program is to reduce harassment and abuse of younger on-ice officials by clearly identifying them as minors to coaches, parents, players and league officials.  The program will also work to educate coaches, parents, players, and league officials about the challenges officials face with respect to harassment and abuse while officiating minor hockey games.  Did you know that over 40% of all HNS officials are under the age of 18 and work a large portion of all the minor hockey games in the Association?  1 out of every 3 officials quit after their first year.  Over half quit after 2 years, and 65% are no longer officials after 3 years.  The main reason most have decided to quit is from the harassment and abuse they endured. 

SMHA is in full support of this new HNS initiative.

Fun Fact - in SMHA we have 20 junior officials (under 14) and a strong group of officials, who are also SMHA players.  If you are interested, or know someone interested, in learning more about becoming an official, please reach out to Todd Thomander, our Referee-in-Chief, at RIC@flyershockey.ca

The SMHA Leadership Team

The following is a refresher of our Executive, Board and other Team Members of SMHA.  Their contact information can be found here:

• Nathalie Amirault - President
• Rod Sturge - Vice President
• Tara McFeters - Interim Treasurer/Director of Finance
• Melissa Berkvens - Secretary
• John Hubley - VP Development
• Aaron Hiscock - VP Competitive
• Todd House - VP Recreation
• Craig Foley - VP U9 and Risk Management
• Rob Nurnber - VP L2P & U7
• Jennifer Forster - Director, Administration
• Todd Thomander - Referee-in-Chief
• Alex Leblanc - Director, Equipment
• Jon Cyr - Director, Communications
• Ben Harvie - Director, CMHL
• Chris Erwood - Director, MMHL
• Helen Scammell - Registrar and Webmaster
• Blair Cole - Director, Tournaments
• Ryan Sabean - Safety Coordinator
• Leah Blackwood - 50/50 Coordinator
• Trisha Munroe - Division Coordinator U9
• Morgan Spicer - Division Coordinator U11
• Natalie Lafleche - Division Coordinator U13
• Nicole Shortall - Division Coordinator U15 Recreation
• Dennis Amirault - Division Coordinator U15 Competitive
• Mike Kennedy - Division Coordinator U18

I would personally like to thank each and everyone of these individuals for their countless hours with SMHA and making the association run as smoothly as possible.  Without each of you, our association wouldn't be what it is today, and for that I am grateful!  

Other

• While we didn't broadcast it, most of you are aware that our VP, Rod Sturge, was suspended 5 games at the beginning of the season.  After appealing to Hockey Canada, the suspension was reversed, and he asked that we advise the membership of the results of this appeal.  

• A reminder that in order to get content for our Facebook page, we need parents, managers, etc. at all levels to tag @SMHFlyers in their posts to allow us the ability to share things to our news feeds. If no tag is present, we can only "like or react" to posts and not share them.

• Lastly, our team will soon begin working on the details for End of Year celebrations and AGM.  Stay tuned for more details on both events.  If you are interested in playing a larger role with the End of Year celebrations, please reach out to Melissa Berkvens, secretary@flyershockey.ca

If anyone has any comments, questions or ideas please reach out to me at president@flyershockey.ca.  

Nathalie Amirault

President

Sackville Minor Hockey Association
www.FlyersHockey.ca

President@FlyersHockey.ca