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Minor hockey reflects on successful season
Mac Olsen
for South Peace News
The High Prairie Minor Hockey Association held their annual general meeting at St. Andrew’s School April 28, which included reducing the number of people on the board.
“We’re trying to streamline our process,” says president Pat Olansky.
By amending their constitution, they reduced the number of board members from 22 to 16, to balance the responsibilities each person has. New to the executive is David Bliss as vice-president, Laurie Keay is the new secretary and Karen Zelman is the new registrar. The new board members include Laura St. Cyr as pond hockey director, Joanne Corbiere is the new squirt/novice director and Graham Lewis is the new peewee director.
They made other amendments to their constitution and approved the minutes of the April 27, 2009 annual general meeting. Joyce Stokes read her treasurer’s report, although the year-end financial statements must be audited.
Olansky read her president’s report and praised the 2009/10 executive and board for their commitment. She also says becoming the president is a real eye opening experience.
“It is amazing how many issues require the attention of the president that were completely unknown to me before,” she says.
The goal of the association was to improve player development and the competiveness of the teams. The successes included a conditioning camp with Ron Rose, prior to team tryouts; implementing a weekly goalie-specific practice; weekly power skating sessions with Power Plus Hockey Skating; and the Thanksgiving weekend power skating camp with Power Plus Hockey Skating.
Other invents included the Junior Female Alberta Winter Games tryout camp, the Arctic Winter Games tryout camp, the Peewee tournament (Peewee A and Peewee Female), the midget tournament (A and B), the Timberwolves hosting the Midget Female A Provincial Championship and the five All Peace League Banners won.
The association had 221 players registered during the season, compared to 242 the previous season, as well as 100 players in the pond hockey program. The numbers for 2010 are estimated to be 212, excluding pond hockey and new registrants or transfers in.
“The decline in membership this season can likely be attributed to the poor economy and our association was not the only one affected,” says Olansky.
“We had to create a few smaller teams and we had only one squirt team. Bantam female and midget female were combined to make one large team, which caused a great deal of controversy, but in the end it was likely the best decision for those two age groups.”
She also says the board struggled with several incidents, wherein the best interests of the association were weighed against the perceived best interests of the individual player.
“The board tried very hard to make decisions in the best interest of the association or team as a whole, rather than giving in to individual demands. It is my hope that this continues to be the direction of the association and eventually this will filter down to the parents.”
Olansky concluded by thanking Brian Panasiuk for working with the goalies, Tina Caron for her power skating sessions and the board members who are departing.
Lynne Pardell gave her female director’s report and she says there were 45 players in the female stream.
The season began with the creation of the female council. They spent the first part of the season working out the details of the teams for the upcoming year. They decided female teams would compete at the atom, peewee and midget levels and players at the bantam level were placed with the midget team.
The peewee and midget teams organized a fundraiser to help the atom team with their inaugural year. All three teams participated in provincial play, with the atom team travelling to Calgary, the peewee team going to Viking and the midget team hosting a very successful provincial tournament.
Mike Boisson gave his coach director’s report and he says the year was uneventful for the most part. However, the fall is the busy time, as getting a head coach for each of the teams is the most difficult part of the job, Boisson says, although all the positions were filled. Of significance was the recruitment of a head coach for the peewee level, who is not a parent.
“This has been a group of kids that has struggled for success in previous years and this was an experiment to see what could be done with them,” says Boisson.
“I think we would all agree that the experiment was an overwhelming success with the team not only qualifying for provincials, but making it to the semi-finals and losing in a very close game. I believe that this is encouraging and that we should look toward installing experienced coaches who are not parents at more of the levels, as they are available.”
Boisson also says he is looking forward to reviewing the coach’s manual and working with the rest of the executive to review policies and procedures for the next season.
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