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How true is it that OMHA will be bringing back U9AAA full ice next year?
I haven't heard anything personally. It would be smart if they did - but I think they are truly too stubborn to do it.
Don't they already move to full ice mid season?
IMO if they bump everything up earlier one year Klevr is dead. If they don’t do it this year then Klevr takes over everything high level up until U9. Once entrenched they will expand to older age groups and will succeed.
Hockey Canada needs to wake up because they’ve already lost BC and Alberta to these rogue leagues and risk losing Ontario and Quebec now too.
At some point you need to listen to your clients or risk losing them to someone that will provide what their seeking.
Half ice isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. Maybe it should end in u8 though. Kids get a bit too big after the U8 year. Before u8 it’s golden.
Should end half way thru u8
I agree in general. BUT, there are still kids who are way to dominant to play with average kids at this age. Its ridiculous, I know, but the casual environment of U7 hockey in Timbits just let kids who are amazing have the puck for an entire game. So there needs to be somewhere to put those kids where at least the parents are going into it KNOWING they are going to be dealing with better kids. Plus the coaches are more dedicated to deal with it
U7 there is no MD for OMHA or GTHL, so having KSL and Timbits are really your two options (outside of the other rogue leagues, which are fine but for simplicity I will just lump them together with KSL) This immediately takes the best kids and takes them out of the system. Because its either play timbits with kids that do ice angles mid game or play real hockey. Easy decision likely.
By U8 you've got MD in most centers so, the players you've somehow retained in the home centers now have a choice again after the vast majority of the best ones left at U7. U8MD with half ice, no scores being kept, no rules, and small nets. Or real hockey. This is where last year you had some people who were totally against the rogue leagues and stayed in their home centre and were either bitter or just passive aggressive about KSL. Or you had some that stayed in their home centre because of the threat of being banned from hockey Canada. So, only some took the leap of faith as the guinea pigs and it ended up going really well for them. Now that people aren't afraid of a ban, the door has been pushed open and the tryouts were insane. Huge numbers of kids. Going forward if you weren't on the U7 KSL team, it will be difficult to get onto a U8 KSL team since they are likely to carry that roster forward.
U9 is when players start trying to figure out their best path to AAA hockey. Typically you want to play for a coach who will have a AAA team if you can. So, even though this is players last year of KSL they will likely have a small chance to go back to a home center if the coach of where they want to play AAA is there. However, it seems like almost every AAA centre is being given to a KSL coach. So, it seems like for the time being it will be sticking with KSL in most cases where they probably think its smarter to develop for full ice U10AAA.
In order for OMHA, GTHL to get their players back, they need to do MORE than just go to full ice. They need U7MD programing (and even still this might not be good enough since a lot of KSL teams are doing "development years" as year as U5 in some cases.
They need to go to Full Ice for MD and up (keep select as half ice)
they need to stop with the WOKE ideas of not keeping score to protect feelings
teach kids the rules of the game
full size nets U7 and up.
Now all of a sudden, you product is the same as KSL, the only difference is the extra travel in OMHA and potentially terrible match making. But again, you could do an A and B or T1 / T2 for MD just like KSL to help.
Parents will have an abundance of options:
U5/U6 - Timbits or Development through a non-OMHA team
U7 - Timbits
U7 - Select (Half ice)
U7 - MD or KSL (Full ice)
U8 - Timbits
U8 - Select (Half ice)
U8 - MD or KSL (Full ice)
U9 - Timbits
U9 - Select (Full Ice)
U9 - MD or KSL (Full ice)
After 2 or 3 years, the home centres will retain more of their talent and it will probably even itself out.