The Cleveland Suburban Hockey League     Minutes of General Meeting October 12, 2004

Programs absent: Columbus, CYHA, Gilmour, Ohio Flames    Board Members absent: Roger Galippo

Motion to approve minutes of general meeting of Sept. 14 2004 made by Dee Trobentor. Second by Betty Ann Maulorico. All in favor, motion passed.

Kevin Dahl of Pride Signs submitted a fundraising proposal featuring the sale of yard signs promoting team logos and other causes or organizations. The League approved the fundraiser.

Robin Eisen of Youth Challenge, a non-profit organization providing sports and recreational activities for disabled children presented information for 2 events. “Team Challenge” and “Holy Zamboni” are scheduled for Nov. 7 at the Cleveland Hts. Community Center Ice Rink. Admission fee benefits Youth Challenge and includes open skating, sledge hockey demonstration, ice games, raffle, silent auction and a pizza party. The team with the most people in attendance is eligible to win an extra prize courtesy of the Cleveland Barons. The league endorses the Youth Challenge events and encourages all program teams to participate.

Decline in number of teams: the decline in the number of Mite teams in recent years has been offset somewhat by the growth in Peewee and Bantam teams. There has been an overall decrease in total number of teams from nearly 200 a few years ago to 179 last season,178 this season. Economy in recent years is certainly a factor but without growth at the Mite level total team numbers will continue to decline. Programs need to focus on attracting new players at younger levels, making intro to hockey more affordable, less travel, more recreational. Difficult to do when ice costs keep increasing, several groups competing for best ice times, after first year parents no longer content to play house league.

Regular Season Scheduling will be Saturday, November 6 at Cleveland Hts. Community Center. Starts 8am for Bantam/Midget, 10am for Peewees, Noon for Squirts and 2pm for Mites. Unlike preseason where schedules were prepared by the Board and distributed to coaches, regular season scheduling will be similar to the scheduling sessions in past years. Coaches will be informed in advance which division level their teams will play and how many games they need to schedule. Coaches will sit across from opponents and schedule home and away games, rotating seating arrangements until all games have been scheduled. Each coach should come to scheduling with at least 2 more home ice times than home games required for scheduling flexibility. Reminder game ice slots for Mites, Squirts and Peewees are 60 minutes. Bantam and Midget game ice slots are 75 minutes. Bantams and Midget can schedule 60minute ice slots for scrimmages as long as both teams agree.

The League requests that either the head of program or someone with the program’s master ice schedule be present during all division scheduling sessions to assist coaches in case of game conflicts. Remind coaches to consider all possible events to schedule around – school functions, religious obligations, tournament weekends – and eliminate the need to reschedule games. Program heads should have their coaches provide them with a copy of their completed schedule before leaving. Regular season begins on Friday November 12 and ends on Thursday, February 17. Weekend of  Feb. 18-20 reserved for President’s Day Tournaments. League playoffs begin following weekend Sat.-Sun. February 26-27, concludes Sat. Sun. March 5-6.

Game change procedure: same as in past seasons. 10 day free change period following Saturday scheduling. As long as both coaches agree, game will be changed, no charge, no approval required from head of program. After 10 day free change period expires at midnight on Tuesday, November 16 until midnight on December 1, game changes will only be accepted from head of program. Again, both teams and programs must agree to change game. Program/team requesting change will be charged $100 fee. After December 1 game changes require Board approval and are rarely granted. Both teams/programs must agree to change, head of program for team requesting change must submit change request to Board. If approved  $100 fee charged to team/program requesting change.

There will be a very short window between the end of preseason games and final ranking of teams into division levels. Coaches need to have game scores reported as soon as possible for games being played on Oct.30/31 final preseason weekend. Once all scores are in approximately 10 pm on Oct. 31 final RPI ranking will be calculated and posted on website around midnight. Teams will have until 5pm on Monday Nov. 1 to view final ranking and request head of program to forward their petition for changing team placement. Board will meet 6pm Monday evening to discuss petitions and finalize team placement and the number of teams in each division level. There will be between 5-6 levels within each division depending on number of teams, with 7-9 teams per level. A 10 team level would be considered if warranted. Programs may submit information to the Board regarding correct placement of all league teams, not only their own program teams, if there are important facts to be considered. Results of petitions will be sent email to heads of programs Monday night. League will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 2 for final preparations for regular season scheduling.

New website online: Schedule, standings, majority of functions up and running including message board. Team contact information not entered yet, not sure if this can be done from spreadsheet data export or each team must be entered individually. Scorekeeper function for team contacts will be available soon. Once a score is entered only League administrators have ability to edit game scores, will insure that scores/standings are accurate and not subject to random change. Standings update automatically when scores are entered. RPI must be calculated separately and first version will be posted this weekend. Weekly RPI undated versions, final week of preseason will try to update daily so teams have good sense of where they will be placed for regular season.

Discussion of suggestion to have all programs conduct tryouts during same time period was tabled until next meeting so that Roger Galippo, who originated the idea, could be present.

Select League update: Ron Short reports that the preseason schedule is wreaking havoc on Select teams schedule, many players already have multiple home program games each weekend in addition to Select League games. Situation should resolve itself by regular season. Ron is waiting to hear if the Select teams will be able to participate in Silver Sticks Tournaments. High School coaches will be attending Friday evening practices and working with players.

Rocky Gannelli reports Elyria Hockey is sponsoring two upcoming hockey skill clinics. A stick handling clinic featuring an instructor from the Turcotte hockey camp will be held Oct. 26-28 for Mites through Bantams. Cost is $75 for all three days or $30 for a one-day session. Red Wing goalie Manny Legace will be conducting a goalie clinic at Elyria sometime in November. 2 hrs, could be extended to 4 hours based on turnout. Goalies of all ages and skill levels welcome. Cost is $100, includes jersey, photos and autographs with Manny. Rocky will send out exact dates when they are finalized, contact Rocky if you are interested in attending either clinic.

Referees are calling preseason games: Player suffered serious ligament tear injury last weekend, are referees calling games tight enough at older levels? Barry reported that referees are instructed to call all checking from behind as such, not as boarding. Referees were not aware of new RPI system, how preseason game scores/goal differential will affect team’s regular season placement. Referees have been informed to call preseason games with same intensity as regular season games. Rumor mill has referees making no-calls during last minute of each period Bantam/Midget games, protesting extra work & no fee increase. Barry has informed refs that fee increase could not be approved this year since program budgets already set, will be worked on for next year. Email Barry with any referee concerns, he will look into it.

Motion to adjourn made by Mike Cordish. Second by Don Lewis. Meeting adjourned 8:30 pm.