Important!! Information Session and Vote
Submitted By Snugent on Wed 04 17, 19
STMHA is holding its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday April 24th, 630pm at the Knights of Columbus. At this meeting a motion will be brought forward that STMHA membership needs to vote on.
The motion will be to authorize STMHA board of directors to finalize a zone hockey agreement with Port Stanley Minor Hockey and West Lorne Minor Hockey. Below is a summary of zone hockey:
Port Stanley (PSMHA), West Lorne (WLMHA) and St Thomas (STMHA) minor hockey associations have begun discussions regarding a Zone Hockey agreement with the cooperation and direction from the OMHA. The landscape of minor hockey is changing rapidly throughout Ontario and zone hockey presents a progressive idea to help stabilize registration numbers and get more kids playing hockey and playing at their appropriate levels.
The concept is that all 3 centres join together for the purposes of providing representative hockey. The zone will offer one A team at each age group (e.g., 2008 born kids) , 1 AE team at each hockey level (Peewee AE - 2008 & 2007 birth years combined) and if numbers support it, the zone will offer additional team(s) that will play BB and under hockey (team to be classified after it is made). All three associations will still exist and offer house league or local league only out of their home arenas. There are many details to work out between the centres but the main concept is all three centres combining for rep hockey purposes only.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) Where do the A & AE teams play out of?
The A and AE teams will primarily play and practice out of St Thomas but some games and practices at times will be moved to Port Stanley or West Lorne.
2) Who decides if additional BB or below teams are offered, where do they play out of?
The zone hockey teams will be governed by a zone committee that will be made up of individuals off of each board of the three associations. These teams will play out of Port Stanley or West Lorne. That decision will be made by zone committee and will be influenced by composition of the team.
3) What is the make-up of the Zone Committee?
The zone committee is made up of 8 members, 2 from WLMHA, 2 from PSMHA and 4 from STMHA.
4) What is driving each association to do this?
Minor hockey numbers have been decreasing throughout Canada, joining together can help stabilize the amount kids registered in this area. The new zone is flexible and can offer more teams each year if registration numbers support it. Kids will have a chance to play hockey at the level of their abilities (A/AE/BB or below) and leave less kids without a team.
Please email any questions to
[email protected].
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