To the Mite Level Parents,
I am very excited to announce that starting with the 2008 – 2009 hockey season, all Mite Level skaters not placed onto a Mite A or Mite B team will be invited to participate in our “in-house” Mite Development League. Accordingly, the Seahawks will not enter any Mite Level teams into the Yankee Conference’s C-Level program.
The Mite Development League will include the following:
1) Weekly skills / practice session open to all Mite Development League participants
2) Weekly cross ice games
3) A minimum of 13 full ice games with referee and scorekeeper
The benefits of this program as compared to the traditional Mite C offering are clear: - With this new approach, skaters will be offered over 20% more ice time as compared to recent years in the Mite C program
- The time spent on the ice will provide much better development opportunity for each skater
- This new league will allow us the flexibility to reduce the number of skaters per team from the traditional 16, thereby further increasing the on-ice time for each skater during games
- All cross-ice games and full ice games will be played at Pilgrim Arena during prime time weekend hours (no more 5:50am games!).
- Our teams could also be invited to compete against other local towns that have also removed their Mite C program from the Yankee Conference (i.e. Duxbury, Hingham, Coastal Stars).
- Consistent practice and game experience amongst all League participants
This change has been made in response to overwhelming negative feedback regarding the Yankee Conference Mite program. Some of the most common concerns expressed this past year by coaches and parents include:
- Approximately 1/3 of Yankee Conference Mite games this past year started earlier than 6:00am
- Schedules were consistently late in being distributed by the Yankee Conference, thereby impacting a family’s ability to plan other activities in advance
- The Yankee Conference “2:00 buzzer hockey” offers little ‘on-ice’ player development opportunity.
A number of other variables were also considered, and I truly believe this new format of combining weekly skills and weekly cross ice games, with a number of full ice games will provide dramatically improved development opportunities for your young skater. Fun, learning and friends will no doubt remain the key ingredients to the Mite program, and many of the coaches I have spoken with are equally excited about this change! I look forward to next season, and I invite you to contact me at any time with questions regarding the program. I can be reached at 781-544-3186, or email cpcamp@comcast.net.
Chris Campbell
Mite Level Director
Seahawks News
