Hello MGHA!

Hope everyone had a great holiday! Are you ready to skate off all of those extra cookies and drinks? I know I am!

So, let’s do this! Check out the practice schedule below. We’re also looking for some help. Take a look at our makeshift classifieds ad and let us know if you can help.

Thanks!
Tim (he/him/his)
– MGHA Board and Hockey Ops

Practice Schedule

Here’s the practice schedule for this Sunday, January 8th:

• 4:40 PM – Black / White
• 5:50 PM – Red / Gold
• 7:00 PM – Pink / Orange
• 8:10 PM – Maroon / Blue
• 9:20 PM – Lt Blue / Green

Please be there. Practices are great team-building times and this is a prime opportunity to work on some of your team’s weaknesses. If you can’t be there, please email your captains and let them know within the next day or two. They’ll be planning a practice based on the number of skaters attending.

We’re Looking for Help!

Oh! And by the way, are you looking for an opportunity to help the league? If so, do I have a role for you! The MGHA is looking for the following:

The “Stats Magician” (name flexible – you can pick it) would help us to make sure the website stats stay up-to-date week after week. We’d give you access to the website so that you can input the scores, penalties, and saves/shots from the week’s games. The process is fairly easy once you do it once or twice. This role will likely only take about 20-30 minutes a week.

Our “Gear Guru” would help us by taking care of donated gear. This person would keep an inventory of the gear and occasionally manage that inventory, checking to ensure that the gear is in good shape and, in the case of helmets, making sure they are not expired.

If you’d like to help with either of these awesome positions, let me know. These positions, of course, would count toward the volunteer time required for membership. (Note: Membership is different than just league participation. If you’re interested in membership, please send us a note via the website. We’ll also be sending more info on membership in the near future.)

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!

Translation: Happy Thanksgiving MGHA!

To celebrate, we have some challenge games. We’ve changed up the order so that skaters have the opportunity to skate at different times than normal. Please sign up for the game(s) that you would like to play. We ask that you self select a game that you can safely play in.  Sign up for one game until midnight Friday; after midnight on Friday, you may sign up for additional games.

Schedule:
4.40 – Advanced
5:50 – Intermediate
7:00 – Beginner
8:10 – Intermediate

27Nov2016 Challenge Games

You must log in to sign up.

Hope to see you on the ice!

-Hockey Ops (Brian, Mark, Tim, Nichole, Matthew, John, Kelli)

If you haven’t yet, take a quick look at the Teams & Schedule page (make sure you’re logged in). It’s got a list of all of the scheduled games, team practices, and challenge games for this season. Last week’s info will be shown first (good for double-checking who won that game last week), with older stuff hidden behind a link. I wanted to talk briefly about some things the website will be doing this year.

How To Report Absences

When you’re logged in, the website can tell what team you’re on. It will show you a checkbox with “I am attending” beneath your team’s games. If you’re going to miss a game, email your captain to let them know, and uncheck that checkbox. That’ll let the website know it needs to find a sub for you.

Please do this before noon on the Sunday of your game!

How To Sub In A Game

If you want to sub for a game, you’ll tell the website this on the Teams & Schedule page. This replaces the sign-up sheet we used to have at the entrance to Hartmeyer. Pick which games you want to sub for and click the “I want to sub” checkbox underneath.

Please do this by noon on the Sunday of the game you want to sub for! Hockey Ops will email captains about missing players and potential subs shortly after noon, so if you’re late, you won’t be included in that email. Captains will email you asking you to sub in their game.

The website will prioritize recommendations to captains. You can read through all of the decisions it makes, but the most important one is skill level. If your skill level is too different from the absent player, the website won’t recommend you to sub. Everything else is just icing on the cake to make things nicer – the skill level filter is to make sure games are balanced. You might sign up for a game… but if there aren’t any players of your skill level missing, you won’t get recommended to sub.

New folks – this means it’s OK for you to try to sub for games!!! You will replace someone of the same skill level as you, so the games will remain fair. 🙂

How to do this has been summarized, too, in case you’re ever curious in the future and don’t want to dig up this email.

Scorebox

If you’ve been poking around on the Teams & Schedule page, you’ll notice that you have scorebox assignments, too. If you’ve never done the scorebox before, the scorebox documentation should help you out.

I created a utility that will help you track goalie saves on your phone, which some of you might prefer over paper. You can get to it through the scorebox documentation linked above, or through the game off of the Teams & Schedule page (where it will be pre-populated with the appropriate teams).

Your Calendar

If you go to your team’s page, scroll down to the bottom (where upcoming games are displayed). A link underneath will let you add all of the games to your calendar!

This doesn’t work for challenge games or your scorebox shift. That might not get coded until next season. 🙂

To view the contents of this post, you must be authenticated and have the required access level.

League fees for next season are now available.  The fees are $275 dollars and due by the end of the business day on Friday, September 30  If you have already worked out financial aid with Shelly, you do not need to pay your league fees using this button. If you want to work out a payment plan for your league fees, please contact Shelly (treasurer@madisongayhockey.org).

Your $75 deposit counts toward your league fees.  You can pay the $200 remainder below:

A couple of quick recruiting announcements, along with some TODOs for you.

Recruiting Updates

1. We’ve filled up our 10 teams for the season!  We had a surge of interest since the last email, so we’ve got a wait list, now.
2. We’re still working on that goalie spot.  For those of you who helped spread the word – thank you!
3. We’re getting mentors set up for the new players this season.  If you’re new, expect some communication from us shortly.

The Season Begins…

1. The first skills clinic is Sunday, September 11th at 6pm at Hartmeyer.  Ironman is that weekend, so be aware of downtown traffic.  Expect another email from Hockey Ops with more details soon!
2. We blocked off on the MGHA calendar for the games, but we’re still figuring out teams and jersey colors.  When we’re done, you be able to copy your team’s games to your own calendars.

Things For You To Do:

1. You can pay your league fees, now!  The fees are $275 dollars and are due September 30th.  Your $75 deposit counts toward your league fees.
2. If you haven’t done so already, make sure to register for USA Hockey.
3. Make sure your profile lists your pronouns.
4. Make sure your profile lists your emergency contact information.
5. While we’re on the subject of your profile… take a moment to update your bio!

Quick update: we’re up to 141 players next season. Just 9 more spots left… things are filling up fast!

We still need 1 more goalie, so we’re holding one of those spots open. Do you know any goalies who’d be interested in playing with us? Have YOU ever wanted to try being a goalie? (they’ve got… interesting humor (thanks Nikki!)) Just shoot a quick email to Randi and the Recruiters (trademark pending) and let us know!

We hit 125 players (out of 150) yesterday! In fact, yesterday was so busy, we’re up to 129 at the time of writing this email. We’ve got a lot of players – the recruiting team is working hard to make sure we have enough goalies for next season.

In order to play next season, you have to register for USA hockey!
https://www.madisongayhockey.org/usa-hockey-registration-2016/

New folks have already gotten this link, but as a reminder for returning players – don’t forget to register!

Today is the final day to secure your spot in the league for the next season! You have until the end-of-day today to submit your deposit or talk to Shelly.

Today is ALSO the day where we have hit 100 players joining us next season. There are 50 spots left.