Welcome back to hockey in the new year! 2019 is starting off with a bang with our challenge games… and more!

First, we’re having our normal 4 challenge games on January 6th. We’ll do 2 early and 2 late and sandwiched in between will be a half-ice skills clinic and a half-ice goalie curious session.

First, the challenge games… as usual, please sign up for a game where you can learn and play safely. While it’s good to challenge yourself, please only do so within your safe limits. Remember that in the advanced games, skaters do not ‘play down’ in the same way they do during the regular season MGHA games. As always, HOps reserves the right to shift players if we feel you have signed up for an unsafe level.

You may sign up for one game right away. On Saturday, January 5th at 4 PM, you may sign up for a second game if there are spaces available. We’re also looking for a few bench coaches for the beginner game. If you feel you have sound hockey knowledge and can help our beginners, feel free to sign up!

In the middle slot at 7:10 PM, we’re hosting two special events. First, we’re having a session we like to call ‘goalie curious’. Basically, if you’ve ever wanted to try goalie, now’s your chance. We have limited equipment and we’ll do what we can to get you suited up but this is first come, first served based on size. We want everyone to try it, but our resources are limited.

In addition to ‘goalie curious’, we’re hosting a mini skills clinic. This is intended as more of a shake-off-the-rust kind of clinic to get you back into the groove. This is more geared toward beginner and intermediate players, but all are welcome. Please sign up so that we know how many plan to attend.

The night will be scheduled as follows:

4:50 PM – High Intermediate Game
6:00 PM – Advanced Game
7:10 PM – Goalie Curious / Mini Skills Clinic
8:20 PM – Low Intermediate Game
9:30 PM – Beginner Game

See you on the ice!
-HOps (Tim, Brian, k8, Mark, Ashleigh, Sara, John)

January 6, 2019 Challenge Games

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Our challenge games are coming up this weekend. Since it’s early in the season, we have some reminders.  PLEASE ONLY SIGN UP FOR ONE GAME until noon on Saturday, November 24th. Please sign up for a game where you can learn and play safely.  We’ll have two intermediate games (one for lower intermediate players and one for higher intermediate players), a game for beginners, and a game for advanced players.  It’s a good idea to challenge yourself as the season progresses, but only within your limits.  In the advanced games, skaters do not “play down” in some of the ways that they try to do in our regular season games.  More advanced players who sign up for a scrimmage below their skill level should facilitate game play for players who fit well in that skill level.  Inclusive play is exceptionally important in such a situation.  For safety, HOps reserves the right to shift players if we feel you have signed up for a level that doesn’t match your skill.

The games will be scheduled as follows:

5:15 PM – Low Intermediate Game
6:30 PM – Beginner Game
7:45 PM – Advanced Game
9:00 PM – High Intermediate Game

See you on the ice!
-HOps (Tim, Brian, k8, Mark, Ashleigh, Sara, John)

November 25, 2018 Challenge Games

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Hey everybody!

Thanks so much for all of the hard work during the evaluations the last couple of weeks.  We really appreciate it!

A quick note about the evaluation scrimmages from Sunday night.  We strive to always play the MGHA way (passing a lot, friendly play, etc) but evaluation scrimmages are a little different because we need to see where you fall in the spectrum for the sake of even team creation.  I apologize if this message was lost last night.  If you’re new to the league, please know that games throughout the season have a different pace and different feel.  As a developmental league, we strive to make sure everyone feels included and nobody feels overwhelmed.  We look forward to starting the season with all of you.

That said, we’re starting our season off with our annual team reveal and challenge game night!  We’ll have three scrimmage-style games on Sunday along with team reveal.  Here’s the schedule for October 14th:

• Beginner Scrimmage – 5:15 PM
• Advanced Scrimmage – 6:30 PM
• Team Reveal – 7:45 PM
• Intermediate Scrimmage – 9:00 PM

Team reveal is one of the best events of the season because it is where you learn what team you’re on and you have the opportunity to bond a little bit, learning names/pronouns and starting to think of team names.  It’s a fun night and I encourage everyone to show up for team reveal by 7:30 PM.

This is also our first challenge game night of the season.  As far as challenge games go, here are a few bits of information…

Please only sign up for one game (until 12 noon on Saturday, October 13th).  We want to make sure everyone has a chance to sign up (and not everyone in the league can check their computers or phones multiple times per day). As usual, there are 30 slots for skaters per game along with two roster spots for goalies.  You’ll need to sign into the website to sign up for a scrimmage slot.  I’ll put a link at the bottom of this email.

Unlike season games, challenge games are sorted based on skill level. Players choose at what level of play they can safely and most happily play.  Self-selection is a privilege and must be considered carefully.  It’s okay to play down a level, but you must understand that inclusive play is especially important.  A person playing down is there to facilitate fun and safe hockey play for newer skaters.  If you choose to play up, please be aware that the usual level of inclusive play does not apply.  Advanced skaters are there to challenge one another and work on their hockey skills.  Further, playing beyond one’s ability can create an unsafe environment for the individual skater and everyone else on the ice.

Particularly since this is the first scrimmage and in the interest of safety, Hockey Operations reserves the right to ask you to move to a different time slot.  This is not meant to single anyone out but to ensure that everyone can play safely and effectively.

As with last season, we’ll switch up the schedule for who has the early, middle, and late games for other challenge nights throughout the season.  Also, due to the limited ice time on Sunday, we’ll only have one intermediate slot.  That means you’ll need to sign up quickly.  If you sign up and cannot make it, please remove your name from the slot.  We’ll typically have two slots… one for lower and one for upper intermediate.

Here’s the link for the challenge game signup.  This link will not be valid until 8 PM on Tuesday, October 9.  Be sure to sign in!  

See you on the ice!

-HOps (Tim, Mark, Sara, Brian, John, Ashleigh, k8)

Challenge Games - October 14, 2018

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Welcome to the first of two nights of evaluations!

These next two Sundays are the most important nights of our season, as they’re what allow us to break the league up into ten competitively-balanced teams.

Tonight, we’re looking at basic individual skills. We’ll be looking at four different things:

• Skating maneuverability and stopping
• Skating backwards and changing directions
• Skating and controlling the puck
• Skating and passing

You may be really great at all of these, or not able to do any of them or somewhere in between. It doesn’t matter. You are in the league and you’ll be on a team either way. Do your best, whatever your best happens to be, and don’t stress if you don’t do well, or as well as you’d like.

We have a lot of people to evaluate. Please be dressed and ready to get on the ice before your start time. We have to get you on the ice and divided into four groups in a short amount of time if we’re going to get a good look at everyone. It’ll also be a big help if you have your name on your helmet.  Check your email for this week’s evaluation rosters.  This should have all the changes that have been requested.

Next week we’ll be doing one-hour scrimmages where we’ll look at your knowledge of positioning and your shooting, among other things. Watch your email for your time and team assignments for scrimmages. They will likely be different than this week’s rosters.  We’re hoping these will be refereed scrimmages, as well. We won’t be keeping score but we would like to have face-offs after goals and for offsides and icing.

We realize that some of you don’t know what offsides and icing are. This should help:

Offsides:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxiUccHD1Bc

Icing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEzyTOySsLc
Note that in adult rec hockey, icing is called as soon as the puck crosses the goal line, it doesn’t get waved off if a player on the opposing team gets there first (as noted in the video).

It’s about time to get the upcoming 2017-2018 MGHA season underway.  To do that, there’s a lot we have to cover.  I’m going to break it all down for you here.  Anything you see in red is an action item.  Please take a moment to make sure you’ve done what’s asked before the deadline.

Let’s get to it!

USA Hockey Registration

Before you can set foot, err… skate on the ice for the upcoming season, you’ll need to be registered with USA Hockey.  We do this for liability reasons to protect those in our league.  Signing up is easy and can be done online.  Follow the link below to head to the MGHA website where we’ve got the steps laid out for you.

ACTION: Follow this link to sign up for USA Hockey… https://www.madisongayhockey.org/usa-hockey-registration-2017/

League Fees

You should have already paid the deposit for the league.  To pay the bills, we need to collect the rest of those league fees.  You can do that at the link below.  Please take care of this as soon as possible.  Deadline will be before the first clinic, which is slated for September 10.  If, for some reason, you can’t make the payment right now, please contact Shelly, our Treasurer, via email: treasurer@madisongayhockey.org.  We’ll be happy work with you on a payment plan.

ACTION: Pay your league fees at the link… https://www.madisongayhockey.org/product/2017-2018-league-fees/

Play-With Requests

If you have someone who you’ve discussed ridesharing with or even someone you do not feel safe being on the same team as, this is how you let us know.  We’ll do our best to honor these requests during the team creation process.  You do not have to fill this form out if you do not have any requests.

ACTION: Follow this link to submit your play-with requests if you have any… https://www.madisongayhockey.org/play-with-requests/

Clinics

We’ve heard feedback from advanced players that they’d like to be included in clinics at the beginning of the season.  We’re happy to announce some changes.  Clinics will take place on September 10, 17, and 24.  Each week, we’ll have a slot for beginner, intermediate, and advanced skill levels.  

We are allowing self-selection for this process, but please understand that the clinics will be run at the appropriate pace based on the level.  It’s in your and your fellow skaters’ best interests to choose the level that most accurately represents your skills.  Although ‘playing up’ is a thing for challenge games, we do not recommend it in this situation.  If we see someone who we believe has selected the wrong group, we’ll ask you to change your selection to ensure the effectiveness of the clinics for all.

For intermediate and advanced players, we will have an outside coach running the clinics.  Beginner players will work with members of our Hockey Operations crew.  For all groups, we have a limited amount of ice time.  Please be ready to be on the ice 15 minutes before the scheduled time.  If this is your first time putting the equipment on, be sure to allow even more time to get comfortable.

To give the coaches a heads-up on how many people they can expect at each session, we’re asking that you sign-up for each week.  This process will be similar to signing up for challenge games.

As we’ll be building upon clinics from the previous week, we recommend making all of the clinics for your skill group.

ACTION: Sign up for clinics using the links… https://www.madisongayhockey.org/clinic-sign-ups/

Evaluations

Similar to last year, we’ll be doing evaluations over two weeks.  The first week, October 1, will be mainly skills evaluation.  The second week, October 8, will be evaluation scrimmages.  There’s currently no action required on your part for these.  We’ll send out a follow-up email closer to the date to let you know to which slot you’ve been assigned.  Start times range from 5:15 PM through 9:00 PM and the slots last for one hour.  Evaluations are the most important pre-season activity as they allow us to evenly distribute teams.

ACTION: Attendance is mandatory!  Mark off these two dates in your calendar now.

Team Reveal and Challenge Games

Our first challenge game of the season happens on October 15th.  Due to ice time limitations, this set of challenge games will have one slot for beginner, one for intermediate, and one for advanced.  All others throughout the season will consist of a single slot for beginner and advanced and two slots for intermediate.  Sign-ups for this will be on the MGHA website a little closer to the date.  We’ll also use this night to announce teams, so make sure to mark this on your calendar!

Team Practices

Once you know your teams, it’s important to get to know the fine folks you’ll be playing with for the next few months.  That’s why we have two weeks of team practice built in before games start.  This’ll help your team gel.  This year, Hockey Operations is going to provide captains with drills and an agenda for their practices so that everyone gets even more benefit from team practices.  Please be sure to mark your calendars and be there on October 22 and 29.

Regular Season and Championship Night

We’ve heard from you and we’ve expanded our season this year.  With the first game on November 5, we’ll run through a 15-game season with a championship night immediately following.  This will give teams even more time to gel before championship night on April 15, 2018.  Mathematically, conferences worked well with the number of games scheduled last year.  This year, they simply don’t.  For that reason, we’re doing away with them.  Once the regular season wraps up, the first and second place teams in the standings will play for the championship.  On championship night, 3rd place will play 4th place and so on with games for everyone.  The full schedule will be on the website soon.

Wrap-Up

That’s about it.  I know this is a long email, but thank you for reading through it.  We’ve been told by the league that you want open, honest, and clear communication.  If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please let us know and we’ll do our best to address them.  

We look forward to seeing you all on the ice starting with our first clinics on September 10!

Tim

(on behalf of the MGHA Board and HOps crew)

The MGHA supports Women’s Hockey, and we ask that USA Hockey uses our dues justly and continues the negotiation with the US Women’s National Hockey Team.

So we sent this to Dave Ogrean, Executive Director of USA Hockey.

Letter To Dave Ogrean, Executive Director of USA Hockey,
From the Madison Gay Hockey Association

We, the Madison Gay Hockey Association (MGHA), pay for 150 skater registrations at $40 per person to USA Hockey. This equals $6,000 – the amount paid to one U.S. Women’s National Hockey player. While we know from reading recent reports that our money doesn’t go directly to these elite female athletes, we believe that USA Hockey should pay fair wages to these players that makes important contributions to the visibility of the sport of ice hockey and serve as role models for younger players.

All of the talented women hailing from our community (Hilary Knight, Brianna Decker, Megan Duggan, Alex Rigsby) and other hockey towns deserve better. In Madison, the MGHA is a part of the University of Wisconsin community. We’re students, faculty, health care practitioners, and engaged citizens with a mission to provide opportunities for those who have historically felt uncomfortable in traditional sports settings. That makes us speak up.

Our requests are:

• As members of USA Hockey, the MGHA ask our membership dues be used to equitably support women’s and men’s hockey programs, which includes equitable support for the Women’s National Development team.

• We ask that you continue the negotiations put forth by the representatives of the U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team.

We support the demands of the U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team, and we urge USA Hockey to move quickly in finding a just resolution to this unacceptable situation.

Respectfully,
The Madison Gay Hockey Association

The Madison Gay Hockey Association (MGHA) is an adult developmental ice hockey league for people of all sexualities and gender identifications. We are especially committed to providing opportunities for those who have historically felt uncomfortable in traditional sports settings to learn and teach ice hockey in a safe, supportive, and fun environment. We aspire to the highest standards of sportsmanship and promote integration of the wider Madison community into the gay community.