Registration is now, how is the participation rule applied?

[frederick61]

As registration begins this August/September heading to tryouts in six weeks around the first of October, where are the 12 Districts at in applying the new Minnesota Hockey rule? How is each District and its associations interpreting the rule? The following attempts to summarize positions and language taken by each District and its associations. First up is District 1 (other Districts will follow).

The D1 board has posted a modified 2009-2010 District 1 Governing Rules document that is in draft form. The most significant statement in the modified draft is this:
“No District 1 association can register a player whose local affiliate (as defined by Minnesota Hockey’s Participation Policy) is not the District 1 association, during the District 1 association’s registration process.”

The document then defines Participation Policy as “Members in good standing are to participate on teams from their local affiliate (local association) based on where they attend school and the established Minnesota Hockey affiliate boundaries as defined in the Affiliate Agreements. Mite-aged players are allowed to participate based on residence. District 1 adheres to Minnesota Hockey’s Participation Rules.”

The Governing rules then state “A waiver is required for a player to play for an association other than their home association. Waivers from District 1 home associations will only be considered for the following reasons:
i. If a player’s home association does not offer an appropriate level of play in
their traveling program. In this case, each individual player will be evaluated
based on age, date of birth, and desired level of play.
ii. If two or more associations must combine players to provide a team or teams at
an appropriate level of play.
iii. If two or more Minnesota Hockey affiliated associations agree to a formal
cooperative effort involving multiple age levels. This could be within D1 or an
agreement between a D1 association and an association from another district.”

Finally, the Governing Rules defines the punishment to the player (declared ineligible) and the team (declared ineligible for post season play) if a player is found playing on a team without a wavier.

The problems these changes pose to D1 are immense. As of August, there is little information on what D1 associations will have teams that play at what level. Prior years, D1 associations would actively recruit kids from their residential boundaries and form agreements with other associations based on turnout.

Now consider the kids going to Minnehaha Academy (now District 1 kids) under the new rule. Kids going to that South Minneapolis school come from all over the Twin Cities. The private school has grades K-12. The school has three campuses, north and south in Minneapolis and one (K-5) in Bloomington. They also have their own arena. Though located in Minneapolis, the close associations are Highland (across the Ford bridge) and Washburn. So does a Prior Lake kid squirt age attending Minnehaha Academy in Bloomington have to register in Minneapolis at Washburn or in St. Paul at Highland or in Bloomington (Kennedy/Jefferson?) to play hockey.

How does the parent even know what to do? His kid can’t play in Prior Lake with the arena 5 minutes down the road because the kid can’t play for Prior Lake without getting a waiver from Washburn or Highland or maybe Bloomington (would that be Kennedy or Jefferson). If he doesn’t get a waiver, what happens if Kennedy or Washburn decide not to play A level hockey? Does the kid have to play at Hopkins if Washburn co-ops with them? Remember there are only six weeks to tryouts.

Finally, does the kid even know where to register, because if he does it wrong, he gets his team and himself in trouble at great expense to his parents. Or will the kid do what any sane parent would want him to do and give up the sport to play basketball or computer games, things he can do in Prior Lake with his neighborhood pals, at least the pals that don’t play hockey.

[Community Based]

I'll guess schools with multiple campuses will use the school's business address as opposed to physical location of each campus. Blake I assume is using their Hopkins campus address. Blake High School, starting at grade 9?, is located in Minneapolis. If it was physical address imagine a Blake family from Wayzata with a Squirt (plays with Hopkins) and a Bantam (plays with Minneapolis-Park). I can't imagine that was a change they were rooting for when they signed their kids up, where they live and pay taxes, for Wayzata Youth Hockey.

It's still a very poor rule change that really only benefits a selfish few. I'm sure there will be significantly more dissatisfaction than celebration. I've heard one of the benefactors was the D6 Director, one of the pushers for change who didn't follow the earlier rule anyways, because it made his waiver process easier. Previously he was allowing families to apply the open enrollment rule, which is a high school rule, as a Youth Hockey rule. The rule was play where you live which he didn't enforce in D6. Hope he's happy. Send him a thank you note.

[InigoMontoya]

What happened to the New Participation Rule section on the MNH website? Am I looking in the wrong place? I didn't think this would be the time of year to remove the link from the home page.

[DMom]

What happened to the New Participation Rule section on the MNH website? Am I looking in the wrong place? I didn't think this would be the time of year to remove the link from the home page.

That's funny. Even worse there is a link for the ONE-TIME CHOICE AGREEMENT (Permanent Waiver), but I can't think how many people actually know they need to fill that out if their child attends school elsewhere. What will happen to the families who don't fill it out but pay taxes where they live? Will Minnesota Hockey declare their child ineligible next year and force them to play at their school association, or are they ineligible this year. They must be assuming that all the people this effects are aware of the changes, and I don't believe that is true.

I do appreciate the direction to call your district director if you have questions, I'm sure they will appreciate all of the calls they may get.

I seriously considered Minnesota Virtual Academy for one of my sons this year, it is based out of the Houston School District. Obviously MH wouldn't expect him to play in the farthest southeastern county of the state, although maybe he could play for their very successful 9man football team too.

[InigoMontoya]

Mason City IA plays a D4 schedule. They play and practice at the fairgrounds, so you'll want to wear something a little more washable than your insulated Crocs to the rink (watch for what the pigs leave - though at that time of year the fresh ones will still be steaming).

Not surprisingly it seems that MNH has chosen to close their eyes to a problem; 'ya gotta dance with who brung ya'. I'm not sure that the 'ignore it and it will go away' philosophy will serve the kids or the affected associations. Watch out this issue is still steaming.

[DMom]

Mason City IA plays a D4 schedule. They play and practice at the fairgrounds, so you'll want to wear something a little more washable than your insulated Crocs to the rink (watch for what the pigs leave - though at that time of year the fresh ones will still be steaming).

Not surprisingly it seems that MNH has chosen to close their eyes to a problem; 'ya gotta dance with who brung ya'. I'm not sure that the 'ignore it and it will go away' philosophy will serve the kids or the affected associations. Watch out this issue is still steaming.

aww, now you've told everyone that I wear insulated Crocs, my cover is blown