Mite Levels
Moderators: Mitch Hawker, east hockey, karl(east)
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brickhouse19
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 7:21 pm
Mite Levels
My son played in an A Mite jamboree over the weekend and it seemed as though most of the kids from other associations were older/bigger than just about all of our kids. I am just wondering how other associations structure their mite programs. For example, our A's are mostly pre-kindergarten 5 year olds and some kindergarten age 6 year olds. Do other associations require kids to be older? If so, what do they do with the younger kids? Maybe the answer is as simple as they do not play. I apprecaite any information others are willing to share. Our program is pretty young and it would be nice to know how some others do it.
In our association we have done it every way it can be done. In my family's beginning hockey years they would place 9 year olds with 4 year olds. There was a mini-mite, mite and pony level and new skaters were automatically placed at mini-mite regardless of age. That didn't really work because the 8 year old is always going to be able to advance quicker than a 4 year old, and it didn't set the 8 year old up for success at Squirts. The mite level was 4-9 year olds who could skate better than a beginner, and pony was made up of 7 and 8 year olds who had been evaluated for competitive skating. The Ponys were the only ones allowed to skate against other districts and their schedule was set up by the district, in District 10 these were D mites.
Next came mini-mite (only 4 and 5 year olds and very new to skating 6 year olds), and mite, but equal mite teams with all of the 8 year olds, regardless of skating ability being put on equally divided mite teams for competition with other districts(and the teams were backfilled with 7's by ability), with the schedule set by the individual coaches. The middle mite teams were made up of 5 and 6 year olds and parental requests for 7 year olds. Basically that allowed for the mini-mites to learn with kids the same size, so they didn't have 8 year olds falling on them. The 5-7 year olds learned about offsides and icing, but didn't change on the fly. The 8 year old level was so that each of the kids went into squirt tryouts with the same training from the association, i.e., they all had been exposed to changing on the fly, and icing and offsides consistently.
This year we reversed ourselves yet again, and decided that regardless of age if a parent insisted, their child could play with 'like skilled skaters'. And in fact, the kids were evaluated for skills and placed according to ranking on teams (1,2,3,4,and 5). The mini-mite and regular mite teams (4-most 6 year olds) played against each other in house. The rest of the teams went out and played against evenly divided teams in the district and got beat, some of them by 30 goals, don't worry we didn't keep score but the kids did. Generally, the guidance from our district is that 6 and under will not play in "games' against other associations.
The fact is that most years it is left totally to the discretion of the mite director in each association and they can call A level the beginners or the most experienced.
Next came mini-mite (only 4 and 5 year olds and very new to skating 6 year olds), and mite, but equal mite teams with all of the 8 year olds, regardless of skating ability being put on equally divided mite teams for competition with other districts(and the teams were backfilled with 7's by ability), with the schedule set by the individual coaches. The middle mite teams were made up of 5 and 6 year olds and parental requests for 7 year olds. Basically that allowed for the mini-mites to learn with kids the same size, so they didn't have 8 year olds falling on them. The 5-7 year olds learned about offsides and icing, but didn't change on the fly. The 8 year old level was so that each of the kids went into squirt tryouts with the same training from the association, i.e., they all had been exposed to changing on the fly, and icing and offsides consistently.
This year we reversed ourselves yet again, and decided that regardless of age if a parent insisted, their child could play with 'like skilled skaters'. And in fact, the kids were evaluated for skills and placed according to ranking on teams (1,2,3,4,and 5). The mini-mite and regular mite teams (4-most 6 year olds) played against each other in house. The rest of the teams went out and played against evenly divided teams in the district and got beat, some of them by 30 goals, don't worry we didn't keep score but the kids did. Generally, the guidance from our district is that 6 and under will not play in "games' against other associations.
The fact is that most years it is left totally to the discretion of the mite director in each association and they can call A level the beginners or the most experienced.
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jBlaze3000
- Posts: 207
- Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2008 12:25 pm
Every association has their own way of doing things. My own association does the A, B, C, and D levels with "D" being the most advanced. We do pre-season evaluations for about a month before teams are chosen. I personally think that evaluationg 5 and 6 year old mites is ridiculous. I would like to see it broken down by age (Level 1 = 4 & 5 year olds, Level 2 = 5 & 6 year olds, Level 3 = 7 & 8 year olds) and then have an upper level "D" team for the most advanced players.
I think it would be better to not have evaluations and have a 6 year old dominate his peer group than to have an 8 year old be held back (because some coach decided he can't stop good enough), but then dominate a bunch of 6 year olds because he's a foot taller and out-weighs them by 20 lbs. The Mite B level in my association is the worst and always seems to have a HUGE talent/ size gap amongst the players by the end of the season. Let the kids play with their friends in their age group!
I think it would be better to not have evaluations and have a 6 year old dominate his peer group than to have an 8 year old be held back (because some coach decided he can't stop good enough), but then dominate a bunch of 6 year olds because he's a foot taller and out-weighs them by 20 lbs. The Mite B level in my association is the worst and always seems to have a HUGE talent/ size gap amongst the players by the end of the season. Let the kids play with their friends in their age group!
I agree 100 %, if you couldn't tell from my post. If parents only knew how much things change, friends are the most important part. Course all the overzealous parents hear when you say that is "My kid isn't any good so we just want him to have fun" when in reality it is the voices of experience who have watched kids have fun with their peers and, surprise surprise, turn out to be pretty darn good hockey players.jBlaze3000 wrote:Every association has their own way of doing things. My own association does the A, B, C, and D levels with "D" being the most advanced. We do pre-season evaluations for about a month before teams are chosen. I personally think that evaluationg 5 and 6 year old mites is ridiculous. I would like to see it broken down by age (Level 1 = 4 & 5 year olds, Level 2 = 5 & 6 year olds, Level 3 = 7 & 8 year olds) and then have an upper level "D" team for the most advanced players.
I think it would be better to not have evaluations and have a 6 year old dominate his peer group than to have an 8 year old be held back (because some coach decided he can't stop good enough), but then dominate a bunch of 6 year olds because he's a foot taller and out-weighs them by 20 lbs. The Mite B level in my association is the worst and always seems to have a HUGE talent/ size gap amongst the players by the end of the season. Let the kids play with their friends in their age group!
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trippedovertheblueline
- Posts: 228
- Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:43 pm
our association each year looks at our kids
No matter what they skate the first few weeks by grade.
Then we decide if we should have a ability level or grade level.
Most of the time recently it is done this way
Level 1
All 1st year skaters in K and 1st grade.
Level 2
All 2nd year skaters in K and 1st grade, new 2nd graders
Level 3
Intermediate level of 2nd and 3rd graders, plus any 1st graders that should be moved up...and want too. We also put most 1st year 3rd graders here, they cannot do level 1 or 2. This group also participates in a few out of association games.
Level 4
Advance level of 2nd and 3rd graders, plus any 1st graders that should be moved up and want to. This group does games vs other associations.
No matter what they skate the first few weeks by grade.
Then we decide if we should have a ability level or grade level.
Most of the time recently it is done this way
Level 1
All 1st year skaters in K and 1st grade.
Level 2
All 2nd year skaters in K and 1st grade, new 2nd graders
Level 3
Intermediate level of 2nd and 3rd graders, plus any 1st graders that should be moved up...and want too. We also put most 1st year 3rd graders here, they cannot do level 1 or 2. This group also participates in a few out of association games.
Level 4
Advance level of 2nd and 3rd graders, plus any 1st graders that should be moved up and want to. This group does games vs other associations.