HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

Prior Lake/Savage Hockey Assoc. pays its high school hockey coach $7500 a year to advise and head up the Hockey Development Committee. Is this a normal practice in youth hockey associations? Is this OK?

plokececk wrote:Prior Lake/Savage Hockey Assoc. pays its high school hockey coach $7500 a year to advise and head up the Hockey Development Committee. Is this a normal practice in youth hockey associations? Is this OK?

Nice first post! What exactly is your beef? Lakeville Hockey pays a friend of the Association President, that is not a High School coach, $35,000 a year to give advise on hockey development. I think Prior Lake is getting a steal. You want your High School coach involved in the youth levels rather than just "dads" and "friends". BTW, I believe that HS coach is a hired coach for school. Prior Lakes youth program is on the rise! Your PWA team last year was Top 15, this year its Top 10. Your Bantam and PeeWee teams will be very good next year. That will all feed the High School Program in 2-3 years. Lakeville, well, we are going the other direction!

I agree with Buttend. The individual who the PLHA hired to help with development is no ordinary high school coach. He has invested time and money in the Prior Lake hockey community. Yes, he has a business and expects to be paid, but his efforts are paying off for the Prior Lake hockey community as a whole and your program is on the rise. Hats off to Joe and his partners for the work they have done in Prior Lake.

buttend wrote:

plokececk wrote:Prior Lake/Savage Hockey Assoc. pays its high school hockey coach $7500 a year to advise and head up the Hockey Development Committee. Is this a normal practice in youth hockey associations? Is this OK?

Nice first post! What exactly is your beef? Lakeville Hockey pays a friend of the Association President, that is not a High School coach, $35,000 a year to give advise on hockey development. I think Prior Lake is getting a steal. You want your High School coach involved in the youth levels rather than just "dads" and "friends". BTW, I believe that HS coach is a hired coach for school. Prior Lakes youth program is on the rise! Your PWA team last year was Top 15, this year its Top 10. Your Bantam and PeeWee teams will be very good next year. That will all feed the High School Program in 2-3 years. Lakeville, well, we are going the other direction!

Who said I had a beef. Settle down! Just wondering If this is a common practice? I agree that the peewee A is doing well. But, the PeeWee A team has had success since they now have a new coach, for the last two years. The old coach never had a winning season.

plokececk wrote:

buttend wrote:

plokececk wrote:Prior Lake/Savage Hockey Assoc. pays its high school hockey coach $7500 a year to advise and head up the Hockey Development Committee. Is this a normal practice in youth hockey associations? Is this OK?

Nice first post! What exactly is your beef? Lakeville Hockey pays a friend of the Association President, that is not a High School coach, $35,000 a year to give advise on hockey development. I think Prior Lake is getting a steal. You want your High School coach involved in the youth levels rather than just "dads" and "friends". BTW, I believe that HS coach is a hired coach for school. Prior Lakes youth program is on the rise! Your PWA team last year was Top 15, this year its Top 10. Your Bantam and PeeWee teams will be very good next year. That will all feed the High School Program in 2-3 years. Lakeville, well, we are going the other direction!

Who said I had a beef. Settle down! Just wondering If this is a common practice? I agree that the peewee A is doing well. But, the PeeWee A team has had success since they now have a new coach, for the last two years. The old coach never had a winning season.

the old coach was joe

trippedovertheblueline wrote:

plokececk wrote:

buttend wrote: Nice first post! What exactly is your beef? Lakeville Hockey pays a friend of the Association President, that is not a High School coach, $35,000 a year to give advise on hockey development. I think Prior Lake is getting a steal. You want your High School coach involved in the youth levels rather than just "dads" and "friends". BTW, I believe that HS coach is a hired coach for school. Prior Lakes youth program is on the rise! Your PWA team last year was Top 15, this year its Top 10. Your Bantam and PeeWee teams will be very good next year. That will all feed the High School Program in 2-3 years. Lakeville, well, we are going the other direction!

Who said I had a beef. Settle down! Just wondering If this is a common practice? I agree that the peewee A is doing well. But, the PeeWee A team has had success since they now have a new coach, for the last two years. The old coach never had a winning season.

the old coach was joe

Exactly!!

Your PWB team could beat many, many PWA teams, so you have depth. More than the average association your size. Be grateful, someone is doing something very right in your association. Help them because it can all come apart at the wheels with very little effort.

plokececk wrote:Prior Lake/Savage Hockey Assoc. pays its high school hockey coach $7500 a year to advise and head up the Hockey Development Committee. Is this a normal practice in youth hockey associations? Is this OK?

An involved Varsity hockey coach is invaluable to a program, as least in my experience. I experienced this growing up in that kind of situation, and to this day with our association.

Very valuable tool.

DMom wrote:Your PWB team could beat many, many PWA teams, so you have depth. More than the average association your size. Be grateful, someone is doing something very right in your association. Help them because it can all come apart at the wheels with very little effort.

Every Association has age groups that break the norm or fail to live up to expectations. Not so sure "training" is always the factor.

The original poster simply asked a question and do not see why the hostility in some of the responses. Responses seem rather paranoid.

That said 35K at Lakeville seems high. What does that cost out at on a per player basis?

Every Association has age groups that break the norm or fail to live up to expectations. Not so sure "training" is always the factor.

Especially easy to see in smaller associations. Same coaches, different kids, different results.

Mankato East Vs. Mankato West is my favorite example. One youth program to develop all the kids, and a good one I think... Two dramatically different results at the high school level. Are the youth coaches to blame for the good or poor results, can't be both...can it?

On topic... the high school coach in our town volunteers to help in our youth assn.

MnMade-4-Life wrote:

plokececk wrote:Prior Lake/Savage Hockey Assoc. pays its high school hockey coach $7500 a year to advise and head up the Hockey Development Committee. Is this a normal practice in youth hockey associations? Is this OK?

An involved Varsity hockey coach is invaluable to a program, as least in my experience. I experienced this growing up in that kind of situation, and to this day with our association.

Very valuable tool.

I only wish our HS coach did this--unfourtunetly, our HS situation has been a mess for 5 years

hocmom wrote:

Every Association has age groups that break the norm or fail to live up to expectations. Not so sure "training" is always the factor.

Especially easy to see in smaller associations. Same coaches, different kids, different results.

Mankato East Vs. Mankato West is my favorite example. One youth program to develop all the kids, and a good one I think... Two dramatically different results at the high school level. Are the youth coaches to blame for the good or poor results, can't be both...can it?

On topic... the high school coach in our town volunteers to help in our youth assn.

Mankato is in a unique situation.

A large part of the sucess at the hight school level in Mankato is the number of players attending each school (specifically "A" players) When Mankato East went to the State Tour. they were senior loaded, when West went they were senior loaded. East is struggling this year because they have something like 10 skaters and no JV, Next year West will probably have to cut kids for like the 2nd or 3rd time in school history. Most of the hockey players right now are living on the West side of town. Alot of it has to do with new housing developments and which side of town they are located on.

I don't want to take anything away from what each of the high school coaches brings to the table each day.

plokececk wrote:Prior Lake/Savage Hockey Assoc. pays its high school hockey coach $7500 a year to advise and head up the Hockey Development Committee. Is this a normal practice in youth hockey associations? Is this OK?

I would love this to happen in my association (varsity coach involved in the development of the youth association). Why is this a good thing? It creates continuity from year to year and it prevents PeeWee B Dad from trying to implement his Jacques Lemaire style system as a coach. Sorry Dad, I don't think the NHL is going to come calling.

Youth associations are essentially feeder systems to the varsity program. Why not let the varsity coach set the "cirriculum" for the rest of the association. Chances are he knows best anyways. If he fails then remove him and give the next guy a shot. And yes, they should be compensated for their time.

I was once told that part of the reason for Centennial's success is that they have a non-parent, compensated Bantam A coach who sets the development model for their youth association. Their success speaks for itself.