Well it’s getting to be that time of year again in the roller hockey world…..Tournament Time!!! …. but this year may be a little different for me and many of our youth players at the Fieldhouse.
First, while tournament hockey is always exciting to be a part of I have to say that I am even more excited to see our start up programs at the Fieldhouse such as our Learn to Play program and our Mini Mites doing so well. After a few down seasons, new players to our sport are back on the rise! These little guys and girls are coming out in full force on Saturday mornings and when I am lucky enough to catch a glimpse of their face through their cages I am seeing nothing but smiles. After all, they represent our sports’ future and soon one day will be looking to play in their first NARCh or TORHS2Hot event right here at the Fieldhouse; or maybe they will be looking to tryout for a chance to represent Team Michigan at the annual State Wars National event.
Participation in our youth house divisions is also up this season. The youth house kids are playing in competitive games week in and week out and many of these kids will be looking to take their game to the next level this Spring. Every Saturday I get to see some great hockey right here in our own house leagues; this is a nice added bonus to my Saturdays for sure!
This year we are hoping to do things differently as far as forming our tournament teams. Some of the coaches that have been heading up teams to play in regional and National tournaments are working together to give as many kids a chance to play as possible. In recent years it has been mainly just the Tour Bordercats coming out of the Fieldhouse. Myself and a couple other guys handled almost 15 teams this past season as they played National tourneys both in Taylor, Michigan and SanJose, California. While it was once again a great experience the work involved with that many teams was never ending, although very rewarding.
In 2013 we are looking to start up similar organizations as the Bordercats with the help of Tour Hockey and the new guys at Alkali Hockey. Our goal is that within 2-3 years we will be at a point where we have two more organizations, Tour and Alkali, that field teams from 8U on up to 18U to join the long running Bordercats program who are now with Mission Bauer. These new teams in many cases may be single A (Silver) while some will be able to hang in AA (Gold) right away. With time and more experience many of these teams will eventually be able to play at the AAA (Platinum) level.
I love the fact that our youth players have role models to look up to such as our Junior Mission Bauer Bordercats team and of course, are Mission Bauer Bordercats Professional team that all can claim the Fieldhouse as their home rink.
We have already had our initial tryout skate for these youth teams and will be adding another one soon. For more information on the opportunity to get involved with any of our youth tournament team organizations please e-mail me at mattk@LCRH.info.
Matt Koleski 