Jan 23, 2019 | Mario Barricelli | 1226 views
Glancaster Pilot Project Survey Results
A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to give some feedback on the upcoming Glancaster Pilot Project. We value your ideas and concerns and are working to address as many as possible.
Overall, we heard that more people supported the direction we are taking than opposed it, but we are listening carefully to both sides as we shape our program for next year. While the importance of a AA team was not that great amongst our respondents, being able to offer an AE team at each age group was very important.
We grouped many of the questions and comments into a few main categories and would like to share some of the specifics along with some answers and efforts we’re taking to help with them.
Glancaster-Bombers-Survey-Jan-2019
Additional Costs Incurred by our Membership.
Some questions were raised on the added costs of purchasing new equipment (blue) for the new Bombers uniforms. We are working very hard with our suppliers and the overal budgets to alleviate as much added costs as possible. For starters, our Pilot Committee has moved to reduce the required equipment purchases. Rather than asking our players to wear Blue helmet and gloves, we will only be asking for a blue helmet. Gloves will be at the option of our players and families, and not mandated. We are working with Pro Hockey Life closely to come up with very good pricing on some blue helmet (and gloves for those that choose) options - hoping to keep this cost down as well. Pant covers will be used as well, eliminating the need to buy new pants to match the new jerseys.
Added Travel Time
With the combined organization and increased ice needs, there will be a need to rotate through more arenas than just what we have been used to. One major point of concern was the significant allocation of ice at Stoney Creek Arena. We have a working pledge from the City to eliminate this arena from our rotation, replacing this with ice on the mountain, likely at the Mohawk 4Pad. While this has not yet been written in stone, we are encouraged by the City’s support of this Pilot and look forward to reducing the inconvenience of extra driving as much as possible.
Competitiveness of the Glancaster teams
There have been many questions and conversations about the competition level for our combined teams for next year. With a much larger membership moving into next season filling out our rep teams, the truth is we cannot know how competitive each age group will be at each level. With the overall numbers of members between our organizations, we do not have an option to choose to play only at the Single A level, the OMHA is mandating AA as our base category. Our AA teams will play in the Tri-County Loop, playing teams such as Milton, Orangeville, Garden City, and Flamborough - while the Single A teams will play in the Niagara District Loop, playing teams such as Welland, Grimsby, West Lincoln and Pelham. AE teams will likely be split between the two loops depending on age grouping. Our goal as we move towards the new Glancaster combined program is to ice teams that compete every night and achieve success on and off the ice.
Coach and Player Selection
An overwhelming hope from those that commented on our survey was that a fair, thorough and open process is used to select both our coaches and the players for next seasons teams. We can’t agree more! We will be asking hockey partners from across the city to provide independent and balanced assistance in interviewing and selecting our coaching applicants. During tryouts, we will have a broad approach of multiple checks and balances with independent evaluators working alongside our coaches and rep and development directors to ensure a fair process of selection for our players at each level.
Join us in looking forward to an exciting opportunity for our youngsters to embrace and enjoy this great game!