“The younger they learn, the better they’ll do because they have less fear and they’re more willing to try things,” said Rob Ayles, vice president of TCYHA and coach of the Mite 1 team. “Playing hockey at a young age is important for their development. It comes down to touching the ice. You need to be on the ice as often as you can to really hone those skills.

“We try to keep the kids on the ice as much as we can,” he continued. “Obviously the earlier you start, the better you’ll be.”

Including the Learn to Skate and Hockey Development, which the TCYHA Board of Directors implemented four years ago with the addition of John Dillon Explosive Power Skating to coordinate and facilitate these programs, there were 293 total participants for the 2008-09 season and 33 coaches.

“Twin City has a dedicated Board of Directors that has one common theme and that’s the development of hockey players,” Ayles said. “We focus on the hockey skills, but we also focus on the life skills. Kids get awards for academic achievement based on their grades in school. It’s also a feeder program, one step feeds the next.

“In our league participation with all of our older programs, we see that our kids skating-wise are very, very competitive and very strong on their skates,” he continued. “You need that foundation to be successful in hockey.”

Stephens knows many people are responsible for making an organization like Twin City Youth Hockey run so smoothly.

“Our program is a success because of the generosity of the parents and board members that give so freely of their time,” Stephens said. “An organization like this has too many requirements to effectively serve our families for one person to run it alone. I’m very fortunate to have such high quality people on the board with me. Everyone is there to see that the program and the kids succeed. People volunteer for the benefit of their children and others in the program.

“As president, I do my best to look at what we’re doing as a board and determine not only how it will benefit the program today, but also what impact it will have on the program in the future. The diversity of our board helps keep it all on check.”

TCYHA has a proven track record of producing successful hockey players, ranging from current high school to college players, and many levels in between.

“It’s a great feeling to really be able to appreciate the amount of effort and dedication a player puts in to achieve that level of success,” said Ayles, who played four years of varsity hockey at St. Bernard’s before graduating in 1987. “There are a number of kids from this program that are playing in high schools right now and have had successful college careers. It’s a testament to the program, but more importantly to the dedication of the player and parent.”

Dedication, especially at the younger levels, requires players and parents to wake up and travel to practice and games early in the morning. It can get draining on a family, not to mention the financial hit that comes with playing such an expensive sport.

“Hockey is competing against basketball and dek hockey, sports where it costs you $70 to try it,” Ayles said. “If the kid doesn’t like it, all you’ve invested is $70. You try hockey, once you’ve gotten done spending $300 on equipment and spending $1,300 for him to play in Twin City and he doesn’t like it, you’ve lost a lot more money.”

Twin City is also excited about partnering with the Dual State League in Tyngsboro Skate 3.

“We’ve partnered with Dual State, the league we play in, to bring hockey games back to Fitchburg,” Ayles said. “Every Sunday from 10′oclock in the morning till about 1 or 2 in the afternoon, there will be youth hockey games being played at the Civic Center. We wanted them to allow us to have some games here in Fitchburg and it’s worked out well. We’re trying to bring hockey back to this area with a little bit more fever than what it had been.”

With a state-of-the-art facility like the Wallace Civic Center, it’s no wonder why Twin City doesn’t have any problems with fan attendance.

“Fitchburg State College, for what they’ve done with the facility here, it’s done wonders for (the program) as well. They’ve kind of taken this gem and polished it perfectly,” Ayles said. “If you come down here on the Sunday morning and see how many people come to watch a game …when a game is in your own back yard like we have here in Fitchburg, you get grandparents, friends of players that are here, you get other teams that are coming down to watch, it’s kind of an electrifying atmosphere. It’s a great venue to watch a hockey game.”

It’s a win-win for everyone associated with the TCYHA.

“Every time I step on the ice and a player calls me ‘coach’ I fell like I can make a difference for that player,” said Stephens, also a Mite 1 assistant coach where his 8-year-old son Kyle plays. His 11-year-old son, Cody, plays on the Pee Wee 1 team. “Every time I see our learn to skaters or hockey development players accomplish a drill or a skill to their own satisfaction, I feel like we’ve done what we set out to do.

“Every time a player comes back to the bench after a hard shift tired and smiling and he or she tells you about what they did on the ice, it makes me want to come back again and again just to see what they’ll do next. That’s that satisfaction I get from all of this.”

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Fitchburg Pride for this article.

OneGoal’s efforts are right up the Dallas Stars’ alley, which has been promoting the growth of youth hockey since coming to North Texas in 1993. One great example is the “Kids First” program in which allows kids age four to eight to try hockey for free. This program is specifically designed for kids that have never been on the ice.

The Stars are very excited about this new partnership with OneGoal. The organization will be a huge asset in helping spread the word about the greatness of hockey. There were only 500 kids playing hockey when the Stars arrived in 1993. Now there are close to 6,000. The plan is grow that number even bigger.

OneGoal chose the Dallas market as their first test market in North America to roll out their marketing campaign designed to attract young skaters to the sport of hockey. The campaign aired mid August through early September.

“We’re proud to be connected to such a committed organization like OneGoal,” said Keith Andresen, director of hockey programs for the Dallas Stars/Dr Pepper StarCenters. “We want to introduce youth in and around the Dallas area to a game that we are truly passionate about.”

In St. Albans, Vermont., the St. Albans Skating Association (SASA) purchased 40 sets of OneGoal equipment for their Young Blades initiation program. To help boost participation, the cost for a first year Young Blade player was set at $65, and the season would consist of approximately 23 ice times from October through February. The SASA board offered free use of the OneGoal equipment to the families.

“Our numbers for the Young Blade program were down quite a bit last year,” explained SASA President John Cioffi. “We only had 20 new kids sign up so We knew something had to be done.”

“We promoted the program any way we could,” continued Cioffi. “We solicited the youth recreation programs, day cares, preschools and public schools with literature. In early October we did an hour long show on our local public access channel. We discussed local hockey and had a focus on the Young Blade program. We had guest appearances by some our high school players where they discussed growing-up playing hockey and making life-long friendships.”

“People registered on our website and then we held an equipment night,” said Cioffi. “The response was overwhelming. We had people lined-up to get equipment and we had five adults fitting 4-8 year olds. We blew through 35 sets of equipment in about 1.5 hours. We eventually used up all of the equipment we had purchased and started a used equipment drive for other players. It was just an exciting start for the new season.”

The Results?

“With the aggressive promotion and the addition of the free OneGoal equipment, our numbers jumped from 20 to 63 players,” exclaimed Cioffi. “I am sure we will continue to offer this program in the future.”

Editor’s Note: Thank you to USA Hockey for this article.

The Tim’s Kids Program at the Space Coast Iceplex in Rockledge, Fla. provides up to 20 children between the ages of 4 and 8, the opportunity to try hockey for the first time at no expense to their families.

Tim’s Kids is the dream of the late Tim Szymula, who volunteered so much of his time to Brevard Amateur Ice Hockey Association (BAIHA). Even with his passing, his giving did not stop. He directed a portion of his life insurance to be used to start up the program.

The organization lends the child all the necessary equipment, provides jerseys, and covers the ice rental costs for one “house league” session. This session consists of a one-hour orientation, followed by 10 weeks of one-hour cross-ice games to be played on consecutive Friday evenings from 6-7 pm.

“We hope Tim’s commitment will help us to inspire new generations of Brevard youth to become a long-term part of our hockey family,” says Gary O’Neil, the President of the BAIHA.

For more information on Tim’s Kids, please click here.

USA Hockey created the American Development Model in conjunction with the National Hockey League to provide a blueprint for youth hockey associations throughout the country for optimal athlete development. The ADM concept has never been done before in the United States and will help influence increased participation by providing a better overall experience for the player, regardless of ability level.

The Thrashers have long-standing ties to USA Hockey, led by Executive Vice President and General Manager Don Waddell, and have been a staunch supporter of youth hockey development since the team’s inception in 1999.

“USA Hockey’s American Development Model is an initiative that is a priority for all NHL member clubs located in the United States,” commented Waddell. He went on to say, “This undertaking is an exciting opportunity for all of us involved in youth hockey and we look forward to working with USA Hockey and being a host city for the program model at every age level.”

“The ADM is based on age-appropriate training methods and we’re excited about it’s implementation because it will positively affect our children,” said Ken Martel, Director of USA Hockey’s American Development Model. “We’re grateful to the Thrashers for their support and know the people of Atlanta and surrounding communities will enjoy learning more about the ADM.”

The Thrashers Youth Hockey Development Team, led by Darren Eliot (Community Hockey Liaison), Reagan Carey (Director of Hockey Development), Chris Uber (Manager of Hockey Development) and Misha Donskov (Coaching Coordinator), has implemented various programs and furthered many philosophies aimed at growing the game of hockey, including:

• Running over 245 clinics per season
• Providing award-winning content on atlantathrashers.com
• Hosting the first of its kind Jr. NHL All –Star Tournament in 2008
• Developing its own internal and USA Hockey recognized Instructor Orientation Program
• Running USA Hockey’s Coaching Certification Program in the Atlanta market
• Providing an abundance of supplemental resources to augment the coaches’ efforts.

Editor’s Note: For more information on the American Development Model, please visit: http://www.admkids.com/ Thank you to Sports Stuff Georgia for this article.

“You gotta love it. It’s so inspiring seeing them,” said Lindsay Norris, a senior player on the Essex High School varsity team, and a graduate of the Essex Youth Hockey program. “They never seem to get frustrated…. they fall down and the next minute you go to help them back up and they’re already half way back up and they’re just right back at it and it’s really cool.”

Equipment was provided free of charge to the players. Players were allowed to keep it if they decided that they wanted to continue pursuing the sport after participating in the program. For more information on the Essex Youth Hockey Association Click here…

The program format is two hours long, with one group skating or learning the basics of how to play hockey while the other group is taken to the conference room for a science lesson on how the ice arena makes ice. Newark has introduced hockey and ice skating to over 600 children in the area with grades ranging from first to sixth.

As a result of these efforts, membership numbers have increased by 11 percent, which does not include the 2009-10 season. The ice arena has also grown their open skate numbers with this program. For specifics on Newark’s Score for Schools program, click here (pdf).

Grow the Game: Would you please provide a brief bio of yourself?

Rich: I was born and raised in Colorado Springs, Co the youngest of four kids. I have a wife-Julie and 3 kids, Logan, plays U18 Major AAA for Thunderbirds, Lauren, who is cheerleader for Littleton High School and Kyra who is a goalie for the Colorado Select  U14 AAA Team.  I starting skating at the age of 4 and started playing hockey at age 6. I got involved in hockey because I asked my mom if I could do karate and she said “no” its way to dangerous, so then I asked her if I could play hockey because my best friend played hockey. She said, “ I don’t know anything about hockey but sure” I grew up playing hockey and fell in love with the sport. I played through high school at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs. After school I continued to play off and on in men’s adult leagues and when my son was 6 he asked if he could play, so I got into coaching. I’m currently a Level 4 CEP and I’ve been coaching now for 10 years. I have held various board positions over the year and I am currently Co-Director of Coaching for the Colorado Select and Director at Large for CAHA. I’ve coached at all levels from 8 and Under through High School to AAA.

Grow the Game: What programs to grow the game have you implemented in the past?

Rich: In 2008 I implemented the state’s first “One Goal Program.” In 2009 we implemented an all “Girls One Goal Program.”

Grow the Game: Which grow the game program would you recommend for other hockey associations?

Rich: I think any program that gets kids out on the ice to have fun and learn how to play is the ultimate goal. I have found that the One Goal Program is most popular and the One Goal Brand is recognized around the country.

Grow the Game: Would you please provide a brief overview of the most successful program? (How to implement, lessons learned, marketing of the program, etc.)

Rich: 2008 One Goal Program was where we learned the most about growing the game. The program was planned about 4 months in advance. The goal was to get 200 kids to come to four sessions over 2 days. As a selected city the One Goal program provided funding and a PR firm that allowed us to communicate the event through the public via radio and limited print media. We put flyers and posters up all around Denver. Each association was given flyers to distribute to schools and other public places.

The first thing we had to do was find support for the program. One Goal, Colorado Amateur and USA Hockey provided funding for the event. Players Bench hockey stores provided the staff and the One Goal equipment. Their staff also helped fit the kids in skates and equipment and ensured no player went on the ice with gear that didn’t properly fit.  Denver University and Denver Pioneers Youth Hockey provided the ice and skates at Magness Arena to host the program.   We also had the support of the Colorado Avalanche that advertised the One Goal commercials on Altitude TV Network during the games. This prompted people to go to the website.  All media steered the interested party to the One Goal website which provided a direct registration link to Colorado Amateur Hockey Association. We capture all-important information including the sizes of skates, age, address, email etc.

The next concern was filling this program up. After the first 2 weeks we only had around 30 players signed up. We were concerned until the radio ads aired on 8 local radio stations. The next 3 weeks we ended up getting almost 300 kids sign up. We now had a new problem, what to do with all these kids! We opened it up to 60 kids per session and were able to support a total of 240.

The next part was organizing how we would handle the 200 kids over 2 days and 4 ice sessions. We reached out to all the local associations, tier teams and others involved in hockey for assistance. The goal was to get around a 1-helper- to 2- One Goal players ratio so we needed 25 on ice coaches. We also needed help getting the kids dressed and ready to go and also needed a 1 to 2 ratio. We ended up having players from many of the local hockey associations in the Front Range area, which gave up their Saturday and Sunday to help.

When the kids arrived we gave them a bag and had a player go with them to help them get dressed. Once dressed they were escorted out onto the ice and a on ice player would take the new player and skate with them until they felt comfortable of being on their own. We had bumpers on the ice that the kids sat on. We had some player who would push the One Goal kids around on chairs or spin the bumpers in circles. The kids had an incredible time. We had well over 25 players on the ice helping including the DU Pioneer players. We had a good mix of female and male One Goal players as well as our volunteers were also mixed of female and males.

The biggest challenged we faced was the ½ hour between the first and second sessions and we had to get the first group undressed and the second group dressed ASAP. Our volunteers pulled it off by getting the kids undressed in 1 hall way and bringing the bag over to another hallway where group 2 was waiting to get dressed. It work well but I would schedule the second group 1 hour after the first group.

After the program the players all left with smiles on their faces. The volunteers said it was the most fun they have ever had putting on an event. Local associations reported a lift in 8 and Under enrollments that year with one club stating they had over 28 kids register for their U-8 program as a result of this program.

Grow the Game: What is the participation/turnout that you received from implementing this program?

Rich: We ended up with over 240 kids because the demand was so great. We also had additional 90 kids on the wait list. We ended up giving the list to all the associations to market to the One Goal Players.

Grow the Game: Do you have any other suggestions for other associations and teams who are trying to grow the game?

Rich: The best advice I can give is to get a lot of help when running these programs. You have one shot to make a great impression and you need to have a lot of on ice and off ice help to make things run smooth.

Grow the Game: What is your favorite thing about hockey?

Rich: My favorite thing about hockey is its face paced, fun, exciting, an awesome workout, and the great friends you meet along the way!

Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Rich Smith with Colorado Amateur Hockey Association for sharing his Grow the Game success story. As a thank you for sharing his success story, Total Hockey is giving him a $25 gift certificate to TotalHockey.net. If you have a success story that you would like to share, please click here.

Below is a story about a Washington State Youth Hockey Association, the Tri-Cities Youth Association, to attract members. It details the issues, the resolution, and the results that helped

Analysis of the situation identified three contributing issues:

1. The local Major Junior Team had experience back to back seasons of poor performance with declining numbers in their fan base. This was coupled with poor community involvement and constant ownership change.

2. The cost of playing hockey was not competitive in price with other local sports such as soccer, baseball and football. This was due to both high registration costs and the cost of equipment.

3. The season was too long in comparison with other local youth sport programs.

Resolution:

1. It was obvious that we could not fix the poor performance of the Major Junior Team, but we could encourage more community involvement between the team and community and the youth hockey program. Representatives of TCAHA met with the local club and worked out a plan to increase community involvement and additional participation with the TCAHA. This included getting into the schools with Learn to Read Programs, public skates, and assigned on-ice skill instruction assignments of the players belonging to the Major Junior Team with the TCAHA teams.

2. To be more competitive in price with other beginner sport programs the following practices were put in place:

a. Equipment:

• A local equipment vendor was able to put together an equipment package that included pads, pants and a net bag to hold the equipment for a price of $75.00. The association purchased 75 sets of this equipment. This equipment package was rented at $50.00 per session. At the end of the session the parent had the option to return the equipment or purchase the equipment at our cost. Helmets were included in this package as well, but were not sold as a part of set.   Jersey and socks were included in the registration costs.

• Another local equipment vendor offered new molded skates at cost with a $5.00 administration fee adder offered to all NEW Beginning players.

3. The season was broke into two three month sessions (September-November) and (December-February). It was the association’s decision that in order to be competitive with other local sports that we would either need to take a loss on this Program or have it subsidized by the older groups. The decision was to have the registration of the older groups subsidize the Beginner Program. The net result was a Beginner fee of $69.00. This included two 1/3 ice sheet practice sessions (1 hour) per week and 1 game per week.

Result:

New player numbers almost doubled. Survey results of the participating parents indicated that they liked the low equipment rental fee in order to introduce their child to the sport. Most parents would sign up for the second session prior to deciding to purchase the equipment. Therefore TCAHA usually realized $125.00 on a $75.00 purchase. This rent to own program provided for an influx of revenue that allowed for not only purchasing new equipment, but for the repair of existing equipment each year without the association having to adjust registration fees to compensate for new equipment purchases. Parents also liked the shortened season for two reasons.

1.  This allowed the option of allowing the child to make the choice if they wished to continue for a second session. Well over 95% of the players returned to participate in the second session. Those with advanced skills were given the option to remain in the program or move on to full time teams.

2. Some parents had their players participate in dual sports. Soccer that often ends in early November in our local area. Hockey during the second session. Ultimately, the hockey program usually saw these dual sport players eventually transition into hockey as a soul sport.

Other Considerations:

There is a down side to this program. Managing the program is dependent on the partnership with the local sporting businesses. The hockey supporters that owned the businesses that support this program play a major role in its success. Unforeseen events such as change of ownership and business closures do impact this type of a program. Also, the equipment can be somewhat labor intensive. It is imperative that the Equipment Manager take complete ownership of this program. They need to manage the purchases proactively. I highly recommend investigating this process for growing hockey in your community if you have strong hockey supporters in your local community that are also sport equipment business owners. If you should have further questions about how this program worked feel free to contact Dru Hammond at hammondk@charter.net.

Editor’s Note: Special Thanks to Dru Hammond for sharing this grow the game success story.

The First Strides concept was created by Nike Bauer to provide kids with no prior hockey or skating experience the opportunity to try the game in a fun environment at no cost. GNHW is responsible for developing it administratively, logistically and operationally. The program began on September 2nd and ran through September 18th. Two 60 minute sessions a week were provided on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:00pm and 1:30pm respectively for three weeks totaling six sessions. The concept is based on utilizing unused ice time during the week (and its associated lower costs) and targeting younger kids who may have other activities or family obligations on weekends.

Nike Bauer has underwritten the cost of the ice time and has supplied helmets with face masks, gloves, sticks, skates and jerseys. All the equipment is on loan to the players (GNHW stores it between sessions) with the exception of the jerseys, which the kids get to keep. GNHW provide all the logistics and coordination. i.e. registration, equipment fitting, securing the ice, publicity, etc., as well as the instructors. GNHW is also developing the on-ice curriculum. Once the program is completed, GNHW will conduct a post-mortem and refine the concept.

The initial sign-up was strong with 23 kids, 17 of which had never been on skates before (or been in a rink for that matter). The remaining six had been on skates at least once, but none had played hockey and only one parent had another child who had played hockey before. So GNHW hit its target audience perfectly. All of the kids are between the ages of 3-5 years old. There is no doubt that we could have potentially doubled the number of participants had we worked through the area schools AM kindergarten programs, but in light of the fact that this is a pilot program, GNHW felt that they needed to cap the number of participants in order to preserve an effective coach/participant ratio.

The real indication of whether this program is successful is how many of the kids continue on in the other programs that GNHW offers such as Learn-To-Skate and Clinic. They have already had some initial inquiries.