WAHC Mite/8U/6U Hockey Families,

We are looking forward to the start of the upcoming season.  Thank you for your patience as we work to plan for the season.  Planning is pretty fluid through much of the summer months - as we wait for available ice from our rinks and season registrations.

Following are some preliminary planning details; please stay-tuned to this page throughout the summer for updates regarding the Mite season plans.

We are planning assessments on October 25 & 26 for both boys and girls. Our priority is to ensure we have all our players grouped appropriately based on skill level for the upcoming season. This is important as it allows all our players to best develop and find the most enjoyment during the season skating with others of similar ability. We will accomplish this through the following:

• Saturday 10/25 ASSESSMENT
• Sunday, 10/26: ASSESSMENT
• Monday 10/27:  Possible Additional Assessment Day 

All Mite skaters will go through the timed assessments on Saturday 10/25 & Sunday 10/26 .The assessments will be done via the drills outlined in the diagram at the bottom of this page (All Mites will do drills #2 & #4 with a puck).  These drills are leveraged by many associations and represent a range of skating and hockey skills.  Players will have the ability to practice these drills at their assigned “Skills Clinic” prior to their Assessment day.  On the Assessment Day, each player will have the opportunity to complete the drill twice with the slower time being discarded.  We will then take each player's cumulative times from the drills and rank them in order to establish our initial levels.  Please note that we will be working to ensure players complete the drills as outlined (stopping at the right spot, no cheating around corners, etc…).  If a player does the drill incorrectly they will be shown the correct way and then proceed to redo the drill.

Based on the results of their assessment, players will be drafted onto teams. We’ll look to have roughly the same amount of kids on each team at each given level, but assessment results and total skaters will be considered when dividing up the teams.

The first team skates will be scheduled for the weekend 11/1-11/2.

We realize an “assessment” process can be stressful for our players, but we really do encourage you to ensure your players take this as an opportunity to have fun, try their hardest and interact with their friends and coaches.  Regardless of the level your player is assigned to, you’ll be amazed and proud of the developmental strides they make this upcoming season.

If you have any questions please reach out to the Mite Director, Darren Nora, at mitedirector@woodburyhockey.com.

Thank you and we’ll see you at the rink!

ASSESSMENT DRILLS

The assessments will be done from the bottom of this page.  Players will have the ability to practice these drills at their assigned “Skills Clinic” prior to their Assessment day. On the Assessment Day, each player will have the opportunity to complete the drill twice with the slower time being discarded.  We will then take each player’s cumulative times from the drills and rank them to establish our initial levels. Please note that we will be working to ensure players complete the drills as outlined.  If a player does the drill incorrectly, they will be shown the correct way and then redo the drill.

https://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0031/9191/Mite8USkillChallengeManualRev102408.pdf
(See Diagram of Drills )

1. Figure 8 Crossovers (Without puck)

• Start on the top of the goal crease
• Player must start stationary (no moving start)
• Time stops when player returns to the goal crease

2. Power Turns (With puck)

• Start on red line, power turns around each tire, and finish at blue line
• Puck must travel around the cone with the skater

3. Forward to backwards (Without puck)

• Start on the goal line and skate forwards to black border patrol
• Transition forward to backwards, going right to left
• Skate backwards to end of border patrol, and transition backwards to forward
• Skate to cone on blue line, transition forward to backwards, and skate backwards to goal line

4. Puck Weave (With Puck)

• Diagram is for a right-handed player, left-handed players will go the opposite direction
• In order to get a forehand turn on final border patrol, right-hand skaters start out on left side, and left-hand skaters start out on right side
• Player must start with puck on his stick (no moving start)
• Skater caries puck back to the goal line, time stops when player returns to the goal line, not the puck