SCAHA MEETING OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS

October 14, 2009

LAKEWOOD MALL MEETING ROOM

 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PRESENT

Robert Doherty (Commissioner), Sandy Blumberg (Deputy Commissioner), Bob Driffill (Treasurer), Wendy Goldstein (Member Services), Annie Fisher (Statistician), Chris Carcerano (Ice Convener), Nancy Hodge (ACE Coordinator), Rosemary Voulelikas (Secretary), John Silberstein (Parliamentarian) and Kevin Culbertson (Director-at-Large).

 

MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS PRESENT/ABSENT

Present

Absent

CLUB

Present

Absent

CLUB

X

 

Anaheim Junior Ducks

X

 

Los Angeles Jr. Kings

X

 

Anaheim Wildcats

X

 

LA Hockey Club

 

X

California Wave

X

 

OC Hockey Club

X

 

Bakersfield Dragons

X

 

Ontario Eagles

X

 

Bay Harbor Red Wings

X

 

Pasadena Maple Leafs

X

 

Beach City Lightning

X

 

San Diego Gulls

 

X

California Golden Bears

X

 

San Diego Ice Arena

X

 

California Stars

X

 

San Diego Saints

X

 

Channel Islands Riptide

X

 

Valencia Express

X

 

Jr. Reign

X

 

Ventura Mariners/Titans

X

 

La Jolla Jaguars

X

 

West Valley Wolves/Heat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GUESTS PRESENT

Hillary Hodding – LA Kings Fan Development

Norm Kitano – LAHOA

Mark Stook - SDHRA

 

Robert Doherty called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm.

 

Minutes

Louis Soltaro motioned to approve the minutes of the September 9, 2009 meeting.

                                                                                                (motion SECONDED and PASSED)

 

Commissioner’s Report

Bob introduced guest speaker Hillary Hodding, LA Kings Fan Development to speak briefly.  Hillary Hodding distributed fundraising flyers to each of the board members. This year the LA Kings have designed a new fundraising program. The team/club that sells the most tickets throughout the year (minimum 500 tickets purchased by Jan. 31st) will receive a $10,000 donation from the LA Kings Fan Development Department.

 

Bob Doherty reported on the Hockey Monkey Sports fundraiser that occurred last weekend during a Reebok event. SCAHA raised $549 in 5 to 6 hours by manning the barbeque grill at Hockey Monkey. SCAHA will use this money for scholarships next season.

 

Bob Doherty reported on the September 19, 2009 CAHA meeting. Some of the highlights of that meeting were:

  1. New screening company has been selected by USA Hockey. The screening program will be at a National level next year. The name of the company is Lexus-Nexus.
  2. SCAHA met with USA Hockey’s Regional Manager ADM program, Joe Doyle. The HPC (High Performance Club) designation part of the ADM (American Development Model) is not ready for implementation at this time.
  3. Bruce Urban, Pacific District Director has stepped down from his position because he moved from Alaska to Arizona and Arizona is not part of our District. Charlie Fuertsch has asked Bruce to stay on until the end of his term.
  4. November 7, 2009 is USA Hockey’s Free Hockey Day. California will be participating and it is called California Hockey Day. We will have just over 15 venues from SCAHA participating.

 

Bob Doherty reported on the Team Movement Committee. The committee is appointed by the executive and is comprised of several people on the SCAHA board. The team movement committee has been run for the last 6 years and it reviews the results of the preseason games.

 

Deputy Commissioner’s Report

Sandy Blumberg informed the board that racial slurs are coming back with a vengeance. There were incidents of two parents going onto the ice, of coaches behaving badly and Squirts receiving serious penalties. Nowadays, everyone is shooting videos and many of the games are being videotaped resulting in supplemental discipline for incidents not reported by the officials but evident on the videos. She is asking the presidents to have meetings with their coaches, managers, etc. to make sure that they are aware of protocol. Managers should contact board members first if they have issues and board members should contact SCAHA if they can not resolve the issue. Example, both Sandy and Bob received threats from parents because of the team movement proposals.

 

LAHOA/SDHRA Report

Mark Stook stated that LAHOA and SDHRA are working together and have open communications and collaboration between the two organizations. SDHRA has had a mentoring program in place for years but now it has been formalized.  The last 5 tournaments they had a supervisor in place at each tournament and evaluations were done. He informed the board that they are making a push this year in recruiting new officials. They have had an increase in young officials by 45% but the problem is now how to retain them. In Mite/Squirt/Pee Wee games it is very hard for these officials to stay when they are being verbally assaulted by parents, coaches, etc. SCAHA has asked the officials to call with confidence maximum penalties for hits from behind and any use of the hockey stick as a weapon. If head contact is being made w/intent then it should be called a match.

 

Norm Kitano stated he addressed the issue of score sheets not being legible and has informed his membership to make sure they print their names and sign off on the score sheets. LAHOA is stressing communication this year and is requiring supervisors to attend club meetings and to meet with coaches of that club. The league should consider point of emphasis, similar to USA Hockey who puts out point of emphasis each year: for example clear mouth mouthpieces, New Standards, etc. With the numerous evaluations that are being done LAHOA is able to review the type of penalties called and their frequency, whether it is two handed swings, checking from behind, etc. Norm Kitano is suggesting the league put out a point of emphasis at the beginning of each year and this would be communicated at their officials’ seminars.

 

Staff Reports

Member Services – Wendy Goldstein distributed the player fee charts. If SCAHA owes the clubs, she is suggesting that it remains on the books until Final rosters. She should be receiving the birth certificates of players new to SCAHA from the member clubs. Please forward this to her as soon as possible, they are overdue.

 

Wendy informed the board that she has some extra registration LOI forms for those clubs that might need them for their coaches, new players, etc.

 

Ice Convener – Chris Carcerano stated he has been late in releasing the final Tier II schedule. He will be releasing the final A/B schedule this weekend by Sunday 7 pm, at least the first weekend. Please check your emails and please respond within the deadline.

 

Chris Carcerano reiterated the rules for Tier II rescheduling. The team requesting the reschedule is responsible for paying the home ice. If it is not done within the 7 day framework then they are responsible for the officials’ cost as well. Chris Carcerano informed the board that SCAHA has decided not to schedule any league games during the Jan. 2-3 weekend. What this means is that 16 games will count towards the schedule and standings.

 

The Pre-Select SCAHA camp is December 19-20 and this year Chris is asking clubs to send one coach for every two Tier teams they have. Clubs must send a representative. He needs bench personnel and evaluators. In addition, a coach must stay with the assigned age group for the entire select process. And finally, they need volunteers for each check-in session. The information will be available on the SCAHA web site shortly.

 

Statistician – Annie Fisher informed the board that she has completed the preseason penalty minutes tally for each club and many of the teams have reached 80 minutes of penalties. There is one team that has already reached 100 minutes of penalties. Reminder, penalty minutes are cumulative and the regular season is added to the preseason. Annie Fisher offered to help any score keepers who need assistance. She has been reviewing the score sheets and has been contacting the individual managers. Please call her.

 

Treasurer’s Report

Bob Driffill apologized to the board. He forgot the copies of the financial statements at home. Bob Driffill reported that during the month of September they received ~$41,000 and spent about $3,000. Bob Driffill reiterated Wendy’s statement regarding the player fee charts. Bob stated Wendy’s forms are correct as to what the amounts owed are. Bob Driffill added that he is able to tell you what amounts you have paid or not but he is not able to tell you what you should be paying. This information comes from Wendy Goldstein’s player chart fees. And finally, player release fees need to be sent ASAP as this will hold up their release.

 

Parliamentarian

John Silberstein stated he has yet to receive the bylaws and financial contracts from all of the clubs. Currently he has about half of them. The remaining clubs who still owe must submit them before the next meeting. Documents can be emailed to jmsilbrs@pacbell.net or they can be faxed to 603-963-0313. Bob Doherty read from the SCAHA bylaws page 37 regarding publication of clubs’ bylaws. John Silberstein reminded the board of coaches not wearing helmets. This is mandatory not optional.

 

Scholarships

Kevin Culbertson informed the board that he is still receiving applications for financial assistance scholarships. He has about 150+ applications to date. There are about 8-9 more applications at Laurie Boaz’s.

 

A.C.E. Coordinator

Nancy Hodge distributed a form for club presidents to complete with the information of their club’s A.C.E. Coordinator. She is still missing this information from many of the clubs. Nancy informed the board that Ben Frank is the District A.C.E. Coordinator. And finally, Nancy Hodges asked the club presidents to email her if there is a need for more coaches’ clinics. Depending on the demand they may be able to schedule another clinic before December 31, which is the deadline for coaches to be certified at the proper levels.

 

New Business

Rob Freeman expressed some concerns regarding how the Mite B division is being restructured.

Chris Carcerano explained his analysis of the preseason games. He stated he looked at games that

had goal differentials of 10 or more this year and compared it to last year. Some sample stats:

   

 2009-2010 Preseason                                                    2008-2009 Preseason

  • Squirt B ~11 games                                                    Squirt B ~23 games                           
  • Bantam A ~10 games                                                 Bantam A ~8 games                          
  • Mite B ~8 games                                                        Mite B ~27 games                             
  • Midget A16U ~8 games                                              Midget A16U ~11 games                   
  • Pee Wee A ~7 games                                                            BN B ~7 games                                 
  • Mite A ~5 games                                                        Mite A ~11 games                             
  • Squirt A ~4 games                                                      Squirt A ~18 games
  • Midget A18U ~ 2 games                                             Midget A18U ~                                   
  • Pee Wee B ~ 1 game                                                 PW B ~13 games                              
  • PW AA ~ 1 game                                                        BN AA ~9 games

 

Last year there were a total of 146 blowouts and this year so far we have 57 blowouts. This situation is not unique to the Mite B division. At the Mite A level, the Jr. Ducks and the Mariners made the request to drop down to Mite B. The other two Mite A teams, the stronger of the Mite A teams were originally reluctant to move to the Squirt division. Based on data and scores, the committee felt that it would be best to move these two teams to the Squirt B division and not the Squirt A division. The Mite B division would then have 13 teams with the top 4 at the end of the season vying for the Mite A championship and the next 8 teams vying for the Mite B championships. Only one Mite B team would not make it to playoffs. The committee felt that this was a fair resolution to the Mite divisions.

 

Old Business

None at this time.

 

Adjourn

Meeting was adjourned at 9:03 pm.