Wednesday News

The 2007-08 USA Hockey Annual Guide is now online, including all the Tier III Jr. A regs. I hope to have some analysis shortly... The Board of Directors for the Kamloops Blazers met with two ownership groups Monday. There is a local story on the meetings, but I don't expect the link to last long. The board feels it isn’t in a position to do any negotiating because it hasn’t received such direction from its 250-plus members. The earliest that could come would be Aug. 23, the evening for which the board has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting. Vees voice Dan Marshall named new voice of the Nanaimo Clippers... Assistant coach David Bell the latest member of Owen Sound Attack to depart... Windsor gets 2009 OHL All Star Game...

Let the misinformation begin

Well, it didn't take long for an article to appear misrepresenting Tier III. This one comes courtesy of the McKinney (TX) Courier-Gazette, and contains the following nugget of stretched truth: After the offer was extended, Barberis immediately jumped at the chance to play for the Junior A (Bozeman) Icedogs. Junior A is the same classification as the Texas Tornadoes (sic) and is the highest level of amateur hockey a player can play in and still retain college eligibility. So Bozeman is once again at the same level as the Tornado, and the Tier II NAHL and Tier I USHL no longer exist. Great, I'm glad we cleared that up. I guess I shouldn't have expected too much, considering the writer couldn't properly name the local junior team - the Tornado play about 15-20 minutes from McKinney. But how many times are we going to see articles where a kid playing in one of the six T3A leagues is placed on the Jr A pedestal with no mention of the Tier III aspect? Now, I'm not bagging on Bozeman here. They aren't quoted in the article and I have no indication to believe they had anything to do with this. In addition, their website says nothing that would misrepresent their status as a Tier III Junior A team. I already mentioned the reporter didn't seem too knowledgeable, and that probably had a lot to do with it. However, out of curiosity I surveyed Tier III websites to see how leagues and teams were representing themselves. In doing so, I found a number of examples of the follow types: 1) Tier III announcement proclaims team/league now Junior A with no reference to T3 in the headline. Many times the body of the announcement mentions T3. 2) Team website banners calling team Junior A, with no T3 mention. 3) Tryout forms calling the team Junior A, with no T3 mention. 4) Team referenced only as Junior A, with no mention of T3 anywhere Am I nitpicking? Perhaps, but I think the teams and leagues have an obligation to be completely honest, and consistent, in their branding to players, parents, fans, and media. About a third of them aren't doing so. If I were NAHL commish Mark Frankenfeld, I'd be calling for legislation regulating how the new level is referenced. Teams/leagues should not be able to call themselves just "Junior A," but instead use the proper "Tier III Junior A" or "Junior A Tier III." Otherwise they've just misrepresented themselves to whoever is reading their material (players, parents, media, etc...). It devalues the NAHL brand, and to a lesser extent the USHL's as well (though they no longer use "Jr A" in their branding, instead focusing on "Tier I"). Make it simple - $500 fine for any team/league materials (website, tryout brochures, etc...) not referring to the full and proper classification, and a $100 fine against the team for any team/league article quoting a team/league official and containing the same reference, in the quote or out of it, makes no matter. If the official is getting quoted, they can make it a point to the reporter to get it right. Give the teams/leagues until the start of the season to get their sites fixed, then start enforcing thereafter. A final note... This isn't about bashing the Tier III concept. With the decision made, that genie is out of the bottle and all we can do now is make the best of the situation, hence my previous comments about performance measures. That said, let's not turn the comments into a generic T3 bashing. Let's just focus on the branding issue at hand, folks.

Monday News

Sorry for the lack of posts... I've been out of town a few days - a pilgrim in an unholy land. We know there have been FERPA issues before, but let's hope this story doesn't give the Junior Council any ideas... The Tier III ruling is filtering into the media. Here's a story out of Billings... And here's another one, this time out of Rochester (I guess Jack Benny was unavailable for comment)... And Puget Sound, who also hired Chadd Olson as head coach... Vernon Vipers bag Red Wings GM Ken Holland, for a weekend at least... Swift Current Broncos name Tim Kehler assistant coach... Niagara Ice Dogs name Mike McCourt assistant coach... Owen Sound Attack still looking for a head coach... Lewiston Maineiacs fill out coaching staff... Pickering Panthers name Mark Joslin head coach... EJHL head coach Brad Holt moves up to the University of New England... Nanaimo Clippers voice Pat Siedlecki will call for Lethbridge Hurricanes...

More on Tier III A

A reliable source just placed this in my inbox: July 16, 2007 To: Junior Council From: Daniel Esdale Re: T-III A Certification application summary The following USAH T-III B Leagues have submitted documentations of the required organizational and operational requirements of T-III A as required during the junior council session of June 2007. T-III A status is herby granted with a two (2) year probationary period to Central States Hockey League (CSHL), Minnesota Junior Hockey League (MNJHL), Northern Pacific Junior Hockey League (NORPAC), and the Western States League (WSHL) with the following provisions; a. Following the probationary period the leagues must meet the forthcoming performance criteria. b. Leagues are not permitted expansion at any time in any form during the probationary period. c. Re certification process will occur for each season. It does not mention the EJHL and AJHL, but before anyone reads too much into this, remember that they were already on probationary T3A status. My guess is they aren't listed because they are on their own status/timeline and have their own notification coming soon. So let's examine the above provisions in the most optimistic fashion possible: "Following the probationary period the leagues must meet the forthcoming performance criteria." Could it be that some form of performance measurement metrics are on the horizon? Be still my beating heart! I started talking about performance metrics over a year ago, and proposed the Junior Council re-think their certification standards some 18 months before that. "Leagues are not permitted expansion at any time in any form during the probationary period." Given Part a, this seems reasonable, as an expansion team could have a detrimental impact to some measurements. This also forces leagues to do something seemingly foreign to them - plan. The thought process can no longer be "how do we get new teams into our league?", but instead "What are we going to do to 1) insure quality programs are brought into our league and 2) ensure their success relative to our performance measures?" "Re certification process will occur for each season." Seems reasonable enough, considering this is already standard fare for all leagues/levels, be it a rubber stamp or something more robust. However, I'm not sure teams can be fairly evaluated on any metrics this coming season unless those metrics are set very soon. Expectations must be communicated and understood at the beginning. It's like setting/changing the playoff format *coughWcoughScoughHcoughLcough* in the middle of the season. Anyway, I'm optimistic. The Council still has some work to do to salvage the public perception of their T3A decision... but the forest they tread through may not be as dense and dark as it appears.

The T3A Verdict

Tier III-A is a go. The CSHL, MnJHL, NorPac, and WSHL will be joining the EJHL and AJHL. I don't know what has been sorted out in terms of national championships, but I'm sure we'll find out in the next day or two when the formal announcement comes down. One thing the council decided to do was drop the arena capacity requirement. I guess I'm not surprised by that, since most teams in these leagues were going to fail on that condition. Why have it if it's not enforced, right? The NorPac league that is entering the new level is pretty much the same league as last season. The proposed AWHL shelved their plans and those teams will remain in their league. Now, I've been publicly against this concept since the start, but there's no use screaming about it now that it's done. What I can do, however, is challenge all the leagues at this level to make themselves worthy of the designation. Like a kid playing dress-up with their parent's clothes, the leagues all have some room to grow into their new outfits. By grow, I don't mean more teams, I mean improve yourselves. Obtain better talent and do more with it. Raise your standards, even if the Junior Council refuses to. If you aren't constantly improving what you do and how you do it, you are destined for oblivion. That said, I don't think we've seen the end of the landscape changes. What's next is hard to say, but my crystal ball tells me the future may be in direct affiliations from teams/leagues at one tier to the tier above. I know there are some basic plans floating around out there on this topic, and perhaps some of them will come to fruition.

Tuesday News

July 1 has passed... not heard anything on the fate of the Tier III-A applications... Carolina Hurricanes scouting director Sheldon Ferguson named GM of Saginaw Spirit (includes video)... I don't see too many Minnesota Jr. B stories posted in the media, so here's an interview with Minnesota Ice Hawks head coach Nick Fatis... For that matter, CHA articles are rare as well, so here's one on the Hampton Roads Whalers. Not sure about other folks, but I was unaware that Jean-Guy Trudel owned a 20% stake in the Peoria Mustangs... I wonder how long it will be before the new hi-tech Reebok jerseys filter down to juniors?

The Joke That is Tier III

A lot of folks have been asking what happened to Tier III A at nationals. Well, it's the same mess it's always been. The main thing is there's been a moratorium on awarding the status until July 1. This has apparently been done to give leagues more time to get their affairs in order. Excuse me, but if they aren't in order now, they don't get the level. Leagues have had plenty of time on this, and if their affairs weren't cleaned up by now, what makes you think a couple of weeks will magically transform them into something that deserves a promotion? This development has also led leagues to consider dumping teams they feel may not be up to T3A status, because if one team doesn't get it, the entire league doesn't get it. Gee, talk about camaraderie. "Sorry Frank, we're not sure you're going to make it, and we don't like you anyway" *boot*... Way to support your members, Mr. Commish. Most of you know by now that I come from a university environment. There is a Sword of Damocles that hangs over every institution of higher learning called "accreditation," which I've discussed in the past. It you aren't accredited, you might as well not exist (unlike hockey, where if you aren't certified, you run and join the WHA). Accreditation and USA Hockey Certification exist for the same purpose - to ensure quality. Unfortunately, the hockey folks don't appear to have the slightest clue as to what they are doing. Universities must show evidence of continual improvement in their operations - the bar is raised ever higher each year. In hockey, teams/leagues only need to show improvement when they are bucking for a promotion. Boy, if that ain't incentive. University accreditations have several key steps, including a detailed self-assessment and a site visit where members of peer institutions visit to review the recertification application. For T3A, it seems that hockey referees signed statements that a team's facility met all the requirements. No offense to the refs, but if this isn't a scenario ripe for abuse I don't know what is. In accreditation if it's not documented, it doesn't exist. If there's not going to be a real site visit, teams should at the very least provide pictures of their seating with exact capacity counts, as well as pictures of locker facilities accompanied by floor plans with exact physical dimensions and stall counts. This sort of thing is not unprecedented in sports, as minor league baseball went through the same thing during their PDC of the early 1990s. A funny thing happened to, minor league baseball organizations got a whole lot better as a result. I'm going to pull a number out of my ass and estimate that if ALL the certification criteria were enforced for T3A, half the Junior B teams applying would not get it. As it stands, my guess is that everyone with the exception of the four-team AWHL is probably going to get conditional T3A status, which with Pandora's Box open will become permanent in a couple years. And nothing will have been improved. My suggestion is that the Council should stop slapping each other's backs and TABLE T3A for another year. Let the EJ and AJ keep their provisional status, but develop a REAL CERTIFICATION PROCESS that incorporates on-site peer assessment and strict enforcement of standards. If no one moves up this season, then no one will have have a leg-up on one another. Dan Esdale is now in charge of the Junior Council. Before that he ran the EJHL. Dan, you need to ask yourself, when you were lobbying for the creation of T3A, did you envision a day when due to the nature of hockey politics every league received a social promotion to the new level, whether they deserved it or not? The bridge is out. Be a leader and pull the brake before this runaway train runs off the end in to the abyss. Continuous improvement and accountability - I can't stress it enough. If you don't have these, you should question your reason to exist as a team or league. In other news... Decent article on the state of the BCHL: Cross-border hockey in BCHL’s near future... The coming Tornado news I mentioned yesterday has been delayed. It is official, but I'm stuck waiting for the announcement. Late today would be the earliest, but tomorrow morning is more likely.