Hello Wolves! The WGHA hopes you all have had a fantastic summer away from the rink. This is a reminder that registration is open for all ages and levels (Rep and House League) for this upcoming season. We have our ice booked for early fall and will be posting times for pre-tryout skates for U9 and U11 shortly. These pre-tryout skates will get the players ready for try-outs that will start shortly after the warm-up skates.
Please take a quick read on what the WGHA rep coaches have been up to over the off season in order to be best prepared for our players!
Why play rep hockey?
By Richard Bercuson
WGHA High Performance and Technical Director
There’s no ignoring our game’s recent tribulations. The question for some may now be this: does it make you wonder if it’s time to try something else?
Hockey - specifically our minor hockey world - remains a fantastic experience. It has always been a blast of fun and will continue to be so. In fact, the WGHA’s rep hockey program is unlike any other. It has adopted “Fun-Learn-Return,” a maxim created by Dean Holden who presented at a recent WGHA Coach Conference.
Whereas minor hockey associations often talk-the-talk about development, ours also walks-the-walk. Rep coaches in the WGHA are regularly mentored and trained, namely through numerous specially designed clinics in the last two seasons, even during the Covid restrictions (over Zoom). For instance, on June 4-5, 30 rep coaches attended a weekend conference that highlighted where we plan to go with our approaches to coaching and how to improve team and association culture. The conference theme focused on coaches opening their minds to new methods while changing the staid traditional ways to coach. As the saying goes, “the mind is like a parachute; it works best when open.” The way we learned the game decades ago is not what today’s children need in order to maximize fun and experience success in this marvelous sport.
We know through research along with changes in practice and training methods in other hockey regions that our girls will benefit from more clearly defined, carefully structured and appropriate ways to be taught. This season, all our rep team coaches will be better equipped to offer hockey curricula that will enable our girls - your girls - to best learn the game and improve their skills.
As we view it, development is an investment, not a purchase.
Yes, the news has been upsetting and yes, it would be easy to escape to another sport. But in this rep program, you will see that minor hockey can and will provide a first-rate enriching sport experience. You will want to be a part of it.