Willmar notebook: Youth hockey eyes growth spurt
November 14, 2012 at 6:00 pm in West Central Tribune
Numbers are growing in the youth hockey ranks, especially down low.
Here are the figures Matt Dawson passed along this week: 78 on the Willmar Hockey Association traveling teams, 63 in Mites and 20 kids joining the in-house recreation program for fourth and fifth graders. Continue Reading
At first look, Willmar Hockey appears to be doing amazing things and really growing its program….I know there are people in the hockey community reading this. As someone who went through the system, grew to love the game, and enjoyed playing on a successful team from Willmar, I see these numbers as an insult. Sure, they look good the way Rand presents it. Break it down. The mite numbers look nice, but it’s with boys and girls included. They will split into different programs as they grow. That nice number will only shrink when it comes time to plug them into squirts or peewees. As these low numbers go through an already weak program (many levels only playing “B” level), it will just perpetuate the current cycle. What happened to the days of competitive, “A” and “B” level teams at most levels? The girls program was once much stronger as well. Where did that go? Hockey is a great sport. I really hope more can be done to continue to rebuild what used to be a respectable, competitive program! Go Cardinals!
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Cards, I too remember the days of higher numbers and strong teams, however back then things were much different. There were far more 3 sport athletes and far less specializing in one sport like today. Sport seasons were pretty well set, in the Fall we played Football or Cross Country if you were a boy, but now there is the addition of a quality Soccer program. In the Winter it was Hockey/Basketball/Wrestling/Swimming and now you add to that Cross Country Skiing. In the Spring it wqs Baseball/Track/Tennis/Golf. More offerings with fewer students to be involved will mean smaller participation.
We played and focused on the sports for each season and we didn’t have traveling sports for Winter season taking place in the Fall, Spring and Summer like we have today. Seriously how long is a J.O. Volleyball Season?!!
We didn’t have so many parent led “special teams” that excludes young athletes if they are not some how connected to the right person or if they lack the money to pay for the additional costs to travel to extra tournaments. Young athletes are getting shafted today because too many people think they are the next great coach of the year!
What I really see happening is that there are fewer “pick-up games” happening in our parks and outdoor rinks. Man I can remember playing ball until it got so dark we couldn’t see the ball coming at us! Or playing Hockey on an outdoor rink for so long that our feet hurt from being so cold! Young athletes today are being so conditioned to focus on one sport that they don’t get to enjoy sports!
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