Important Atlanta Knights and MIC Updates – A must read!

Dear players and families:

At some point you can tell me when enough communication is enough.  Since other programs offer very little, we figure that we can err to the side of providing too much.

I wanted to update you as to our plans for the spring, summer and next season.  First of all, your very helpful, frank, and caring responses to my previous requests for feedback have been extremely helpful.  Our staff has been digesting the suggestions and input from each of you, and we have been discussing ideas with many of you at the rink and over the phone.  

We have made a few decisions that we think will benefit all our players and families, and each of these is necessarily based on your input and recommendations.   Here’s is where we are going for the summer and fall:

• We will be fielding a house league that will utilize both sheet of ice for Mite and Squirt age players.  The idea is to adopt the USAH ADM model for these players to build skills, competency, love of the game and better yet, and understanding of the game.  The house league will begin in September and will run through February.  The establishment of an underlying house league will allow us to build hockey players that will ultimately feed our travel program and junior teams.
• From the house league, we will build a “Select” team or All-star team at the midpoint of the season, and this Select team will play in some tournaments and lower level travel events to prepare these players and families for the next level.
• We will field only travel teams that are travel teams.  In other words, we will have no quota on the number of travel teams to field or what level they will compete at.  Rather, our teams will be determined by the number of quality players that can compete at the travel level.  In this manner, we can avoid having a certain number of players on a team or a certain number of teams at each age group, and focus on placing players of similar skills and abilities together and making sure they can compete and develop at the travel hockey level.
• We will field a travel Mite team this fall, with the caveat that we have quality players that can represent themselves and the program properly. 
• We are implementing programs in conjunction with our spring league that provides transition clinics and equipment rental for players coming from roller hockey.  We find these players to be skilled but need help with edging and ice only skills.
• We are going to limit the number of players on the spring league teams, in clinics and goalie clinics, to insure we provide a higher level product and more value for each of you.  Preference will be provided to those in the order they enroll and if they sign up for the season long programming, which makes sense to each of you I hope.

I also wanted to clear up some information related to our spring league.  We have many players and families that may believe that might opt to participate in the pond hockey concept over the spring league games.  Please keep in mind that the pond hockey games will be limited to a total of 8-10 players on the ice each night, and that is what pond hockey is.  The pond hockey games are a supplement to the spring league games and clinics, not a replacement for it.  

We use spring league as program to allow the players to learn creative skills in a 4 on 4, non-checking environment to accelerate skills.  It is also a needed tool for our coaches to evaluate players for the upcoming tryouts and junior team evaluations.   Again, with the increased number of enrollments from players from other rinks, I do not want our own families and players to be left out.  

Our ice sheet renovations are scheduled to begin the first week of June with the ice being down until mid to late July.  Locker room renovations will be concurrent with the ice rink repairs.   With this, the need to skate this spring becomes even more important and ensures those skates are sharp for tryouts and next fall since summer ice will be very limited.

We again appreciate all your input and suggestions.  The amount of feedback we have received is a testament to how much each of you loves this facility and is devoted to our program and I am personally thankful for your loyalty and commitment to all we do.

All the best,

David