Time/Place:
Present: Alicia Brundage, Sean Brundage,
Tom Burnham, Jaime Cabanas, Bertha Castaneda,
Minutes:
·
The primary agenda of this
meeting was to finalize team rosters and put together a schedule for the first
weekend of play for the Spring season, which begins
·
Any player new to the
league must undergo mandatory Sportsmanship training on Saturday before they
will be allowed to play. For new youth players, the
session is also mandatory for one parent or guardian. The
sessions will be held Saturday,
·
Wes Sanders wants to play
on two teams, the Hamsters and the Hawks. J.P.
Rodriguez, coach of the Hawks, asked the Board to approve his being named on 2
rosters. Dave Rockstraw read an excerpt from the USA
Hockey In-Line handbook that essentially says that a player may be named on two
rosters in the same age division only if they are a goaltender. A discussion ensued regarding Wes’ role on both teams;
J.P. said that he was the Hawks’ back-up goalie but he did not know for sure
what his role on the Hamsters was. No Hamster coaches
were present to provide further input. Wes is recovering from a broken
arm and is going to miss the first three weeks of the season anyway, so Derrik
suggested that a decision be tabled for the time being pending further
fact-finding and discussion by the Board. Wes was
placed only on the Hamsters’ roster pending the Board’s final decision.
·
Chris Christenson raised
the question of whether or not a youth player could “play down” in the youth
division again after they had “played up” in the O16 league. His
contention was that a decision had been made at a September Board meeting that
once a player moved up to the O16 division, they essentially forfeited their
eligibility to play in the youth divisions forever. This
would make Dan Short ineligible to play in the 14-16 division for the Spring
season, as he had previously “played up” in the O16 division.
Joe Short said that any youth meeting the age criterion for 10-13 or
14-16 divisions should be able to play with their peer group if they wanted to. He further stated that at the time this rule had been
voted on, he was under the impression that they had been talking about a per
season ineligibility only. In other words, once a
player had chosen to “play up” for a particular season, they could not move
back down during the course of that season. Several
other Board members said that at the time they voted on this rule, their
perception had also been that it was on a per season basis only. Dan will therefore be allowed to play with the Coyotes
this season.
·
The confusion over the
aforementioned rule generated further discussion centered on the need to get
the decisions that have been made at Board meetings properly incorporated into
the by-laws and the need to clarify language in many of the existing by-laws so
that loopholes and ambiguity are minimized. Derrik
suggested that the Board start to put together an agenda for a meeting in late
May or early June. This way, the full Board and any
interested Association members could have advance notice and be present to
provide input on issues that would become part of the formal by-laws of the
organization. Patty volunteered to start a running
list of concerns/issues to be addressed at this meeting.
·
Dave mentioned that he
thought that there were a couple of kids who played last season who may not
have signed up for the Spring season because of financial constraints. He recommended that the league “scholarship” these players
if they wanted to play. Someone suggested that they
could do equipment teardown for three weeks (each) to “repay” the scholarship. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea, and John Mercer
volunteered to contact the players and see if they wanted to play under this
agreement.
Respectfully submitted by Patty
Walters, Secretary, LCIHA