New to Hockey
First off, welcome to hockey! If you've hit this page, you and/or your child has expressed an interest in the sport and you're not sure where to start. Hopefully we'll be able to shed some light on how to take the initial steps into hockey life.
Step 1: Learn to Skate
You can't play ice hockey without knowing how to skate. Center Ice Sports Complex offers a variety of ice skating lessons to get you started. Children 6+ generally start with the Basic 1 class while children 3-5 start in the Snowplow 1 class. Class sessions are usually six weeks, with one class per week for 30 minutes. Skates can be rented on-site.
These classes are designed to teach skaters the fundamentals of skating. Skaters who have passed Basic 1 can start the Learn-to-Skate Hockey Class or enter the Accelerated Hockey Progam.
Step 2: Hockey Classes
Once you've passed Basic 1, you can enter the Learn-to-Skate Hockey class or start the Accelerated Hockey Program. It's your choice how fast you want to move. Learn-to-Skate Hockey Classes are similar in structure to the Snowplow and Basic classes: six week session, one 30-minute class per week.
The Accelerate Hockey Program is designed to rapidly enhance your child's skating abilities and is more cost-efficient when looking at amount of ice-time offered. With the Accelerated Hockey Program, skaters are admitted to 2 Learn-to-Skate Hockey sessions per week, plus a 1-hour Learn-to-Play Hockey class. While the Learn-to-Skate classes are skating only, the Learn-to-Play class introduces the fundamentals of stick-handling. The Accelerated Hockey Program also comes with 5 free passes to a Public Skate or Youth Stick Time session. The program follows the same six week session timing as the Learn-to-Skate sessions.
Both the Learn-to-Skate Hockey and Learn-to-Play Hockey classes involve dressing for the game - ie. your child will need to wear hockey pads and helmet. Center Ice provides loaner equipment your child can borrow for these classes if you have not yet invested in hockey equipment.
Step 3: Keep Practicing
Learning to skate and play hockey is a lot of practice and hard work. Getting your child on the ice is crucial to seeing them advance their skills. The more public skate, youth stick time, and hockey sessions they attend the more improvement you'll see and the more ready they'll be for the next step: tryouts.
Step 4: Tryouts
To play in our travel league you will need to attend tryouts. Registration for tryouts usually opens some time in February. The first tryout is in April. Players are required to attend both sessions which generally are 1 hour long on two separate days. At tryouts independent accessors determine what team each player should be placed on based on skill level. The number of teams at each age level is determined by the number of players.
Final tryout for youth players; mite- bantam, usually occur in mid-August. This is for any player that is on a lower team that wants the opportunity (if possible) to move up to a higher team. If your child is currently on a 1 team or happy with their placement after April tryouts, they do not need to attend (unless they want the ice time!)
Tryouts are divided by age group:
- Mite: 8U
- Squirt: 10U
- Peewee: 12U
- Bantam: 14U
Age group is determined by birth year.
Step 5: League Play
A hockey season starts at the beginning of September and typically runs through mid-February or into March depending on age group and various tournament schedules.
Preseason will run mid-September through end of October and is used to assess your team's skill level in order to match you with like League teams. Once team levels have been solidified, regular season play will start in November and run the duration of the season.
Practices are twice per week with games being played mostly on weekends. Some weekday games do occur. Teams are welcome to individually register and pay for various tournaments. Level 1 teams generally play in more tournaments, but each team is case dependent.
