Welcome to the 2019-20 hockey season! The Ice Scheduling Committee expects to schedule approximately 2000 events for 20 traveling teams and 10-14 mite/house teams. We expect perfection, as do all of you, but are realistic to know we all are prone to making mistakes. The committee consists of Ice Scheduler, Renee Voltin, and other volunteers who aim to allocate ice in an unbiased way. Throughout the season when you find a mistake, please understand it was accidental. While we look at all the items at once, you, as parents, will see them as they affect your family. This view can be different and, at times, for the good of the whole, we may have differing opinions of a situation. Your help, patience, and tolerance are greatly appreciated. Contact us quickly if you find any discrepancies, game issues, scheduling conflicts, etc. to allow us to address them as quickly as possible (AAHAice@gmail.com).
The allocation of ice
We utilize a “funnel” approach to the overall amount of ice/appearances a team or level will be allocated. The upper part of the funnel holds the most, and the lower part holds the least. Bantams/15U fall at the upper/wider part of the funnel, Peewees/12U fall in the middle, and Squirts/10U fall at the lower/ narrower part. Within each tier, we have a similar “funnel” effect as the A’s are the upper part, B1’s in the middle and B2’s the lower. Where we have C’s, we give them an even lower percentage of ice. Mite ice hours are provided to the Mite director who allocates them to the teams.
When allocating ice, we take into account the availability of teams and the ice that we have left to schedule. As the season starts up, we chart each team’s games, tournaments, and other planned events (e.g. scrimmages). With this information, we review the remaining available home ice and determine which team has availability and greatest need. Again, this is done within the “funnel” approach. We create the schedule in blocks (see description included below) and try to balance our “funnel” at the end of each block. Based on team availability, this can seemed skewed at a specific point in the season, but we manage this on a year to date/overall recap at the end of each scheduling block.
Managing Late Ice Hours
Late hours are defined as practices with start times of 9:40pm and later. We try to spread these out so teams do not have too many occurring within in each scheduling block. One rule we follow is to consider who can utilize specific ice hours. We have two types of late ice hours. Hours that have school the next day are termed –school day lates, and hours that do not have school the next day are termed –non school day lates. Late ice hours that are on weekdays, but there is no school the next day, are considered non school day lates. All teams, all levels, are eligible to get allocated a school day and non-school day late ice hour. All school day 10:10 pm practices for squirts/u10's are scheduled under the assumption that these will be cancelled by the coach. The association owns more 10:10pm ice hours during the week than on weekends and therefore this hour during the week will need to be allocated to younger teams as well. Also, when managing the quantity of lates, the number of lates a team will receive is proportional to the number of ice hours/appearances they have. The more ice you get, the more lates you get! We try to match the percentage of total ice available with the percentage of late ice hours for a team.
Ice Blocks
Ice is scheduled in blocks. Block scheduling, versus scheduling the entire season, allows us the flexibility to address game changes, utilize team availability, be flexible if teams add tournaments and meet other needs that arise throughout the season. Typically, we schedule in 4 blocks.
** First day after tryouts are completed through the Day before district games start (Sunday, Nov. 10)
a. Game scheduling occurs on Wednesday, October 23 and Saturday, October 26
b. All conflict dates that you are aware of for the season should be reported to the ice committee by Oct. 19
** Start of Games through Early/Mid December
** Early/Mid December through Peewee Tournament
-- yes, there may be games scheduled and will be practices scheduled during Thanksgiving and winter breaks
** Peewee Tournament through the end of regular league season, before district playoffs begin
Posting of Ice On the Website
After each block of ice is scheduled, we review it for accuracy and to double check for any recording mistakes. Once it is reviewed, we post it on the web site via our WebLink software. An email is sent to the Board of Directors and Team Managers to notify them of the update and make them aware. It is the responsibility of the Team Manager to communicate changes/updates to the calendars. For Mites, an email is sent to the Mite Director who is responsible to communicate the changes/updates to coaches/ managers.
Recaps and Reporting
After each block of ice is scheduled, the committee provides a recap of the year-to-date ice scheduled, including late, early and overall allocation. This recap is brought to the monthly board meeting and included in the minutes filed for the meeting.
Coaches and Managers Responsibilities
As coaches and/or managers, you have some responsibilities. Adherence to these rules will keep your team in compliance and avoid penalties.
Notify ice committee of team scheduled events. If your team schedules events at other facilities, it is your responsibility to notify the Ice Committee prior to each scheduling block. All tournaments, games, and other events are tracked in a spreadsheet by team and used to aid the scheduling process. Failure to comply could result in conflicts that your team will be responsible to resolve, including cost of ice time.
Comply with the “Rest Rule”, the 2-10 Rule (page 22 of the District 10 handbook). Teams must have 2 hours rest between events during the same day and 10 hour rest overnight. Rest time is calculated as the actual end time of an event to the start time of another event. This includes practices, scrimmages, games, all “team” ice activities. Association sponsored skills sessions are considered optional and the rule does not apply. If you discover a violation by the ice committee, please contact them immediately to resolve the error. Violations created by a team that has not communicated with the ice committee will be subject to District 10 fines and rulings. The ice committee does not review your team’s website calendar. It is your responsibility to understand the rule when scheduling any additional events or trading ice hours with another team.
Promptly review ice schedule and communicate any errors, game changes, etc.
Additional Information
Game Changes: Game scheduling occurs Oct. 23 and Oct. 26. You will be asked to proof your game schedule prior to the finalization of game scheduling shortly following those dates. Any game changes may incur a cost that will be assessed to the team. Home games will be posted onto team calendars by the ice scheduler. Away games will be entered onto the team calendar by the team manager.
Ice for Sale process: A team that chooses to sell ice should contact the AAHA Finance Officer (aahafm112@gmail.com) along with the Team Manager and/or Head Coach of the team purchasing the ice. The selling team should note the specific teams involved, as well as the location, date, time, and time duration (60 min/90 min/etc.) of the ice slot being sold. Contact information for the point person from each team should also be included in the email communication.
Billing: Effective for the 2019-20 season ice cost is typically $185 per ice hour (full sheet) at Anoka and $200 at Rogers (full sheet). When sharing ice, cost for the ice is split between the teams on the ice. Home team pays for game ice hours.
Team Calendar: To view ice for your team on the website, go through your calendar, choose the tag for your team and view. Association sponsored level events (e.g. pond hockey, skills) may not be added to your team calendar automatically. Managers may choose to add items individually to your calendars.
Posted Ice Hours: Managers should NOT edit any events scheduled through the ice committee. If you make changes, they will be lost if an updated ice is schedule is uploaded for any reason. The upload process pulls down off of team calendars the entire schedule and uploads all events again and cannot differentiate items that you updated. Instead of deleting or modifying ice committee events, add additional events or create news items to capture team specific details.