longtermprogram

Hockey Should Be Part of A Long-Term Personal Development Program For Children
A special feature by Robert Kirwan
Publisher, After The Whistle

The other day I received an email from a parent who lives in Southern California. She provided me with some background information on the hockey program in which her son is involved. Before making any comments or comparisons with Canadian hockey, I want you to read what she wrote.

I am a parent of a 10 year old squirt goalie (In his third year of travel hockey, but been skating since age 3). He is on the California Wave Squirt AAA team. Our local league is an A level mixed league until PeeWee when they have tier teams at AA and AAA. The Wave is one of the top clubs in Southern California. Our coaches routinely take the kids to Canada for tournaments - partly because the vast majority of the club coaches are Canadians who have played semi-pro hockey. They try to take the kids to the tournaments where they will see high level competition for their age bracket. Our local league is not birth year which handicaps us - you have a year where you are younger and a year where you are older and it flips each year. Most of the teams in our league have a 2 year birth span and play AA in tournaments or AAA in tournaments.

Our club was formed by Jeff Turcotte, who played for the Toronto Marlboros. His family owns the Turcotte Stick Handling Schools. Jeff's Wave 1988 team won the US National Championships last year and the 1989 and 1990 teams both did well in regionals. The club is in its 7th year. Their goal is to prepare the kids for NCAA hockey, and help them get there. Seven of the 1988's went off to prep school this year as part of that plan. Seven of the other Bantams from that team made the Bantam draft. Their program seems to be working.

Generally even the mites and squirts go to Canada for at least one tournament. As a squirt major team, our team will be in the Toronto Marlboro Christmas Tournament and the Ottawa Bell Canada Cup (also do local tournys not in Canada). The minor teams all went to Whitby for the Silver Stick competition. Our 1989 Bantam major team is doing 8 major tournaments with several in Canada - Chilliwack, Medicine Hat, and others. They also went to the Pan American in Indiana and to San Jose to play the Northern California teams. The Wave goal is to pick tournaments that pit their team against the best in all of the major hockey areas to prepare them for Nationals and for moving into college or major junior programs in future. The typical tournaments that the younger kids (below bantam) do are the Silver Sticks, Marlboro, Ottawa, PeeWee Carnivale in Quebec. The Bantams do a lot more.

Last year our son went to Toronto for the Paul Coffey tournament at Christmas with the Wave (his team was a mixed team so they had to play 92's), and in the summer before went to the Manitoba Mustang tournament in Winnipeg in May and the AAA Challenge in Edmonton in June on a AAA tournament team for the LA Junior Kings. He also went to Calgary this summer for the GDI goal tending camp and is already registered to go there
again next year.

For us a trip to Toronto is no more expensive than a trip to New York or Colorado, and maybe less expensive than a trip to Texas because of air fares. The cost is the same or less as versus any trip outside the state except to Arizona or Nevada. Therefore, the coaches pick the tournaments which they think will help develop the players the most.

We actually live in Lake Arrowhead, so we are 1-1/2 hour drive from practices and. He has 4 sessions per week with the Wave, 1 skills, 2 practices, and one game, sometimes also an exhibition game. The Wave have the best coaching in the area so we're making the drive. Our son just wants to play as high a level of hockey as he can and he loves this team and the coaches.

Our goal is to take our son from here to a good prep school with a good hockey program and then hopefully to a Division 1 college program. At present he is loving hockey and doing a local prep school for academics. He is preparing to meet his goals by what he is doing assuming he continues to keep up in hockey skills and the desire remains. If not, we've had a lot of fun with the team and the travel, and he's learning a lot of life skills.

We got into hockey on a more local basis right here in the mountains, and then our son started moving up in skill levels and then our local rink was shut down. At that point it was travel or don't play hockey. We are probably with the travel club that travels the most out of our area, and some clubs never leave Southern California, so you can pick what your budget/desires will support. Travel hockey is quite expensive here as versus other sports, around $2500 US for dues if you have 2 full practices. The cheapest clubs are about $1200 with one shared practice. Jerseys, socks, warmups, and all travel are extras. A typical year for us costs around $25,000 US. Going the cheapest route in travel you could play for about $2000 at a lower level of play. Tier travel will increase our expenses a bit because there will be more trips. A good east coast prep school like Cushing with hockey included is about $33,000 US so you get your prep school and more hockey for about the price of the local AAA travel. Its probably a different situation in your area due to more rinks and a higher interest level.

Sharon Keeney
Lake Arrowhead, California

It is obvious that Sharon has her son involved in a very special hockey program that is beyond the reach of most families. Many readers will focus entirely on how much it costs her per year to have her son play on this traveling team and also on how much traveling is done. Critics will also be quick to condemn the program as going overboard.

However, upon closer, more objective analysis, what the California Waves have done is develop one of the most comprehensive, effective minor hockey development programs I have ever come across. Jeff Turcotte realized that there are parents who have the means to pay for this program and want their children to develop their skills in a positive manner which will broaden their opportunities.

One of the things I noticed in Sharon's description is that she never once mentioned that she was hoping her son would have an opportunity to develop a professional career out of hockey. The primary focus of the California Wave program is to prepare players for NCAA (University) hockey. In other words, the focus is on education first. In Canada, we want our children to get into Junior hockey so that they can be seen by the scouts and get drafted by an NHL club. Very few people ever think about scholarships and playing university hockey, unless they are trying to get into a school in the United States. Major Junior is still an option in the United States, but it is secondary to the NCAA.

Another thing that I noticed is that her son is on the ice four times a week. However, only one of those occasions is a game. The other three are practices and skill development. If they play two games, one of them is usually an exhibition. Up to five times a week is not unusual, even for most Canadian teams. But that would normally include at least three games. Obviously skill development is very important to this club.

The tournaments are amazing, not for the number, but for the distance the teams have to travel to play top notch competition. That is where the expense comes in. Nevertheless, it is by playing in these tournaments that the California Waves are able to attract elite players who really and truly want to become the best they can be. In Canada, it is not unusual for AAA teams to play in 8 or more tournaments, but seldom would so many of them involve such extensive travel.

Perhaps the best feature about the hockey program in Southern California is that, despite the high cost of being part of the Waves program, there are a variety of other options for families. For example, Sharon points out that the cheapest level for a travel program would cost about $2000 per year - one tenth the cost that she has incurred. Thus, it is not necessary for someone to spend beyond their means to have their child play hockey. A parent can find a good program which will suit their financial situation. The same is true for the most part in Canada, but the elite levels are more within reach of the average family, especially when you factor in that the AAA levels usually attract significant corporate sponsorship.

The nice thing about placing the primary focus on getting to play at the NCAA level, is that just about every child in the program will be successful. For example, a child will continue to play hockey until he graduates from high school. Upon entry to university, he will either play for the varsity squad, with or without a scholarship, or play some form of intramural hockey. In any event, he will still be going to school. In Canada, if a player focuses on the Major Junior level, he may place all of his hopes in a professional career and end up in one of the minor leagues with little or no education.

On behalf of all of our readers, we want to thank Sharon for sharing her story with us. It certainly provides insight into the hockey programs that exist in Southern California and may be of great benefit to others who wish to develop a similar program.

COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS

Loved your article. We here in Bakersfield are very lucky. Our costs for clinics and lessons are much cheaper. And of course my drive is at the most 15 minutes one way. Our quality of coaches is excellent and refs are no problem as we have a strict policy against abusive

parents and players. Good luck to you and every parent who is sacrificing to make their child's dream come true. But for the grace of our city and Bolthouse Farms I would be traveling to Valencia (an hour and a half) one way and paying much more.

Irene

In the article about hockey development in southern California, the author touched on some of the various other reasons why it's tough to get players. She didn't mention that with southern California's great weather year around, in addition to baseball, basketball, soccer, and football, many kids also participate in swimming, water polo, wrestling, tennis, track, boy/girl scouts and it's hard entice people into an expensive sport when there are some many choices year-round and if you want to do more than one thing, you have to find a way to fit it all in even with a local rink.

It seems that a lot of people are talking about the cost of hockey keeping people away and I agree. Most people have been talking about the cost of travel teams, which can be a lot, but in house isn't that cheap either. a lot are from 250 to 400 per season depending on the age group. that is a lot less than the 1200 or so people are talking about but for some, a few hundred dollars is still a lot.

Thank you for your time

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