2024/25 - Season Start Information

Welcome to another exciting season of Red Deer Pond Hockey!

Thank you to all of you for choosing Pond Hockey and helping our organization grow and thrive!! We have a lot of new families this year so this email will serve as a guide for new families, as well as to inform returning families of some changes and some upcoming meetings, camps etc. We wanted to take a few minutes to send you some very important updates and details on the upcoming season.

We know this is a long read, but we ask you to please read all of the below information as it contains a lot of important details and changes for the upcoming season.

Ice Times - The City of Red Deer has advised that the Ice plant at the Kinsmen Twin Arenas suffered a catastrophic failure and as such they are unable to make ice for the rinks in the arena. A replacement has been ordered but will not arrive and be up and running until some time in December. How does this impact us? All organizations in Red Deer that use this arena are impacted by this issue as it means less ice availability for all organizations. So we will be forced to use some alternative ice times and locations this season. Our scheduler has been working hard to try and minimize the impact and we have been meeting with the City to ensure all of our other previous ice schedules are unaffected. We ask for your patience and understanding if the ice times and locations are slightly different this year, these issues are beyond our controls and as previously mentioned all sports organizations in Red Deer are impacted, and the City is intent to get the arena back up and running as quickly as possible.

Coaches!! Thank you to all of you that have signed up to coach, Red Deer Pond Hockey is a 100% volunteer ran organization and without you we could not operate!! And with saying that, we are looking for more of you!!! Every team needs at least 2 coaches and one team manager, and we are still a few coaches short. If you are interested in volunteering to be a coach we ask you to please register yourself as a coach in the RAMP system. Or please feel free to reach out to us at coachliaison@reddeerpondhockey.com for more information on the roles. Without an adequate number of coaches we are unable to build teams, so if you are thinking about signing up, please do so as soon as possible.

Team Managers will also be necessary and all teams are required to have a Team Manager by the time we start our first games. So again, if you are thinking of signing up as a Team Manager, please do so as soon as possible as this will assist us in the team building process. As a Team Manager or a coach you are eligible to receive your volunteer bond refund in full as long as you fulfill the responsibilities of your role. We would also direct you to our website for some additional information Red Deer Pond Hockey : Website by RAMP InterActive

Special requests and expectations for the season etc. Now that registration is closed, team building will begin. This process is very time consuming and our Division coordinators, put a lot of time and effort into taking all of the prior season feedback from coaches, and whatever skill level you enter into the registration to ensure that teams are built fairly and equitably. We do our best to ensure that teams are not stacked, or built unfairly, but please understand, these coordinators do not know all of your children, nor do they know their skill levels. Division coordinators are volunteers, so they do their best. While they try to accommodate as many friend and coach requests as possible, we want to be clear that not all special requests can or will be accommodated. Red Deer Pond Hockey does not host try outs,  as we simply do not have the available ice times or resources to do so. Fees are low because of the way we operate and the format in which we build teams. Red Deer Pond Hockey is home to children of ALL ABILITIES, this may mean that the player next to you and across from you, has never skated before, may have some physical challenges, or may have some developmental challenges. We count on those players that are strong to help build and support those players that may not be as strong. Red Deer Pond Hockey is not the place for teams that want to slaughter the competition, it is a place of support and friendship, where kids get to play the sport they love without feeling threatened or out of place. We would appreciate that if you as parents can communicate this with your children, to ensure they understand, we are a NO HIT LEAGUE, and kids are here to have fun. Yes there will be a certain level of competitiveness as there is in all sports, we understand that, but we are not the place for bullying, violence, or unsportsman like conduct of any kind. There has been an alarming increase in penalties and disciplinary actions over the past couple of seasons and want to make it clear. We will have ZERO tolerance for any behaviors outside of the philosophy and vision that is Red Deer Pond Hockey. Last season we were forced to cancel games for a weekend in one division due to escalating issues and to ensure the safety of our players, Please know we will not hesitate to do so again if deemed necessary.

As such we will be hosting a parent meeting and information night in October, date, time and location to follow. We request that at least one parent from every household attend this meeting, as we will be setting out the upcoming season details and outlining the expectations for the conduct of both players and parents this season.

Team Assignments - Once team building is complete and we have enough coaches to build teams, the teams will be released the week of October 15^th. Your assigned coach will reach out to you no later than October 17^th. The first ice times will begin the weekend of October 19^th. Again, we can not provide the schedules until all teams are built, so the schedule will be released in RAMP as soon as teams are complete, and ice availability is confirmed. A reminder again, we can not accommodate all friend requests, age exemptions requests, coach requests etc. Our Team Builds are final, and we will not be moving players around after Team Builds are complete. If your request was not approved, we would suggest you encourage your children that this is a great opportunity to make new friends. As is the case in ANY sports league, not all friends get to be on the same team.

Season play and schedule information- For those that are new to our league - WELCOME! A bit of information on our format and schedules Our games are 1 hour once a week, typically on weekends, and the day and time will vary. If the City of Red Deer approves, we may have practices once a week, for one hour at an Outdoor Rink in the City of Red Deer. These practices do not start until the Outdoor Rinks (ODR’s) are open for the season and not until the City approves it. The day of the week, and time are chosen by the coaches once we receive the locations we are approved to use. Your coaches will be advised when opened, then will advise you what date and time. The outdoor practices are weather dependent the coaches will notify you if a practices in canceled.

First Ice Times - For Divisions 1,2, 3 and 4 the first two ice times are a practice and are an opportunity for players to get to know each other and their coaches. You will be sharing the ice with another team, but no game will be played. The third weekend will be when games will start. For Division 5 & 6 the first ice time will be a practice and then the games will start on the second weekend of play. Again, you will be sharing the ice with another team.

Team communication - Red Deer Pond Hockey pays for teams to have access to use the RAMP App for coaches to communicate with their player families. In the RAMP App you can view schedules, mark your game attendance, sign up for volunteer roles etc. We encourage all of you to download the RAMP app today. Please note, that once the teams are released in RAMP, you may need to sign out and sign back into the app to have your players details updated in the App. Team details will not show until teams are released. Instructions on how to download the App can be found here Microsoft Word - RAMP App Install.doc (rampinteractive.com)

Volunteering - Red Deer Pond Hockey is a 100% volunteer ran organization. We count on all of you to step up and help out so that we can continue to offer low fees. The volunteer bond is intended as an incentive to help out your teams as we can not rely solely on the coaches and team managers to handle all of the work. For every hour of volunteering you complete you will earn back $10 of your volunteer bond up to the full $50 bond refund. There are multiple roles and opportunities to volunteer from coaching, team manager, score keeper, jersey parent, event planner etc. You will be responsible to track your own volunteer hours which are tabulated at the end of the season. Information on the various volunteer roles and the tracking sheet, can be found here Red Deer Pond Hockey : Website by RAMP InterActive

Upcoming Events- 

Goalie Camp: We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting our free goalie camp again. This camp is not exclusive to only those players that are signed up as goalies, but for all players that are interested in becoming a goalie. The spaces are limited so we encourage you to sign up early!! Goalie Camp dates and times and sign up will be sent out in the next few days, it will be held the weekend of October 5/6.

Parent Information Night: As mentioned above we will be hosting a parent information night, and we ask that at least 1 parent from each household attend. Date, time and location to follow.

If you have hung in this long and read all of the above information, THANK YOU. We understand it is a lot of information, but we have MANY new registrations this season, so there is a lot of information to pass on. We strongly encourage you all to get to know each other and your coaches, please take the time to introduce yourself and your children. Team Managers and coaches need to know who the players belong to if anything were to happen, so they need you to introduce yourselves.

As always, Red Deer Pond Hockey is always looking for volunteers on the Board of Directors, if you are interested in joining our board of directors, please reach out to us at info@reddeerpondhockey.com     

We are looking forward to a successful and safe season. We appreciate your membership and support of our kids and helping us to return to the foundation of the basis that Red Deer Pond Hockey began; “Red Deer Pond Hockey is a family oriented organization, which believes that all youth should have the opportunity to play hockey in a fun and supportive environment.” Our founder Brian Ennis, wanted to create a safe place for his child to play despite his diagnosis, where he could thrive and enjoy the sport that he loved. We appreciate your cooperation in continuing this vision.

Red Deer Pond Hockey Board