(Oct 5) U18 Roster Announcements for 2023-24 Season
Hello U18 – Thank you for your patience and understanding today as we all awaited the U18 rosters release. This was the toughest day in the seven years that I have been the U18 Division Director as there were so many moving parts over the last 96 hours – players coming back into the system from AA level tryouts, players withdrawing from hockey, having to drop from a planned eight teams to seven due to player attrition, rosters made (multiple times) and then having to be adjusted (multiple times). It was truly a very difficult juggling act to perform, but we are through to the other side now.
I’d like to start by taking a moment to thank all the people who helped make this season’s evaluations run as smoothly as they did – between the numerous volunteers who helped swing gates, perform timekeeping duties, assisting with checking in players and collecting the wretched-smelling jerseys at the end of games, this is not a one-man show and there is no hope that I could have done this without all of you.
Special mention goes to a few familiar faces who you will have seen at a good number of these games: Tara Lamabe, Lori Pichota, Paige Ogurian, Shawn Reich and Scott Bremner, who volunteered at the vast majority of games. My sincere gratitude to you all!
A MASSIVE thank you to all the evaluators that sat and watched all these players for as many hours as they did. Many of these people are the same ones who will now spend hundreds of hours giving even more to our children by coaching them on the teams they are on. There were also five independent folks that I had out during every one of these sessions (one in particular who attended every game despite not having a child in the association) who provided invaluable feedback as they did not have players in the division, and in some cases, not in the Association at all. These independent reviews are gold as there are no biases from past experiences with players, no rumours they’ve heard, or impressions made upon them. They are hockey guys who evaluated the talent and skills of the players on the ice and nothing more. All of these folks have huge amounts of volunteer DNA and I appreciate the efforts of all of them.
There have been over 9000 data points taken over the last two weeks, hundreds of hours in the summer and fall spent preparing for and executing these evaluations, and many dozens of hours spent analyzing the data and feedback. I am confident that the rosters posted represent the best possible configuration for players into teams that we can present, and which will allow for them to be both challenged and playing at a level appropriate to their skill for the most part. There are a few exceptions this season, for example we have several goaltenders playing well below their maximum skill level because of the unusually high number of goalies we had stick around in hockey this year.
The “bubble” between Tiers 1 and 2 and between 2 and 3 in the Checking portion of the division were extremely tight. In some cases, we had to take a look at player history, and solicit feedback from our association partners at SPKAC to break the tie between a decent number of players, particularly goaltenders. Just because your player is not placed on a tier 1 team, does not mean they are not an excellent hockey player, but the simple math allows for only so many roster spots at each position.
Please remember when looking at the rosters, there will be many who agree with the rankings and placement of players, and some will not. We have examined each player’s evaluation scores from a variety of angles, especially for players who joined us early in the process, and solicited appropriate input from our partners where needed, in order to place players on the team that best fits them in terms of the overall picture of the entire U18 Division. The SPMHA Evaluation Committee was convened to determine the most appropriate placement for any players who were injured from the outset of Evaluations or away and could not participate in the evaluation games themselves.
Lastly, there may be some disappointment when viewing these lists if tier placement doesn’t match your or your child’s expectations for this season. Strathcona County has created a video to help us when coping with disappointment and dealing with adversity. Please remember we do our best to place your player where they can be successful this season and can continue to grow and love the sport. We have a lot of excellent hockey players in Sherwood Park and just because your player does not make the level they were hoping for does not mean they are not a great player.
It is important to note that there are still players tracking around out there in various stages of Junior, U18-AA or U16-AA tryouts who may end up filtering back into our system which could potentially cause changes to these rosters, so nothing is set in stone until November 15, but any changes henceforth will be accompanied by an email or call to the player/family.
Without further delay, here are the 2023-24 Season U18 Preliminary Rosters