Tryout Information & Procedures

NRYHA and the PCDC would like to provide answers to a lot of questions we receive in regards to our hockey tryout process. When you’re not directly involved, it can leave unanswered questions, and NRYHA would like to explain the process we have in place for selecting our youth teams for the season. We would like to bring transparency and education to our members as we look at creating a process to best support the team selections and development of our players. 

Our season will begin before we know it. Each player will be taking the ice to showcase their skills in what can be perceived as a competition against peers to secure a spot on an A, B or C level. As much fun as it can be to compete against peers, for some, the process can be stressful and emotional when one does not get the results they are expecting. Regardless of personal feelings, competing is what athletics is. The process of competing, winning and losing is what builds character and teaches life lessons.

The tryout process is subjective. Regardless of the outcome it’s up to us, parents and members of the NRYHA community, to best set forth a proper vision for the New Richmond Youth Hockey Program. 

NRYHA is geared to provide every player the opportunity to not only play hockey, but learn, grow, and enjoy the sport. Giving players the opportunity to learn and grow based on their skills. Kids grow, develop, and learn at different paces and we as an association support that. This tryout process is used to place members on a team that will enable the skater to develop their skills with other similarly-skilled players. The policy also strives to assign teams to levels of play that will be competitive, as well as challenging for all team members. The parameters of this policy were assembled to provide a process to place players on teams with these goals in mind. 

Some players have good days, some have not so good days. Our tryout process is a multi-day evaluation of several hockey drills and scrimmages as well as on-ice behavior. Evaluation is the key word. The importance of your player being physically and mentally present for this evaluation is highly recommended. It provides a great opportunity to see players side-by-side and will offer the best evaluation result. 

On the days of tryouts, your player will be asked to show up with all their gear. Please make sure your player has a mouthguard and their own water bottle labeled with their name. There should be nothing to make them look any different than any other player trying out. This includes bright colored hockey tape or laces, decals on helmets, etc. We also ask that all gear is ready for each skater to take the ice. This includes hockey sticks taped, skate blades sharpened, etc. NRYHA will provide each player with a tryout jersey that is numbered to match the evaluator's sheets. The goal is to eliminate any favoritism or biases for considerations based on appearance. 

When you drop your player off, you are asked to not stay. Because this is a tryout evaluation, we want our players free of influence and/or distraction. Let your kids go through evaluations at their own pace. Some players take it very seriously, others do not. If your player needs help getting dressed, you are able to help them and then are asked to leave the rink. 

Who gets to stay? We ask that only the NRYHA approved evaluators, PCDC chair, and on ice tryout staff be in the rink at the time of evaluations. 

Who evaluates the players? Every tryout is not the same. For each level, there are at least 4 evaluators in the booth and anywhere from 1-2 coaches on the ice. The coaches who are on ice are not evaluators and will have no feedback or input on the tryout results. Outside evaluators are used as much as possible. The PCDC is focusing on trying to obtain outside evaluators (see criteria below for all of the tryouts). There are times where the schedule of outside evaluators does not match the tryout dates and times. At that point we move to evaluators that do not have any players within the level they are evaluating. Evaluators will stay with the same role for the duration of the evaluation (i.e., evaluators in the score box stay only in the score box for the duration of the evaluation process, regardless of age). 

How does NRYHA select evaluators? NRYHA seeks evaluators based on the following criteria: 

• Current/past coaching staff from our New Richmond High School Hockey Program 

• Individuals who have previous coaching or playing experience within NRYHA but their own children who played for NRYHA have aged out. 

• Individuals with coaching or playing experience that have never had kids play for NRYHA. 

Evaluators will not be provided a copy of any player names prior, during, or after the tryout process. They will only have a roster of players that include their jersey numbers and colors. 

Each of the players who tryout will be scored in the following categories on a scale of 1-4 (not in order of importance): 

1. Skating 

2. Stickhandling and Puck Control 

3. Hockey IQ 

4. Competitiveness

5. Speed/Agility 

6. Shooting and Passing 

What does the NRYHA tryout process look like?    Tryouts are a 2 day process that are 90 minutes each session. 4 categories for squirts and pewees and 5 for bantams. Skating, passing, shooting, and hockey IQ. Body contact for bantams. Four evaluators will have the opportunity to evaluate your player over the course of three one hour sessions. They will score each skater on the categories listed above. After the tryout sessions are complete the evaluators will have their scores tallied and averaged out. Each skater will be ranked by score. The player’s score will determine what team he or she is placed on. Once all players have been assigned to the appropriate team, player rosters will be posted. Once the tryouts are complete, the evaluators will turn in the scoring sheets to the PCDC chair to determine final calculations (averages) in all 6 skill categories. 

What happens when tryouts are done? Once the tryouts are complete and all scores are tallied for each level. Tryout evaluators will submit final scores to the PCDC chair for a final review and count verification. The PCDC chair will be joined by other PCDC members who do not have kids at that particular level to do a final check and score compilation to determine final team placements, based on scores, for the season. This process is to help ensure accuracy of score calculations as it relates to team placement. 

Team Assembly: The PCDC chair will average all of the data points for each player in all 6 skill areas to determine a player’s final evaluation ranking. Team placement will be based on final scores. For example, if there are 13 spots open on Squirt A team, the top 13 scores will be placed on the team. In the event that there is a tie between two or more individuals. The first tie breaker will be Skating. The second tie breaker will be speed and agility. The third tie breaker will be Hockey IQ.

The tryout process and team selection is a very subjective process. We believe the representation we have chosen from our High School program, high-level hockey individuals from within our community and evaluators who have been teaching at the youth level for years are the best choice for our program. 

Success and growth mean different things when it comes to youth sports. Too often we believe that if our player didn’t make the “A” team that they are a failure. That is simply not the case. Being a part of the top team can be a great individual achievement but is not always the best place for an individual’s growth and/or a good development situation for all kids. 

What if my player didn’t make the team they hoped for? If your player does not receive results that they had hoped for, we ask our parents to consider this an opportunity to teach and encourage your player to work hard, lead by example and be great teammates. 

Our tryout process will never hinder future selection to our High School Program. We are a youth hockey association working to develop our young players to love the game of hockey and come back year after year. Our goal is to grow and support the success of our New Richmond Youth Hockey program. Together, we can encourage and support each other and share resources and knowledge for the better good of our program.