By Ron DeGregorio
USA Hockey President

I want to thank the Executive Committee of USA Hockey and the several committees and task forces who worked so hard in preparing for the meetings just before Thanksgiving. The discussions were excellent and continue USA Hockey’s goal of advancing excellence on and off the ice.

USA Hockey has a role in hearing appeals on disciplinary actions. That role is a serious role and has become more time consuming. I am proud of how USA Hockey committee’s and staff are executing this role. We have been very fortunate to have a volunteer in-house counsel for many years in the person of Peter Lindberg. Now we have a full-time paid staff counsel with Casey Jorgensen joining our staff this past June. His presence along with Peter’s provides a professional resource that has helped supervise the hearing and appeals process. Many volunteers, staff, and professional advisors are involved in arriving at decisions in reviewing disciplinary actions appealed under our By Laws. The system has been a fair and deliberative system that is working well. This is a valuable service provided by USA Hockey. USA Hockey has a role in training volunteer coaches and referees. Training coaches and referees has been enhanced dramatically by our on line capabilities. Our live clinics and discussion groups continue to be a valuable benefit as well. Age specific coaching modules have been introduced this year. These modules provide material consistent with long-term athlete development principles. Proper use of small area games and training, progressive checking skill development, managing the risks in the game, and healthy eating and lifestyle are just some of the areas covered within the modules.

Congratulations to all involved in the design and implementation of these modules. Our coaches will be armed better with information to help the children under their auspice as well as answer questions posed by parents and players. As I understand already the coaching group is busy reviewing the new modules and working on improving the modules for next year.

Our busy coaching section and staff have also retooled the coaching certification program. We especially applaud the decision to require completion of just one certification annually. The Executive Committee decided that requiring just one age specific module annually also made sense for our volunteers. It seemed appropriate to require just one age specific module annually until all age levels coached by the coach have been completed. Reinforcing some of the repetitive elements of the modules as the coach completes all the necessary age levels is not a bad thing.

Training other volunteers is also important. USA Hockey’s Progressive Checking Skill Development Program has been working well. Coaches and referees were trained with the same video clips on acceptable body contact, acceptable legal body checking for Bantam and above, and the zero tolerance for intimidation hits in youth hockey. Our goal is to produce players and coaches that understand body contact. Understanding how to protect as well as separating the puck by body contact is an important skill. It has been a skill that USA Hockey player’s need improvement. Legal body checking is a progressive outgrowth of acceptable body contact. Learning body contact skills earlier without fear of intimidation and undisciplined body checking helps in the progression our skill development experts seek. In addition, we have heard much more about the cause and effect of concussions acquired early in life. Managing these risks for our children just makes sense. USA Hockey provides the valuable research and supervision to improve development of players, coaches, and referees as well as help manage the risks in the game.

I have appointed a committee to develop timelines for on-line training modules for parents. Parents do influence the decisions of players. Although these modules will be shorter to complete, the modules will provide access to information beyond the module for those who seek more information on the subject. Parents are important in the hockey experience. USA Hockey can provide more accessible up to date information that can help parents make decisions about the game and its opportunities for their child.

Hockey does not exist without the services of volunteers in the local programs. USA Hockey has some valuable information for volunteer leadership within local hockey organizations. I have appointed a committee to provide timelines for assembling the information and provide an on line training module for various positions in a local hockey program. These modules can provide a valuable service to our member organizations. Assembling the information and locating the information for easy access is a key goal of this group.

Today there is legitimate concern over child abuse and sexual molestation in sports. I am appointing a committee to provide a Children’s Protection Program and Policy that will provide guidance and guidelines for vigilance, reporting, and follow-up of activities that have or could endanger our children from these threats. A complete review of our current program and policies will be part of this group’s task. The group will present to the Legal Committee, the Executive Committee, and the Full Board its report and recommendations. The group will include staff and volunteer leaders headed by our Executive Director Dave Ogrean.

Web and social media are used by so many of our organizations now. USA Hockey has continued to advance its web site to serve its membership with access to information and more. Staff is working on enhancing our use of social media to present how and where members and other hockey stakeholders benefit from USA Hockey activities. One issue we want to address is where or how to find specific web resources available from USA Hockey. So there is a staff group working to help improve navigation and searching on our web site which is full of valuable information for members.

Our American Development Model is the focus of USA Hockey’s hockey department in developing programs and services for members. Our growth of regional managers serving our members in the field has been  such a valuable resource for hockey organizations. They have been an important communication link to our affiliates and local organizations for the ADM. A group has been formed to work on improvements in reaching more stakeholders including players, parents, coaches, referees, and rink/hockey program operators to have even greater impact from ADM. I think we can all agree that our ADM Regional managers are among the most important resources in USA Hockey today.

A report on Junior Hockey has been prepared. The report suggests a change in Junior Hockey governance. The details of the report will be discussed at the January meeting. With the resignation of Dan Esdale as Junior Vice President, Marc Boxer will be the key person until the January election of a new Vice President for Junior Hockey. Junior Hockey continues to be an important and integral part of USA Hockey.

An important driver of resources to fund programs is the USA Hockey Foundation. At its last meeting, the Foundation Board established that there would be more regional Foundation development committees with specific tasks to raise interest and funding for specific programs of USA Hockey. Pat Kelleher will be heading up the development effort of the Foundation to establish foundation members. From these members regional foundation development groups can be assembled. We will be looking forward to some great results from these changes.

The recent success of our on ice teams, the continued increase of Americans in the game at the highest levels in various age categories, and the continuing growth of participants in the game (registration is still increasing by about 2 ½ %) augurs well for what there is to like about USA Hockey.

So, there is a lot going on and a lot to like. Thanks for all you do.