Hello RoughRiders Family,
I wanted to take a moment and update you on some information to allow for planning purposes and keep you all in the loop on what is happening with your hockey club.
This summer here at RRHC has been a busy one for our leadership team across the board. We are diligently working on ways to continually improve our club and the way we operate. As you know, we have seen very consistent growth over the past 4 seasons. With that, I must adapt the way I operate and the way we operate as a club. The areas we are making adjustments are in apparel & uniform consistency across the club, tournament selection, coach travel, and fundraising.
My first year here with RRHC during the 2018-2019 season we only had 8 travel teams that we were managing – less than 100 total players. Then we had the opportunity to start managing and leading IP & RYHL that same year. This coming year we are projecting 12-15 travel teams 8U thru High School, IP/RYHL has over 100 players that come in and out of the programs throughout the year, six home tournaments, 1st year of girls’ teams, and all the spring and summer academy programming. For this to work, to keep myself, Coach Jeff, and all of our amazing coaches on the ice and focused on your son or daughter as much as possible there are advancements in these areas we need to make.
Game Uniform & Game Day Attire
I have been working closely with Bimm Ridder locally and the USHL RoughRiders front office to provide locally sourced options for the upcoming season. We will be offering the following items through the USHL pro-shop this coming year. Details are being worked out as we speak.
- Player workout shorts
- Player workout shirt
- Player tracksuits
- Player pullovers
Our goal is to continue to build inventory and options for our youth program over the next few years right here in the building. This will be a process that will be constantly improving as we move forward. We will provide a pre-order option here in next few weeks. This will be the only way to guarantee availability of sizes for your player. Be on the lookout over next few weeks for this.
For the next few years, we do expect the design of the tracksuit to be consistent. Our option that we are exploring is a Forest Green top with black pants and some grey on the side with logos on both.
In our last Board of Directors meeting, the Game Day Uniform and Player Game Day Attire passed unanimously. Here is what you can expect of that:
- All game uniforms and attire – tracksuits (high school included) – will be purchased on an as needed basis by the player and is not included in tuition.
On-Ice Game Uniforms
- All ages – RRHC jersey and socks
- All ages – black helmet
- All ages – black or RRHC gloves
- 8U-14U Black pants
- HS required to have RRHC breezer covers
- Number selection and availability includes high school.
Game Day Attire
- 8U-14U all games – tracksuits
- HS Home Games – dress code
- HS Away Games – tracksuits
Below are some mock-ups of jerseys, socks, and shells. Here is projected pricing for this year’s game uniforms.
- Socks – $30 (processing and shipping included)
- Jerseys – $90 (processing and shipping included)
- High School Breezer Covers – $45 (processing and shipping included)
- RRHC Hockey Bag (optional) – $95 (processing and shipping included)
Uniform Fittings: July 20th & August 3rd @ 600pm at ImOn Ice Arena.
Tournament Selection Policy
In the most recent Executive Meeting the following policy was adopted. It has been determined all COED age groups will be playing 4 tournaments in Cedar Rapids (2 Big Bear, 1 One Hockey, and RRHC Home Tournament) with additional travel tournaments.
Process to determine total number of tournaments:
- Number of total tournaments per age group will be selected by the Executive with approval by the Executive Board of Directors. This will be based on the USAH recommendation number of games. Total number of tournaments and friendly games will be counted to achieve the recommendation of USAH.
- Number of home tournaments and travel tournaments will be decided for season by the Executive Director with approval by the Executive Board of Directors.
- Travel tournament options will be determined by the Executive Director and Assistant Directors.
- The Director staff can elect to select all the tournaments for a particular age group, based on total number of tournaments allocated.
- -OR-
- Provide an age group or team (Head Coach) the option of selecting their own tournaments. This will vary from year to year based on total number of teams in RRHC.
- -OR-
- The Directors can select a few tournaments for the age groups and have the Head Coaches select a few.
Factors in the process of tournament selection – not in any order of importance:
- Level of play provided by the tournament.
- What region is the tournament in?
- Have we already been to this region?
- Can multiple teams travel together to the tournament?
- This provides an opportunity for multiple coaches to travel together, and a director to be at a tournament with multiple teams and staffs.
- What conflicts are there with the girls’ teams?
- When feasible, we want to coordinate weekends around the current schedule of both teams.
- Date – what is the time from previous tournament and to the next one?
- Ideally, they are evenly spaced out.
- Majority of tournaments need to be in 2nd half of season to allow for maximum growth and team cohesion to be built.
- Travel distance – ideally within a 4 hour drive, unless a special circumstance, such as the Fargo International every other year for 10U.