Hello RoughRiders Family,
I wanted to take a moment to connect with everyone to give a few updates on where we are at for the upcoming season. This is more of a for your information email to keep you in the loop on what we are working on behind the scenes.
I also hope everyone is enjoying their spring and summer so far. I do miss seeing everyone around the rink everyday, and can’t wait to get back with everyone this coming season.
Travel Tryouts
We are proud to announce our tryout dates for the 2022-2023 travel season.
8U Travel does not have tryouts, rather they will go through an evaluation process in the month of October to determine placement within the travel program. More information to come.
Travel Season Registration & Policies
I am currently in the process of getting registration for the ‘22-’23 season finalized. Through this process policies are being reviewed, practice schedule projections are developed, coaching staff, and tournament selection are all a part of this. There are three policies we are currently working to evolve to fit not only the current needs of RoughRiders Hockey Club (RRHC), but also look at what the club will be like in the future over the next 1-3 years. We have over 100 players that participate in our RYHL & IP that are not currently in our travel program. We are also for the first time this fall season, starting girls only teams, and with that said, there are some areas of how we operate that need to evolve over the next few years to keep pace with our ever growing club and programming. Our goal is to have registration open July 12, but this could change as I work through this process with our leadership.
Fundraising Policy
Firstly, the fundraising refund policy. This past season we designated 100% of fundraising back to the teams. Which at the time was the correct decision based on the information we had received from the membership. However, having a portion of the fundraising money going to the General Fund gives our Board of Directors and I opportunities to continue to address the needs of the club. I do not know where we will end up settling for a percentage, but it is an important topic amongst RRHC leadership and will have a good plan for the upcoming year.
Our biggest need for our player development is the addition of another goalie coach to assist Coach Jake and Nick with this position. I do know our goalie development is good, but there is always room for improvement. With that said, we are partnering with the USHL club to bring a joint goalie coach for the clubs, but in order to achieve this we have to allocate funds from the year’s upcoming budget. This is just a single example of where the club could have used the fundraising money to improve the experience of every player.
Tournament Selection Policy
We are also reviewing the process of tournament selection at this time. We are looking at options on how to provide more options for the coaching staff to select tournaments. We will most likely start with 1 or 2 tournaments this year and evaluate the process from there. More to come here.
Game Uniform and Game Day Attire Policy
We are exploring options to have RR sportswear (tracksuits) to be the official game day attire for all games 8U thru 12U, and all road games for 14U and high school. 14U and high school will see a different dress code for all home games in Cedar Rapids.
Under Armor and Bimm Ridder
I will be working with Bimm Ridder and the USHL to provide locally sourced options. The details of what will be offered and when is still a work in progress. In conjunction, we will also have 2 online Under Armor stores opening up this summer: June 10th and August 1. These stores will only be open for a short period of time.
On & Off Ice Schedule
Projected practice schedule:
As of now this is our projected on and off- ice schedule. There are still some unknowns going into the season, such as: number of teams at each age group. I have received confirmation from a number of current IP families that will be making the move to travel, and there are some other moving parts with the development of our girls programming kicking off this fall season. Until I am able to get registration open I can’t at this time say this is set in stone.
Coaching Staff
Earlier this spring, the Executive Board of Directors approved to bring on Assistant Director Jeff Stack on full-time starting here in July. Coach Jeff is an important asset to the club long-term, and I am extremely excited to work closer with him than ever before. His passion and desire epitomizes our coaching staff.
This spring and summer we have seen the addition of several new coaches to our staff. Firstly, Coach Tony Yelden will be working hand-in-hand with Coach Thad Ramsey in the further development of our off-ice program. Coach Tony’s background in PT and his work at the Collins Rec Center will be a tremendous resource for our off-ice programming.
We have added three more non-parent coaches as well: Chris Pigge, Peyton Weber, and Carter Rahe. All of these coaches are former RRHC players and have been an important addition to our staff this spring and summer. Their placement and status for the season is to be determined.
Coach Nick Kieser is making the transition to working specifically with our goalies alongside Coach Jake and our incoming joint goalie coach with the USHL. We are excited about having Coach Nick in this role and the overall improvements we are making in coaching the goalie position.
‘21-’22 Season Refund Issuance
I will be sending an email through TeamSnap to all the RRHC players requesting how you would like your refund issued and will be given three options:
- Donate to General Fund for Club
- Take TeamSnap Credit
- Check
Please be on the lookout for that in the next few days.