This one should be obvious - our players are our children, and serving their best interests is the sole reason we have a
right to exist as a club. Simple, right? It is, until you consider that we have 50 different families, each with a unique view of what
should be done with their child's best interests in mind. A club's stated philosophy is never important, at least until it's time for
everyone to get on board and buy in so that we can have a successful season. With all that as background, here is the "mission statement"
of our club - the guiding principle we will adhere to, the way we will administer and coach this club:
"A competitive Varsity team, one capable of winning games against the best teams in our league, is our goal as an organization. In order to achieve that goal, we have developmental teams - JV and Junior High - in place. On those teams we focus on player development. We're committed to allowing every player with an interest in the game to participate, regardless of skill level, with the goal of helping each player eventually earn a spot on the Varsity roster".
The end result is that no matter what a players' skill level is, we have
a place for them in our program. And no matter what their ability is right
now, we believe that we work well with our players, helping them set their
personal goals and placing them on the team(s) where they can be successful.
(Note: The CPIHL mandates that we roster our Seniors and enough underclassmen
so that our 12 best high school players are on the Varsity team only. The
remaining high school aged players form the JV team, and some will also
fill out the remaining slots on our Varsity roster. Dual-teamed JV players
see the majority of their ice time in JV games, playing limited shifts
in Varsity games as part of their development.)
We believe we can all have fun doing this, and if our past seasons are any indicator, we believe we're doing it well. Even though spots on the Varsity roster are limited, we're proud of a claim that no other sports organization that I know of working with players in this age group can make: we have never had tryouts or "cuts" to make a Palmyra hockey team. With a maximum bench of 20 players per team, this is no easier for us than any other organization; we've just been very creative on occasion to make it work.
