With hundreds
of classifications used by amateur hockey leagues, across the USA, and
Canada, evaluating teams for tournament play requires a considerable amount
of time and experience. For example, the Cleveland Suburban League
uses the RPI system, and classifies teams as AA, A1, A2, A3, B1, and B2.
In Massachusetts, teams are classified A, B, and C with the exception of the
Boston Metro League. Michigan's Little Ceasers Hockey League classifies all
minor teams as A, all major teams as AA, and has between 7-9 divisions
consisting of 7-10 teams at each age level. Teams in the top 2 or 3 division
are rank, and can compete with some AAA, and strong AA teams. Teams in
the lower divisions are unranked, and may compete with weaker AA, A, and
sometimes House Select teams. If that's not confusing enough, many
areas in the United States do not have separation between minor and major
age players like you see in Canada, and certain parts of the United States
such as Michigan.
So it is not safe to assume that an A2 team from the Cleveland Suburban
League consisting of 5-8 major age players can compete with an A team from
Massachusetts that may have all major age players and is consider the
highest caliber classification in their perspective league. Likewise,
although an unranked A team from the Little Ceasers League may compete well
against other A teams, these teams have all minor age players, and with this
age difference could be at a major disadvantage if they where to play other
A teams from Cleveland and Massachusetts.
With this in mind, organizations that run too many tournaments (5 or
greater) can not afford the time or effort required to properly screen their
applications, and typically misplace teams because they don't understand how
classification differ across the United States, and Canada, or simple don't
care because they are just tying to fill their tournaments. I can't tell you
how many teams call me complaining that they were just cancelled out of some
other tournament at the last minute. You may be asking yourself why
this happens. Common sense will tell you that when an
organization contracts with multiple ice facilities, and is obligated to pay
for this ice time regardless of turnout, running 5, 10, and in some cases 50
tournaments per year makes filling all of their tournaments dates a top
priority. Consequently, up-front all teams that apply are
accepted, 4 teams can constitute a division, no consideration is made for
teams that compete against each other in their perspective leagues,
scheduling is last minute since the tournament is still looking for teams
days before their event which may lead to a last minute cancellations, or
salvaging the division by allowing an unqualified team free admission.
Each of our tournaments receives 100 to 130 applications. We screen each
application based on birth year, and team classification which requires a
certain amount of cross-referencing since in New Jersey a B team may not be
equivalent to a B1 team from Cleveland, but may be equal to a MD team from
Ontario. We then compare the applications against historical data that
we have accumulated since 1990, which consist of approximately 3500 teams,
and over 10,000 games results. By analyzing the trends within our own
tournament results we can determine which classifications are compatible
within reason, and make an initial assessment on how each team may compete,
base on their classification. This initial screening sets the stage
for a more qualitative screening step that takes into consideration each
team's league, and non league performance, tryout numbers, number of teams
in their association, city population, league reputation, North American
rankings when applicable, and other data points that may influence our
assessment. Finally, teams are advised of our results, and when there
is doubt, a mutual decision is made based on all of the facts allowing a
team to back out with a full refund if neither party can provide reasonable
assurances that the team can compete. We typically complete this
process 2 months before the event and upon acceptance a team never has to
worry about a last minute cancellation since a minimum of 5 other paid
teams have been accepted for the perspective division. Scheduling,
tournament formats, rules, directions, and other logistics are distributed
in the form of a 25 page tournament guide 1 month prior to the tournament
start date.
WHY GO TO ALL THIS TROUBLE? My objective is to
provide a great out of town hockey tournament experience by placing your
team in a balance division where even those teams with losing records will
have a chance to come away winners. Over the past several years I have
been made many offers to run more tournaments, but as a hockey parent, the
coach of a AAA team, and a Tournament Director. I've turn down those
offers knowing that choosing to run additional tournaments would
irresponsible considering it would be at the expense of my children, the
players I coach, and the teams that look forward to participating in my
tournaments.
