Open Letter from Dennis Bellavance to
Prospective Female Midget AAA Players
Hello prospective players and parents.
First of all, sincere apologies for the delay in getting this email out. A number of circumstances lead to the
delay in getting this information out. We are hoping that this email and its attachments will provide everybody
with as much information as possible on this season`s program for the Vancouver Island Hurricanes Female
AAA Midget team.
So here we go:
Tryouts:
The tryouts will be held in Campbell River on Fri. Aug. 9th to Sun. August11th. Just to clear up any confusion,
up until yesterday the tryouts were to be held in Campbell River August 16-18. BC Hockey has opted to now
have them August 9-11 to better align with all the other AAA try outs being held August 9th-11th. Moving the
dates to August 9-11 will also work better for players who may want to try out for the VIAHA Regional A teams
the following August 17 - 18 weekend. A detailed try out schedule will be out shortly.....stay tuned. (Apologies
to families that made plans around the AAA tryouts being on the August 16th-18th weekend.) The cost to try
out is $100.00 and the players will get to keep the jerseys they are given for tryouts. If a player trying out
requires a place to stay for the tryout weekend please contact me and we will set something up to stay at one
of our female program families, no problem. If you would like other information on where to stay please
contact me as well. We will try to get a deal worked out with some local hotels if you choose to stay there.
Registration for tryouts:
Please find attached the form from BC Hockey to declare your intention to try out. You will need to register
with your home association prior to coming to tryouts and have the form sighed. This will ensure proper
protocol is followed and insurance needs are met.
Coaching:
A head coach was selected previously, but the selected head coach had to step away from coaching this
season due to changing work commitments. BC Hockey is going through their process to fill this position, as
per the Midget BC AAA Female policy and applications are closing July 11. BC Hockey will be announcing the
new head coach very soon. Upon this announcement I am sure the head coach select will be sending out a
detailed email outlining his or her vision and plans for the program right away...stay tuned for this. You can be
assured that this will be a high performance program, complete with off ice skill development, a
comprehensive fitness/nutrition program, fitness testing, etc.
Schedule:
The schedule was set by BC Hockey and the local hockey associations. You will find attached a calendar with all
practices and games that are known at this point. Of course schedules are subject to change, but hopefully not
too much. There are some TBA’s , but hopefully these can be all sorted out very soon (once the VIAHA Island
league schedule is set things will become a lot clearer...but there will most likely be ice on almost all of the
"TBA" weekends.) The Vancouver Island Hurricane Midget Female AAA program has intentionally been
structured as `weekend loaded` to hopefully enable as many players as possible from all over Vancouver Island
to participate in this level of competitive hockey.
Affiliate Players (AP’s):
The Hurricanes coaching staff are permitted to “AP” players from all over the island. It is strongly encouraged
that players that would like to have the opportunity to be an AP player attend the tryouts so the coaches have
the opportunity to evaluate them first hand.
Jerseys:
We are very fortunate to have Shane and Colleen Hogg donate full sets of pro style home and away jerseys/
socks as well as a full set of practice jerseys. The layout of these jerseys is attached as well. This will be a
cost that the players/ parents will not have to cover! Thanks so much Shane and Colleen.
Travel:
There will be a substantial amount of travel as you will see looking at the attached calendar. Busses will be
used whenever it makes best economic sense.
Cost for the season:
We have done preliminary budgets for the season and it appears that a cost of $ 7000.00 ( max) per player for
the season is realistic and reasonable. Hopefully with some more planning and some sponsorship monies this
figure can be reduced significantly .This cost would include travel costs, some team meals, registration costs,
etc. More details will come out on this (including a payment schedule) when the coaching staff and manager
have had the opportunity to sit down and really go over things, but we don’t expect it to go over the $7000.00
amount.
Next steps:
Register for the tryouts and hit the gym and the ice! Tryouts are thirty days away.
Campbell River Minor Hockey is excited to be hosting this team and look forward to providing the Island
midget female players a place to play some competitive hockey. This is an ISLAND team and we will do
everything we can to make things work for players from all over the island.
Hopefully we have covered most everything in this email ...but I am sure there are some things we haven’t
covered. Please feel free to call or email me anytime and I will do my best to answer any questions.
Thanks.
Dennis Bellavance
CRMHA Female Development Coordinator
CRMHA Association Development Coordinator
Cell. # 250 – 205 - 0572