Minor hockey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Minor hockey is ice hockey as played by "minor league" teams, as opposed to "major league" or professional teams such as those in the American Hockey League or the National Hockey League, or even junior hockey teams in leagues like the Canadian Hockey League. There are minor hockey leagues all across Canada and Northern United States as well as most European countries.
Players are classified by age, and the rules (especially for checking) vary from class to class.
Generally, players under the age of 18 require a full cage-mask to participate, and this is a rule based on age rather than the level of play the player participate in.
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[edit] Canada
In Canada, the divisions are designated by the Provincial hockey governing body based on Hockey Canada's:
- Mite (ages 3-4)
- Tyke (ages 5-6)
- Novice (ages 7-8)
- Atom (ages 9-10)
- Peewee (ages 11-12)
- Bantam (ages 13-14)
- Midget (ages 15-17)
- Juvenile (ages 18-20)
[edit] United States
In the United States, USA Hockey designates the following levels:
- Novice (ages 6 and under)
- Mite (ages 8 and under)
- Squirt (ages 9-10)
- Peewee (ages 11-12)
- Bantam (ages 13-14)
- Midget 16 and Under (ages 15-16)
- Midget 18 and Under (ages 17-18)
Some leagues also have a younger level referred to as 'Mosquitoes'.
The rankings of the various youth hockey league teams in the US and Canada can be found at the following website: http://www.nationalhockeyrankings.com/
[edit] Sweden
In Sweden, Swedish Ice Hockey Federation designates the following levels:
- U11 (ages 11 and under)
- U12 (ages 12 and under)
- U13 (ages 13 and under)
- U14 (ages 14 and under)
- U15 (ages 15 and under)
- U16 (ages 16 and under)
- J18 (Juniors 18 and under)
- J20 (Juniors 20 and under)
Some levels (especially J18 and J20) are directly administrated by the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation, while lower divisions of the Juniors and below are administrated by the respective sub-federation in each province (landskap).
[edit] Tournaments
Welland Little NHL Tournament:
[edit] Officials
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (June 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Officials for youth hockey are often youth players themselves, calling games in lower levels than the one they participate in themselves. Just as players start out playing youth hockey, officials start their officiating career officiating youth hockey, making it up through the ranks as their officiating skill increases. USA Hockey defines certain levels of their officials and so does Hockey Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Currently, many youth officials quit after a few games, mainly due to verbal abuse from parents, coaches and players. While a certain number quit due to other reasons, the most common reason is that. In the US and Canada, news stories pop up from now and then that describes physical abuse on youth officials, in addition to verbal abuse. This is very rarely reported in other countries, either because it's less prone to occur there, or that it won't get the same news attention. These problems were addressed in Hockey Canada's "Relax, it's just a game"-campain, started in 2002.
A youth official can usually move up the ladder to juniors after about 2 years of officiating, and after a few years more up to senior hockey. This is ofcourse, just as with players, diffrent for each individual as their skill-curves are diffrently shaped.
Many current and former officials feel that their officiating career has aided them in their professional life as well, being more comfortable with handling critical decisions and upset individuals. The combinations of CEO or lower-level boss along with being an official and police officer along with officating is quite common in many countries.
