Midstate

Click here for June / July /August 2001 NEWSLETTER PRESIDENTS CORNER For those of you who have not seen election results, the STHA Board of Directors has filled the positions for 2001-2002. My name is Randy Warner. I was elected President of the Board for the upcoming season, and hope to forge ahead with some new ideas that will help the Board become proactive rather than reactive. In past years we have spent too much time rehashing the past. My first involvement with the STHA was as a player in the 1973-1974 Season. I finally was able to start giving some time back to this great sport four years ago thanks to a co-worker asking me to be an Assistant for his sons Mite team. It is now the start of my fourth year on the Board and in that time I have had the opportunity to see many things accomplished. I look forward to many more being added to the list this season. I have coached for four years in the Mite Level and have been an Assistant Coach for two at the Bantam Level, which allows me to see things from that perspective as well. I would like to thank all of the outgoing Board Members for their hard work over the past few years. The groundwork that they have laid gives the present Board a good foundation to work with. When I first joined the Board, there was major debt and an air of mistrust from the membership. Jeff Bedford succeeded in turning our finances around, and the rest of us have tried to create a more open atmosphere for the overall improvement of the Association. Thank You Dan, Fran, Jeff & Steve. The Board has already put a few new policies in effect to streamline our jobs and more will be coming. Some updates: With input from the Coaches Meeting held in June, we have eliminated the Skill Sessions in favor of allowing a Coach to keep the core of his team from the previous year and going to a draft to round out the remaining roster spots. We will be outlining the Duties of Coaches, Division Directors, and Team Reps. so that everyone will have a better understanding of what is expected of them. * Division Directors will be required to attend all Board Meetings and we are strongly encouraging a representative from each team to do so as well. The House Rules are being updated and will be distributed at the beginning of the season. ZERO Tolerance will be strictly adhered to right from the start of the season. This is a youth sport and everyone will conduct themselves in that manner. I have been in discussions with the new President of the Referees Assoc. and we will not accept any negative behavior whether it is on the ice, on the bench or in the stands. More to come stay tuned to the Newsletter or our website. Many good things can come from the 2001-2002 season with a little help from every member. We, as a Board, are here to oversee the daily operation of this Association. We cannot, however, do everything by ourselves. Constant input from the membership as well as assistance with various tasks is needed in order for us to move ahead. We are open to new ideas and always willing to have you help us along the way. It must be remembered though that we are Volunteers. We will make mistakes. We will, on occasion forget something you told us at the rink. Put things that are of concern to you in an e-mail, or better yet come to a Board Meeting. Above all, don't let rumors become fact. If you have questions, ask one of us. Randy Our next Regular Board of Directors meeting will still be held on Monday September 17th at 7:00PM Our location though has changed: meetings will now be held at the Polar Cap until further notice. President of the Referees Association (and STHA coach) Todd Macan will be at our Sept. meeting to speak of rules and changes in his Assoc. and to answer any questions pertaining to referees. Please join us for this informative meeting . Registrations are complete! For those that contacted a Board member for exception registration prior to the August 21st deadline, please follow through with Phyllis Callaghan, STHA Registrar at 754-6709. The remainder of all House Fees (for travel and house) are due on or before August 31st. Please send payment to the STHA P.O Box 2765 Binghamton, NY 13902. Late payments will not be tolerated. Participation in any STHA practices/games will not be permitted without full payment made on time. Please contact the STHA President, Randy Warner if you are having difficulties before the date due. Letter from the VP of House: My name is Lisa Moore and this year I have been elected to the position of House VP. I have been involved with the STHA for the past 8 years. Hockey is a family event in my home, my husband Kevin has been a coach in the STHA for all our 8 years involved and 1 year even coached 3 teams. Our oldest son is a 2nd year Peewee, our middle son a second year Squirt and our youngest a Mini-Mite. Last season was my first on the STHA Board where I served as Secretary. I am very excited about my new position and hope to keep contributing to the positive changes I have been witnessing and taking part in the last several years, but last year in particular. As the new House VP I hope to take over, where Randy left off, continuing to get organized and finding out what our membership wants. I also intend to follow through with my main objective: keeping all kids in this organization safe and keeping things fair, when I must take part in any decisions. I will also continue to follow through with the objective I worked so hard on last year, that's keeping the lines of communication open. I am always willing to receive a phone call or an e-mail with a question or concern. If I do not know the answer, I will find out and get back to you as soon as I possibly can. I would like to thank all the potential coaches that sent me their coaches applications. By the original deadline on July 21st, I had received 53 applications. I hope that it is understood by all, that we will do our best to place all those interested, on a team in either a head or assistant position. As most of you probably have already heard we will not be having skill sessions to decide on the teams, the score of players will remain together as a team. If anyone is not interested in having the same coach as last season, you can send in a letter to me requesting to not have a particular coach but we are not taking requests to have a particular coach. We will consider legitimate requests for reason of transportation. I am still aggressively attempting to have a commitment to host a coaches clinic here. If we are not allowed to host, I will release the closest dates as soon as possible. I have received enough coaches applications at this time, except for at the Bantam/Midget level. If you are interested in coaching at the Ban/Mid. Level or would consider coaching at this level instead of the level you originally applied for, Please contact me as soon as possible. My number is 862-5327 and my e-mail is Moorhockey@aol.com. I have had the pleasure of meeting so many wonderful people in this past year thanks to my association with this organization and I look forward to meeting many more. Please get involved, stay involved and be kind and courteous to your peers. We are all in this for the same reason, to have fun and enjoy hockey. Lisa Let me introduce myself. Steve Shimer, I find already before the season even starts what a job I have undertaken. So let me explain some of my intentions for the upcoming year. 1st of all as a board member it is my intention to vote on all issues with the kids in mind. I plan on researching any and all proposals presented to the board in a thorough fashion. As a parent I feel some of the same concerns you have for your children. I am looking forward to hearing any and all thoughts about the year. Please keep in mind that I do have a family and do appreciate your thoughtfulness in keeping any inquiries at a reasonable timeframe. Thanks in advance. As for the scheduling part of my job the STHA has now purchased a new scheduling program. It fills our very distinct needs. We have a unique situation with several rinks at varying times and circumstances. This program takes into consideration all these factors. As soon as I get ice times I will plan on passing them onto you through the website. I will do my best to work way ahead to help alleviate some prior concerns of late scheduling. I also plan on helping out the smallest of munchkins with later starting times. We need to keep an even keel on who gets up at 5:00am. This program will also help in keeping the teams scheduling more evenly. If you find that I am way out of kilter with whom you are practicing or playing PLEASE let me know. So with that in mind please keep in mind this is my first year and I will work my hardest to make sure your child plays its allotted games in a fair fashion. Be ready things kick off for the house teams Sept 7th. Shimes TRAVEL TRYOUTS At the Polar Cap Sunday August 26, 2001 6:00AM - 7:15AM MITES 7:30AM - 8:45AM SQUIRTS 9:00AM - 10:15AM PEEWEES 10:30AM - 12:00PM BANTAMS Sunday September 2, 2001 6:45AM - 8:00AM SQUIRTS 8:15AM - 9:30AM PEEWEES 9:45AM - 11:15AM BANTAMS 11:30AM - 12:45PM MITES ****There is a $20.00 fee to tryout for a travel team. ****You must attend at least (1) tryout session to be considered for a travel team. ****It is Strongly recommended by the travel coaches and the STHA Board, that everyone attend Both dates so that all of your skills can be taken into consideration. ****The $20.00 fee will be collected whether you attend (1) or both tryouts. ****If you are injured and unable to participate in the travel tryouts: you MUST bring a Doctors note to the first tryout and turn into the Travel Director, Dan Verdon. The Drs. note must contain the date that you will be able to resume skating. Each travel coach will be allowed (1) injury wild card pick. Why not go to a B METS game? Ticket sale for the August 30th METS game will be held at the travel tryout August 26th date. Tickets on sale for $3.00 a piece OR 4 tickets for $10.00. At these great prices, why not take the whole family ? STHA Presents PARTYLITE GIFTS FUNDRAISER PartyLite Gifts will donate 25% of ALL sales to your INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS to help pay for your 2001-2002 hockey fees! EXAMPLE: Sell $100 worth of merchandise and you receive a CREDIT of $25 to your personal STHA account! Your account must be in good current standing. This credit will not apply to any past due balances. SELL ENOUGH TO PAY FOR YOUR ENTIRE 2001-2002 STHA FEES!You may not carry a credit for future fees. Only sell sell enough to pay for 2001-2002 fees; any fundraising money collected over your account balance will go into the STHA General Fund. Please add $1.00 S&H + 8% sales tax to each order. Please put your name and telephone no. on the top left corner of each order. Please collect ALL orders and Checks payable to Michelle Miller and return to Michelle Miller in the envelope provided by August 31, 2001. If you need more order forms or have other questions, please e-mail Stephanie Olds at prismso@aol.com or CALL Michelle Miller at 724-6728. All orders will be filled and ready for you to pick up on or before Sept. 30, 2001 at the Polar Cap. Please watch the web & newsletter for specific dates and times. FUNDRAISING IDEAS ANYONE? The STHA is looking for your great ideas. Want to help out with a car wash, interested in flipping pancakes, have any different ideas for a fundraiser? Why not let us know? The Board is always open to ideas for fundraising help. Pass your ideas along to a Board Member, come to a meeting, or give us a call. We'd be more than happy to accept your ideas along with your help. JOIN THE ICEMEN ON OPENING NIGHT Mark your calendars the seasons first STHA night with the Icemen will be on opening night, October 12th vs. Adirondak.. Ticket prices to follow in the next newsletter. We are looking forward to an exciting and enjoyable season and hope you all are too! There has been some positive change already this season. Input and communication from coaches and referees. New committees of volunteers being formed! We have a new committee that is working on a Mite travel/house tournament to be held at the Polar Cap the weekend of Dec. 28, 29 & 30th. Many volunteers will be needed to host a tournament please contact board member Dave Mead to volunteer to help out @ 724-3330. The board welcomes and encourages ALL of our membership to share their thoughts, concerns and ideas. We hold a Board of Directors meeting every 3rd Monday of every month, at the present time the meetings are being held at the Polar Cap. Please attend, volunteer time.if everyone donates a little bit of their personal time, this could be an organization that runs smoothly and efficiently. The board would like to Thank some special volunteers that have helped us tremendously in the past month or so. Thanks to Lou Kane, Gina D'Amigo, Devin Lamb, Terry Buczkowski, Donna DiGregorio, Angel Mead, Kevin Moore, Jeff Bedford, Dave Stella, Pete Neferis, Mike Kania, Rob and Eric DeLuca, all the guys & girls¨ that staff the Polar Cap and the Penalty Box and anyone else that we may have unintentionally overlooked. You have all helped to make things go great so far! A BIG Thank you goes out to Joyce and Fran Majewski and HSBC Bank for allowing us to conduct our meetings at HSBC this past season. Thanks too for allowing us to hold our final registration there and helping out with it. I would like to say a personal Thanks to all the House coaches that have taken the time to show up at the 2 coaches meetings Randy and I have held your communication and attention have given me reason to believe we are going to have a great season! And Thanks to all the Parents that have called my home with questions and/or concerns.for always being friendly, understanding and courteous. ~Lisa