Jr. Mavs Family,
As the 2011-12 season comes to a close, we want to take this opportunity to review the year and provide information for the Jr. Mavs 2012-13 season.
First, thank you to everyone for your participation in the Jr. Mavs Hockey organization this past season!! Our second year of operation saw over 240 players participate on 22 different teams. This was nearly a 300% increase in participation over our initial year of play. Many great friendships and memories were formed. Additionally we saw significant growth in the development of our players resulting in competitive games at all levels.
The House program grew from 7 to 13 teams this year. Each division had at least 2 teams with many having 3 teams. At the U8 level, the introduction of the USA Hockey mandated ADM model with cross-ice games resulted in all players enjoying the game more and developing at a greater rate than in previous years.
The 2011-12 season saw us introduce a Select and Travel division into our organization to compliment our House division. The Select division had 3 teams (Squirt, Peewee, Bantam) compete over 4-5 weekends throughout the season with other Select teams from the Midwest area. This division provided House players an introduction to traveling outside the KC area to compete. Each team showed significant improvement by their year-end tournaments. We are confident these teams will continue to improve and become very competitive in the years ahead.
The Travel division had 4 teams compete, Squirt A and AA and Peewee A and AA. These 4 teams traveled 2-3 weekends per month to places such as Dallas, Oklahoma City, Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis, and North Dakota. All our teams represented the Jr. Mavs well throughout the season, and definitely got the attention of many hockey communities with several championship trophies!!
Our High School program fielded Varsity and JV teams this past season. The teams participated in the Mid-America High School Hockey League which featured teams from the KC area along with teams from Wichita, Tulsa, and NW Arkansas. The varsity team finished 3rd in the regular season and was beaten by the eventual tournament champion in the year end playoffs. The two teams had 34 players participate with only 6 seniors graduating. With the number of Bantams moving up to the HS team for next season, the future looks promising for our HS program!
Overall, the year was a tremendous success and there are many to thank for their support. First, thanks go to each of the parents (and, grandparents) who provided your child(ren) the opportunity to play this great game of hockey! Second, thanks go to each of our coaches! We added nearly 35 coaches this season to our program and each of them committed a significant amount of time and energy to working with the players. On behalf of the coaching staff, we thank each of the parents for showing the confidence in allowing us to work with your sons/daughters.
Third, many thanks to our community partners who have contributed resources to the Jr. Mavs organization in a variety of ways this past season. Special thanks go to the Missouri Mavericks, Brent Thiessen, President and GM, and his staff for their partnership with us. We have already had discussions with the Mavericks for next season and you can expect even more exciting news to be announced for the Fall! Finally, thank you to each of the moms, and Mavericks wives/girlfriends, who participated in our “Ladies in Laces” charity game this year. The event raised over $15,000 to benefit families who financially are unable to participate in the game of hockey. As a result of the funds raised, the program is benefiting five (5) families already who otherwise would not be able to participate.
Although the year was a success, it was not without challenges. Anytime there is 300% growth, unforeseen challenges will arise. Most of these were addressed and resolved in a timely manner. We do recognize a couple of improvements must occur for next season. We will improve the scheduling, both practices and games, so that the entire season is provided to families as early as possible. We understand that hockey is not necessarily the center of every family’s world and thus we must provide schedules early so families can plan their other activities accordingly. In addition, our communication to every family must improve. We are working on various modes of communication that is timely and thorough for next season. You have our commitment to addressing both of these challenges.
Planning for the 2012-13 season is already underway and we will be communicating more details as they are confirmed throughout the summer. We will be offering teams at each of the divisions mentioned above again next season. Our travel program will have evaluation tryouts sometime in mid-August with specific dates to be confirmed by the end of June. We plan to add a team at the Bantam level in addition to the Squirt and Peewee levels offered last season. Our High School teams will participate in a summer program beginning the week of July 9th for 6 weeks and their winter season will begin in mid-September. More details will be provided to this group in the next 2 weeks. Our House program will begin with evaluations in mid-September and practices to begin following the evaluations. From this group, our Select teams will be formed with their tryouts in late October.
Finally, as we have stated in the past, our commitment to each family is to provide the best hockey experience possible at a price point which allows any family the opportunity to participate. Every decision we make must answer these two questions before we proceed. Enjoy your summer and we look forward to your participation next Fall!!
All the best,
Dennis King
Director of Hockey Operations
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