Dear SRIYHA Parents,

As we navigate through the challenging phase of this season, I hope you've noticed significant progress in your players' development. While focusing on the current season, we're also preparing for the future and have announced tryout dates for the upcoming 2024/2025 season.

I want to share an important leadership change for our program. This will be my final year leading SRI as I've been offered the role of Commissioner for the SCHL, and I've accepted this new opportunity. My decision is not a departure from local hockey administration but a commitment to enhancing youth hockey in our region. The experience gained at SRI has paved the way for this next step, and I'm dedicated to improving the SCHL and its programs.

SRI has been a driving force in our region, offering affordable hockey for all. However, the landscape of youth hockey is evolving, with more for-profit teams emerging and impacting local organizations with rich histories. These for-profit organizations have complicated youth hockey dynamics, particularly at the second and third levels, adversely affecting local organizations in our region that have consistently built a successful pathway to high school hockey and beyond for decades. In my new role, I aim to strengthen the SCHL and its programs with innovation, a renewed commitment to local hockey, and a sense of community, similar to what we have here at SRI.

I will still be present at Boss Arena, coaching, and remaining an active part of our community in the years to come, alongside my son Jordan and daughter Stella. SRI will always be my home. I want to express my gratitude to my wife Jessica for her unwavering support throughout the years as I dedicated time to volunteering. Her support has been invaluable, and I couldn't have contributed as much without her love and encouragement.

In the coming months, I encourage you to consider volunteering your time for our organization. You don't have to be a "hockey person" to make a positive impact. All that's required is time, care, and a willingness to contribute. Our board of directors will have seats to fill, and we need individuals from diverse backgrounds to strengthen the program for the future.

Thank you, and GO JR RAMS!

Sincerely,

Jordan Novak Sr.

SRIYHA President

After an extremely difficult start to the season due primarily to our lack of practice ice, most Rams teams have rebounded and are starting to climb in the standings.  Many have even clawed their way into playoff contention!  Go Rams!

Current standings can always be found on the SCHL website.

The USA Hockey Congress approved legislation during the recently completed USA Hockey Winter Meeting that requires neck laceration protection for players in all age classifications in practices and games, with the exception of adults, effective August 1, 2024. The neck laceration requirement also includes on-ice officials under the age of 18.

The legislation also strongly recommends the use of neck laceration protection by adult players. 

More information

2024-25 Season Tryouts coming in March - Register HERE.

* Please Note - Due to current projections for U12 and U14, these tryout groups may need to be split. Nights and times will be finalized and assigned prior to tryout week and communicated to you as soon as possible. Early registration helps us to make tryouts as equitable and fair as possible. Thank you in advance!

Birth Year Reference - U8: 2016 & younger  |  U10: 2015 & 2014  |  U12: 2013 & 2012  |  U14: 2011 & 2010  | U18: 2009, 2008, 2007 & 2006

With Jordan's departure to the SCHL, the SRI Board of Directors has some large skates to fill.  There are multiple openings this year and we are looking for some fresh ideas on how to move the program forward.  If you have a love of the game, want to further the youth hockey experience for your skater(s), and 5-10 hours a month to donate, please consider joining us!

House League is just past the mid-point of the season and it's exciting to see how far the skaters have come! In Learn to Skate, kids who couldn't even stand up in November are cruising around the ice and games are off to a great start in both Mite and Squirt/Peewee leagues. Our Mite players are starting to pass the puck and move to space while Squirt/Peewee teams are mastering changing on the fly and some basic game strategies. Skill development continues as well and we're lucky to have so many boys and girls high school and middle school players from volunteering their time to coach and mentor. 

A huge shout out to the parent coaches who keep the kids learning on the ice, as well as the off-ice parents who make sure the score board and gear is always where it needs to be!  (Especially Coach Emily, who keeps the whole thing running smoothly!)

IMPORTANT HOUSE LEAGUE UPDATE
Calling all house league players and parents!  Thinking about travel hockey for next year?  Want to learn what it's all about?  Be on the lookout for a notice for our Play-Up Practices, where your house players can join one of the Rams travel teams and participate in their practice!  At the same time, we'll have some travel team ambassadors (coaches) there to answer the parents questions.

House League Info - Contact Emily.

Coming this March, the Bruins Academy, in conjunction with SRIYHA, will be hosting a Girls LTP program at Boss Arena.  This program is intended for girls who have not participated in organized hockey. Players who have registered with USA Hockey (with the exception for Learn to Skate) or Bruins Academy LTP are not eligible to participate.  The program will provide a complete set of Bruins gear (skates included - $550+ value) and four weeks of Learn to Play sessions for $199 per child. Girls must be between 5 to 10 years old as of February 1, 2024.

Our own Sophia "Broadway" Sherman, a u14 Sirens player, opened up a PWHL game in January by doing a TERRIFIC job signing the National Anthem, and in her Sirens jersey, no less!  Give it a listen HERE.

Congrats Broadway!!!

Despite missing a couple of our goalie clinics with our ice issues earlier this year, our program was a big success, culminating in our final session on January 29th, where we had a dozen young tenders on the ice running through a series of drills with the ProCrease group and a handful of Rams coaches. 

As you know, there is no such thing as enough goalies in your program.  If you know of anyone who wants to try some time in the crease, please reach out to me - they can try it at one of the SRI clinics and possibly play in one of our house league games to see if they like it.

Coach Jason

As with our goalie clinics, we missed a few power skating sessions this year, but Coach Sebby was back own special brand of power-skating!  These sessions are invaluable to your players development (despite them not liking a session without sticks and pucks). Look for Coach Sebby to return next year and continue to help drive our program forward.

Save the date for another great event! Saturday, June 1st at Beaver River Gold Club - 1:30pm shotgun start! Registration and details coming soon!

• The SRI Goaltender Development program continues to rave reviews!  Coach Jason is now attending group practices to work with the goalies on a more individual basis.  As an organization, we are intent on providing all of SRI's goaltenders the goalie-specific training, drills and skills that they need to develop.  Keep it up Coach Jason!

• Be a better hockey parent with the American Hockey Parent Handbook from USA Hockey.

• The SRI Team Store will be open again in September - and you WILL be able to get one off jerseys!

SRI had both Rams and Sirens Teams competing in the Bruins Mini 1on1 series this year.  We didn't win, but it was a great experience and all had fun!  Be sure to watch for our Rams or Sirens teams during the Bruins broadcasts this year.

There are many tournaments to choose from at the beginning of the season - 

• The Lake Placid International Youth Hockey Tournament will take place February 22nd - 25th, 2024.  This is always a kid AND parent favorite and will fill up quickly, so make sure your head coaches are aware of the signups, which happen VERY soon! Last year, the Rams took 4 titles home, all three U12 divisions and the U14 C division! The U12A team is a back to back champion at Lake Placid and will be looking the three-peat!!!

• The Hockey Academy runs tournaments at Waterville Valley all season long.  They might not be the best (read: even) tournaments, but it's a great way to combine hockey with a family ski weekend!

While we're discussing tournaments, sponsorships are a great way to offset some of the costs of playing travel hockey.  Sponsorship funds can be used for tournament registration fees, tournament hotel costs, and other travel related costs including team meals.  100% of the money collected goes back to the team that collected it.  

Now is the time to begin asking your employer or other local businesses for their support.  We had several teams collect enough money last year to pay 100% of their tournament registration fees!

All sponsors receive recognition on our website and on social media.  This is a great way for local businesses to help our young hockey players and, in return, get some great exposure to all our hockey families.

Please see our Sponsorships page for additional information.

One major item of note this year is that travel to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket is MANDATORY for all teams in the SCHL (provided your division has an island team). We understand it is a long day, but the schedulers will ensure that if your player's team has an island team in the division the trip will be for two games minimum on that day. If a team fails to fulfill its obligation to travel to the islands, it will forfeit the games and forfeit participation in the playoffs. When the regular season schedules are released, please circle those dates and plan ahead. It is a great team building day and can be a ton of fun when everyone participates.

We highly recommend downloading the SportsEngine app as many of the coaches use the app for communication and several use it as the ONLY method of communication. The app can be downloaded here for Apple and Android.  

Please remember to RSVP using the app to ALL of your games, scrimmages and practices so the coaching staff can adequately prepare!

Integrating your team schedule into your google calendar:

1. Go to your team page on the SRIYHA website
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the iCal feed link
3. In the popup window, copy the URL at the bottom
4. Go to your Google Calendar and look for “Other Calendars” towards the bottom on the left
5. Click the “+” and choose “From URL”
6. Paste the URL in the URL field and click “Add calendar”

• Get your Jr. Rams holiday gear now!
• Get your Sirens hear now!

• Drills
  • Pit Chaos Handling with Passes
• Dryland Skills (From ADM)
  • U10/U12 Dryland Training - Bridge Log Roll (Core & Back)
• On Ice
  • 2-1-2 Forecheck Explained
  • 1-2-2 Forecheck Explained
  • 2 on 1 Tips for Defenders
  • Starting off with some basics, here are some high level roles and responsibilities of the 3 primary skating roles in hockey (from HowToHockey.com).  This is MUST reading for all young players!
    • The role of the center
    • The role of a winger
    • The role of the defense
  • More basics - The 5 steps to learning a new skill
  • 5 Breakout plays every hockey player should know

SRI Newsletter, Issue v2.3 - In-Season Newsletter #2 - February

Questions or comments about the newsletter?