No matter how many times a week or how far they travel, minor hockey is a just way of life for many Calgary families.
Now, there’s a new indoor league in town that offers a different approach to the game for young players.
AMP Youth Hockey is a private multi-sport league for ages five to 12, with set schedules played out of Winsport arena.
Its founders, former hockey pros, lists the following as “major problems” with youth hockey in our city.
- Highly inexperienced coaches
- Playing surfaces are not age appropriate
- Significant schedule demands
- Early single-sport specialization
- Concussion and safety research is not solution driven
AMP says their program offers key solutions to their listed issues.
Brad Layzell, former hockey pro and AMP chairman, said he didn’t learn how to skate the proper way until playing on the national team.
“You tend to get the best coaches, and doctors and sports psychologists, nutritionists at the tail end of your career, when all your window of development is pretty much done,” Brad Layzell, former hockey pro and AMP chairman, said. “We’d never allow a volunteer to teach our kids the fundamentals of reading and writing or math.”
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Preventative health and concussion research is also a part of the program.
“That (five-12 years old) is your key developmental stage, where mentally and physically they’re not really ready to take on a lot of the challenges we’re seeing put on them,” Kelly Askew, coach for AMP, said. “We want to focus on a fundamental base curriculum.”
The perimetre of AMPS hockey game is tailored to age, either cross-ice or split into six separate game areas.
“We don’t place tee-ball at Yankee stadium,” Askew said.
Hockey dad and Timbits coach Chris Jurewicz’s six-year-old son Mason loves playing minor hockey, but the father of two doesn’t always have a lot time in his schedule to give to the league.
“There’s a number of challenges that parents have to take on and one of them is volunteering. The other one’s fundraising,” Jurewicz said.
Jurewisc’s also loves coaching his son’s Timbit team but feels the older kids get, politics can become a difficult part of the sport when parents are coaches.
“Especially when the coaches son or assistant coaches on, (people wonder) is he or she getting more ice time?” Jurewicz said.
Kevin Kobelka, executive director for Hockey Calgary, says “volunteers are their greatest strength and sometimes can be some of their greatest weaknesses, but they’re founded on volunteerism.”
“There’s some fantastic coaches, there’s also some coaches that need improvement. Same thing when you have paid coaches…the money aspect shouldn’t be your only focus,” Kobelka said. “We have great volunteers that made our program what it is today.”
Kobelka said Hockey Calgary accommodates every community in the city, while AMP only covers one section since it uses one arena – in the northwest.
But AMP said their league can strive for positive changes in youth hockey – faster than the longtime entity of Hockey Calgary.
“It’s just tough when you (Hockey Calgary) have to get consensus from all the different associations to really move things forward,” Layzell said. “Part of the reason we’re doing all this research is to really provide reinforcement and resources for other associations to follow our lead..we take a lot of pride in this game and want to see it really evolve and get to the next level.”
The big question is how much will the AMP league cost parents per season compared to the current indoor league?
AMP said it’s just under $3,000 dollars and no fundraising or volunteering is required.
Under Hockey Calgary’s umbrella, the average price per season to register a kid is between $700 to $1,200 to start, plus the costs for tournaments and time commitment to help out.
Both AMP and Hockey Calgary have met to exchange notes on their leagues, but for now, they play separately.