EVALUATION GOALS
To provide an environment that is fair for all players.
To provide an environment that is safe for all players.
To eliminate political maneuvering and interference from the player selection process and let players be evaluated on their own individual skills and development.
HEAD COACH SELECTIONS
The Executive of NMHA will choose (sometimes through an interview process) the Head Coaches for each team. The Head Coach will be determined as early as possible during the tryout process in order for the Head Coach to select the final 20% of the team.
Executive to work with the coaches at the beginning of the year to ensure teams get off to a great start. (Guidelines for parent meetings, practice planning, yearly plans, conflict resolution).
In divisions U10 and up, a parent coach cannot be appointed as the head coach of a team until the child of the potential coach qualifies him for that team.
TEAM SELECTIONS
For all levels evaluated blocks for selection will be based on positions for player and goalie.
It is the goal of the evaluation process to first pick the highest level team and proceed down from this point. The final player selections (20%) for each team (U11 through U18) will be determined by each Head Coach. The Head Coach will have final say on the last 20% of the players (to a maximum of 3 players) selected for each team as long as the majority of the evaluation committee agrees. The evaluators will provide the selection of the first 80% of the players for a team.
EVALUATION COMMITTEE
The NMHA President, in addition to his/her self, will create an evaluation committee of at least 3 people which will find a minimum of three evaluators for each on ice session. For tiered levels, the potential Head Coach for the team being evaluated should not be a part of the evaluation team.
When evaluating goalies, the President will try to find evaluators with Goaltending knowledge. There may be one session dedicated to evaluating goalies specifically.
Note: Potential coaches and/or evaluators will not evaluate their son/daughter throughout the tryouts.
EVALUATION COMMITTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Organize players into a home or away jersey each session
Provide on ice session leaders with practice plans for skills sessions
Coordinate with Ref in Chief for any on ice officials needed for the evaluation process
Provide evaluators with a sheet outlining the criteria for evaluating a player prior to each ice session. Evaluators sheets will only show jersey numbers no names. Numbers may/should change between sessions
Encourage the evaluators to sit separately when evaluating to ensure independent evaluations and limit dialogue between evaluators pertaining to their evaluations.
Immediately following an evaluation session collect all evaluators forms for aggregate scoring.
At the end of each session ensure all the jerseys are collected and put back in the equipment room ready for the next use.
EVALUATION PROCESS
U7 & U9
The first step is to identify head coaches for each team and then allow the players to skate/practice at least three times.
After the first three skates, the coaches will submit a player list ranking each player from 1 to 5 with 5 being the strongest player. There will be no designated goalie for U7 or U9. The evaluation committee and the coaches in conjunction with the President will then use those numbers to draft equal teams. Siblings will be put together where possible.
TIERED LEVELS (U10 through U18)
The objective for tiered levels within NMHA is to select the “AA” team then the second and any subsequent teams following the evaluation process. There will be a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 4 on ice sessions of which 1 will be a designated skills session set aside for the evaluation process.
First session – Skills session and small area games
Second session – warm up drills followed by scrimmage. Some movement between groups may be necessary after scrimmage evaluation. Some players may be asked not to participate.
Third session – Exhibition games against other centres
This session may at the discretion of the evaluation committee be converted to warm up drills followed by a scrimmage. Some movement between groups may be necessary after scrimmage evaluation. Some players may be asked not to participate.
Fourth session – warm up drills followed by scrimmage. Some movement between groups may be necessary after scrimmage evaluation. Some players may be asked not to participate.
EVALUATOR PROCESS & PROCEDURE
Each evaluator will give each player a score between 1 and 5 (the maximum allowed). Players will be evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5 for player selection criteria. The scale meaning 5 being exceptional/dominant, 4 being above average, 3 being average, 2 being below average and 1 being poor. The ranking is a relative process against all players on the ice at that time. For example, in each evaluator’s opinion they would give the player with the most skill a 5, and so on. In order to separate players properly, each session must have a player near the top of the scale and one near the bottom. It is easiest to establish your upper and lower benchmark players first to have a range to compare against when evaluating the rest of the players on the ice. With so many players on the ice and a relatively short time to evaluate, it can be hard to pay an equal amount of attention to all the players on the ice.
The purpose of the evaluation procedure is to separate the players into groups. In the tiered divisions, after a first pass to establish your top and bottom players, you should concentrate your focus on those players who are close to making the team. They are the ones typically who will require good reasoning why they didn’t make the team.
Remember the purpose of evaluation is to be able to separate players into teams. If all players are scored equal, the process is made very difficult. All evaluations and scoring criteria are expected to be done in confidence and handled with professionalism. When there are words spoken in a meeting pertaining to particular players, those words stay in that room and are held in confidence.
All comments and evaluation sheets will be confidential. How each player scored in each category will be given to the coach of each team once evaluations are done so they may focus of player development.
Criteria for Evaluators:
Players
Skating Evaluate based on both forwards and backwards skating. Acceleration, speed, mobility, agility, balance, stride, crossovers, acceleration of turns and pivots should all be taken into consideration.
Puck Control/Shooting - Evaluate based on: having head up, smooth, protection, able to make a pass, and able to receive a pass. Shooting: power, accuracy, quick release, can shoot in motion.
Work Ethic - Evaluate based on how the player works while completing drills and in the scrimmage.
Overall Impact - Evaluate based on how the player impacts the game. Ability to see the play develop both offensively and defensively, moves to support the puck/play, and anticipation should be considered.
Goalies
Mobility/Quickness - Evaluate based on overall mobility and speed in the crease and around the net in both drills and gameplay.
Positioning/Angles - Evaluate based on: reading and reacting to the play, square to the puck, challenging the play, and ability to stop the first shot.
Concentration/Anticipation - Evaluate based on how the goalie shows concentration and anticipation in both drills and gameplay.
Effectiveness in Gameplay - Evaluate based on the goalie performance in the scrimmage.
INJURED OR ILL PLAYERS
Players who are injured or ill and unable to participate during any of the tryout sessions will be placed on the lowest level team and have the ability to move up a team at the discretion of the President and coach of the higher level team. No player(s) on the higher level team will be asked to move lower. This policy does not include players absent from the evaluation process.
CONFLICTS FROM EVALUATION PROCESS
All conflicts will be directed to the associated Age Group Director after the 24 hour wait period has been observed.
If there is a conflict with player selection, the evaluation committee and the coach will make the final decisions.
Note: It is usually the final 2 or 3 cuts which cause the most difficulties for the evaluators, coaches, players and parents. One person may consider the player good enough for the particular team whereas someone may disagree. In the long run both may be right, but a decision needs to be made and NMHA’s evaluation process will be supported. Once the evaluation process is complete it will be considered final.