Message from the Director of Player Development

Spring 2024

You may have questions about your child’s placement or about the time it takes after player placements to announce the teams. The answers are closely tied.

To detail the process briefly:

1. Team coaches all complete in-depth evaluations of all players on their teams using evaluation software. These evaluations are intended to reflect the player's performance over the entire season and is the most important input to the process.

2. During placements, we have evaluators (not parents, usually not coaches from previous season at that level) who rate the players during the session. This is where we see how players who may not have previously played with each other stack up against each other. This is critical, but, we recognize it is one night and may not reflect the player's full ability. This step is open for override by coaches consensus in the next step.

3. Applicable Head Coaches to the group of players looking to be placed convene with the Age level directors to review the data together for accuracy. Overrides can be made if the collection of coaches feel the "placement session" ranks are not accurate and the full season numbers support that. Much less frequently, things like requests for siblings playing together or other personal requirements are discussed and considered.

Roger Grillo of USA Hockey frequently says, “If your child is among the bottom 6 players ability wise on a team, it may be better for them to be on a lower team.” Our views at Nashoba align with the meaning behind his statement. Your child needs to touch the puck as much as possible, which can be a challenge in heavily overloaded situations.

Not only that, but they need to routinely have the time, space, and encouragement to make a play with the puck (NEVER tell a player to get rid of it), even if they fail to do so. If they rarely have that time, they will not develop the vision or playmaking ability to do so. That means your child, if too “overloaded”, doesn’t develop at the same rate as her/his teammates, and this is how the gap in ability widens and players get left behind.

Nashoba prides itself on taking the difficult path of “the right way” to develop “People, Athletes, and Hockey Players” and will continue to do so. Our process is critical in that mission.

We are always happy to discuss reasoning for placements, outside of sharing direct data obtained in our process, but know that we consider what is best for each child, and for that group as a whole equally.

Please note: Rosters may need to be adjusted prior to the season start. Any changes will be communicated directly to you.

Thanks for being part of our Nashoba Youth Hockey Family!

Enjoy the spring and summer, the cold rink awaits us soon enough.

"Let them play!"

Brant Berglund

Director of Player Development