Message from the Director of Player Development

Evaluations and Placement

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

OUR PHILOSOPHY

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 players need to routinely have the time, space, and encouragement to make a play with the puck even if the play fails (NEVER tell a player to get rid of the puck). If they rarely have those opportunities, 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.

PLACEMENT PROCESS

To detail Nashoba Youth Hockey’s placement process briefly:

1. Season evaluations –all team coaches complete in-depth evaluations of players on their team 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 placement process.

2. Placement sessions - During placement sessions, we have evaluators (not parents, usually not coaches from previous season at that level) rate players during the session. With this information, we look to 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. Final Review - Head Coaches and Age Level Directors meet to review the collected data. 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.

NOTIFICATION

We anticipate announcing player placements by the end of April. Parents will receive an email notification with an official offer for their player at that time.

Important note: Rosters may need to be adjusted before the season starts based on enrollment numbers. Any changes will be communicated to you as soon as possible.

We are always happy to discuss reasoning for placements, outside of sharing direct data obtained in our process. Please know that we carefully consider what is best for each child as well as the overall group equally.

Thanks for being a part of our Nashoba Youth Hockey Family!

“Let them play!”

Brant Berglund

Director of Player Development