General Information (Barracudas - Burlington Girls Hockey Club)

 

BGHC HOUSE LEAGUE PROGRAM 2025-26

The Halton Local League is Coming!

The Oakville Hornets, Burlington Barracudas, and North Halton Twisters will be introducing an exciting new House League concept for the 2025-26 season – a Halton Local League!!

In a local league, house league teams from all three organizations will play games against each other in a regularly-scheduled loop. Games will be scheduled on weekends and played in Burlington, Oakville, and Milton. Teams will continue to practice in their own municipality as they do now.

At the end of the regular season, teams will be tiered based on their standings to ensure everyone has a chance for exciting and meaningful playoffs culminating in a championship weekend at the end of March.

This new concept will allow for greater variety in games and permit all three organizations to host strong teams that will have a great season while still keeping travel to reasonably short distances.

More details will be coming soon. We look forward to having an exciting inaugural season of the Halton Local League!

General Information

The BGHC offers a house league program to girls aged 4 through 19. This year, the season begins with House League Assessment Skates and a House League Day in September where players pick up jerseys and meet the coach.  Practices and games begin the last week in September and the season culminates in late March/early April with a House League Championship weekend in which all teams participate.

Girls with no hockey experience are welcome at any stage in our program.  

House league teams are always on the ice with another team, whether it be a practice or a game.  There is an attempt at approximately one practice and one game per week for age groups up to and including U15.  Our U18 girls do not practice, but rather play two times every week.  This excludes holiday breaks and weekends where teams are participating in tournaments.

Our house league program is focused on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as this is when the BGHC has the vast majority of its ice - which is allocated to us by the City of Burlington.  Girls at the U11-U13 age division do have occasional 6 AM practices.

Teams are encouraged to participate in up to two tournaments - one local and one overnight - during the season to give players the opportunity to play different teams and bond together as a team. Tournament entry fees and hotel costs are not included in registration fees but will be collected separately by the team.

For registration, please go to our Registration page.

AGE CATEGORIES
(designated by birth year)

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED

The BGHC supplies each house league player with a house league jersey and socks.  Goalie equipment can be provided on loan for the season if required.

Parents need to provide:

• CSA approved helmet with full face cage or shield
• Neck Guard (BNQ certified)
• Mouth guard(optional, strongly recommended)
• Shoulder Pads
• Elbow Pads
• Jill
• Garter Belt/Shorts with Velcro (to hold up socks)
• Hockey Pants
• Shin Guard
• Skates
• Gloves
• Stick

Other equipment to consider:

• Hockey Bag
• Stick tape
• Sock tape
• Pony tail elastics or head scarf
• Light long sleeved tshirt and pants to wear underneath equipment

SPECIFICS

Girls can join the house league program at any age and with any amount of hockey experience.  No prior skating experience is required.

The number of teams each season depends on registration.  We anticipate eight teams at U9 and four teams at each of U11, U13, U15 and U18.  Girls are placed on teams based on prior season coach ratings together with NEW player ratings assigned during "Back-to-Hockey" days in September.  The goal is to achieve balanced teams while also honoring, to the extent possible, "Friend Requests" for 1 friend per girl ONLY IF that request is reciprocated.  We do not entertain requests for coaches.  Friend requests are made during the online registration process.

ASSESSMENT DATES/TIMES

U9 -TBD

U11 -TBD

U13 -TBD

U15 -TBD

FEES FOR THE 2025-26 SEASON

NOTE:  Registrations completed by June 30^th are eligible for a split payment plan – 50% of total fee at time of registration and 50% deferred to August 15^th.

Age Category	Regular Fee (applies as of July 1)	Early Bird (until June 30th)
U18	$925	$825
U15	$875	$775
U13	$850	$750
U11	$825	$725
U9	$800	$700

 

Games and practices are held in Burlington at:
(click for location)
Aldershot Arena
Appleby Ice Centre
Central Recreation Centre
Mainway Recreation Centre
Mountainside Recreation Centre
Nelson Recreation Centre
Skyway Arena

The girls will typically practice once a week on shared ice with another team from their division and play a game once a week. There are weeks where our ice is not available due to other associations holding tournaments.  In these weeks, there will be no practices and/or no games depending on what ice is available to us.  Our house league teams will participate in tournaments as well.  Practices and/or games otherwise scheduled for weekends when a tournament is booked may or may not be made up depending on available ice.

NON-RESIDENT PLAYERS

In accordance with the BGHC's Hockey Operations Policy, Burlington resident players have priority until June 30, 2025. Non-resident players may register on a waitlist. After July 1, 2025, if spaces remain in their age division, they may finalize their registration.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE FOR THE 2025-26 SEASON

NOTE:  With the new Local League for U11 through U18, game times for out-of-town games will be on the weekend, but we do not currently have details as to the days and times. Oakville home games are expected to be at Canlan Ice Sports in Oakville and North Halton home games are expected to be at Sherwood Arena in Milton. Burlington HOME games will follow the anticipated schedule below.

U9 - U15
Practices on Friday evenings.
Games on Saturday or Sunday (likely in the AM).

U18
Games twice per week. Games are tentatively scheduled for Tuesdays and Sundays.

NOTES  

1.  Ice days and/or times for the first few weeks may be inconsistent with the rest of the season as certain arenas open later than others.

2.  WHY 6 AM ICE TIMES?  There is no other ice available to fit our programming if we do not use these ice times.  We are required, by contract with the City of Burlington, to purchase a minimum number of hours of ice and there is not sufficient ice pad inventory in Burlington to allow all of those hours to be in the evenings.  All other Youth ice users in Burlington also use ice at 6 AM for their programs.  This is standard throughout hockey in general.  The same reasoning applies as to WHY 5 PM ICE TIMES? and WHY LATE EVENING ICE TIMES?.  With the number of hours of ice available in Burlington and the number of Ice Users, demand exceeds availability.  Therefore, all ice users receive a share of all ice times, including "desirable" and "less desirable" times.  We all have frequent 6 AM, 5 PM and late evening weekday ice.  Compared to many other municipalities, our ice times are in fact far more reasonable.  In many municipalities, teams get much less ice overall or settle for ice at 10 PM or even later at ages as young as U13.  
3.  U18 house league will play 2 games every week this year.

BREAKS

At the moment it is planned that there will be no hockey at the following times.  This is subject to review as the season approaches and the Halton Local League calendar is finalized.  

1. Thanksgiving Weekend
2. Christmas break  
3. March Break

HALTON LOCAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND

This is anticipated to be scheduled for the last weekend of March. It is expected that all teams will play Saturday with teams that win advancing to play Sunday.

REFUND POLICY – 2025-2026 Season

Once registered for House League and Rep teams, members have 24 hours to request a refund by email ([email protected]) if they no longer wish to participate. There will be a $100 administrative fee per withdrawing player if a request is submitted within 24 hours of registration. No refunds will be granted after 24 hours from the time of registration unless the 2025-2026 season ends prematurely due to unforeseen circumstances.

 

PAYMENT
The BGHC only accepts credit card payments for all registrations. This allows any refunds to be issued in an expedited manner. Payments will be made through the RAMP registration system.