BGHC HOUSE LEAGUE PROGRAM
House League registration for 2017-2018 is now closed and team planning is well underway. We do have openings in all age groups EXCEPT Bantam and Midget. If you still wish to register, we require you to first contact our House League Director, Dave Lafleur at [email protected] to ensure that your daughter can still be accommodated. If Dave confirms that you can register, you will need to attend at our BGHC office to register and pay in person. Regular office hours are Mon 10 AM – 3 PM, Tues and Wed 6-8:30 PM.
General Information
The BGHC offers a house league program to girls born in 1998 through 2011 (aged 6 through 19 as of December 31). The season begins with practices in late September/ early October and culminates in late March with a House League Championship weekend in which all teams participate and all girls leave with a medal.
For 2017, the BGHC is planning to implement the Hockey Canada "Initiation Program" for girls aged 4 and 5. The details of this program are now being finalized and will be available soon. Registration will open shortly. Cost will be $49 for the season. This is a "learn-to-play" program. Please contact our VP Hockey, Jason Crawford with any specific questions.
Girls with no hockey experience are welcome at any stage in our program. Our oldest age category is Midget. Girls aged 15 through 19 are grouped on our Midget teams.
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 Bantam (13 and 14 year olds). Our Midget girls do not practice, but rather play twice per 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 Novice, Atom and PeeWee do have occasional 6 AM practices - not more than once every three weeks.
Please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions page for more specific details. For registration, please go to our Registration page where you will find more details about the registration process, deadlines, fees and payment options.
Equipment Required
The BGHC supplies each house league player with a house league jersey and socks.
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 Guards
- 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. Girls with no hockey experience regularly join us each season at the younger age groups (through to PeeWee) and we even get new players at Bantam and Midget ages. No prior skating experience is required.
The number of teams each season depends on registration. We anticipate 8 at Novice, 6 at each of Atom, PeeWee and Bantam and 4-5 at Midget. Girls are placed on teams based on prior season coach ratings together with NEW player ratings assigned during a new player evaluation skate held in early 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.
Early registration generally opens near the beginning of May and closes June 30th. A late registration period is available in August, but fees are increased by $100 per age category at that time. Spots are only guaranteed to those that register and pay by June 30th. All registration is done online.
Fees for the 2017-2018 season are set out below.
| CATEGORY |
Early Registration |
Late Registration |
| Novice (birth years 2009, 2010, 2011) |
$550 |
$650 |
| Atom (birth years 2007, 2008) |
$565 |
$665 |
| PeeWee (birth years 2005, 2006) |
$590 |
$690 |
| Bantam (birth years 2003, 2004) |
$590 |
$690 |
| Midget (birth years 1999 thru 2002) |
$590 |
$690 |
The season starts around the beginning of October and finishes near the end of March with a 2-day Championship Weekend format where all teams play a minimum of one game.
Games and practices are held in Burlington at the following arenas: Appleby, Mainway, Central, Mountainside, Nelson and 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.
Tentative Practice and Game Times for 2017-2018 are below. THIS IS UPDATED AS OF JULY 28 2017. THESE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE ONCE THE NUMBER OF TEAMS IS FINALIZED IN LATE AUGUST. NOTE THAT GENERALLY TEAMS WILL ROTATE THROUGH THE SET TIMES BELOW OVER A PERIOD OF 3 OR 4 WEEKS.
|
CATEGORY
|
Practices
|
Games |
|
Initiation
|
TBD - current plan is Sunday AM at Appleby
|
n/a
|
|
Novice
|
SUN 7 or 8 or 9 AM at Central or 9 AM at Appleby
|
SAT 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 PM at Skyway
|
|
Atom
|
TUES or WED Early 6 AM at Appleby
FRI - 5 or 6 PM at Mainway
|
SAT 8:30 or 9:30 AM at Appleby or 5 PM at Skyway
|
|
PeeWee
|
THURS or FRI Early 6 AM at Mainway or Appleby
FRI – 5:30 or 6:30 PM at Mainway
|
SAT 10:30 or 11:30 at Appleby or 6 PM at Skyway
|
|
Bantam
|
MON or TUES 5 PM at Mainway or Mountainside
FRI 6 or 7 PM at Mountainside
|
SAT 12:30 or 1:30 at Appleby or 7 PM at Skyway
|
|
Midget
|
N/A
|
MON 7 or 8 or 9 PM at Skyway
SUN 3 or 4 or 5 PM at Appleby
|
NOTES
1. Ice days and/or times for the first 2 weeks of October will be inconsistent with the rest of the season as certain arenas open later than others.
2. Atom and PeeWee have 6 AM practices - once every 3 weeks at the most. 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 PeeWee.
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.
- Thanksgiving Weekend - October 7-9, 2017
- Christmas break (December 24, 2017 - January 1, 2018 inclusive)
- Family Day - February 19, 2018
- March Break (March 10th - 17th, 2018 inclusive)
HOUSE LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND
This will be held March 24th and 25th, 2018. It will be a 2-day event with all teams playing Saturday and the "semi-final" winners advancing to GOLD MEDAL games on Sunday.
