BGHC HOUSE LEAGUE PROGRAM
General Information
The BGHC offers a house league program to girls born in 2000 through 2013 (aged 6 through 19 as of December 31). The season begins with a "back-to-hockey" day in early September, a house-league day in later September to pick up jerseys and meet your coach, 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 2019, the BGHC is planning to continue the Hockey Canada "Initiation Program" for girls aged 4-7. The details of this program can be found on our IP Program page. 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 two-three times every two weeks. 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 Atom and PeeWee do have occasional 6 AM practices - not more than once every three weeks.
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 4 at Novice, 6 at each of Atom, PeeWee and Bantam and 6 at Midget. Girls are placed on teams based on prior season coach ratings together with NEW player ratings assigned during "Back-to-Hockey" days 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 near the end of June. 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 the June deadline. All registration is done online.
Fees for the 2019-2020 season are set out below.
| CATEGORY |
Early Registration |
Late Registration |
| Novice (2011; approved 2010s) |
$620 |
$720 |
| Atom (birth years 2009, 2010) |
$635 |
$735 |
| PeeWee (birth years 2007, 2008) |
$670 |
$770 |
| Bantam (birth years 2005, 2006) |
$670 |
$770 |
| Midget (birth years 2000 thru 2004) |
$530 |
$630 |
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 2019-2020 are below. THIS IS AS OF MAY 8, 2019. 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 1 |
SUN 10 AM at Appleby |
Incorporated into program as it progresses
|
|
Initiation 2
|
THURS 5 PM at Mountainside
THURS 5 PM at Skyway
|
SUN 8 / 9 AM at Appleby
|
|
Novice
|
SUN 8 / 9 AM at Central
|
SAT 2 / 3 PM at Skyway
|
|
Atom
|
WED Early 6 AM at Appleby
FRI 5 / 6 PM at Mainway
|
SAT 4 / 5 / 6 PM at Skyway
|
|
PeeWee
|
THURS Early 6 AM at Mainway
FRI 6 / 7 PM at Mountainside
|
SAT 9:30 / 10:30 / 11:30 AM at Appleby
|
|
Bantam
|
TUES 5 PM at Mountainside
FRI 5:30 / 6:30 PM at Mainway
|
SAT 9:30 / 12:30 / 1:30 PM at Appleby
|
| Midget |
Game 1
TUES 6:30 at Mainway
WED 8:30 and 9:30 at Appleby |
Game 2 - only every second week
SUN 4 PM and 5 PM at Appleby
SUN 9 PM at Nelson |
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.
3. Midget house league will play 3 games every 2 weeks (1 game one week and 2 games the next week) on average over the course of the season.
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 12-14, 2019
- Halloween - October 31, 2019
- Christmas break (December 23, 2019 - January 1, 2020 inclusive)
- Family Day - February 17, 2020
- March Break (March 14-22, 2020 inclusive)
HOUSE LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND
This is scheduled for March 28th and 29th, 2020 and will be a 2-day event with all teams playing Saturday and the "semi-final" winners advancing to GOLD MEDAL games on Sunday.