General Information (Burlington Girls Hockey Club)

BGHC HOUSE LEAGUE PROGRAM

• The season will be broken into two sessions.
• The first session will begin on October 17 (the weekend after Thanksgiving) and will carry on for 8 weeks.
• The second session will run between January - April
• Fees will be due prior to the beginning of each session.
• House League players will have 1 hour of practice and 1 hour of 3v3 or 4v4 play per week.
• Travel and tournament play will not be permitted as per the direction of our governing bodies
• No DS teams are permitted for the 2020-21 season.
• GOALIES ARE FREE! Once again this season, Goalies are free to play and will be provided equipment for use throughout the season.
• Due to Covid regulations equipment will not be shared between players at any time. As such, Goalies will not be assigned to individual teams, but will rotate between teams within their designated cohort.
• Intent to register must be completed no later than September 11st, 2020 for the first session of House League. Full Registration will open once all Rep teams have been confirmed.
• Due to regulations surrounding return to play, space is very limited this season. Although we hope to get all players back on the ice, it will come down to numbers.
• CALLING ALL COACHES! If you are interested in coaching at the house league level for the 2020-21 season, please complete you intent to register at the link below.

2020 REGISTRATION FEES

 The Board of Directors are trying to keep fees as low as possible for Return to Hockey and are hoping to communicate Competitive amounts shortly.

 Return-to-Hockey House League Fees October through December 31, 2020.

*Additional fees will be required to participate in the January 2021 to April 2021 timeframe.

**  IP2 is planned for a Nov 1 start date, but may adjust based on OWHA guidelines - families registered in those programs will be kept up to date as plans adjust.

Due to the uncertainty pertaining to provincial and municipal Covid-19 restriction changes, the BGHC is only accepting credit card payments for all registrations. This will allow us to issue refunds in an expedited manner in the event Return to Hockey ends prematurely. Payments will be made through the RAMP registration system.

REFUND POLICY

The refund policy below will take precedent over the refund policy for regular season play.

Once registered for House League and Rep Return to Hockey, members have 24 hours to request a refund if they no longer wish to participate. For House League and the Rep program, there will be a $100 administrative fee per withdrawing player if a request is submitted within 24 hours of registration. No refunds will be administered after 24 hours of registrations unless the Return to Hockey ends prematurely.

In the event Return to Hockey ends prematurely, the Board of Directors will evaluate and approve appropriate refunds for both House League and Representative. Costs incurred by the organization up to the cancellation of Return to Hockey will be taken into consideration when determining refund amounts.

PAYMENT TIMING

• House League - Upon Registration

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 2020, the BGHC is planning to continue the Hockey Canada "Initiation Program" for girls aged 4-6 (2015-2013). The details of this program can be found on our IP Program page. Please contact Jamey Schein 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.  Goalies play FREE, with equipment provided, on loan, for the season.

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.

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

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.  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.

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.

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.  

1. Thanksgiving Weekend  - October 12-14, 2019
2. Halloween - October 31, 2019
3. Christmas break (December 23, 2019 - January 1, 2020 inclusive)
4. Family Day - February 17, 2020
5. 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.