General Information (Burlington Girls Hockey Club)

BGHC HOUSE LEAGUE PROGRAM 2022-23
General Information

The BGHC offers a house league program to girls aged 4 (IP program - under 7) through 19. This year, the season begins with a "back-to-hockey" September 17th & 18th, a house-league day September 25th, 2022 to pick up jerseys and meet your coach, practices and games will begin September 30th, 2022 and culminates in late March with a House League Championship weekend in which all teams participate and all girls leave with a medal.

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.

For registration, please go to our Registration page where you will find more details about the registration process, deadlines, fees and payment options.

AGE CATEGORY U- DESIGNATIONS

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 4 at U9, 6 at each of U11, U13 and U15 and 6 at U18.  Girls are placed on teams based on prior season coach ratings together with NEW player ratings assigned during "Back-to-Hockey" days in late 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.

Goalies - BGHC House League Puck Stoppers Program

The BGHC is a strong supporter of Goalie development and training. We want our Tendies to feel safe, prepared, and to develop their skills as much as their love of the game.  Stepping into the net is not for the faint of heart and our brave athletes deserve an extra pat on the back to help them achieve their goals and succeed on the ice.

All registered House League Goalies will be able to submit for a $200 reimbursement that can be put towards Goalie development training and/or Goalie Equipment throughout the season.  In addition, each goalie will receive an additional $250 of BGHC Goalie Development training with our official BGHC Goalie Development Coach,  EJ Price - O'Hagan Goaltending, as organized by the league.  

* Goalies must commit to a full season of goaltending to be eligible for the reimbursement.



Fees for the 2022-23 season:

Games and practices are held in Burlington at the following arenas: Appleby, Mainway, Central and Mountainside Arenas.

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 Schedule for the 2022-23 season:

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.  

1. Thanksgiving Weekend
2. Christmas break - HL programming to resume the last weekend of Christmas Break
3. March Break

HOUSE LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND

This is scheduled for the first weekend of April and will be a 2-day event with all teams playing Saturday and the "semi-final" winners advancing to GOLD MEDAL games on Sunday.

REFUND POLICY – 2022-2023 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. 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 from the time of registration unless the 2022-2023 season ends prematurely.

In the event the 2022-2023 season ends prematurely or is significantly disrupted by cancellations due to Covid restrictions, 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 the 2022-2023 season will be taken into consideration when determining refund amounts.

PAYMENT

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.