JMB Newsletter to School #1


Welcome to the 2008 hockey season!

JMB (the Junior Management Board of the Waikato Hockey Association) has the responsibility of running the intermediate and secondary school hockey competitions. JMB committee members are volunteers Ð coaches, managers, parents, teachers, just like yourselves Ð who have been elected by the hockey community to be responsible for Waikato schoolsÕ hockey.

Team entries

Team entry forms are attached with this mail-out. Closing date for entries is 31 March. There is a very tight timeframe available for the office to collate entries and put out an initial draw before the end of Term 1.

Commencement of season/game nights

¯    Intermediate competition will begin on Friday 9 May. (No play Queens Birthday weekend and the first weekend of the July holidays.)

¯    Secondary competition will begin on Wednesday 7 May (no play QB Weekend).

¯    There will be no grading games, teams will be entered into grades based on where they finished last year. If your team is considerably stronger or weaker than last year please submit a written explanation with your entry. There will be promotion/relegation games at the end of the Presidents round

Fees

There has been a small ($10 increase per team):

¯    Intermediate teams $590; Turf fees as per last season ($30 for water; $25 for the others).

¯    Secondary teams $690; Turf fees as per last season ($35 for water; $30 for the others).


2008 Rules

Following end-of-season feedback, the Rules of competition have been updated for the 2008 season. The 2008 Rules have been emailed to all schools and are posted on the Waikato Hockey website.

The person responsible for hockey in every school in the intermediate and secondary competitions must ensure that:

  • they have read the 2008 Rules of Competition
  • they have made the information available to all coaches/managers of school teams.

Ignorance of the Rules will not be accepted as an excuse for failure to abide by them. All schools will be required to sign their team entries, agreeing to abide by the 2008 Rules of Competition.

***** Please note the changes to player and team registrations this season. Rules 7 and 11 outline the new procedures for registering squads. *****

Score cards

This season JMB will strictly enforce the requirement to have a prompt result for each game. Results may be phoned, faxed, emailed or posted to the Hockey Office. Results MUST be notified to the office within 24 hours of the game. If the result is not received within this deadline it will be recorded as a draw, giving one point to each team.

Score cards should be correctly filled in (initial or first name PLUS surname). Secondary ÔAÕ Grade team cards should also list playersÕ shirt numbers.

Defaults

As per Rule 20, the defaulting team will be liable for the turf fees of the cancelled game, no matter how far in advance the game has been defaulted. A 0-5 score will be awarded.

Umpiring

A named umpire will be required for each team (other than secondary A and B grades). This information will be asked for on the player registration forms.

Umpire training:

¯    Intermediate Ð Thursday 8 May, 7.00 Ð 8.30 pm

¯    Secondary Ð Tuesday 6 May, 7.00 Ð 8.30 pm

Schools do need to be responsible for getting their umpires to games, in order to help out the parents of younger umpires especially. Schools may also like to consider providing their student umpires with a school umpire shirt.

Uniforms

All secondary ÔAÕ Grade teams are required to have numbered uniform shirts, numbers corresponding to the number on the score card. ÔAÕ Grade teams will also need a numbered alternate strip.

In the case of a clash of strip, the first team listed on the draw is required to wear their alternate strip.

Teams moving up to the secondary A Grade after the start of the season will have a 2-week grace period before this requirement takes effect.

School contacts

Please ensure that you provide accurate contact details to JMB. The point of contact must be reliable, to ensure information reaches the appropriate people at your school. Anyone is able to receive info from JMB or from the WHA hockey office BUT only one person from each school is to make return contact with the office.