APMHA - With respect to body checking in Recreational Hockey...

[Information sent to all APMHA Members]

This past year we have seen the following Districts vote to remove body checking from all levels of house recreational hockey for the upcoming 2012-2013 season:

- Nepean Minor Hockey

- Kanata Minor Hockey

Areas in central Ottawa (for example, District B that includes the Ottawa Sting & Ottawa West territory), Gloucester-Cumberland, have been non-checking for recreational hockey for several seasons.

In an effort to make the game safer, more enjoyable and keep kids involved in the sport longer, the Ontario Hockey Federation banned body checking from its house leagues effective September 2011. The change affected players who play in house leagues in the Greater Toronto Hockey League, the Ontario Minor Hockey Association, the Northern Ontario Hockey Association and the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario. This change made the rule standard across most of the province.

There are 180,000 minor hockey players affiliated with the OHF, which covers Ontario except for our area encompassing Ottawa (ODMHA) and Thunder Bay.

ODMHA has not taken a position on body checking at the House League level in Ottawa, thus it has prompted the Associations within their participating leagues to render a decision.

The parents of our APMHA Atom and Peewee players (House) were contacted end of April beginning of May 2012 to assess the situation.
Results of the survey link.

As hockey is a contact sport and there are three major components still included as part of A and B House League regardless if it's checking/non-checking, our Director of Coach Development Steve Sweeney will be providing drill sets to our head coaches at the recreational level for the 2012-2013 season as an additional resource to three components:

- Positioning

- Angling

- Stick Checking

In addition to our body contact clinics, coach seminar with guidebook, we are looking to continue to provide as much support as possible to our coaching volunteers in APMHA.

Corinne Lalonde

President APMHA