At 10:25 AM 8/11/95 EDT, Dave Hendrickson wrote:
>So...  IMO politics doesn't happen nearly as often as some people claim
>(which is all the time) but I do believe it does occasionally occur.
 
I will have to disagree with you on this final statement, but you _do_ make
a number of valid comments regarding hockey politics, at least as they
relate to skaters. I have spent the last eleven years raising a hockey
goalie through Minnesota's youth and varsity programs. I am not a Minnesota
native so I had to learn about hockey as I went along with my son, making
plenty of political mistakes along the way. Fortunately, my son (Wyatt
Smith) survived the politics, managed to play varsity (in goal behind Erik
Rasmussen no less) and is now getting ready to play Junior hockey with the
Anaheim Mighty Ducks Jr hockey team this season.
 
<<<Late Breaking New: I just found out that Eisner (as in, CEO of Disney
Corporation) wants _his_ son to be the #1 goalie of the Jr Ducks _and_ wants
Wyatt (my son) traded to another team so that his son won't have to compete
with Wyatt for the number one goalie slot. I haven't heard yet where Wyatt
is headed. I'll probably find out this afternoon.>>>
 
I agree that politics is all too often blamed for mediocre players not
making teams, but I have yet to see a team in which coach's, board member's
and sponsor's children are not given more of a look than other players, but
this does not mean that the very good players are skipped. Generally, the
exceptional athlete is going to get noticed and make the team. The first
line on most teams is going to contain the _best_ players available,
regardless of politics. The second line is also going to be relatively
unaffected by politics. But when the selection process gets down to the
third line of skaters, there are usually quite a few players that are
"good", but not "exceptional". This is where I see politics playing a
significant role in selecting players. If some influential person's child is
in that group of undistinguished players, then their child will generally
get the nod. Rarely does politics result in "worse" team than if politics
had _not_ been played. Just because a player's selection was influence by
politics, that does _not_ mean that the player is _not_ good. There are many
children of influencial people who are just plain "exceptional" hockey players.
 
When goalies are involved though, everything is different. As a goalie
parent, the selection process for goalies has always fascinated me because I
have come to the conclusion that most parents, coaches and players don't
have the foggiest idea what a "good" goalie is. They don't seem to
understand that a goalie is very dependent on the defense that is playing in
front of the crease and if an excellent goalie is placed behind a terrible
defense that goalie will look terrible. If a mediocre goalie is put behind
an excellent defense the goalie will look awfully good. Generally, goalies
are evaluated on such things as their goaltending style, physical size,
impressiveness of their equipment and statistics, like Pave Percentage and
Goal Against Average which do _Not account for the quality of defense in
front of the goalie, or the quality of shots _allowed_ by the defense in
front of the goalie. Since goalies don't reach their prime until their
mid-twenties, it's a gamble to choose _any_ goalie in youth, varsity or
Junior hockey. Because of this subjective nature of goaltending, goalies are
chosen because the coach "likes" a particular goalie. The _real_ team
building is done through the selection of skaters since goalies are usually
related to the coach or friends of the coach.
 
In general, the players who are "invited" to play on these "elite" teams,
from the Squirts on up (since tryouts are rare for these teams), are going
to benefit from steady ice time through the spring, summmer and fall,
exceptional competition and greater expectations which draw a higher level
of skill fromt the participating players. This extra exposure gives the
"elite" players a leg up in the tryouts for the regular season travelling
teams that startup in the fall. Since the previous year's "elite" players
are the first invited the following year, the same group of players gets to
take advantages of such activities and they end up with more visibility,
more skill development and more familiarity with higher levels of
competition. The whole system is self serving and self fulfilling. The kids
whose parents are not on the "inside" circle of the "elite" system are going
to have a more difficult time when it comes to filling varsity, Junior and
college slots.
 
So, even when politics did not directly result in the selection of a player
during a team tryout, the off-season "elite" hockey system _did_ provide the
_advantage_ needed by certain groups of players to dominate the higher
levels of hockey. At least in Minnesota, if you work backwards fromt he
Select 16 and Select 17 teams at the national level, you will find a group
of players that grew up in the off-season "elite system" which promotes a
certain group of players over the rest and provides that group of players
with a distinct advantage over most other players in the state. Because of
this, there are some players with real potential that get discouraged and
drop out of the system before they have a chance to realize that potential.
Most hockey players come up through youth hockey totally unaware that this
"elite" system exists and are therefore amazed that the "elite" players
continue to improve so dramatically in the off-season. While it may be easy
to say that "politics" played a role in selecting these "elite" players for
the travelling, varsity and Junior teams, the fact is that these players
_are_ better and they are more visible to the people who are responsible for
selecting travelling, varsity, Junior, Olympic and college players. Since
there are enough of these "elite" players to fill the needed slots at the
higher levels, this makes the choices easier for the General Managers and
coaches of these teams.
 
It's actually a pretty good system for developing _good_ (if not
_excellent_) players, but, unfortunately, some potentially "good" players
fall through the cracks simply because their parent didn't know the system.
Since I have only one child in hockey, all of this stuff that I have learned
over the years will not benefit anyone else, but I have noticed that
families with multiple sons on hockey have benefitted from learning the
system and by the time the last kid enters the Squirt travelling hockey,
they are getting that kid onto those "elite" teams right from the start and
riding the system on up.
 
<<<from the goalie parent corner>>>
 
Jim
 
 
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