NHAHA Policies/Practices
2009 – 2010

I. Tryout Policy
A. In order to be eligible to participate in the NHAHA tryouts a player must provide:
1. The Tryout Fee
2. The Commitment Fee check
B. At least three tryout sessions will be provided for each division. No part of the tryout fee will be refunded if one or more of the sessions is missed. No part of the tryout fee will be returned if a player does not accept the team he is assigned to.

II. Commitment Fee The Commitment Fee will be collected at the first tryout. It is to be paid in a separate check from the Tryout Fee. The Commitment Fee will be held until tryouts are completed and the player has been notified of his team placement. When a player receives his notification he may take up to 24 hours to accept or reject his placement. If the player accepts his placement, the Commitment Check will be deposited and becomes nonrefundable. If the player declines his placement, the Commitment Check will be destroyed after notification of the refusal. Twenty-four hours after notification if the player has failed to respond, the check will be deposited and become nonrefundable. The commitment fee for Tier I (Viper Stars) teams is $500, for all other teams(Vipers) it is $250.

III Player Resignation from NHAHA
A. If a player decides to resign from NHAHA after July 1, it is the responsibility of that player or that player’s parents to notify both an Executive Officer of NHAHA and either the Manager or Coach of that player’s team. The notification to the Executive Officer must be in writing. What that player owes to NHAHA in order to obtain a release to play for another association will be determined by the date that the Executive Officer and Team Representative received notification of that decision. If they received notification after the first of the month, the player will be responsible to pay the monthly fee required of his team for that month whether or not the player practiced or played for the team during that month. If the player was rostered on a Tier I team, the amount due will be determined jointly by the NHAHA president and treasurer after consultation with the team coach and/or manager.

B. The cost of the Mandatory Raffle is included in the monthly payment schedule. Therefore, any player resigning from NHAHA must either return the raffle tickets or is responsible to pay the balance of the cost for them. Tickets cannot be returned after November 30th.

IV. Payments -
A. The Commitment Fee will be deducted from the total tuition fee for each player. The remaining tuition will be divided into 7 reasonably equal payments due on the first of each month from July 1 to January 1. A payment schedule will be passed out prior to the beginning of the season.
B. If a player falls 2 months in arrears in payments, he will not be permitted to play or practice with his team unless alternate payment arrangements are made with the Treasurer. It is the responsibility of the player/parent to contact the treasurer if they become behind in payments.
C. If NHAHA is charged a returned check fee for any player, that player is responsible to make the returned check good and also to pay the returned check fee.

V. Reduction Due to Illness/Injury If a player is unable to play in games or practice with his team for 30 or more consecutive days, he may receive a reduction in the total fees . In order to receive the reduction, he must provide the Treasurer with a doctor’s excuse stating the beginning and ending dates of said illness/injury. The amount of the reduction will be determined by NHAHA.

VI. Tournaments – Each eam is automatically enrolled in any appropriate tournament hosted by NHAHA at no extra cost to the players. If we do not have a division applicable for any team, that team may apply the entrance fee(s) toward an outsde tournament of their choosing. If the team attends any outside tournaments, including the endof the year playoffs, that team is responsible for collecting the fee(s) to cover the costs of those tournaments.

VII. Jersey Numbers - New players and players replacing jerseys will be given a jersey number that matches his birth year. (even/odd)

VIII. Fund Raising

A. Tournaments – While the tournaments held by NHAHA are designed to provide an opportunity for our players to play different teams and have a good time, they are also fund raising activities. Each player’s family will be required to work up to two or three hours for one or more of the tournaments. The “work” may involve, but not be limited to selling raffle tickets, running Chuck-a-puck, selling various items, running a game clock, or keeping a score sheet.

B. Mandatory Calendar Raffle – Each player will receive 8 calendar raffle tickets – four for December and four for January. There is no extra fee for these tickets because the cost is built into your tuition fee. You may sell these tickets for $10 each and keep the $80; thereby reducing your yearly fee by $80. Or you may keep your tickets and possibly win between $50 and $1,000.

C Entertainment Books/Enjoy Books – TBD

D. Night at the Races/Monte Carlo – TBD

E. Each team may do independent fund raising for that team; however, it is required that you consult with the Fund Raising Chairperson to make sure there are no conflicts before starting any team fund raising.

F. NHAHA’s Tier I teams have traditionally produced a player profile guide and had an opportunity to sell ads for that guide. The entire price of the ads can then be put toward their tuition fees.

G. NHAHA’s enthusiastic Fund Raising Committee may come up with further activities by September. If they do, you will be notified ASAP and any new activities will be strictly voluntary.

IX. NHAHA “Playing-Up” Policy

NHAHA discourages a player moving from his designated division of play but does not forbid it. NHAHA recognizes that USA Hockey has set down specific age guide-lines so that players will have the greatest opportunity to succeed, have fun, and play hockey safely. Keeping in mind that the greatest challenges to a player moving up an age bracket are moving from squirt to Peewee and from Bantam to Midget, NHAHA strongly urges parents to consider all possible ramifications before requesting such a move.
The following guidelines are in place to guide the player, player parents, and the organization through this process. In order to begin the “playing-up” process, the player’s parents or guardian must provide the NHAHA Board, through either the President or Head of Coaches, with a written request prior to tryouts. If the player’s parents were unaware of this requirement, the player may attend the first night of tryouts at the older level but must present the required letter before attending the second night of tryouts. The request must provide the player’s age, playing experience and reasoning for wanting to make the move.
Upon receipt of the letter, NHAHA will permit the player to tryout at the older age division. However, being permitted to tryout at that division does not mean that NHAHA will place the player on a team at that level. The decision whether to place a player on the older age division will be made after the tryout process is completed.

Playing-Up Parameters:

1. No first year player at any division will be permitted to “Play-up” to the next division. (For example: no first year Peewee will be permitted to move to the Bantam division.)

2. The player must submit the letter of intent described above, attend the tryouts at the desired division level and pay for those tryouts. The required commitment check must also be submitted for a player to be considered.

3. The coaches evaluating the player will evaluate the perceived maturity of a player desiring to “play-up” including the physical size of the player in comparison to those he would be playing against as well as the playing skill of the player and his likely ability to be able to compete at the older level. (This is especially important in player skipping a year to develop at the squirt level and moving into checking a year early and player skipping a year at the bantam level to move to a midget level where they may be required to play against 18 year olds.)

4. Since the most important reason for moving a player from his appropriate age division would be that the parent feels the player would benefit more from playing at the older division, the player must demonstrate this to be true by ranking in the top 3 forwards, the top 2 defensemen, or the top goaltender of the division where he is trying out.

5. A player who is trying out for an older age division may or may not be placed at that division. Therefore, that player’s parents cannot assume that a place will be automatically “saved” for him at his proper age division unless he also tries out at that division. The purpose of tryouts is to evaluate how each player compares to others trying out for the same teams. If the player does not tryout at any division, he cannot be evaluated compared to the other players. Nor can a position be “saved” in the eventuality that the player might want that position. It is not fair to the other players who are trying ut to deny them a position because someone else may want it but is not trying out. If a player tries out for the lower division, he must pay for that tryout also, but a second commitment check is not required because he will only be able to commit to one team at the end of the tryouts.

6. All decisions will stand unless a written appeal is filed with the President of NHAHA. If an appeal is filed, the President will decide the final outcome by any means he/she deems necessary.

X. Post Tryout

NHAHA recognizes that after the tryouts are over there may be reasons to assign or to reassign a player to a team. Following are guideline for possible circumstances.

1. If supplemental tryouts are held for any team(s) any player may attend these tryouts regardless of whether they are currently assigned to a NHAHA team or not. However, no player will be removed from another NHAHA team if such a removal will cause that team to go below the number of players required to be rostered as a team. If a player is attempting to “play-up” through supplemental tryouts, all guidelines above must be followed.

2. NHAHA recognizes that a situation may occur during team placement that may cause an individual player to request a “move-up” to another level. A player can request the opportunity to “ move-up” if they would be placed at a level which is lower than the level they had played at the previous season.

3. In any Post Tryout instance, the player must attend a supplemental tryout or be evaluated during a team practice by the coaching staff of that team with prior notification being given to the Headof Coaches that this tryout will occur.

NHAHA reserves the right to dismiss any “move-up” request that is deemed to be not in the best interest of all parties involved. Players will be discouraged from moving up from Squirt to Peewee where players enter their first year of checking and Bantam to Midget where players could be playing against other players who are several years older.

XI. Unable to Tryout Policy

NHAHA has a minimum of three tryout sessions in order to evaluate each player as accurately as possible. It is strongly recommended that all players attend all tryout sessions in order to facilitate this evaluation process.

However, it is recognized that through no fault of their own some players may not be able to attend all of the tryout sessions. In the event that a tryout session must be missed the evaluating coaches will evaluate that player as best they can from what has been observed and place that player accordingly and the parents will recognize that the evaluators have done the best evaluation possible under a handicapped situation.

If any player is unable to attend any of the sessions, his intent to play for NHAHA in the next season must be shown by registering for tryouts, prior to the first night of tryouts with a doctor’s excuse stating why the player is unable to participate and the anticipated date he will be able to participate. At the conclusion of the tryout process, if that player played for NHAHA the previous season, the Head of Coaches and President working together will consider the written evaluations of the previous season’s coach(es) as well as what team he played on the previous season and, if they deem it necessary talk with previous coaches. Depending upon circumstances which include but are not limited to the number of players participating in tryouts who will be assigned to each team, the Head of Coaches and the President of NHAHA will:

1. place the player on what they consider to be the most appropriate team.

2. if there is room to add players to each team, guarantee the player in question the opportunity to tryout (in later supplemental tryouts) for any team.

3. return the tryout fee with regrets and with the understanding that the player may contact the Head of Coaches and request a placement tryout when the player is able to attend.

If any player is unable to attend any of the tryout sessions but has not played for NHAHA previously, they must contact the Head of Coaches and request a supplemental tryout. Contact information for the Head of Coaches will be supplied if the player calls the Hot Line or looks on the Website, Pittsburghvipers.com .