To the editor,
I am a parent of a new to AAA hockey player in North Bay and I am concerned for my son’s, his teammates’,and other competitive hockey players’ future development when it comes to remaining in northern Ontario for the duration of their minor hockey careers. During the spring and summer, we travel south often to create better hockey opportunities for our son and are already being actively approached by several teams to re-locate our son, as early as 10 years-old, to play hockey in the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL). I will admit that I am aware and fully understand that the odds of my son being drafted to the OHL and having a career in hockey are ultimately quite low, but it is my responsibility and the local hockey associations’ responsibility to give him and others the best chance to one day play at a higher level. The purpose of this letter is to discuss the lackluster efforts by the NOHA, over the years, to improve AAA hockey for players within the NOHA. In order to support our children’s dreams and goals, we are all trying to offer the best chance for our children and their teammates to be drafted and/or possibly pursue a career in hockey, whether it be through avenues such as the OHL or Junior Hockey in Ontario and/or the scholastic route.
Conversely, my daughter, who is 11 years-old, who began playing competitive hockey last year with the now NBDGHA Jr Lakers Association, has been able to receive a much better experience when it comes to a better variety of league competition and an overall better offering for local competitive hockey players. I must also reinforce the ease and safety benefits of traveling from North Bay to southern Ontario versus traveling the treacherous winter highways to Sudbury, Sault Ste Marie and Timmins with my son in recent years. The objective must be to reduce, not eliminate, the overall travel within northern Ontario where possible and replacing it with much safer and enjoyable travel along highway 11 south, from North Bay, and ultimately reaching destinations via highway 400.
The Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF) is the largest member of Hockey Canada operating alongside HEO and HNO as governing bodies for amateur hockey in Ontario. Recognized as the Provincial Sport Organization for the sport of Hockey, the OHF operates within a structure that is comprised of seven member partners: the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario (ALLIANCE), Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL), Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA), Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA), and Ontario Women’s Hockey Association (OWHA). From season to season the OHF provides administrative resources, coordinates programs, services and events for hockey participants and the Members.
I am starting to learn that within the OHF, the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA) has a player membership that is mostly comprised of lower-level competitive and recreational hockey players. While the game of hockey across Canada is played at recreational and varying competitive levels, the Board of Directors does not seem to show progress with respect to the competitive landscape. The Board of Directors of the NOHA is mostly comprised of individuals that reside in areas that are predominantly recreational and lower-level competitive hockey. These categories are very important to the future and prosperity of hockey within the NOHA, however there must be different objectives for players with different commitment levels and different goals when in comes to the game they love to play.
The Board of Directors of the NOHA is currently headed by individuals who seemingly, and sometimes understandably, make decisions to benefit most of their membership, which is comprised of recreational and lower-level competitive hockey families and players. With only three of the 9 districts having teams that offer AAA hockey, it is difficult to assume that there will ever be any progress with reference to the competitive AAA teams having a better experience and development model versus the current environment that is easily criticized and is seeing players as early as 10 years old opting to travel to other associations such as the GTHL and OMHA to find better and more suitable development options for their children.
In recent years Timmins has also become an area that is not able to compete at the AAA level, and thus, now offers many AA teams that also struggle to be competitive at that the AA level as well. Due to many factors, Timmins is unfortunately slowly but surely joining the other districts as only being able to offer recreational and lower-level competitive hockey.
In recent conversations with individuals from southern Ontario and northern Ontario, there is an initiative to have North Bay, Sudbury and/or Sault Ste Marie, in some capacity, play organized and official games against teams from the OMHA. It is my understanding that in recent months, Sault Ste Marie, Sudbury and North Bay AAA hockey associations, who have a large number of players looking to leave northern Ontario for their pre-draft years, have made a proposal to play in the OMHA, in areas such as Orillia, Barrie, York-Simcoe or any other OMHA area that would welcome the new competition. The northern Ontario teams are willing to travel to these areas for a variety of reasons, mainly due to the ease of travel, the safety of the highways that must be traveled to attend these games, but most importantly to compete with more prevalent and better competition for all teams. It must be noted, and is extremely important to note, that boys AAA hockey within the NOHA is one of few competitive sports in Northern Ontario who do not travel south for competition, and thus must play in leagues in Northern Ontario featuring 2-3 teams. For example, female competitive hockey teams and male and female competitive soccer teams currently benefit from competition and exposure outside of Northern Ontario.The comment that I heard last week is that “the NOHA is essentially holding the AAA hockey associations hostage and they are impeding their ability to grow, properly develop and retain their locally developed talent.”
Local AAA hockey associations would like to move into the future and offer more progressive, new and improved parameters where their players can properly and efficiently develop. Without the option to join the OMHA, in some capacity, it is inevitable that players will continue to leave and the NOHA will be responsible for eroding our own competitive hockey landscape. It is said that over 10 of northern Ontario’s top rated 14- and 15-year-old prospects for this year’s OHL draft are traveling to southern Ontario and other areas outside the NOHA to gain more exposure and play against more competition during their OHL draft year.
I am writing this letter to call on the NOHA to do what is right for AAA programs in Northern Ontario and look to improve their outdated and primitive ways of operating AAA hockey for boys in Northern Ontario. I can assure you that almost every hockey parent whose child is playing within the NBDTHA and other AAA hockey associations in the NOHA will echo this sentiment and would be excited to finally see the NOHA move in a direction that fosters, and no longer restricts player development. This will hopefully offer AAA players in the NOHA more exposure and have them reconsider the current limited benefits of playing outside of the NOHA in their crucial hockey years.
This would be a giant step to ensuring that parents like me, although my son is at a young age, do not contemplate ‘if’ my son will play hockey in southern Ontario, but
will ultimately have me decide ‘when’ is the best time for my son to leave his home organization to play in a much more beneficial structure and environment than the one offered by the NOHA.
Adam Ross
North Bay
