Coaches Handbook Revised 2017-10-21 1. This handbook provides coaches information they will need through the year. Coaches should also review the parent handbook and policy manual available on the MQTHockey.org website. 2. Important Resources a. People i. Scheduler Tim Macintosh is the MJH scheduler and is in charge of scheduling team games, practices, locker rooms and referees. Mac also insures all coaches maintain the proper credentials, generates rosters and registers teams with MAHA. ii. Division Director Your division director can be found on your division home page on the MQTHockey.org website. He/She reports to the board and should be your first point of contact regarding any issues or questions with your team. iii. Board President the board president approves all fundraisers and can be reached via the link on the MQThockey.org website. iv. Coaching Director Jeff Nemacheck is currently the coaching director and is the representative for MJH to the USA Hockey Coaching Committee. v. MAHA Representative (District 8) Cathy Starrett is the District 8 representative and monitors team books, rules changes and is the MJH boards contact for MAHA related needs. b. Documents i. Parent Handbook The parent handbook can be found on the MQTHockey.org website and is intended to provide useful information for parents regarding teams, rules and general information. ii. Policy Manual The MJH policy manual can be found on the MQTHockey.org website and was adopted in 2016 to clearly define the rules and expectations of the MJH board. iii. Coaching Handbook this document
iv. Score Sheet Stickers- you can ask the MJH staff to generate labels for you or you can make your own using 2inx4in labels from the store. You should include all players and rostered coaches along with the coaches CEP number. v. Team Books ( & Forms) - All teams 10U and above are required to maintain team books. These books are required to play in State and Districts playoffs. They are checked by the District 8 Rep the first weekend in January. There is information on the MQTHockey.org website as to what needs to be in your books. Please talk to your division director or someone that has experience if this is your first time maintaining a team book. (more info at the end of this document on building your own team book). vi. Practice Plan resources the USAHockey.org website contains a large number of practice plans and ideas for conducting quality practices for your team. vii. USA Hockey Apps USA Hockey has smart phone applications for Goalies, Practice Plans and Rules. 3. Team Gear (Home/Away/Berry) a. Pucks Teams are required to provide their own pucks at away games and practices/games at the Berry Events Center. Lakeview Arena provides non-marking pucks on both sheets of ice. b. Cones/Tires Cones and tires are usually available at both Lakeview and NMU. c. Water Bottles- teams need to provide their own water bottles. d. Goalie Gear MJH provides goalie gear through 10U and there may be one set for 12U house to use. e. Jerseys/Socks MJH provides all teams jerseys and socks for game use. f. Jersey Return Jerseys are required to be returned by the end of the season. 4. Team Finances a. Tournament fees House league teams need to collect funds and mail in tournament fees on their own. Travel teams may use their team account to pay for tournaments. b. Fund Raising Travel teams may have 2 fundraisers, house teams may have 1. All fundraisers need to be approved by the MJH President BEFORE the fundraiser. Raffles of any kind are prohibited. 5. Coaches a. Assistants i. Notify Mac of your assistant coaches as soon as you know them. Also notify your division director as all coaches and assistants need to be approved by the MJH board. ii. Coaches will receive their initial roster in October. You MUST verify that your assistant coaches and all players are listed. Any coaches not listed will not be tracked for having the proper credentials. Coaches will receive a second official roster the first week of January that needs to go into your team book along with other forms. This second roster should be verified by the coach also. b. Student Coaches Student coaches need to check in with the MJH Scheduler to fill out the proper forms in order to be on the ice. Head coaches should attend the meeting with the MJH Scheduler and Student Coach so both are on the same page with expectations.
c. Specialty coaches (Skating/Goalie) anyone on the ice must be registered with USAHockey. Specialty coaches may not require the same credentials as a full time coach, depending on the number of times they are on the ice. d. Coaching Requirements (Assistants too) All coaches, assistants and on-ice helpers need to take class room training (up to level 4), take Safesport training, have a background check and complete the USAHockey online module for the division they are coaching in, BEFORE they can be rostered on a team. Contact the MJH scheduler with any questions. 6. General Team Info a. Reimbursed expenses i. Travel Expenses non parent travel team coaches are reimbursed their mileage, food per diem and hotel expenses. ii. Training/Certifications - The MJH scheduler will monitor all coaches for having the proper training and certifications as required by USAHockey. b. Tournaments Contact other coaches and your division director if you are looking for good tournaments to enter your team in. Teams generally enter 1-3 tournaments outside the Marquette area. 3 tournaments should be the maximum for any house team. c. Supervision on benches Lakeview Arena requires that a coach be present on the bench any time kids are on the bench. d. Communication Coaches are expected to conduct a team meeting for parents to go over the expectations, costs and any plans for the year. e. Fair Ice time while it is impossible to have equal ice time, the MJH board expects coaches to maintain fair ice time with all players on all teams. f. Review related policies from Policy Manual i. Cell Phones cell phones are not allowed in the locker rooms. Players and coaches should leave phones in their car or coaches should provide a container for kids to put their phones in upon entering the locker room. g. Parent meeting topics i. Expectations number of tournaments, practice schedule, etc. ii. Expenses tournament costs, taking busses, extra ice time, etc. iii. Grievance process see the MJH policy manual. iv. General schedule Cup League, NIHL, Districts, etc. v. Skill Expectations at each age level, there are skills that players are expected to learn. Coaches can print out the pages relating to their team from the Skill Progressions for Youth Hockey handbook on the USA Hockey Website to inform parents what their kids will be learning: http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0066/4690/skill_progression_ Manual_FINAL.pdf 7. Rule Changes a. Faceoff locations Face-offs are only at 1 of the 9 faceoff locations b. 14U and under Icing players at the 14U and under age groups are no longer allowed to ice the puck when their team is killing a penalty. 8. Officiating
a. Zero Tolerance Yelling at officials will be an automatic bench minor penalty. If actions continue, game misconduct and additional actions will be taken. Swearing at an official is an automatic game misconduct. b. Checking/Body Contact be aware of the differences between body contact and body checking. Forcing a player off the puck with arms, shoulder or hips is checking. Incidental contact when two players are going for the puck is body contact. c. New Referees New referees are instructed that a penalty is a penalty, meaning, there should be no interpretation made at younger levels. Calls should be matter of fact and all infractions called. At older age levels, 14U and above, seasoned referees may interpret certain calls but need to be consistent throughout a game. 9. Scheduling a. Extra Games each year, depending on the ice budget, teams may have extra home games they can schedule. You will be notified by your division director or a member of the MJH board if this is the case b. CUP Games House teams play in the CUPLH league. Each team is responsible for entering their scores for home games. Information is available on the MQTHockey.org website on the CUP League tab. c. Play-downs and District Playoffs House league play-downs to enter districts are usually the 3 rd weekend of January. Winners of the MJH mid-season playoffs enter the playdowns. District playoffs for house and travel teams are usually the first weekend of February. d. Mid-season and end of year playoffs. Mid-season playoffs are usually the first week of January while the end of year playoffs will be scheduled depending on the ice budget for each division, are held in March. e. Maximum number of games
i. 10. Locker Rooms a. Locker room policies review the policy handbook. b. Girls Locker Room location Locker room 10 11. Websites (updating scores, etc) a. NIHL Site NIHL.net, home teams update the scores for games b. CUP site cuphockey.org, home teams update the scores for games c. MJH site MQTHockey.org, home of Marquette Jr Hockey d. USAHockey Site usahockey.org, coaching requirements and practice plans e. MAHA Site maha.org, rules and state playoff information. 12. Concessions a. Schedule - there is a link on the MQTHockey.org website for each teams schedule. All teams are responsible for running the concession stand for one week.
Building team books: 1. Buy a 1.5 3-ring binder 2. Ready Index looks like this picture: 3. Qty 50 clear protective sheets for 3-ring binder 4. Visit this site and print out the MAHA District State Playoffs Team Credentials and Game Log form: http://www.mqthockey.org/page/show/2932646-team-managers 5. On the Ready Index, label the tabs 1-4 as follows: a. Rosters b. Consent to play in Canada form only needed if you play in Canada. Our Scheduler can get this for you. c. Game Logs printed from above. d. Score Sheets e. Consent to Treat, Code of Conduct and Star forms are no longer required to be kept in the team books. 6. Score Sheets a. These are ALL of your score sheets from every game during the season. Make sure to cross off players if they do not play in a game. Keep them in chronological order and put them in the clear protective sheets. 7. Make sure to put your managers name, team name, division and a phone number on your book.