Fundamentals, 2013-2014 (Wilmot Girls Hockey)

We were able to get another Sunday practice to replace the time lost on Saturday. Besides running this session like a normal full ice Saturday practice with skating drills and fun games, we will have a 20 minute practice game with two minute changes if we have enough players to rotate from the bench like we will for a Rookie Game. This will be the last full ice session before our first Rookie Game next Saturday.

We were able to get a Sunday practice to partially replace the time lost on the next two Saturdays. The full ice practice on Sunday January 12 at 1:30 will be conducted like a normal Saturday practice with skating drills, fun games and a scrimmage at the end of the practice.

Six Rookie Games (4 against Woolwich [away games in St. Jacobs] and 2 against Grand River [away game in Fergus]) are scheduled starting late January through to March. Woodstock may also play us on an home and away basis but they want to wait until the New Year to decide. They have a relatively new program and potential games with them are not confirmed yet. If these are added to our schedule the potential dates are Feb 15, March 1 and March 22. I will have our Ice Scheduler put all the confirmed dates in our ice calendar.

The most important part of the Fundamentals program is the concentration on individual skills worked on in practices on Tuesdays and Saturdays. But every year we have arranged Rookie Games (most likely 6 this year) with other centres with Fundamental programs (Woolwich, Grand River, Waterloo). These are minimal structure scrimmages with 2 minute shifts that start with face offs at centre ice. We do not record the score and ask that other centres do not record the score as well. These are fun events.

The Fundamentals will play between the 1st and 2nd periods of a Firebirds game in January.