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Season Update - July 2019

By Jim Boss, 07/24/19, 8:30AM PDT

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Hello Bend Rapids Community,

The purpose of my message today is to inform you of the current status of the upcoming season.  

Five weeks ago, at Bend Ice's meeting of the members, it was the will of the people to elect me as your Bend Rapids President for the next two seasons.  Furthermore, Kim Flowers was elected as Registrar for the same term.  Thank you for your confidence in us and the remainder of the Steering Committee as we prepare for the upcoming 2019-20 season.

Dryland
Wednesday, July 10th was the Bend Rapids first of eight dryland sessions at the Pavilion.  These dryland sessions are weekly, Wednesdays, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm ending Wednesday, August 28th.  I was excited to see we had twenty-four Rapids players in attendance for the first session.  Players rotated through three stations of shooting, agility & floorball (always a favorite).  Players pay $10 per session (collected at time of check-in by Aaron Olson).

Eugene - Saturday Ice Time
Last Monday, July 1st, at the Bend Rapids Steering Committee meeting there was unanimous support to purchase seven weeks of Saturday ice time at Eugene's Rink Exchange.  The Saturday dates are as follows: 8/17, 8/24 (skip two weeks) then 9/14 - 10/12.  Ice time will be from 2:00 to 5:15.  Please note there will be two different on-ice, age-based sessions: 2:00-3:30 and 3:45-5:15.  It is important you save these dates as the Bend Rapids will hold tryouts on one or more of these dates.  Tryouts will be for the 12U, 14U, and 16U/18U age groups.  10U players will be welcome in Eugene but will not have tryouts.  Depending on ice capacity, we may offer opportunities for 8U.  More details to come, ASAP.

Annual Gear Exchange
The Bend Rapids will, again, facilitate the Annual Gear Exchange at the Pavilion on Sunday, October 6th from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

First Six Weeks
In my first six weeks "on the job" I began by calling two meetings to discuss the merits of a Tier II (AA) hockey roster at 18U and 14U.  The attendance, discussion & feedback was positive & engaging.  I facilitated these meetings at the Pavilion for 2001 - 2006 birth year players and families.  I followed up these in-person meetings with an online survey which resulted in 48 individual responses.  I shared the details of the meetings and the survey results with the Bend Rapids Steering Committee last Monday.  There were some items that needed clarification; so, I sought that clarification from my first meeting with our affiliate, Oregon State Hockey Association (OSHA) this past Sunday, July 8th.  More details to come, ASAP.

I understand many of you are reading this message feeling unfulfilled because you do not know the team structures, schedule & costs.  I hope to make a follow up announcement in the next couple weeks which would address things such as:

-How we intend on programming the Saturday Eugene ice time
-How many teams we project for each age group
-How we intend to roster each age group (Travel A/B, TIER II [AA])

Organizational Changes
I reimagined the Coaching Director position and created a four person Coaching Committee, which will be lead by our Coaching Director.  I appointed Norm Norris as the Bend Rapids Coaching Director and created a coaching committee which includes: Mike Ahlman, Cameron Stalnaker & Matt Greenlaw.  

PLEASE CLICK HERE - Bend Rapids: 2019-20 Coaching Application

The first task for the coaching committee is soliciting coaching interest from the community.  This application process will determine the pool of potential coaches.  The committee will have the responsibility of assigning coaches to each team being mindful of the unique needs of each age group and skill level.  IMPORTANT: only coaches that apply will be eligible for consideration which means WE NEED YOUR HELP.  If you know someone that would be a good fit please make it your responsibility to connect these talented coaches with our organization.  Simply forward this email to those worthy candidates and email: usahockey@bendice.org to get them added to our email distribution list.  In addition, the coaching committee will be responsible for programming and leading our Saturday Eugene ice time and oversee tryouts.

Thank you for reading this.  I will provide you more details on team structure ASAP.  Let's make this the best season yet - Let's Play Hockey - Go Rapids!

Jim Boss, Bend Rapids President