Organization - Attn U13 Players!! International Trip?
Hi Everybody,
Many of you will know me, but some will not. My name is Mike Kelly and I've been an active member of Elmvale Minor Hockey for almost 40 years. Initially as a player, and now an executive, coach, and occasional on-ice official.
Some of the greatest memories I have from my time with EMHA have been the 2 international trips I've been lucky enough to be a part of. First a trip to Sweden & Norway as a player (a long time ago), and just 2 years ago as a parent/coach for a trip to Czechia/Poland/Austria where my eldest son had a chance to experience what I did so many years ago.
And so it is with excitement that I reach out to you today with the news that Cullen Fay (who also was on both those trips mentioned above and a long-time EMHA member as well) & I have been given permission to start the process all over again. This time for players born in 2010 & 2011. The trip will be during the 2024/2025 season which is in 2 years time.
The process will look something like this:
- Assess Interest (This is where we are at). We will need enough players / families interested in order to make this feasible.
- Confirm Interest. If there is seemingly enough interest we will ask that families confirm their interest by providing a refundable deposit. At this point, not many details of the trip will be known other than the destination & dates.
- Team Selection. The last time we went, there wasn't a need for this step but it's possible that not everybody that wants to be a part of this trip will be able to be. Although we will make every effort to include as many as are allowed & are manageable. We have not set criteria yet for team selection, and will only do so if necessary. After this point the deposit becomes non-refundable.
- Fundraise & Plan
- Travel
The idea is that steps 1 and 2 will be completed prior to this season. If step 3 is necessary then that will take place during the month of Sep in some fashion as we need to get to step 4 as quickly as possible. The goal will be that all players' trips will be completely covered by our fundraising efforts. Parents and other family and friends will need to pay their own way.
A couple of items:
1 - Players must be committed to playing in Elmvale for both the 2023/2024, and 2024/2025 seasons.
2 - All players will need to have an adult 'in charge' of them while on the trip. If you would like for your player to be involved but cannot commit to going yourself you will need to figure out an alternate solution for your player to have somebody looking after them while on the trip.
3 - This is not just for 'Rep' kids. We encourage all players interested to express that interest formally. When we went a couple of years ago only a handful of Rep kids participated. The team was mostly comprised of AE and LL players. Our tour providers will try their best to match us with comparable teams when we play.
In order to assess initial interest, I've created a form that can be filled out. Please do so at your earliest convenience so that we can make our way through the initial steps as quickly as possible.
2024-2025 International Trip Expression of Interest
And finally, if you know of somebody that may be interested but is not a part of EMHA for this season they can still participate as long as they commit to playing in EMHA the following 2 seasons. So please feel free to forward it to them as well.
If you have any questions you can shoot me an email anytime.
-mike
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