Long Island Lady Islanders 14 and Under Age Appropriate Philosophy

The age appropriate philosophy outlined below is for players who are 14 and under.  This policy does not apply to players who are 15 &16 and are trying out for our 19U Tier I team. No written request is required for these players to attend tryouts for the 19U Tier I team.

The Long Island Lady Islanders program strongly supports a philosophy of playing age appropriate for our 14 and under players. For the 2010/2011 season these are players with birth years 1996 and after,  we are finally at the point where we can abide by this philosophy.  We feel it is important from an association and individual player perspective to play by this format.

In doing so our age groupings for our 14 and under players will be aligned with USA Hockey and we remain consistent with other youth organizations.  Additionally, having players play at their respective ages will make each team that much more competitive with similarly aged teams.  Finally, we will maintain consistency at each level by having a core group of players playing together from year to year.

In order for calendar year teams to be effective, we feel that the vast majority of players must play at their age appropriate levels. This being said, we also recognize that there is a very small group of players who, by playing at their age level, may help the team, but will not have the ability to develop individually, because of their exceptional talents. Coaches and parents have asked us to consider these special cases, for the benefit of the individual players and ultimately for the benefit of the Lady Islanders as a whole.

Based on this we are willing to allow certain “ELITE” players to try out for a team above their calendar year age designation, under the following criteria:

The player seeking to "Play Up" must contact the Director of Hockey in writing, requesting that she be allowed to try out at a higher level. The player or player's parents must make the request - a coach's request will not be accepted. Addresses for the submission of this request is:

Zoe Schwam – Director of Hockey

355 Duck Pond Road

Locust Valley, NY11560

Once the Competitive Committee has received the request, they will contact the family by phone, email or in person to discuss the reasons for wanting to play up. Discussion with the Director of Hockey is mandatory prior to tryouts. The ability to try out for an older team will be extremely selective. This to maintain some sense of order to the tryout procedure.

The player must be willing to try out for both her age appropriate team and the team on which she wishes to play.

The player will be evaluated by an independent group of individuals of which the coaches of the affected teams will not have any say in the decision.