We hope you and your families have stayed safe & healthy during the COVID pandemic. The following is information regarding our new Greater Springfield Youth Hockey Association (formerly WTM and Springfield Capitals).Also updates on the hockey season from Massachusetts Hockey and the Greater Springfield Hockey League. We encourage you to read thru the entire message, as there is information for the season, parents, coaches, players, etc.
We are VERY excited to announce the name & logo of our new organization!GSYHA is now officially….The Greater Springfield Jr. Yellow Jackets.The AIC Yellow Jackets college hockey program was thrilled about the opportunity to affiliate with our new Greater Springfield youth hockey program.AIC is a Division 1 college hockey program here in Springfield.Most recently, the AIC Yellow Jackets won the Atlantic Conference Championship, and finished in the final four for the D1 college hockey national championship in 2019. AIC is becoming known as one of the best teams in the Atlantic Conference, and jumped at the chance to be part of our youth hockey program.AIC is looking forward to assisting us in making the Jr. Yellow Jackets a fun, exciting, high-level GSL program.
Hockey Season update:Due to the COVID pandemic youth sports have essentially been put on hold. As with everything, Mass Hockey is taking a step by step approach as we watch how COVID plays out. We have been involved in all the meetings with Mass Hockey/USA hockey in May.We have also been part of GSL meetings with all other organizations recently held in June in order to fully understand what we know right now about moving forward. We will be following the guidelines set forth by Mass Hockey as they come out. All GSL teams are in the same exact position.We are all working under Mass Hockey guidelines in terms of starting a hockey season.At this point in June, under Phase 2 of reopening, youth hockey players under the age of 18 are allowed to skate.No games or scrimmages are allowed.Individual drills only.Kids are asked to dress as much as possible at home, and there will be chairs set up around the rinks to put skates, etc on.NO locker rooms.Everyone is asked to wear a mask into the building, and no more than 1 “spectator” per child.In Phase 3 of reopening, scrimmages and competitive drills MAY be allowed.Under either circumstance,evaluations can be done.With these rules in place, we are beginning to organize what our evaluations will look like for the 2020-2021 season. As a slight change to the beginning of the season and since evaluations were not done in the Spring due to rink closures, we are proposing a mini “training camp” for all ages in order to allow the kids to get their legs under them prior to any official skill evaluations for team placement.More to come on that!Although we are still unsure of what the 2020-2021 hockey season will look like we are moving things along in hopes of a season.We welcome any questions you may have, but please understand, we are following Mass Hockey and all other GSL teams in the same protocol.All GSL teams are in the EXACT same situation. As news comes out, we will be sending updates.
Next steps for families:if you have not registered with us or know someone who still needs to register please do so ASAP at: www.greaterspringfieldhockey.org. We want to make sure we have all players & coaches registered to prepare for the upcoming season. Also, click here to find an apparel/jersey form to fill in and return for sizing. Please fill this out and return to the GSHYA email address. GSYHA413@gmail.com with "Player Sizing" in the subject line. We have some great ideas for outfitting our players for the inaugural season. Stay tuned!! We are in the process of choosing vendors to purchase uniform jerseys, apparel, etc!!!
We will be sending out communication and “next steps” for all the coaches that are currently signed up to coach. If you are not signed up and have coached in the past or would like to coach please reach out to one of the board members.
We look forward to a fun hockey season with a new look on the ice!Welcome to the Greater Springfield Jr. Yellow Jackets!!!!
With the recent closing of schools and local hockey rinks, we are forced to reschedule the upcoming evaluations for the 2020/2021 season. We have 2 options for evaluations that we are still actively working on:
Evaluations at Olympia in late April when kids are back in school and it becomes safe again in social environments. (Preferred)
Evaluations will be held at Cyr Arena the first 2 weeks of the new season in September.
Much work goes into the start up of each season (e.g. paperwork, uniforms, game/practice schedules etc..) so ideally we would really like to get the evaluations in PRIOR to the start of the season. With this said, we need EVERYONE who plans to play with the GSYHA next season to register online! This will help us coordinate evals, know our number of players and get communication out to you quicker throughout this process.
PLEASE register if you have not yet.
These are unprecedented times and ask for patience as we work through this. We will stay in communication as much as we can. Please watch your email and keep checking the website for updates.
Based on the results from Thursday night’s vote, it is with great enthusiasm that we announce the merger of the WTM Jr. Blackhawks and the Springfield Capitals. It is OFFICIAL with overwhelming acceptance from both organizations membership. Moving forward, we are now the Greater Springfield Youth Hockey Association!
