The Minnesota Hockey Age Classification was discussed at the Minnesota Hockey Summer Board Meeting on June 26th and 27th.  The basis of the Planning Committee discussion was the recently conducted survey that involved parents of Minnesota Hockey players with June birthdates.  In the next step of the evaluation process the District Directors will send a second survey to their constituent associations.  This Data will come back to the Planning Committee for discussion and possible recommendation at the Minnesota Hockey Fall Board Meeting in September.  If any action is taken, it will not be effective until the 2011-12 season at the earliest.

Please direct any questions or comments to your District Director.

What is being considered?

Currently the Age Classification year is from July 1^st – June 30^th.  The original change being considered was to adopt a June 1^st – May 31^st Age Classification year.  There are several reasons to consider this change, most notably the large numbers of players with June birthdates that delay entry into Kindergarten and thus end up playing hockey every other year with players that are ahead of them by one – two grades in school.  There are approximately 4000 Minnesota Hockey players with June birthdates.

There were a variety of opinions when the cut-off date was discussed at the recent Minnesota Hockey Summer Board Meeting.  There were supporters for moving to June 1, leaving it as-is at July 1, going back to the Minnesota Department of Education cut-off of Sept. 1, and using the USA Hockey age cut-off of January 1 (calendar years).

The intent of the second survey is to gather real data and feedback about what individual associations feel the age cut-off should be.  This information will help guide the Board of Directors in their decision making process.