First off, depending on your head-coach the roles and responsibilities for a operations manager differ.  Be sure to talk to your head-coach and figure out how hands-on they want you to be versus what they want their role in team management to be.  Depending on that line you can narrow down or broaden responsibilities.  At the very least that bar will include:

All Levels

• Collecting all necessary paperwork from your team.
• Rostering your team with FYHA Registrar
• Administering your website and team pages.
• Managing the practice schedule.
• Coordinating Locker Room Attendants
• Coordinating Scrimmages

Upper Levels Only

• District scheduling meetings and gameplay 
• Reporting game scores to District 8
• Assigning Locker-room attendants
• Arranging travel and lodging for your teams for Tournaments 
• Managing the district schedule
• Managing the tournament schedule 
• Liaison for the referee scheduler
• Liaison for Minnesota Hockey District 8 
• Finance Managers: Managing your team budget.  - Balance, check-writing responsibilities.

We'll walkthrough the majority of these responsibilities and give you information in later sections.  Beyond the list above, you should discuss the communications with your team to figure out how much the coach wants you to be hands-on as well as with parents and how hands-on they want you to be.  As a good rule of thumb, the kids and their development are the Coach's responsibility, you should take away any burden that keeps them from achieving their goals.

So it's day one and you have to get started.  Here are the most important things you need to get done immediately:

1. EMAIL LIST:  Create an email list of the parents on the team and be sure to get an email out announcing your team.  The email should include a quick welcome and your first practice time.  In addition, be sure to tell parents about the forms in the next item.
    

2. FORMS: If you have FIRST TIME FYHA skaters on your team, we will need a copy of their birth-certificate shortly.  The registrar will reach out to parents to request the birth-certificates.

3. UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE:  Your website and team page will be the single-source of information distribution apart from your emails so it's critical to have it up to date.  Since the website administration team does not know you are the manager, email your current webmaster which can be found under the "Contact" tab at the top of the FYHA site.  For this season the contact is john.mattson@farmingtonhockey.org.  The webmaster will make you an administrator for your page and then you can get to work on this one.  Please watch the administration guide for your website but you should setup your:

   • Coaches Information
   • Your Information (inclusive of contacts)
   • Your schedule
   • Your roster
   • Your tournaments (if any pre-registration was done by the association)
      
4. MEET THE COACH (Optional):  We believe this element is very beneficial, but some teams choose to do it differently.  You will want to have a parent meeting, but the more successful parent meetings are done as a meet the coach time.  The goal of this meeting is for the coach to discuss what they expect of the players and give the parents the opportunity to ask the coaches questions about the season and plans.  If you get your forms out early you can use this event to capture the forms too.

After you get these things done, you get to sit and wait for a bit.  -- Relax and enjoy the calmness... Take up yoga and meditation... you'll need to remember to relax later.

Part of making sure you have a successful season is communications.  With that, we recommend you take the information from your parents above and create a few more items that will help you and your parents communicate and maanage better. 

• QUICK REFERENCE PLAYER CARD:  For the upper levels, this is really important as most teams do not have their names on their jerseys.  This reference card on one side lists the players, numbers and on the back, list the parents name and phone numbers by jersey number.  (It all really does fit).  Below is a template for this.
• RIDESHARE CONTACT SHEET:  Using the information above, we've also done contact sheets for refrigerators.  A sample of this is below but includes basic contact information as well as address information in case a player or two needs a ride.  (That happens a lot).

BIRTH CERTIFICATES FOR REQUIRED PLAYERS

If any birth certificates are required from players on your roster, the registrar will contact families directly.  The registrar may reach out to you for assistance if needed.

At the beginning of the season, it will take the registrar approximately 2 weeks after all the data is collected to certify your roster and until that is done you can not play district games... so get this done fast!

Pretty soon, you'll get your first ice schedule.  It's time to optimize your teams ice.  Everyone has their own way of doing this, but after you enter your assigned ice into your calendar, we recommend you look for areas where you can "Add ice" and find teams that might have solo ice, or split ice with one team that maybe you can hop on them with. 

If you do this, be sure to email the Ice Scheduler to let them know of the change and/or addition.  If you are adding a team to the ice, be sure to let the scheduler know, in many cases they can get another locker room to make sure your team will fit in smaller arenas.

Farmington Youth Hockey Association Locker Room Policy

In addition to the development of our hockey players and enjoyment of the sport of hockey, the safety and protection of our participants is central to FYHA's goals. FYHA adheres to USA Hockey’s SafeSport Program as a means to help protect its participants from physical abuse, sexual abuse and other types of misconduct, including emotional abuse, bullying, threats, harassment and hazing. To help prevent abuse or misconduct from occurring in our locker rooms, FYHA has adopted the following locker room policy. This policy is designed to maintain personal privacy as well as to reduce the risk of misconduct in locker rooms.

At Schmitz-Maki Arena there are four (4) locker rooms available for our program’s use. Each of the locker rooms has its own restroom. Some teams in our program may also occasionally or regularly travel to play games at other arenas, and those locker rooms, rest rooms and shower facilities will vary from location to location. FYHA's team organizers will attempt to provide information on the locker room facilities in advance of games away from our home arena. At arenas for which you are unfamiliar, parents should plan to have extra time and some flexibility in making arrangements for their child to dress, undress and shower if desired.

Locker Room Monitoring

FYHA has predictable and limited use of locker rooms and changing areas (e.g., generally 30-45 minutes before and following practices and games). This allows for direct and regular monitoring of locker room areas. District 8 requires constant monitoring inside of locker rooms once more than one player is in the locker room.

We conduct a sweep of the locker rooms and changing areas before players arrive, and if the coaches are not inside the locker rooms, either a coach or voluntary locker room monitors must be stationed outside the locker room until players arrive, once more than one player is present the monitor must be in the locker room. Only approved team personnel. Team personnel will also secure the locker room appropriately during times when the team is on the ice.

Parents in Locker Rooms

Except for players at the younger age groups, we discourage parents from entering locker rooms unless it is truly necessary. If a player needs assistance with his or her uniform or gear, if the player is or may be injured, or a player’s disability warrants assistance, then we ask that parents let the coach know beforehand that he or she will be helping the player.

Naturally, with our youngest age groups it is necessary for parents to assist the players getting dressed. We encourage parents to teach their players as young as possible how to get dressed so that players will learn as early as possible how to get dressed independently. In circumstances where parents are permitted in the locker room, coaches are permitted to ask that the parents leave for a short time before the game and for a short time after the game so that the coaches may address the players. As players get older, the coach may in his or her discretion prohibit parents from a locker room.

Mixed Gender Teams

Some of our teams consist of both male and female players. It is important that the privacy rights of all of our players are given consideration and appropriate arrangements made. Where possible, FYHA will have the male and female players dress/undress in separate locker rooms and then convene in a single locker room before the game or team meeting. Once the game or practice is finished, the players may come to one locker room for a team meeting and then the male and female players proceed to their separate locker rooms to undress and shower, if available. If separate locker rooms are not available, then the players will take turns using the locker room to change. We understand that these arrangements may require that players arrive earlier or leave later to dress, but believe that this is the most reasonable way to accommodate and respect all of our players.

Cell Phones and Other Mobile Recording Devices

Cell phones and other mobile devices with recording capabilities, including voice recording, still cameras and video cameras, are not permitted to be used in the locker rooms. If phones or other mobile devices must be used, they should be taken outside of the locker room. It is permissible to have the team manager collect phones.

Prohibited Conduct and Reporting

FYHA prohibits all types of physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, bullying, threats, harassment and hazing, all as described in the USA Hockey SafeSport Handbook. Participants, employees or volunteers in FYHA may be subject to disciplinary action for violation of these locker room policies or for engaging in any misconduct or abuse or that violates the USA Hockey SafeSport Policies. Reports of any actual or suspected violations, may be emailed to USA Hockey at SafeSport@usahockey.org or may called in to USA Hockey at 1-800-888-4656.

The background check required for all locker room monitors can be accessed at https://www.usahockey.com/backgroundscreen.  The volunteer is required to forward their "Pass" email from USA Hockey to the team manager to prove this process was completed.

LABELS:

Prior to your District Games and Tournament Games you'll want to make some labels for your team.  There are two types of labels:

• Player Labels:  Has the entire roster and Jersey numbers.
• Coaches Labels:  Has your coaching staff and their CEP numbers necessary.

In a given game the official scorer will need between 3 to 4 player labels and 3-4 Coaches labels depending on the score-sheet and rink setup.

The attached labels give you an idea/template for printing.  The labels attached are designed for a 2" x 4" label sheet. -- You might need to customize the template if you change the label sizes.  the 2" x 4" is preferred since it will fit on the score sheet easily.  Any larger, you might have to trim the label to fit and some tournaments are specific and ask for 2" x 4" labels, so this would be your best bet. (Avery labels that are 2" x 4" are the best choices.  Some product numbers that cover theses would be 18163, 15514)

On the coaches labels, the labels are simply the coach's name and CEP number.  See the attached label guide as an example.

DISTRICT GAMES

For district games that are home, you are responsible for making sure that you have:

• Referees:  Assuming you haven't change game dates/time, you should be OK.  The referee scheduler is on the Board/Contact page and if you had moved games, be sure they know about the move.  They book off the District 8 scheduling system (called "Arbiter")  Our ice schedule only schedules refs for scrimmages and our referee coordinator takes care of paying the refs.  Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you pay the referees directly from your team budget or checks.
• Scorer:  You are required to keep the score for the game on the official score app on the i-Pad.  The Score i-Pad at Schmitz-Maki is at the scorer's table.  

        Game Sheet Instructions

• Clock:  For home games you control the clock.  Our game-clock is not hard to figure out, but you might want to get there a few minutes before your game to learn how to use it.  There is a pad next to the clock that has the key-functions described like how to create a penalty and clear it.
• Penalty Box Parents:  For home games, you are required to open doors for the penalty boxes.  Some crews do this with a single person and have the person who is running the book be a second door opener. -- But there will be times where you have coincidental minor penalties which will require two doors to open at the same time.  Factor this in to your scheduling.  If you want to make it easier on yourself have 2 people in the scorer's table to work the doors so you can focus on the book and clock.

For each of the items above, be sure you know who is doing what.  At the beginning of the season, doing this can be challenging.  In addition to the above you'll want to either have a third hand in the penalty box/scorer's table or a spare set of hands.  If you have a coincidental minor penalty and the refs skate 4 on 4, you have to open both penalty box doors simultaneously while running the clock. -- It can get hectic.  If you tell your parents that if there is a double-penalty, send some one over, you'll be thankful later.  

At the end of the game, distribute the score sheets as it says on the book.  You will get a copy, the visitor team gets a copy, one will be the referees copy and the last one stays at the rink.  The winning team is responsible to report the score to District 8 via the StickStats website.  In the event of a tie the home team will report the score.  

To report the score, go to https://www.minnesotahockeydistrict8.com and choose "Game Results" located on the upper right side of the home page.  There will be prompts for you to complete your score entry and submit to the district.  This MUST be done within 48 hours of your game.

FAIR PLAY POINTS

At the start of each game, each team earns a "Fair Play" point and will lose that point if you accumulate too many penalty minutes or have other misconduct.  To keep your fair play point you must:

• Not exceed the penalty minute threshold for you age/team:
  • Squirt: 10 Minutes
  • PeeWee: 12 Minutes
  • Bantams: 14 Minutes
  • Youth 16U: 16 Minutes
  • Junior Gold:  16 Minutes
  • Girls U10: 8 Minutes
  • Girls U12: 10 Minutes
  • Girls U14: 12 Minutes
  • Girls U16: 14 Minutes
  • Girls U19:  14 Minutes
• Maintain appropriate Coach conduct
• Maintain proper parent/fan conduct.

If a parent/fan is ejected, you will lose your fair-play point.  In all other conduct cases, the referee will inform the scorers if the point has been take away.  

JERSEYS

Effective 2013, Minnesota hockey is aligned with USA Hockey.  Home team will now wear dark jerseys and away will wear light jerseys.

As an upper-level team you will likely have a few tournaments that you will travel to.  On top of these tournaments, your team will also have the option of doing a District tournament.  The District tournament is with the District 8 teams and is organized by them.  A general rule of thumb is that FYHA will register each team for at least 3 tournaments ahead of your season.  If you end up doing more than these four tournaments know that this will increase the monthly ice bills for your team. Contact your team finance manager if you are looking to register for an additional tournament or to pay to register for the District tournament.

When you start the year, you'll want to check with the FYHA level coordinator for your team if they don't proactively reach out to you.  For at least 3 tournaments, FYHA will book your team in advance of the year.  This is to make sure we get into the good tournaments that fill up fast in June.  After you get these you'll want to do the following:

1. For the tournaments that you were given, call or email the tournament coordinator (found on the tournaments web page) and make sure you validate your team is in.  -- Some cases, we get on a wait list and your spot is not guaranteed.
2. If your team is interested in other tournaments, start shopping around for good tournaments.   You should start at http://www.letsplayhockey.com/ on the Tournaments tab and look at the calendar to try and book your tournament.

If your team is scheduled to play in a tournament outside of MN you will need to submit a form to District 8. Your team will be fined by District 8 if you fail to submit and get the form approved prior to participating in the tournament.

Interstate Travel Request Form

After you book a tournament notify the Ice Scheduler.  Our ice schedulers try and avoid conflicts but if they don't know about your tournament, they can't block it... so you better make sure you block it off otherwise it'll be your job to shop/sell ice.

Our website through SportsEngine is really easy to use and you don't need a lot of knowledge to control it.  Our Webmasters will be responsible for your permission setup as well as getting your season setup, so your real responsibilities here will be to setup:

• Your team page with Coaches information
• Your team page with Calendar events
• Your team page with games
• Your team pages with blocked events such as tournaments.

The easiest way to do this is to show you.  Please watch the video below for a brief walkthrough of configuring the site.

TWITTER

Your games will be tweeted out on the FYHA Twitter account upon game finalization. Make sure that you finalize each game after it is completed.

Please Note: The video below contains some instructions that are no longer completely accurate due to some of the changes to the team page template.  The biggest difference, adding events to your calendar is no longer done right from the calendar, it is now done under the new "Manage Team" button, found at the top of the page. 

If you are looking to do some more advanced stuff with your website, things like:

• Adding columns to your web page
• Adding upcoming events to your web page
• Advanced controsl like tab controls

We recommend you watch the attached video for advanced topics for your FYHA team page.