Welcome back for a sixth VIHL season

[VIHL_ADMIN]

Hello and welcome back to another summer with the Vancouver Inline Hockey League (VIHL) !!

The VIHL is entering its 6th season and we are now accepting registration for the 2009 season. We had 73 teams last year and are expecting to have at least that for this coming season (we are just trying to determine if there is any additional rink time in order to accomodate some more teams). You can go onto the website at http://www.vihl.net for more information.


Hopefully everyone had a good offseason and kept busy and active. Once again, we've been busy planning for the upcoming season and have some information to let you know about...

- I would like to introduce some new members of the VIHL team:
William Tang will be joining me as an Assistant Manager;
Jason Lo will be the new game scheduler and will bring his experiences from Active Networks;
Erin Bell and Derek Hawksworth will be working together to schedule referees and scorekeepers;
Derek Hsieh will be in charge of referee and scorekeeper payroll;
Ryan Samson will be the new person in charge of stat corrections;
and we will probably also have one additional photographer on board.

- I would like to welcome back:
Steve Tajiri as our head referee;
Eric Coutinho as our webmaster;
Ryan Samson as our graphic designer
and Derek Hawksworth as our sponsorship and special events coordinator.

- There will be stricter forfeit rules with a "4 forfeits and you are gone" rule, fines escalating for each forfeit and higher fines for no shows compared to giving at least 24 hours notice. Details will be discussed at the captains meeting.

- Teams will now have the option of having us create an ID sheet for them or them bringing their own ID's to games. There will be no excuse for not having some sort of ID at the game. We will discuss at the captain's meeting the consequences for not having ID (it can either be the player gets kicked out or the whole team forfeits the game).

- Due to uncertainity around when Trout Lake and Killarney will be ready for public use, there will be once again be more Vancouver times at Riley Park and more games in Burnaby, West Vancouver and Planet Ice (in Coquitlam and also looking at the possibility of having some at the Great Pacific Forum in Delta) to compensate. If more rink time comes available in Vancouver, we will adjust things accordingly.

- The ranges used in calculating your skill level for players playing on multiple teams will be adjusted so that the top 10% of PPG in a tier will be considered to be the skill level of the tier higher, the bottom 30% will be considered to be the skill level of the tier lower and the remaining 60% will be considered to be the skill level of that tier. However, there is a possibility that we may adjust these percentages so that the bottom 10% of the tier is considered to be 2 tiers lower.

- A skaters's skill level will be determined based on the Points per game (PPG) from the previous regular season in the highest tier in which more than 4 games were played (unless a player has a history of being on a lower tiered team and the PPG in that lower tier is within the proper range, in which case the lower tier will be used to determine their skill level).



Registration information is on the website http://www.vihl.net/details.php, but here are a few key points...

**Early bird deadline for online registration is February 22 and the pricing is $2300 for Platinum teams, $2800 for Silver and Gold teams and $2700 for Bronze teams based out of North Vancouver and $2650 for Iron, Brass and Copper teams and Bronze teams based out of Vancouver/Burnaby (including the $200 refundable suspension deposit). Deposit is $500 like past years and will be due by February 28.

**Due to the lack of space on all of the floors this season, returning teams will have priority registration until February 22 (with the $500 deposit being due by February 28) and new teams will be put on a waiting list. After this date, new teams will be allowed to register and returning teams won't be guaranteed a spot . New teams will still be allowed to register and pay their deposit before this date in order to qualify for the early bird incentive, but nothing will be processed until this date.

**Individuals just pay a $15 fee for the player draft and other administrative items. Once they get on a team, they pay the team captain the rest of the registration fee (approx $230).

**Once again you can receive $50 off your fee for every new team you bring into the league.

**Currently the captains meeting will be held sometime during the last weekend of March, with the player draft to also be held sometime that week. More on this later.

**We are also looking into having a pre-season fundraiser again sometime in March. More on this later as well.


So here is what you get with your registration...

**18 games (16 regular season and 2 exhibition games) + guaranteed playoffs (except for platinum which will have 4 less games at a reduced fee)
**3-on-3 OT with shootout during the regular season (and extended sudden death in the playoffs)
**3 regions of play with championship cups and medals awarded to the winners of every tier
**At least 9 tiers of play
**A scorekeeper and 2 referees provided at every game
**Up-to-date and thorough stats on Pointstreak
**Game MVP's, individual awards and allstar game/skills competition for every tier
**Team Photos and random action shots
**Access to discounts from sponsors
**Access to league social events (let us know if you have any ideas)


Once again, we are looking for some scorekeepers and referees (http://www.vihl.net/refregister.php). So let us know if you or anyone you know is interested in these roles.


Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you soon and seeing you in the coming months. Feel free to e-mail us if you have any questions or feedback. You can also post up messages on the messageboard.