TOWN HALL
The USA Hockey Annual Congress featured a two-hour Town Hall on Thursday (June 9), with wide-ranging discussion including on diversity, equity and inclusion; youth hockey development; membership; history of the organization, officiating and the organization’s strategic plan.
“As we continue to focus on making our sport more welcoming to a broader population through our efforts in DEI and beyond, it’s terrific to hear the on-going dialogue and action taking place within our Affiliates across the country,” said Trimboli. “Creating a more welcoming environment is essential to our overall growth efforts.”
OFFICIALS – TREATMENT, RECRUITMENT, RETENTION
Trimboli also noted that officiating is a continued priority for the organization.
“The issues around officiating today – including how officials are treated, recruitment and retention, and the overall infrastructure of our officiating program – are critically important to the future of our game. The Officiating Task Force has done some very good work to date and it’s important that we all work together to ensure we have the number of officials we need as our game continues to grow.”
SAFETY
With safety of the game always at the top of USA Hockey’s priority list, Kelleher highlighted the significant work of those involved around safety of the game.
“We’re fortunate to have an engaged and accomplished Safety and Protective Equipment Committee, led by Dr. Mike Stuart, our chief medical and safety officer from the Mayo Clinic.” said Kelleher, “That committee is focused primarily on on-ice player safety and they do terrific work.”
“Relative to our off-ice safety, the SafeSport Coordinators in our Affiliates have been critical to helping our sport meet the required standards and they also deserve a tremendous amount of credit.”
OVERALL STATE OF THE GAME
Kelleher noted in his remarks to the Board that the number of players, coaches and officials involved with USA Hockey has rebounded quickly after being down some 20 percent a year ago due to the pandemic.
“It’s great to see our participation back to 95% of what it was prior to the pandemic,” said Kelleher. “We had record numbers at 8U this season. Those players are the future of our game, so we’re very encouraged and that’s a credit to our grassroots volunteers, our staff and also our NHL partners, among others.”
