FAQ's (Greater London Hockey Association)

1.  What are the different levels of competitive hockey available to my child?

In London, there are three levels of competitive hockey available to your child:

AAA

• AAA is the highest level of competitive hockey in London.
• The AAA program is offered in London only by the London Junior Knights for Minor Atom to Midget players.
• There can be one or two teams made up of players from across the city.

AA/A

• Seeded Hockey is the second highest level of competitive hockey available in London.
• Seeded Hockey is offered by the London Junior Knights as well as the GLHA for Minor Atom to Midget players.
• The London Junior Knights have 1 or 2 teams made up of players from across the city.
• The London Junior Mustang teams have players from within their geographic designations Purple (North/Oakridge) and White (West/Bandits). 
• London Junior Mustangs have two seeded teams per division for Minor Atom to Midget.
• All Seeded teams play each other until November and then are declared either “A” or “AA”. (See question 2 below.)

Minor Development Hockey (MD)

• Minor Development (MD) hockey is first level of competitive hockey and is available to Minor Novice to Major Midget players.
• Minor Development (MD) hockey is only available via the neighborhood associations.
• Generally, the associations offer one MD team per division where registration numbers and player development allow it.

2.   What is “Seeded Hockey”?

• As mentioned above Seeded (AA/A) hockey is offered by the London Junior Knights  and the London Junior Mustangs.
• All seeded teams within the league (i.e. Sarnia to Burlington) play each other until Novemberr and then are “seeded” or declared as either an “A” or  “AA” level team based on their wins/losses etc. After the “seed”, the teams only play teams that are within their designation:
• • The AA teams play in the ‘Constellation League'
  • The A teams play in the ‘Bristol League'
• Generally, London Junior Knights teams will be seeded as “AA” teams and the GLHA teams are seeded as “A” teams.
• For our London Junior Mustang teams, this means there is generally more travel and challenging competition prior to November than after November.

3.   Does a player have to tryout for the Spring Tryouts if they really want to play MD?

• We encourage all players to tryout for spring tryouts to ensure players are playing at their highest skill level.
• The association MD tryouts are held in the fall.

4.  When are tryouts?

• London Junior Knights AAA and AA tryouts are in the spring. Register for these tryouts via the London Junior Knights website.
• London Junior Mustang team tryouts for seeded are in the spring.  Register for these tryouts via your local association website for Minor Atom to Minor Midget.

5.  Is competitive hockey more expensive the house league hockey?

• Yes. 
• There are additional costs associated with competitive hockey.
• Competitive teams are on the ice more often than house league teams and have other team expenses. The association charges a “competitive surcharge” to cover ice and other costs provided by the association.
• In addition teams may wish to purchase additional ice or go on tournaments. These costs would also be covered by the “team”.
• Many competitive teams fund-raise to cover some or all of these additional costs.

6.  What is the time commitment?

• Generally there are 1.5 to 2.5 hours of practice time per week and 1 to 2 games.
• There is also more travel, as some of the teams you will play will be outside of London (like Sarnia, Woodstock, Stratford, Brantford, Burlington, Cambridge, KW area).
• Generally there is less travel with MD hockey compared to Seeded hockey.

7.  Are playoffs during March Break?

• Yes. Playoffs for MD and Seeded hockey are during March Break.
• It is expected that you will NOT make holiday plans during March Break.

8.  What if we are away during tryouts?

• The London Junior Mustangs and your association has provided ample notice of tryout times.
• Please contact the VP Competitive Hockey for your association, if you have tryout schedule conflicts.

9.  When will London Junior Mustangs Competitive Coaches be announced?

• Head Coaches for teams from Minor Atom to Minor Midget will be announced on the London Junior Mustang web site.

• The competitive divisions are based on birth year.