U13 house league · Coach's playbook · Sooke Minor Hockey Association
Below the dots D and centre, above the dots wingers. Body between, stick on puck.
Wingers to the wall, centre low, off-D at the net, goalie calls it. Finish across the red line.
Where we're going and in what order.
What we say to the kids on day one and to the parents at the meeting.
Names, numbers, positions. Tap a player for notes.
Present, late, away — one tap each.
Two practices a week. Roughly one system per week after the first two, which get a week each so they're automatic before game 1.
Below the dots D and centre, above the dots wingers. Body between your man and the net, stick on puck. Skating: stops both ways.
Wingers to the wall at the hash marks, centre low as the safety valve, off-D at the net, goalie calls it. Skating: backward with shoulder checks, wall receiving.
Win it in the D-zone, break it out, one drill. Add the Over (D to D behind the net). Reverse only if three options are clean.
First man pressure, second man support, third man reads and stays high. D don't chase.
D gap control (stick length off, angle to the wall), forward back pressure, simple regroup. Skating: tight turns and transitions.
Someone lives at the net. Inside the dots, shoot. Basic low-to-high cycle. D pinch rule: only if you're sure.
PK box first: stick in the lane, don't chase. Then a simple PP: move it quick, shoot from the middle, someone at the net.
Forecheck into D-zone into breakout into attack. Small-area games with bench cues; fix what the games showed.
U13 house league. Half ice, 50 minutes, 11–13 skaters, 1 goalie. Goalie is in the net for everything after warm-up.
| 0:00 | Stops & Edges Ladder — skating warm-up, whole group, then two circles | 10 min |
| 0:10 | Moving Circle Passing — pass ahead, soft hands, head up, then backward | 10 min |
| 0:20 | Chalk talk — the three rules at the whiteboard | 2 min |
| 0:22 | D-Zone Jobs: Walk, Then Live — the system drill | 12 min |
| 0:34 | Corner 1v1: Stick on Puck, Body Between — battle, two stations | 8 min |
| 0:42 | Points & Exits — small-area game that forces the read | 7 min |
| 0:49 | 60-second summary at the net | 1 min |
"Three things tonight. Below the dots, D and centre. Above the dots, wingers. Wherever you are, you're between your guy and the net, and your stick is on the puck."
"Notice what happened in that last game — when everybody chased the puck, they scored. When you stayed home and let your stick do the work, you got it out. That's the whole point of our zone: we don't chase, we protect the net, and then we get it out."
"Thursday we work on how to get it out clean. Skating homework: practise stopping on your bad side every time you're on the ice. Hands in — good work."
Assistant 1 takes the struggling skaters on the far circle for slow edge work — one knee over one toe, hold it. Assistant 2 stands at the hash marks watching stops and calling out anyone doing one-foot stops. Head coach runs the whistles.
One coach in the middle of each circle. Say "pass ahead" and "soft hands" more than anything else. Reverse direction on the head coach's call.
Head coach runs it from the blue line with the pucks. Assistants stand on opposite boards at the hash marks — one watches the two D and the goalie, the other watches the wingers and the points. During the freezes, physically move kids to the right spot; don't just tell them.
One assistant per corner. Alternate whistles so the goalie faces one shot at a time. Say "stick first, then body" on every rep.
Head coach feeds pucks from the blue line and keeps score out loud. Assistants stand at each hash mark and only say two things: "where's your man?" and "stay home" to the wingers.
Pull him aside before the D-zone drill and give him his three calls — "point!", "man in front!", "behind you!" — and tell him it's his job to yell them all practice. He'll love it.
Next practice: the breakout — Up and Wheel. Wingers to the wall, centre is the safety valve, goalie calls it.
U13 house league. Half ice plus the neutral zone, 50 minutes, 11–13 skaters, 1 goalie. Goalie is in the net and calling the breakout all night.
| 0:00 | Retrieve & Turn Ladder — backward skating, shoulder check, pivot, pick-up on the wall | 10 min |
| 0:10 | Wall Catch & Go — winger receives on the wall, centre swings as the outlet | 10 min |
| 0:20 | Chalk talk — Up and Wheel, everyone's spot | 2 min |
| 0:22 | Breakout: Up & Wheel — Walk, Then Live — the system drill | 12 min |
| 0:34 | Retrieve Under Pressure 1v1 — battle, two stations | 8 min |
| 0:42 | Get Out Alive — small-area game that scores the exit | 7 min |
| 0:49 | 60-second summary at the net | 1 min |
"Two ways out of our end. Up: D to the winger on the wall. Wheel: D skates it. Wingers — your spot is the wall at the hash marks, facing the D, stick on the ice. Centre — you're the safety valve, low and swinging, always a pass away. Other D — net front."
"And the goalie calls it. When he says Up, it's up. When he says Wheel, you skate. Why does this matter? Because a puck that leaves our end clean is a goal they never get to try for."
"Homework: skate backward and look over your shoulder every time you're on the ice — both shoulders. Next week we hook Tuesday and tonight together: win it in our zone, break it out, all in one play. Hands in."
One assistant in each corner spotting pucks and watching the pivot. Say "shoulder" every time a kid goes backward without looking. Head coach at the blue line keeps the flow moving. Struggling skaters can do the pivot at half speed — it's the pivot we want, not the speed.
One coach per station standing on the boards at the hash marks — right beside the winger's spot. Two things only: "face the D" and "catch and go." Call the rotation so nobody stalls.
Head coach at the blue line with pucks and runs the freezes. Assistant 1 stands on the strong-side boards and owns the winger and the D with the puck. Assistant 2 stands at the net and owns the off-D and the centre — the two kids most likely to wander. On the freezes, walk players to their spots.
One assistant per station. Count the one-second head start out loud, then alternate whistles. Say "read" as the D picks it up, and say which option he should have taken after the rep — one sentence, then next pair.
Head coach feeds from the neutral zone and keeps score out loud. Assistants stand on the boards at the hash marks and only yell two things: "wall!" to the wingers and "swing!" to the centre.
He calls every breakout tonight — "Up!" or "Wheel!" — before the D touches the puck. Tell him he's allowed to be loud and he's allowed to be wrong. Praise the loud calls in front of the team.
Next practice: connect them. Win the puck in the D-zone, break it out, all in one drill — and the Over (D to D behind the net) as the third option if the reads are clean.
Kickoff speech for the kids on night one, the parent-meeting talk, and the cards that go on the wall and in the parents' inbox.
About two minutes. Slow down on the zeros.
"Everybody take a knee. Sticks down. Eyes up here."
"This is our team. Not my team, not the best player's team — ours. Nobody in this room is bigger than the team. Not me, not you, not the kid who scores the most goals. When you walk through that door, your ego stays outside with your street shoes. In here you are a Sooke player, and you carry that name everywhere: on the ice, on the bench, in the dressing room, in the stands at other rinks, and out in the community. People in this town know who we are. Make them proud to say it."
"The rules are easy. Respect. Coaches, managers, parents, your teammates, the other team, the refs. All of them, all the time."
"Bullying — zero. Not a little, not as a joke, not online. Zero. If it happens, you, me and your parents are having a conversation, and it won't be about hockey."
"Talking back to a coach — zero. If you think a coach got something wrong, come find me after and we'll talk like people. On the ice, when a coach tells you something, the answer is 'yes coach' and you go do it."
"At practice: when the whistle goes, you stop. Right there, whatever you're doing. When a coach says take a knee, you take a knee — sticks down, mouths closed, eyes on the coach. We get fifty minutes on this ice and every one of them costs your parents money, so we don't waste them. If you'd rather mess around, that's fine — you can do it on the bench, because your practice is over for the night."
"Last one, and it's the big one. Talk to everybody. Not just your buddies from school. Every kid in this room is your teammate, and I don't care what happened at school, on the bus, or online. When we're practicing, playing, or fundraising, we are one team. We all get along. No questions asked. The kid you don't know yet is going to make the pass that wins us a game, so go say hi to him."
"That's it. Respect. No bullying. Listen to your coaches. Stop on the whistle. One team. Everybody got it? Let me hear 'yes coach.'"
"Good. Let's go skate."
About five minutes. Warm at the top and bottom, plain in the middle. The bold words are your cue cards.
"Thanks for coming out. I'll keep this short because I know you've got kids in the car, but there are a few things I want everyone to hear from me directly, at the start, so nothing surprises anybody in November."
What this is about. "The goal of this season, and every season I coach, is that the kids have fun. That's it. This is about the kids — not me, not the assistants, not the parents. The kids. Every decision I make comes back to that."
Behaviour. "I'll say this as nicely as I can, but I'm going to say it plainly: I'm not your kid's babysitter. We get fifty minutes of ice for a practice. The coaches put in hours of their own time building practice plans, game plans and lineups, and when one or two kids decide to mess around, it wrecks that practice for the other fourteen. So the rule is simple. If a kid misbehaves on the ice or at a game, his practice or his game is over. He'll sit on the bench or come off the ice, and that's the end of it for that night. If your player is asked to leave the ice, I expect him to come home and tell you the truth about why. If the story you get doesn't match what happened, that's fine — we'll have a conversation after the next practice, the three of us."
Fairness. "I'm a very fair person and a very fair coach. Every kid on this team gets equal ice time, period, unless he's been benched for behaviour. What I'd ask of you: please don't count shifts. Don't count who your kid played with or didn't play with, or what position he's playing. That's the coaches' job. There will be games where a kid misses a shift because of a penalty, or a line change gets messed up, or the bench gets chaotic — and it does get chaotic. I stay on top of it as best I can and I'll miss things sometimes. Over a season, it all evens out. I promise you that."
I'm loud. "You're going to hear me on the bench. Please don't mistake that for yelling at the kids. It's the opposite. I'm encouraging them, and I'm reminding them where to be on the ice when they're out of position. It's never anger. It's volume, and it's all for them."
Winning and losing. "I love winning. I'm not going to pretend otherwise, and the kids love it too. But we're going to be good winners — respectful, no showboating — and, more importantly, we're going to be good losers, heads up, every time. We'll play some very good teams this year, and there will be games where the score gets away from us. Those are learning games. We treat them that way, we keep our heads up, and we shake hands like a team that belongs there."
Logistics. "Practices: please have your kid at the rink thirty minutes before ice time. Games: one hour before, because we do dryland warm-ups as a team. And if your kid can't make a practice or a game, we must know, as early as you know. We build practice plans and lineups around who's coming. An unexpected no-show throws all of that out, and it's the other kids who feel it."
Tournaments. "I like to do at least two tournaments a year. It's where the team actually becomes a team. How we pay for them is up to you as a group: we can fundraise, or everyone pays their share, which usually runs about a hundred dollars per player per tournament. I've always done the latter. I'll be honest — I won't be leading fundraising. If the group wants to go that way, someone needs to take the lead on it, and it shouldn't land on the manager."
Safety. "We need a safety person. If anyone's willing to step up and get their safety certification, that would be huge for us. Come see me after."
Talking to me. "I'm an open book. I don't keep anything from parents. If you have a question or just want to chat, stop me in the lobby — I'm happy to. One thing I ask: if you have a complaint — your kid's not getting enough ice, you didn't like something that happened in a game — please wait twenty-four hours before you send anything. After that, take it to the manager, and the manager brings it to me. That's the association's rule, not mine, and we're going to follow it. No exceptions."
Last thing. "This one's just me. I'm a massive football fan. Seahawks. If they're playing the same day we play and you know the score, please, for the love of God, don't tell me. I'm not kidding. That's my one weird ask."
"That's it. Thank you for trusting us with your kids this year. Let's have some fun."
The six things they need to remember. Email it after the meeting or hand it out.
Print it, tape it up, point at it.
Kids test rules to see if they're real. Same consequence every time, from every coach, calmly.
Not stopping on the whistle / not taking a knee: one word, "whistle," and a look. Second time that night, he sits for the next drill. Third time, he's done for the night and you talk to the parent at the door — "he had a hard time listening tonight, we'll try again Thursday."
Talking back: "Not now. Come find me after." Then actually have the conversation after, and listen. The rule is about when and how, not about kids having opinions.
Anything that looks like bullying: stop practice if you have to. Pull the kid, pull the target, separate conversations, parents that same night. Don't let it wait for a "better time."
Cliques in the room: mix the pairs in every battle drill and change the stall assignments. You don't have to say a word; the drills do it.
Tap a name for that player's notes. Numbers and positions are editable right here.
Export writes one small file with the roster, attendance and notes. Send it to an assistant and they Import it on their phone. Import replaces what's on the phone, so keep one phone as the book of record for attendance.
Pick the session, then one tap per player: present, late, away.