TBL Evaluation Information
Dear TBL Families,
It's difficult to believe that it's already August, time for Back-to-School and back to regular season hockey! Evaluations are right around the corner, this year running from August 15 - 27th at East Alton Ice Arena. As a club, you've asked for more transparency around the evaluation and team selection process, so I'm writing to share those details with you in advance of the evaluations.
The evaluation process is being planned by Tyler Elbrecht, our new hockey director, in partnership with the Lead coaches at each age level. As in years past, there is a lead for each age group and it is up to the leads to work in partnership with Tyler to round out the group of evaluators at each age.
The leads for each age group as well as the evaluation components are as follows:
Age Group Lead Evaluation Components
Additionally, we’d like to share this list of Frequently Asked Questions to help shed light on additional aspects of the evaluation and team building processes:
1. How does the Eval scoring work? Evaluation scoring is done digitally for all age groups via Team Genius. See the chart above for the scoring components and weighting for each age group.
2. What if my child has one bad tryout? Scoring is averaged across all evaluation sessions.
3. What if my family isn’t available for a specific tryout date? Please communicate with your age group lead if your family isn’t available for a specific tryout date. We would like each skater or goalie to attend as many sessions as possible.
4. How are the goalies evaluated? This year, we will be evaluating goalies during both the regularly scheduled eval times for their age group as well as at a goalie-specific eval for goalies at 10U-14U of the club. Goalie parents in those age groups – you’ll see both on your Crossbar notifications.
5. Will all players attend all tryouts? Keep a close eye on your email throughout the evaluation period. Your age group lead will communicate any changes to tryout rosters, jersey colors for your child, and additional information pertaining to the eval sessions.
6. Do evaluators eval their own children? Evaluators must score all players (including their children) in the session for our evaluation software to work properly. Division leads, the Hockey Director, and the Club President review the scores to ensure that evaluators scoring their own children are giving fair scores to all participants.
7. Why don’t I see any evaluations in Crossbar for my 6U player? 6U players will be evaluated by our coaches during the first few practices of the season.
8. My child was selected for the 14UA1 team…do we need to attend evaluations for 14U? No, if you are already rostered to the 14UA1 team, you do not need to attend evaluations for 14U. You will note that there are practices already scheduled in Crossbar for the 14UA1 team.
9. What steps will Coach Elbrecht take to remain neutral throughout evaluations since many of our players train with Elite Hockey? Tyler is responsible for the growth and development of all TBL players. During our selection process for a Hockey Director, the board specifically spoke with Tyler to make sure that he will evaluate players fairly and equitably whether or not they are trained by Elite. Tyler’s Note: "I will score kids where I think they are at, not because they train with Elite Hockey.”
10. What should I do if I think my child was mis-placed on the wrong team? All our evaluators are volunteers who are doing the best they can to make fair and balanced decisions. At the conclusion of evaluations, please contact Coach Elbrecht (hockeydirector@tblhockey.com) with any questions or concerns.
11. How can I obtain feedback for my player after evaluations have concluded? We are committed to providing timely and actionable feedback to the parents of our players. We will not release evaluation scores for individual players. Please contact Coach Elbrecht at hockeydirector@tblhockey.com.
12. Will players move up/down to different teams throughout the season? The TBL board recently adopted newly revised Rules for the club. One of those rules is that players can be moved up or down on teams until rosters are fully set with Missouri Hockey on 12/31/2023.
13. BONUS Question – Why isn’t our TBL logo on center ice at East Alton? Since the club purchased the new scoreboard with our logo at East Alton last year, we felt that the cost for the center ice logo wasn’t a necessary expense to the families of the club. The center ice logo was $2,500 per year over a four-year contract for a total of $10,000.
After the conclusion of the evaluation process on August 27th, team selections will be made and announced by Friday, September 1st. After that, rosters will be created in Crossbar and your practices will be loaded for the first few weeks of the season.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions or recommendations for the club.
Amy Taul
President, Twin Bridges Lightning Hockey
president@tblhockey.com