STP-WSP Girls Co-op // In Development

Updated May 2, 2024

On February 7th, we announced our intent to create a Girls program co-op at all levels between the St. Paul and West St. Paul to begin with the 2024-25 season. We anticipate the 15U co-op with MVI, STP, and WSP will continue as is.

For the past year, members of the St. Paul and West St. Paul boards have been working collaboratively to explore what a long-term co-op of our Girls hockey programs could look like. Both programs are well-established and share similar size and values. Our communities are close in proximity, culturally similar, and share a public high school Girls hockey program together. Perhaps most importantly, each association values the development of our athletes and gives them the opportunities to realize their goals in the game of hockey and in life. Both have been challenged by numbers in their Girls programs and through this co-op, we believe our combined numbers position us extremely well to be able to deliver age- and skill-appropriate player development, teamwork, appropriate competitiveness, and continue to deliver a positive and engaged Girls hockey environment.

Greetings,

We're excited to share updates on the progress of our girls hockey co-op!

Our Mission:

"To create a long-term sustainable girls hockey program that develops players at all levels. We seek to promote a fun, safe, competitive, and respectful environment that builds leadership skills, teamwork, and creates a passion for the game of hockey."

Ice Cream Social:

Mark your calendars for June 9th, from 4-6PM at West St. Paul Arena.

We have planned a delightful treat complete with the Unbakeable Food Truck, tours of West St. Paul Arena and their awesome new dryland facility, games, and socializing. We will be hosting another event at Highland Arena in the Aug/Sept timeframe. More to come on that.

Team Projections:

• 15U: 2 teams
• 12U: 4 teams
• 10U: 4 teams

This structure will cater to individual player needs and support their development.

Practice & Game Locations:

Practices and home games will be held at familiar arenas, including:

• Highland Arena
• West St. Paul Arena
• Ramsey County arenas (West Side, Pleasant)
• SPA/Drake
• St. Thomas Academy

Registration:

Registration will be through your home association as usual, with both associations opening registration in July. We'll also have a co-op website for league management and information sharing.

Coaching Applications:

We're committed to partnership and representation from both associations in our coaching staff. Application information and the selection process will be announced in the coming weeks.

Player Evaluations & Clinics:

• Evaluations: First week of October
• Clinics/Warmups: Starting in September (specific dates to be announced)

Our Commitment:

We're dedicated to player development, fostering leadership, teamwork, and a lifelong love for hockey. Thank you for your support!

Together, let's make this co-op a success!

1. Introduce Jason Platz – new Riveters Coach
2. Goal is to get the Riveters and co-op kids out on the ice together
3. Open to working together to understand how our 15s & JV/HS numbers impact one another as we get closer to the season
4. New items
5. The 15U co-op with MVI is not continuing. Please ensure 15s are contemplated in all workstreams.
6. Mission & Agreements - Julie Bustos, Kevin Dolan, Ted Kronschnabel, Ben Young
7. Identity - Katie Roedler & Tyler Wilsey
8. Opening up the approach and added team members: STP: Adam Sager and Dan Stefaniak; WSP: Angie Hanzal and Amber Rall
9. Showed some mock ups and received some feedback: keep it simple, clever
10. Hockey Operations
11. 12U logistics – talked about the need for goalies and how we can get more: (1) reach out to associations with goalies but no home program. Julie to put the feelers out on that.
12. Teams - John Seidl & Dan Stefaniak
13. Coaches - Kevin Dolan & Ben Young
14. Players - Jeff Blaido & Mike Reif
15. Development - Amber Rall & Adam Sager
16. Community Engagement - Michelle Henningsgard & Autumn Platz
17. Integration events
18. Ice cream social is scheduled for 6/9 from 4-6pm at West St. Paul Arena. Unbakeable food truck is booked. WSP to check on ice availability to include a fun skate.
19. There will also be an Aug/Sept event at Highland Arena. The goal will be to have swag to hand out/sell
20. Recruiting
21. Administration
22. Team fees were discussed. Ideally we can achieve parity between associations though recognize that the finances of each could challenge this.
23. Ice - Chris Kawaters & Katie Murphy
24. Since STP is in Ramsey County, there is an advantage to packaging RC co-op ice into STP’s purchase as STP gets priority purchasing. STP will submit initial ice request to RC by May 1.
25. Tournaments – Kevin Dolan & Ben Young
26. Kevin and Ben are working on this. Registations start to open soon.
27. Zoom Meeting scheduled for week of April 29
28. Policies - Ted Kronschnabel & Scott McMahon
29. Ted, Scott, and Chris are working on comparing and reconciling existing policies among associations. The handbooks are largely similar and much of the co-op-specific content has already been delivered by other committees. Recommendation for a co-op board comprised of both association presidents, girls leads, and one additional rep from each (could be a non-board members). Concept of a co-op liaison that attends the other association’s board meetings. Katie pushed for a timeline for this and other workstreams as the work defines the co-op and needs to be shared with each board. WSP board meets first Monday of each month. STP board meetings third Tuesday of each month.
30. Conduct
31. Discipline
32. Technology - Julie Bustos & Ben Young
33. League Management / Crossbar & SportsEngine.
34. STP confirmed Crossbar will be free for the co-op if we choose to use it.

Meeting Concluded at 9PM.

1. Identity (Katie Roedler & Tyler Wilsey)
2. Results from Name Submission Survey
3. 42% of the vote was for a derivative of the name that was initially suggested prior to the survey. Leading name/branding was 2x the number of people that suggested the second place name for comparison.
4. Preliminary mockups have been sent from the designers. Early stages of the design process.
5. Hockey Operations
6. Teams
7. 6U/8U level planning (Adam Sager, Dan Stefaniak & John Seidl)
8. “We are aligning our 8U program with our boys Mite program”
9. 10U/12U level planning (Autumn Platz, Mike Reif, Michelle Henningsgard)
10. 4 Teams are the plan at both 12U - Proposed Play District 8.
11. 4 Team are the plan at 10U - Proposed Play District 2.
12. Team declarations:
13. Team Counts are due to District 8 in August. Final team declarations are due in September.
14. Coaches (Ben Young & Kevin Dolan)
15. Coach selection:
16. Our deadline for Coach’s will be prior to Team Selections
17. We have discussed including a panel for coaching selection to go beyond the Girl’s director to include key stake holders to help us select our coach pool prior to evaluations.
18. We discussed having coaches in the arena during the evaluations so they could keep notes but not interact with Evaluators, they would have to be on the other side of the rink/arena.
19. Coach training
20. Ben checked with District 8 and they confirmed that helpers and people on the bench need to have at least USA Hockey Level 1.
21. December 15th is the deadline for coaching certifications.
22. Follow up on tryout dates aiming for first week of October.
23. Clinics/warmups to start in September.
24. Players (Jeff Blaido & Mike Reif)
25. Player evaluation
26. Team selection
27. Coach’s input parameters.
28. Committee selection with Coach’s input for Bubble Players.
29. Director’s, President’s, and Level head coaching.
30. Conflict of interests leave the room.
31. Find independent evaluators. Not associated with either Caps or WSP.
32. Development (Adam Sager & Amber Rall)
33. Framework (e.g., development expectations, tools, support)
34. OS Skills for our teams. Front end our schedule for October/November.
35. Administration
36. Ice Schedulers: Meeting took place on 4/3 with WSP and Caps. It seems like we are in good shape with ice time for next year between the two.
37. Buying
38. Scheduling
39. Tournaments – We will pick up this workstream at the next meeting. May is when tournaments start to open, but the bulk around June 1. WE need information on hotels and what tournaments we liked and which one’s we didn’t like.
40. Policies (Chris Morissette, Ted K)
41. 3rd Party Platform (Julie and Ben)
42. Recruiting & Promotion
43. Coop Integration Plan (Autumn Platz & Michelle Henningsgard)
44. Spring Kickoff– First one at WSP arena and the second event (centered around spirit wear at Highland Arena in the late summer).
45. Ice cream truck for girls - WSP.
46. Scavenger hunt to get to know each other.
47. WSP Date is June 9th . 4-6 PM

Meeting Concluded at 9:20PM.

The March 24 working team meeting has been cancelled due to weather.

The March 18 ice scheduler meeting has been rescheduled due to key attendee scheduling conflict. Exploring April 3 as the new date.

The team spent the first 45 minutes discussing the branding as Katie/Tyler attended and shared their ideas. The rest of the meeting we went through our workstreams to talk about what we have discovered and to ask any questions that might be out there.

1. Identity (Katie Roedler & Tyler Wilsey)
2. Katie and Tyler presented a concept in name to the group. It was well received but to make sure they have done their total due diligence, they will be creating a one week survey to send out to Girl’s families to see if any other names are recommended out there by the public.
3. Hockey Operations
4. Teams
5. 6U/8U level planning (Adam Sager, Dan Stefaniak & John Seidl)
6. Adam, Dan, and John went over their thoughts on 8U/6U planning. Key idea is shifting from A/B to 1/2/3/4 level teams as other associations do. Main goal is providing an optimal development environment for as many players as possible. Discussed outside development with OS. Will vet ideas against ice time availability and other constraints. 
7. 10U/12U level planning
8. Autumn Platz and Mike Reif both volunteered to work on the 10U and 12U levels, organizing the numbers and team projections.
9. Team declarations
10. Chris to check with D2, Ben to check with D8 about the timing of rosters needing to be submitted.
11. Coaches (Ben Young & Kevin Dolan)
12. Coach selection:
13. Ben reviewed overall notes that Kevin and he wrote about coaching philosophy. There is a strong desire to have equal representation from each association. Also reviewed how coaches may be involved in the evaluation and team selection processes.
14. Coach training
15. Follow Up: What requirements do each District have relative to 6U/8U Level 1 coaches? D2 requires full coach certification for all 8U levels. Need to confirm D8's requirements.
16. Players (Jeff Blaido & Mike Reif)
17. Player evaluation
18. Jeff and Mike are working on a consolidated player evaluation process and will solicit feedback from coaches in their associations for player evaluations.
19. Team selection
20. Team is working on team selection details, including timing and how to pool players so we have a reasonable number of players on the ice per session.
21. Using TeamGenius software and independent evaluators remains the plan.
22. Development (Adam Sager & Amber Rall)
23. Framework (e.g., development expectations, tools, support)
24. Adam and Amber are working to document a development framework and can share at an upcoming meeting.
25. Administration
26. Ice (Ice Schedulers) - Meeting is scheduled for March 18 at 7PM Green Mill STP.
27. Buying
28. Scheduling
29. Tournaments (down the road)
30. Home tournaments
31. Local tournaments
32. Away tournaments
33. Policies (Chris Morissette, Ted K)
34. Discussed creating a co-op policy handbook to handle 99% of the issues that arise, otherwise issues like discipline would be sent back to registering association.
35. Coop Integration Plan (Autumn Platz & Michelle Henningsgard)
36. Summer activities –
37. 2024-25 12U families have been notified that there is a summer co-op skate at VMCC in IGH they are welcome to join.
38. Ben is checking on a similar option for 10Us at West St Paul Arena
39. Considering a Spring Kickoff Event around our new brand to kickoff the new coop. Ice Cream Social was an idea.  Also a personal scavenger hunt where we could split the girls up by age group to find out information about each other and to start building relationships.
40. Fall kickoff fun for the adults and kids to start the season with co-op spirit wear, etc. 

The next meeting will be rescheduled to Sunday, March 24th because of the St. Patrick's Day holiday.

The primary goal of the meeting was to discuss and prioritize workstreams and assign owners. The owners will be responsible for driving how their areas will take shape. They will tap into SPCHA and WSPHA resources to understand existing programs and policies and align with them where possible or make recommendations on how to best position the co-op.

1. Mission & Agreements - Julie Bustos, Kevin Dolan, Ted Kronschnabel, Ben Young
2. Identity - Katie Roedler & Tyler Wilsey
3. Hockey Operations
4. Teams - John Seidl & Dan Stefaniak
5. 6U/8U level planning
6. Team declarations
7. Team size
8. Team staff (e.g., how many coaches, managers, etc.)
9. Coaches - Kevin Dolan & Ben Young
10. Coach selection
11. Paid coaches
12. Coach training
13. Players - Jeff Blaido & Mike Reif
14. Player evaluation
15. Team selection
16. Warm ups
17. Development - Amber Rall & Adam Sager
18. Framework (e.g., development expectations, tools, support, across skaters and goalies)
19. Philosophy (e.g., fair play, special teams, etc.)
20. Tools (e.g., CoachThem/IHS, PEP, goalie bands)
21. Community Engagement - Michelle Henningsgard & Autumn Platz
22. Integration events
23. Recruiting
24. Administration
25. Ice - Chris Kawaters & Katie Murphy
26. Buying
27. Scheduling
28. Tournaments - Defer
29. Home tournaments
30. Local tournaments
31. Away tournaments
32. Policies - Ted Kronschnabel & Scott McMahon
33. Which policies control? Rely on registering association’s policies, create co-op policies, or both?
34. Conduct
35. Discipline
36. Technology - Julie Bustos & Ben Young
37. League Management / Crossbar & SportsEngine
38. Player Evaluation / Team Genius
39. Ice Scheduling / Avario

We held a parent meeting the evening of Monday, February 12 to share our vision for the co-op, answer questions, and hear member feedback. Thanks to those that were able to join us. Here is a recap of the discussion.

Introduced SPCHA stakeholders that will shape the co-op. Our goal is to involve all stakeholders in this effort. Parent & player feedback is critical. The Working Team includes parents, managers, and coaches. It is purposefully small and efficient and is paired with a similar group from West St. Paul to work through the details of the co-op from identity to hockey operations to administration. The Advisory Team will guide and support the Working Team. And the Board will oversee the formalization of this partnership.

The vision for the co-op is that it is a long-term partnership. Both associations are similar in size, close in proximity, and share many schools and community relationships.

While most aspects of the co-op are yet to be defined, we know that:

• SPCHA families will still register with and be voting members of the Capitals association
• Our dryland and other facilities remain fully available to our girls teams...WSP's will, too
• Our charitable gambling operation profits will continue to benefit the Girls program, as will WSP's
• SPCHA's volunteer and fundraising requirements will continue to apply to our members. No additional requirements will be added.
• We will continue our approach to place all players on the most appropriate team. We do not plan to cut any players.

This brings us to the reasons for co-oping with another association. First and foremost, we seek to improve player development across levels, and from our newest players to our most experienced players. Growing our player population through the co-op enables us to reduce the skill difference between the top and bottom players on each team. This increases our ability to place players in the most effective development environment for where they are as players.

We have faced challenges in providing that optimal development environment independently. For instance, we have not had an independent 15U level for multiple years and this season we only offer A teams at 12U and 15U levels.

We also see an opportunity to evolve our 8U program with the current changes in hockey development by moving away from A and B teams to 1, 2, 3, and 4-level teams. Once again, the goal is to minimize the skill difference between players on a team in order to provide the best possible development environment for all.

The co-op will also eliminate the need to prematurely move players up to the next age group. For the past couple years we have been forced to move players up in order to field two 10U and 12U teams per our Girls program ambition.

Finally, Minnesota Hockey announced changes to school waivers in January. For players living within St. Paul Capitals or West St. Paul Warriors boundaries, families will not need to complete waivers to play in the co-op. To give a sense of the import of this, 22% of our 8U players this season waived in from outside SPCHA boundaries...most of them from West St. Paul's association boundaries.

Another important reason to co-op is that we currently have decent numbers for a small association. That may seem counterintuitive but co-oping from a position of strength is the best time to partner. By evolving before we have to, both associations can enter the co-op strong and take our collective Girls program to the next level.

Partnering also enables both associations to absorb player population peaks and valleys. Having a small number of players in one birth year can present a big risk to delivering great hockey experiences for an association our size. Expanding our collective player numbers will help reduce this type of disruption.

Girls co-ops are clearly a trend in hockey – especially Girls hockey. Here are a sampling of the co-ops around the metro area. You can see that there are co-ops of all sizes, including ones that include large and prominent associations.

• Mahtomedi/Roseville
• Johnson/Como/North St. Paul/Tartan, known going forward as East Metro
• Eagan/Inver Grove Heights/South St. Paul
• Hopkins/St. Louis Park, plus Minneapolis at 15U
• Valkryies (Eastview/Apple Valley Burnsville)
• Blaine/Spring Lake Park

So, why co-op with West St. Paul? Here's our top reasons:

• Proximity - our home arenas are 6.3 miles apart
• Our numbers are similar
• We have a similar development philosophy.
• We feed the same Girl’s public high school hockey program (Two Rivers/St. Paul Riveters). In addition, we also feed into the same private schools (CDH, Visitation, SPA).
• Our players attend many of the same K-8 schools
• Both associations already utilize Drake, Pleasant and Ken Yackel ice arenas
• In 5 of the last 7 years - WSP has had a majority of their 15U players waive over to play with the Caps
• Cultural alignment and trust in one another
• A good # of residents in our community come from within West St. Paul boundaries and have family and friends in St. Paul and vice versa. Many families in the Caps program live in Mendota Heights and attend school in St. Paul.

What happens next?

We need to shape the co-op's details. We have spent the past year working through threshold issues that culminated with our gaining support from Districts 2 and 8 to move forward. Once we had that clearance we were able to communicate our intent to establish this co-op and get to work. We quickly set up our stakeholder structure forming the working team, advisory team, and convening this parent meeting.

Those teams will have counterparts from West St. Paul. Each association will be drawing in people with expertise from different areas to help them. For example – we have pulled in the ice schedulers to help with ice scheduling, the Registrar to work with registration issues, etc.

The co-op working team will be working on:

• Identity - Uniforms, colors, websites/social media presence
• Tryouts & Team formation
• Ice times/locations, timing, who plays where & when
• Coaching, who coaches, coach vetting process
• Player development
• Overall co-op culture
• And more….

You can email Kevin at girlsvp@stpaulcapitalshockey.com with questions and to share ideas, thoughts and suggestions.

Our goal is to have the co-op organized by June 1^st, in time to buy ice, register for tournaments, and be ready for registration to open in July.

We will keep you posted with major updates as we progress with the transition process.

Good Evening,

We are excited to announce our intention to create a Girls program co-op at all levels between the St. Paul and West St. Paul to begin with the 2024-25 season. We anticipate the 15U co-op with MVI, STP, and WSP will continue as is.

For the past year, members of the St. Paul and West St. Paul boards have been working collaboratively to explore what a long-term co-op of our Girls hockey programs could look like. Both programs are well-established and share similar size and values. Our communities are close in proximity, culturally similar, and share a public high school Girls hockey program together. Perhaps most importantly, each association values the development of our athletes and gives them the opportunities to realize their goals in the game of hockey and in life. Both have been challenged by numbers in their Girls programs and through this co-op, we believe our combined numbers position us extremely well to be able to deliver age- and skill-appropriate player development, teamwork, appropriate competitiveness, and continue to deliver a positive and engaged Girls hockey environment.

Before making this announcement, we did due diligence to confirm compatibility and alignment with both boards, District 2 & District 8 and Minnesota Hockey. On Sunday, we kicked off an expanded organizing team to move this co-op forward. This organizing team includes an equal number of representatives from each association. We took care to include different viewpoints, including managers, coaches, parents, and board members with a variety of different tenures within their organizations. This group will be working through how this co-op should come together focusing on things like:

• co-op mission and culture
• player development philosophy
• naming and identity
• ice time scheduling
• policies & procedures (e.g., player evals, coach selection)
• etc.

Together we are focused on building and cultivating an environment built on shared values and philosophies. We are excited to share our vision for this co-op and hear your objective feedback at an upcoming parent meeting on Monday, February 12 at 8PM in the Raider Room at Highland Arena.

We will keep you updated as things progress.

Thank you on behalf of St. Paul and West St. Paul Hockey Associations,

Julie Bustos, Kevin Dolan, Ben Young, and Ted Kronschnabel