SDAHA 2017 SPRING MEETING MINUTESSATURDAY, APRIL 1, 2017

CAMPUS CENTER, 333 9TH St. SWHuron, SD

Meeting called to order by SDAHA President, Dan French. Introductions were made and roll call was taken. Voting delegates in attendance: Jeff Scheel (Aberdeen), Tom Cauwels (Brandon Valley), Sam Becher (Brookings), Mike Hunter (Huron), Steve Laufman (Mitchell), Lee Axdahl (Oahe), Georg Olson (Rushmore), Janie Haack (Sioux Center), John Sievert (Sioux Falls), Steve Sheehan (Watertown), Health Larson (Yankton), Tony Lief (SDAHA Vice President), Randy Honkomp (SDAHA Treasurer) & Rhonda Schenkel (SDAHA Secretary).

Others present: Annette Stensgaard (SDAHA Registrar), Jodi Sterrett (Officials Scheduler), Bruce Palmer (SDHOA), Dawn Magee (Risk Manager), Tom Hitchcock (Past President/Nominating Committee), Dave Mannes & Scott Riddle (National Teams), Shelby Edwards (Girls Development), Darrell Schenkel (Brandon), Mindy Hansen (Brandon), Wendy McDonnel (Sioux Falls), Cherry Hunter (Sioux Falls), Gwen Wenisch (Yankton), Dan Haack (Sioux Center), Tim Vanderloo (Omaha Hockey Club) , Jared Ahlberg (Aberdeen), Chris & Sharon Hoerichs (LAHA Spirit Lake, IA), Bo Hiatt, Gary Cooper & Darrin Bradley (All 3 from Freemont, NE), Eric Skott (Watertown), Gregg Fullerton (Rushmore), Brandon Valley (David & Shawna James) & Michelle Bouchard (Brookings). Not in attendance: Maxine Tronnes (Adm. Asst), Dave Tronnes, (NPD Director Emeritus/Sam Tronnes Memorial Foundation), Steve Salwei (Coach in Chief), Cade Bloomenrader (RIC), Kevin Miley (NGIN Website), Ron Dobesh (Website), Rob Kittay (Boys Development/Boys Varsity Coaches), Vince Foley (High School), Growth & Retention (No rep currently), Mark Kazmer (NHAHA).

It was determined there were 14 voting delegates present. Quorum was determined.

Motion made by Lee Axdahl, seconded by Jeff Scheel to add Proposal 7, 8, 9 & Discussion #7 to the agenda. These came in after the agenda deadline. Motion passed. Items are added to the Agenda.

Motion made by Janie Haack, seconded by Tony Lief to approve the Agenda. Agenda approved.

Tony & Dan encouraged all to keep their reports brief & to the point since we have a lot to cover.

Motion made by Randy Honkomp, seconded by Jeff Scheel to approve the Fall Meeting minutes. Motion carried. Minutes approved.

Motion made by Randy Honkomp, seconded by Sam Becher to approve the electronic minutes . Motion carried. Minutes approved.

SDAHA Treasurer, Randy Honkomp reviewed item by item (see SDAHA FINANCES-Financial info as of March 31, 2017 attached to end of minutes). Financially we are doing well. Player Development section on bottom is in good shape & Tom Hitchcock suggestions to use the $20,000 to provide scholarships for the youth in anyway & with the referee fund of $10,000 same provide scholarships to the young refs for example reimburse them for their uniforms, etc. Discussion on what this money can be spent on: National tournaments, ref & coaches trainings. Randy spoke on some of the expenses from Team SD National Tournament will be coming in end of this month since they are just going to their tournaments. Health asked if we could lower the $1.75 per player to possibly $1.00 or change the allocation to different areas to use those funds so we don’t keep building it up. Need to use these funds appropriately to benefit all. Randy spoke on how this money is allocated: each player that signs up thru USA Hockey in our state the SDAHA gets $5.00 of that registration fee from all age levels & this money is divided between general fund ($1.25), Coaches fund ($1.00), Referee fund ($1.00) & Player Development ($1.75). We do not get any monies from the referee registration. Sam asked if we could assist in advertising state wide to promote registration with each local registration date, time & contact info. Dan would like to see Try Hockey for Free events

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advertised by using these funds. Randy would like each local’s treasurers current email address so he can email them the SDAHA Assessments for 2016-2017 which are due promptly to his address listed on the sheet that will be emailed to them . Motion made by Tony Lief, seconded by Mike Hunter to approve the financial report. Motion passed.

SDAHA Registrar, Annette Stensgaard reviewed attached sheet at the end of the minutes, BY AGE PER ASSOCIATION. She is represented on this sheet by the South Dakota AHA & the Age 19+ is large since USA Hockey changed registrar they did not get the Sioux Falls Adult league set up with their own portal so she claimed them. Some of the numbers are doubled up since she makes the rosters for the Boys & Girls Team SD so those players will show up under SDAHA age level & their local association. She also included in the voting delegate folders additional sheets listing all the coaches on what they have completed along with their expiration dates: Coaches CEP Expirations with Safesport and Screening & Coaches and Age Level Modules. She will email these sheets out to all the local registrars. She emphasized that each coach when registering with USA Hockey need to use their legal birth name not their nick name same goes for the players. Dan stressed highly that every coach should have their safesport & background check done before they are on the ice with the players. Annette will have to remove them from the roster if the coaches have not done so officially by December 31 st. She sent emails to local registrars before the deadline reminding them who still needed to have these done.

SDAHA Risk Manager, Dawn Magee. Discussed the USA Hockey Winter meeting she attended. USA Hockey brought in a presenter from National Center for Safety Initiatives who do background checks. Their cost is $35.00. She feels we have a very good system in place with NGIN who charge us $10.00. Several at this meeting shared they like the current system with NGIN especially if it is covering everything thoroughly at the fraction of the cost of the other one. She doesn’t feel USA Hockey will make a change at this time. Every coach & volunteer needs to be doing Safesport before going on the ice. Annette said if anyone association has a question on who has done it please contact her. She has access to that info. Dawn expressed that just because you have been accused of a crime doesn’t bar you from volunteering you have to be convicted of a felony. SD as of 12/31/16 we have 367 coaches & 355 of them have done the Safesport which put us at 97% the ones who didn’t do could be they chose not to coach. On refs we had 77 & 70 went thru Safesport also same as the coaches possibly choose not to continue on with being a ref or the younger kids who do not have to do safesport. We are lacking in the volunteers, board members who are not doing the safesport is at 66%. Midwest Amateur hockey they are not doing their checks thru us. She said she can request them to do that so we are all uniform. Janie asked if they could request that from Midwest since they have the same requirements that we have just thru Midwest. Their coaches get taken off their rosters just like us if they do not have their modules, training, safesport & backgrounds checks done. Dan asked if Spirit Lake, Sioux Center, Freemont & Omaha could get their info to Annette & Dawn since they do not access to that. Dawn asked to discuss at the parent meetings if you are a volunteer/board member you need to do the Safesport. Dawn talked about some of the issues that arouse this year: more parents kicked out this year than in the past-possibly put a fine or penalty to stop this, if you have security people at your rink make sure they are designated, keep the player’s teams separate when they come on the ice & off the ice, abuse of officials & their personal items being damaged in the officials room. For example had a refs personal cell phone damaged. The Risk management & Safesport we had the usual locker room boxing, verbal abuse & physical abuse. We need to continue to be more aware of what’s going on. Get this information out there thru your team parent/player meetings. Risk management side we had 3 incidents of potential injuries. When you have Canadian teams playing here in our state & if they get injured here they are still covered in Canada. Same if we go to Canada our coverage is in the USA. Annette reminded all if you have a Canadian team playing in your tournament you have to register with USA Hockey & pay the Canadian fee & please let Annette know if you are going to Canada to play. She will be going to the USA Hockey meeting in June. Vice President, Tony Lief discipline report. 62 Game misconducts this year up from 49 last year, but still down from two years ago when we had 79. We did have something new this year a request to view video. 3 videos submitted: one no additional review, 1 we imposed a 1 game suspension & 1 went in front of the discipline review board which then the parents appealed the suspension which was upheld for remainder of the year suspension. No coaches or players reach the third penalty plateau. We do have some pending suspensions to carry over into the next season which Tony will let all those involved aware of them. Mike Hunter was wondering if the $100 could be raised for the appeal process if that would hinder people

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from appealing what the discipline committee has set forth? Tony feels that fee is appropriate since it is set to cover the cost of the call not to deterrent people we want make sure people make sure they were heard. Dan stated that USA Hockey want to make sure that the right of appeal is there & that it isn’t unreachable for the one convicted be heard. Referee in Chief, Cade Bloomenrader not present & no report. Dan informed the board there are a couple of proposals from Cade that we will discuss later in this meeting. Bruce said he & Cade are working on some ideas for recruitment of refs.

Referee Scheduler, Jodi Sterrett said the biggest problem they had this season was the schedule. Dan mentioned several of the games were short staffed at different levels & he knows it’s due to numbers. We need to address & be aware of it. Jodi stated there are double rinks playing games at the same time which is hard to get coverage. Dan spoke about girl’s & bantam games with one official & had 3 man Varsity games instead of 4 man. There are issues we need to work thru.

Coach in Chief, Steve Salwei, not present & no report. Steve will be reaching out to the locals via email about setting up coaching clinics for level 1, 2 & 3s. Please respond so we can get those scheduled timely.

Varsity Coach representative, Rob Kittay, not present. Dan read his report & spoke on his behalf. See attachment end of minutes. One of the topics discussed at the Boys Varsity State tournament meeting the coaches would like to see the list of the actual JV players that are playing instead of the frozen list. Also asked to contact MN State High School League about playing their high school teams again, we can reach out to them & take a look at that again. Randy spoke since he was at that meeting that the topics were discussion items, but the one thing that they would like to possibly see is bidding two years in advance for the Varsity State tournament location to stay ahead of all the preparation that goes into holding a Varsity State Tournament.

Girls Development Director, Shelby Edwards. There was good discussion at their girls Varsity state tournament meeting regarding Omaha joining which we will hear later on. We had 2 SD teams at the President Cup in North Dakota & both made the Championship game. Girls development camp & tryouts are in Brookings, April 21-23, 2017. Many more girls this year than in the past are registered already. This will be a mix of a U12 development camp & will have the tryouts for the 14’s, 16’s & 19’s. From these tryouts the girls can advance to Grand Forks in May & then from here be chosen to go on to Colorado or St. Cloud. National teams 16’s & 19’s leave on Tuesday for Troy, MI for the Tier II National Tournament. Thanked Sioux Falls for putting on a great Varsity Girls State Tournament. Very positive feedback. She did have a question about the Hobby Baker Award & would like to speak to someone regarding that.

Player Development, Rob Kittay, not present. Dan read his report & spoke on his behalf. See attachment end of minutes. SD Player Development camp & Tier II National Tryouts for 14’s & 16’s are upcoming & have extended the registrations up to the open of the camp to be held April 21-23, 2017 in Mitchell. He has a list of the coaches on the attachment who are coming. Numbers are higher now than what is listed on this report & he is very encouraged on the number count. Spoke regarding the players chosen will advance to the Northern Plains Develop Camp in Grand Forks, ND week of May 4-7, 2017 at the ICON Center. He’s going to be at the NPDC as well as the National 15s camp in Buffalo, NY. The SD Development Camp is strictly for the birth years that are stated 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001 & 2000.

National Team Report, Dave Mannes & Scott Riddle: Dave informed us the 14’s will leave April 5, 2017 for Fort Lauderdale, FL & the 16’s leave same day for Dallas, TX. Previous year they bumped us up, but this year we are back down to 1A where we truly belong. Pool games are played Thursday, Friday & Saturday & hopefully advance out of the pool into bracket play Sunday with Monday Championship game. Dan commended them for doing a great job. Dan informed the group we have 2 other teams at Nationals currently, Brookings Varsity(Pure) & Rushmore Varsity(Combine) are in Cleveland, OH right now with Brookings winning 1 & lost 1 & Rushmore winning both their games & both have 1 more game for sure. As a district we have sent 18 teams this year. There are 2 other SD teams going to Nationals in the Tier I level Jr. Stampede 16U & 18U’s they beat Team ND in their play in games. He believes there is at least 1 team from within the district at every National tournament this year which has never happened before. MT & WY have High School teams this year as well. Says a lot about the level of hockey that we are seeing within our district.

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Growth and Retention, Dan spoke since we do not have a representative at this time. He is asking for each local president to go back to their associations & asking that person who is passionate about growing the game of hockey to take on this position. The state has advertising money that can be utilized by the locals. Each local association should have someone who is in charge of Grow the Game such as Discover Hockey for Free & that person would be working with the State Growth & Retention person on this area & other areas to grow the game.

SDAHA Scheduler, Maxine Tronnes, not present. See attachment end of the minutes. Dan spoke on behalf of Maxine. Biggest concern is the schedule & how the new rules that are in place may affect the scheduling going forward along with some of the proposal may change that going forward. She stressed asking that the associations do not ask too many weekends off thru the course of the season as we add more & more teams unless we lengthen the season which I don’t think we want to do it’s tough to get in everything. Good group of schedulers at all the locals. The winter storm we had went well for scheduling.

SDAHA Website, Ron Dobesh not present. Dan was not aware of any updates.

Association Reports:Aberdeen: Jeff Scheel reports they were down 2 skaters in the season, registration was about the same which they are fine with that. Successful season. Team counts: 2 Bantam teams possibly 3, PW about the same possibly 1 more & same at the high school level.

Brandon Valley: Tom Cauwels reports they completed their first season with a PW B team & received their first win in the State Tournament. Numbers are strong for the age of their association with 82 kids registered. Strong squirt team with 18 kids. Mite strong numbers & minimite/learn to skate age level strong numbers with 30 kids. Next year we anticipate more growth. Possibly having 2 PW teams next year along with 2 squirt teams. Charging hard to get some indoor ice. Future of Brandon Valley hockey looks good.

Brookings: Sam Becher reports numbers were up this year, they went from 237 to 264 skaters this year. Seeing growth in the younger age levels. Teams: JV/Varsity 46 skaters possibly have 2 or 3, 1 Bantam, 2 PWs, Girls JV & Varsity team, questionable if have a U12 & have great numbers at squirt, mite & termites. Boys Varsity state Tournament was a great event. Attendance was pretty close on Friday & Saturday like in the past, but Sunday we did see a drop in attendance & they feel the weather had a lot to do with that. Did see about 1500 less in attendance due to the bad weather, but as you can see from the gate stand point we were fairly close to last year just that people had paid, but didn’t stick around on Sunday. Great group of experienced volunteers who do a terrific job especially having it from year to year. Having a 2nd sheet of ice helped out since they had a sheet of glass break so they were able to move that game to the other sheet & that game, Watertown vs Oahe went into 6 OTs. Then the next game was able to start on time since they used the other sheet of ice once the glass was replaced for that game. They feel this was the longest Varsity game in history & the blue rink where it was held was packed, standing room only. Sam spoke on possibly being able to bid for 2 years since it helps to work out the details with hotels, streaming & broadcasting assists in locking those dates in. Capital improvements like improving the building due to streaming, adding cameras to the rink if they were going to spend the money on would be nice to know if you had that money coming in multiple years. New hotel is almost completely finished & possibly another hotel coming. Did start discussions with the city for a third sheet of ice.

Freemont: Reports that they have big numbers in their Mite program. Team counts: PWs, 2 Bantam teams, BJV & Varsity. Going well. Dan spoke regarding their BJV team was doing well at the beginning of the season. They did not know where that team would best fit & they discussed with Dan moving this team up to Varsity, but the season was started & schedules already out. Dan said they did realize that they should have been in Varsity & glad they are making that move for next season. Level of competition was great & the kids were well discipline. Goes to good coaching. Glad to have them in.

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Huron: Mike Hunter reports numbers were the same & should grow since only losing a couple of seniors. This summer they are doing the Planet Hockey Camp that Mitchell has held in the past. Also will have a goal ro?????Started their own Development Retention Program. Purchased the Brady, Brady Hockey books for the school libraries in town, pre-school, kindergarten & 1st grades. New kids in the program will get a free stick, puck, roll of tape for the summer program & if they come back for the regular season they’ll have that & even if they don’t come back they will still have the stick & might come back later on in life. Dan thanked Mike for his work as Huron’s president & involvement with SDAHA hockey since he will be moving out of the President position.

Mitchell: Steve Laufman filling in for John Lord reads John’s report. They had a good season with several new coaches & looks like they will retain them for the next season. Numbers remained consistence for the last 2 years. They were able to field a BJV this season for the first time in several years & with the age classification changing there should be no problems fielding a BJV team for many years to come. Girl’s numbers are very low, we are looking at a total of 15 for league level. We have had some nice building improvements with additional rooms & these will be available for the Development camp in a few weeks. We also have some new facility woes & we will only have ice till the end of April due to engineering workmanship flaws in our new facility. We are hoping that a simple fan or air movement fix will take care of most of the moisture problems. Our goal is to have the problems resolved this summer so going into next we will not have our season shortened.

NHAHA-not present. Dan spoke on behalf of Spearfish. He said once again Try Hockey For Free weekend the weather turned nice so they moved it into Rapid City & had a good turnout. They are talking about possibly having a PW team for this coming season. Not for sure exactly where they are at since it’s been awhile since he’s had a conversation with them. Ice is a concern in Spearfish. They do have an outdoor rink which is not refrigerated so when it’s cold outside possibly games outside, but when weather is not cooperative they may have to move them to Rapid City depending on the schedule at the Thunderdome or hold them at the City rink. I’ll have some upcoming conversations with them & see where we are at. There is a lot of local response so hopefully that continues to grow. Oahe: Lee Axdahl VP filling in for Nathan Sanderson reports they will have a ton of BJV & Varsity players, good numbers at the PW level, issues at the Bantam level since several of them will be moving up so trying to sort through that. They keep working on the girl’s side to bring more in. Busy year in the next couple of months because they have significant capital committed for rink improvements including: new bleachers, designated players entrance, lobby & concessions remodeling to make our rink more appealing for additional state tournaments. They had a great Bantam B tournament.

Rushmore: Georg Olson filling in for James Johns reports. BJV State tournament went well with 11 teams & they stayed on schedule. They will continue to support Northern Hills hockey as much as they can with ice time & help with the Discovery Hockey for Free events. Rink improvements included: Varsity & JV locker rooms, official’s area which was compliments of Hockeyville USA they won at the end of last season. Hosted several squirt & mite jamborees was really successful. Numbers were down just a little bit. Lost a couple JV/Varsity players due to their scheduling. Next year the teams should be the same: 1 JV, 1 Varsity, 1 Girls JV, 1 Girls Varsity, 2 Bantam & 3 PWs.

Sioux Center: Janie Haack reports they plan to have a Boys Varsity & JV with the age classification change moves those Bantams up to JV so they should have 2 very clear cut teams with little movement between the 2 of them. It was tough on them this last year & when you add injuries it made it difficult for them. Looking forward to having about 30 players at that level. Girls Varsity/JV age group is very small & trying to decide to play at JV or Varsity next year since they are losing 6 seniors & they only have 4 upper level players that are actually Varsity age left. 1 Bantam team probably play A. 1 PW team since there is only 18 or 19 skaters, but if they have a couple more sign up they could possibly split into 2. Would love to field a Girls U12 team which might be a possibility. Their Try Hockey for Free last year was huge: 50 boys & 40 girls so they are hoping to repeat that this year & retained most of those that came into their cross ice program. Their biggest struggle was ice time since they have

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to work around Dordt College & the All Season Center’s public skates so they are sitting down with both to work on a better ice schedule.

Sioux Falls: John Sievert reports good year. Tremendous growth at the younger age levels, great on one hand, but an enormous struggle to find enough ice time & enough coaches which gets to be challenging at times. Spring programs all 3 sheets are going 12 mos a year either private lessons, 3 on 3 camps, etc. We put emphasis this year on our house & rec league making it extra special for those players, received over whelming great response. Girls Varsity State tournament went real well & great comments from others. Not quite sure yet how many teams we will have with the age classification change. They have a bigger base then they ever had which is good.

Lake Area Hockey Assoc: Sharon Hoerichs reports their first year with us & at the BJV level. Really strong coaching staff & learned a lot as they went along. They have 101 skaters over all in their association: 15 BJV & anticipating having the same number only losing 2 seniors & have 2 more moving up. First Girls U12 team & are talking about a girls JV team within the next 2 years & are looking at bringing that into SD since they will not have that opportunity to play at that level in MN. The opportunity to play at the High School level is giving our younger kids more interest in the sport because when they see they have the opportunity to keep going they want to stick with it since we see them leave at that PW & Bantam level to try basketball or wrestling. We are seeing kids talk about the excitement of being able to stay. Tremendous community support their bleachers were full every day. Radio coverage & saw capital donations go up through the season. Good year. They are planning a rec league next season. Dan expressed concerns about needing officials in the area to ref their games. We may have to do very similar with what we do with Freemont & getting local officials & making them aware of our SDAHA playing rules when they are officiating those games. Sharon did express they have been discussing ways they can be more proactive in that area as well.

Watertown: Steve Sheehan reports numbers are getting stronger at the lower levels. They are losing 15 Varsity players who are graduating this year & picking up 11 who are moving up from Bantams. 1 or 2 teams at Bantam. Not for sure at PWs? New rink is being put out for bids now, looking for another year or 1 ½ years at the old rink. The new rink will be located on the East side of town & a couple more hotels on that side of town near the new rink site. He is hoping 3 years from now looking at a bid for a state Varsity tournament.

Yankton: Heath Larson reports this year they did not have a Girls team, but based on their numbers looking like they could be fielding a Girls team next season. 4 boys graduating & a lot of kids on the bottom could possibly have a Varsity & JV next year with 24 or 28 players. They had 2 bantam teams this year & only 4 stay the rest move up so looking like 1 Bantam team. 1 or 2 PW teams depending on where the girl’s registration goes. Have a lot of squirts, mites & minimites. Biggest deal this year was the rink break in. They have done some improvements to the rink regarding safety & security. They did arrest the individuals who did do the break in. Rink Improvements: Dehumidification, new doors & general upgrades. Good year!

SDAHA President’s Report- Dan first off apologized to the board, there was a decision on an exception to a rule that he made after further review should of come to the board for approval this was pertaining to Freemont that he allowed on a goalie moving up from Bantams to play in the BJV state tournament. They ran into a situation where they did not have a goalie for the first 2 games of the JV state tournament. They sent in a request allowance of their bantam goalie to come up to play in those first 2 games. Dan consulted with Annette which has been the procedure in the past & it had fallen in line with an exception we have allowed in the past & I allowed it, that decision should have been made by the board. Dan apologized to not bringing it to us. He still feels confident in the decision he made, proper decision, but it should of came to the board. He has enjoyed his time as the president. A lot of good things have come over the past 6 years. He has learned a lot & enjoyed working with all of us & our predecessors. In the time that he has spent here he feels the state is in good shape & stronger than ever. He takes a lot of pride & feels really good about what he has been able to accomplish here. He feels there still is work to be done, addressed by the board & would like to continue working through some of these items. As we go forward; work with officials on getting official numbers up; continue to work on the proposals that

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we have activated & adopted-fine tune those & get some policies in place as we move forward. Growth is good at the low numbers within the State & if we do our jobs correctly retaining these numbers we’re going to see growth in our league play as those kids get older. Bringing in associations from outside the state is good as well. The level of competition they bring to the table is good & they come to us because we have good structure. That is a reflection of the people here & how we present ourselves. We see a lot of opportunity for advancement for players that we have not seen before. We have more National teams then we ever have before. We see more players going out on their own, playing Juniors & AAA hockey in different locations across the country. Six years ago when I became president it was single digit numbers of players that we had going out of state to play & now we have a AAA program in Sioux Falls which is doing well. These are all very good things for the state of SD. Thanked everyone for all the support we have given him over the years & will stay involved. Randy & Tony honored Dan with a plaque & gift certificate for his service as President from the SDAHA.

Sam Tronnes Memorial Foundation, Dave Tronnes not present. See attachment end of minutes. Dan read his report. They have had good support, but need continued support from all of us. Primary fundraiser is the Pro Hockey Hunt. It is a lot of work for them & the Mitchell Association. They had picked up two large corporate sponsor: Toshiba California & US Bank Minnesota to help out, but they still have the hunt, dinner & auction to prepare. Dan strongly encourages all to attend if they haven’t done so in the past. Tom spoke on his opportunity to score the scholarships, he is impressed with the academics of these hockey players. We had 3 of the 30 applications they received that were rated #1 in class academically.

DISCUSSION ITEMS

#1. League Commissioner Position presented by Dan French.This is an appointed position by the President & if approved Dan would let the new president make this appointment. Reason for this position, Dan has found as president he spends a lot of time on different aspects of the game of hockey & as an administrator he was not able to spend the amount of time in the administrative part of the game & business of youth hockey that it deserves. He feels this position would allow the executive board to spend the necessary amount of time in the business part of hockey to grow the game & different aspects of the business. The executive board would have somebody that can work with the coach n chief, referee in chief, officials & deal with the game. Mike Hunter asked if this would be a paid position? Dan informed this is a volunteer position & before any decision was made on anything would go through the President & Vice President of SDAHA. This position would ease up the burden of the president; he had no intentions on it being a paid position. Mike feels this should be a paid position & it is something we need as a state. This person is going to be the liaison & is going to be busy. Might want to start as a volunteer position & then the following year once you have the job description figured out then change it over to a paid position so the SDAHA can budget for this position. Tony’s concern is the title, Commissioner confers authority. This position is not a decision maker, but a facilitator or administrator. Change the title to SDAHA League Administrator or Director. If it is a non paid position you would have someone who really wants to do this. No mortifications of the bylaws needed, but execution of officer appointed by the President. This would evolve over time. Would this complicate the Bylaws with the authority of this position? At the current time the way this is written it is not a decision making position & would not affect the Bylaws. Start out slow & if it becomes something that evolves into something bigger over time then SDAHA will have to look at doing something different whether it being a paid position. Dan French would be interested in this position, but will let the new president appoint. Someday we are going to need a paid Executive Director or Secretary to run this organization as we grow & this is a path to that.Motion made by Mike Hunter, 2nd by John Sievert to change the title to Director & to be appointed by the SDAHA President. Motion carried.*************************************************************************************************************************************************

#2. Shortage of officials for games.Dan asked Bruce Palmer what as a Hockey Referee Association are your plans to address? This is a topic at their Spring meeting. Bruce asked for help from the locals with recruitment. We have some good young officials coming up, but we need middle school & high schoolers get involve. We need to encourage local & parents to help with this recruitment. Would like

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to see a Master schedule where the PW’s would travel with Girls & Bantams travel with Boys Varsity so we can use the officials more efficiently. Would like to see more than 1 game a night. Some associations can only do 1 game since they only have 1 team & 1 sheet of ice. The associations that have 2 sheets of ice & have multiple games going on are using several refs so shorting other associations that have 1 sheet of ice. We need to look at the scheduling really closely. Bruce said they need help: Watertown purchases ref sweaters, whistles & helmets stores them in the ref room they have to provide pants. They reimburse them for their fees. Then have someone go into your association & recruit hockey players. The state does have money to help associations out with this. Bruce likes this idea. He would be willing to volunteer to come speak with the parents, kids & coaches. Shortage of refs is in the upper level games. Ref Starter Kit, reimburse for their training. Dan would like each local to send him what they are currently doing & he’ll put something out to all. For squirt tournaments you can send Jodi an email & she’ll send out to all the certified officials notifying them of the opportunity to ref those games. Dan asked we made some changes to the number of officials at the PW level dropped to 2 man, Varsity to 4 & preceding JV game to 4 how did that affect your budgets financially? There were some concerns going into this season. Brookings was up 33% in travel mileage. $1,000 more this year in official payouts & they were also down a Girls U12 team this year. Would like to see the 3 man system that MN uses, but as we know USA Hockey does not allow it & since it is not recognized by USA Hockey they insurance is not valid. Discussed possibly asking USA Hockey if they would honor the 3 man officiating system since they have allowed us a special exception on our rosters with the BJV/Varsity & they cover us for insurance on those then they might do this. Dan said he would work with the new president & approach USA Hockey. Verbal abuse of officials fee if we implement one, could we use that money to fund a ref starter kit or development program for additional refs? Bill the local but we need to have this structured.

#3 Request from Omaha Hockey ClubTim Vanderloo, OHC Girls Hockey Director spoke regarding on who they are & how they put their teams together. Also if they would put their teams into our association how they would change that a bit. He spoke about the boundaries they put on their girls program. They currently have 5 separate teams in their program. 10U, 12U,15U 19U-B & 19U-A currently their only tryout team. The 19U-A league their coach picks where they play, they would not be bringing this team. The 19U-B league was in a Heartland league which the person who ran that passed away right before last season & nobody took over so they do not have a place to play this league since it does not exist anymore, but they did find games for these girls with many miles to travel. The 15U team played in Minnesota tournaments & then filled in with friendlies. They would like to combine the 15U & 19U-B & select from that group to bring to us to play the JV/Varsity team. The girls come from Omaha, a few from Lincoln since right now they only have a 12U team & the ones who are playing with Omaha have been with them before Lincoln had a program. He doesn’t want to pull from Lincoln since he would like to help their development so Omaha has a close place to play. Dan asked if there is any other association in Omaha other than theirs? Used to be 2, but they merged & then they created their girls program & Freemont has a girls league. Tim spoke on the results of games played against SDAHA teams in friendlies or tournaments: They played Sioux Falls Varsity 3 times & SF won those games. Sioux Center Varisty 6 games & Omaha won all 6 games. Watertown Varsity 1 game & Watertown won. The 15U team played Aberdeen JV & Omaha won both those. Played Sioux Falls JV 2 games & SF won both. He discussed travel with his coaches & held parent meetings & they were all onboard with the traveling. They are used to traveling to find tournament for their girls to play. They also do not have expectations that ½ their games were going to be played in Omaha. They are open to having only a few games with teams who live closer to them. They are willing to have home & away games at neutral sites to meet ½ way to make it easier for the other association. They would be willing to host a state tournament since they have the facilities & hotels to accommodate one & referees, but they are very respectful of what we have created & having the tournament in SD makes more sense. They don’t expect to be on the rotation. Omaha has referees& he sent the playing rules to their referee association so they understand the format & rules. They understand and onboard with that & they do have the staff to do those games. They would be ready to go next year & would have the 2 teams. The level of play in SD changes every year so with Omaha it would be the same. Dan asked what was the consensus amongst the Girls Varsity coaches at the meeting during the Girls Varsity Tournament this year? Shelby & Rhonda were at this meeting & all were ok with them joining. Concerns: Where would they play & with the new conference play how many total games would they get to play? The other concern of number of games is you will need 10 teams at both JV & Varsity in order to play conferences so the board is going to have to take a look at that since those teams are connected. The 19U-A team play Aberdeen Varsity 4 times & never beat them & played Brookings 4 times & won all. Shelby, Girls Development program director feels this is a good move for them to come in & she is in favor of them joining. Once again this team does not have a place for them to go & it is about trying to keep the girls in the game. Dan spoke regarding the travel has become an issue with our locals to go to Freemont. They could meet on neutral ice, but some of the issues were the off-ice officiating & concessions. Brought up was each team that came to

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those games would provide off-ice officials as penalty box workers, but the scoreboard would be a local person & concessions. Local would charge for the home ice so each association could split that & officials would be paid also by the 2 teams who played there. One could pay for ice & the other for the refs was suggested. Didn’t know if any gate was collected? But if so the home team would have to collect that & they would get those funds to pay for ice or officials. This is something that would have to be worked out amongst the traveling teams. Adding these 2 teams would that put a burden on our refs? They would be adding approximately 32 games. This would not be a roster issue. Why is adding these girls teams from Omaha an issue when we allowed Freemont & Lake Area Boys to come in? We are getting more requests for out of state teams joining do we keep letting these teams come in, when do we say no? Some of the associations do not have a girls team so were not aware of this until they saw this on the agenda, but as what was brought up we did not have any issues with Lake Area & Freemont bringing in the boys programs why we wouldn’t have the same consideration for Omaha girls. We should be proud as an association that these outside associations are seeing how wonderful we are & what a good program we have going on. They will be making it a better program. Are we going down the path as just allowing each outside association bring in a couple of teams instead of all of their teams? There are certain circumstances for each association. This team from Omaha does not have a place to play, the other ones who have joined us do. How do we decide who is a voting member? How are we going to manage it going forward? Suggested to have a nonvoting member association, but for now we have Lake Area & Freemont on a 2 year trial period with 1 year left before we revisit them staying and/or becoming a voting member. Oahe’s board concerns are travel, referees, money & recruiting new families if they have to travel so far & the financial commitment. This situation doesn’t make it any easier for them at the recruiting level. We should have something in our rules to integrate new teams. Brought up if these teams did bring in all their teams we would saturate our schedules & referees even more. These are excellent points & bringing in these teams as a trial & work through these questions as a board during the trial period. The 19U-A team Tim doesn’t see them changing the direction & that is an open tournament, they like the exposure of going further to different tournaments across the country. This team is more like a AAA team or like the Jr. Stampede team.

Motion made by Janie Haack, 2nd by Rhonda Schenkel to let Omaha Girls 19U-B & 15U teams in on the 2 year trial. Dan discussed on travel: teams relatively close can go to Omaha & teams with more of a travel distance Omaha travels to them. If met on neutral ice it would be up to the local associations playing each other & if a neutral ice isn’t found they will travel. Tony brought up should we stager this one or should we give them 1 year & let’s take all 3 of these associations up next year. Janie & Rhonda both agreed to amend the motion to a 1 year trial instead of the 2 year trial . Vote: 6 no & 8 yes, Motion passes.

Discussed creating a committee to go over parameters so we know where we are going in the future & bring it to the Fall meeting so they can discuss it & then bring it to a vote at the spring meeting. Looking for a chairman? Tom brought up we should have a strategic planning session & list our strengths, weaknesses & where do we want to go. This should be a face to face & not a conference call.

#4 Brandon Valley Request.Tom Cauwels spoke asking for SDAHA to allow them to keep following the July 1 st cut off age level & not change to the birth year classification just for the PW level for just 1 year since they are a new program & still developing. The ones who would be moving to the Bantam level due to this new classification to our State just started playing hockey 2 years ago & there would only be 7 at that Bantam age level. These kids played PW B last year & the only game they won was at their state tournament winning 1-0. He would like to see these kids at the PW level one more year to learn the game, develop more skill & not worry about the checking. Worried about the kids getting hurt. If they were allowed to stay at the July 1 st level they would have 24 PWs, 3 Bantams who would have to move on & choose to quit or play with a different association, but for those other 4 Bantams they could still play as a PW. Next year they would be able to field a Bantam team with 14 kids with using the birth year cut off. Dan found out from USA Hockey that the entire state has to follow birth year; however, you would have to roster your team using the oldest player on your team using PW & Bantams it would have to be roster as Bantams, but if this state board approves you can play in the PW league by PW rules. You would not be able to play in any instate tournaments where there was an out of state team coming at the PW level & if you went to MN to play you would have to play as Bantams. This is the only option USA Hockey gave us. This could include those that would age out they could play on this team as well. Dan asked what about those 3 Bantams 2 years from now when they age out again & have to move up to the next level. Tom said they talked about this as coaches & association that those kids would have to make the move to Sioux Falls or play the rec league & possibly come back to their association when we have the group to play at their level. They are concerned the

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negative effect it has if they don’t keep these 7 bantam & the younger ones knowing that if these 7 kids leave they will not have enough kids the next year to field a Bantam team, would those kids leave at the younger age levels? They would still be allowed in the PW State tournament. In order for them to play in tournaments that have teams from other state in could they have another roster without those 7 Bantams on it & just have the PWs on it? Motion made by Health Larson, 2nd by Steve Sheehan to allow Brandon Valley to roster all of their kids within in the parameters given by USA Hockey. 2 opposed. Motion passes. Continued discussion they would roster those 7 Bantams & fill with PWs to make a full team and roster them as Bantams, but play in state league with the pws. If we approve this & they decided to rescind before the season that is fine. David James, parent from Brandon Valley spoke that he feels that all of the 7 Bantam kids will jump at this opportunity because they want to stay in Brandon. Attacheds letter end of minutes.

#5. Recognition Proposal Ideas presented by Randy Honkomp.Randy asked all to take home & read. He & Dave Tronnes got together & put this together. What is the criteria to give someone after they leave their position. If you would like to add or have a question on one of the criterias please email Randy with your questions or ideas. No action.

#6. Input to create a proposal for medical personnel at games presented by Dawn Magee.She would like to put a proposal together that would pass regarding a medical personnel on site. One of the suggestions at the last meeting was to have a designated medical parent. She also brought up if you would ask your medical facility in your area to provide someone at your games most would do it free of charge. Everyone would examine this she would be willing to put something together & call your hospital & clinics to arrange it for their association. Her email is on the SDAHA website so please email with ideas.

#7. Discusssion approved to add to agenda . SDAHA’s decision to move to a 2 A team of equal abilities and 1 B team for the 2017-18 season will have a negative impact on hockey. It will not elevate play, but will rather have the reverse effect. Most associations will have the talent level to field 1 A team. Very few are going to have the talent level to field 2 A teams that are of equal ability. The A league needs to be competitive and the B league should be considered recreational. Under the current action, towns with 3 teams at a level will be placing players on a team that skill wise should not be on the team. We strongly support returning to the 1 A team and 2 B team format and would like it discussed.

SDAHA’s decision to move to a 2 A team of equal abilities and 1 B team for the 2017-18 season will have a negative impact on hockey presented by Aberdeen.Jeff Scheel spoke wanting clarification on if you have 3 teams you would have 2A & 1B teams with the A teams split by equal ability & if you have 4 teams you would have 2A & 2B split equally & is this the same for the JV/Varsity? Dan asked if we could table this for later since there is a proposal #5 with JV, Varsity & a potential implementing a 3 rd league, can we in corporate that discussion point in with that since it’s the same topic? Jeff agreed. After further discussion the board decided this is a separate topic & will discuss this topic now. Jeff wanted clarification that on what levels or all levels if you have 2 A teams and/or 2 B teams they would have to be split equally by abilities & Dan informed him that is correct with PW & above. Jeff state Aberdeen has discussed possibly pulling kids out of their state league teams & developing a rec league since they feel they cannot compete with one team at the A level let alone compete with 2 teams & water down the talent makes no sense? This may change how many teams & how we bring teams to the state. Something they are considering. Also brought up could be called cutting players by forcing them to play in a house league to improve the talent on your Varsity or A team. When you know an association has enough for 3 teams & they only bring in 2 teams what happened to those players since you know the numbers were there. Dan informed all they had very valid points. The numbers may show that there are plenty of associations that have the ability to put 3 teams together it doesn’t me they have the ability to put 2 A teams on the ice. Brought up it does push those top level kids out of the state to play AAA teams whether they should be at a AAA or not. We further push kids out. They are looking for better competition since we are watering down the leagues. We need to manage through this. Aberdeen would like to see 1A team & 2B teams if you would have 3 teams in one league. The larger associations would like to see 1A & 2Bs. Dan asked to hear

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from the smaller associations: Several voiced can they run with the top A team? It is hard to get a play down request unless they show it was a total disaster from the previous year. So the smaller associations are concerned that it is going to be a blow out if SDAHA allows 1A & 2Bs. Randy informed the board that we should get back to putting our best teams at the A. We have way more developmental kids then A level kids. Discussion on if we would like to change the playing rules, all the Presidents will need time to take this back to their associations before they could vote on the change. A May 31 st conference call is being set up which should give the associations time to discuss changing the playing rule. Right now if you have 3 teams at any state league level you will have 2A teams split equally by ability & 1B team, would like to change too 1A team & 2B teams split equally by ability. This would go for all odd number of league teams. Dan will set this up with the new president. Dan asked to have this in a proposal statement, Jeff said he would do that & get it to Dan to distribute out.

PROPOSAL #1 Date: March 10, 2017 Please indicate which playing rule or by-law you wish to add, amend or replace:

Rule 1 A(Letter/number/page/etc. – If adding a rule, indicate where you wish rule placed)

If amending or replacing, please write the rule as it is currently worded:1) Age Classifications: These classifications will be updated each season as necessary.The following are the classifications of teams and the earliest birth date for eligibility in each classification: Girls

2016-2017 Season12-under born on 1/1/2004 or thereafter **14-under born on 1/1/2002 or thereafter 16-under born on 1/1/2000 or thereafter

19-under born on1/1/1997 or thereafter.Varsity/Jr. Varsity born 1/1/1997 or thereafter

*SDAHA does not officially recognize the Midget classification. All players in this group will be registered as Varsity/Jr. Varsity. **Effective with the 2015-16 season, SDAHA will add a league level Girls 12-U division. This division will follow the peewee guidelines for league play. These players may dual roster on the G12-U team, plus the GV/GJV or a non-league level team but not dual roster on any other league level team. (4/15)

Please write the rule as you wish to amend/add it, using different color print and crossing out portions of the playing rule you wish changed/removed:

1) Age Classifications: These classifications will be updated each season as necessary.The following are the classifications of teams and the earliest birth date for eligibility in each classification:

Girls 2017-2018 Season 12-under born on 1/1/2005 or thereafter **

14-under born on 1/1/2003 or thereafter 16-under born on 1/1/2001 or thereafter

19-under born on1/1/1998 or thereafter.Varsity/Jr. Varsity born 1/1/1997 or thereafterVarsity born on 1/ 1/1998 or thereafterJV born on 1/1/2003 or thereafter

*SDAHA does not officially recognize the Midget classification. All players in this group will be registered as Varsity/Jr. Varsity. **Effective with the 2015-16 season, SDAHA will add a league level Girls 12-U division. This division will follow the peewee guidelines for league play. These players may dual roster on the G12-U team, plus the GV/GJV or a non-league level team but not dual roster on any other league level team. (4/15) The Girls Varsity will be rostered using 19U age classifications. The Girls JV will be rostered using 14U age classifications.

Please explain why you wish to add or amend the rule:12U players can float to 14U/Jr Varsity14U players can float to 19U/VarsityThe amended rule would keep girls of similar age on the ice and in the locker rooms. Girls ages 15-19 would not be rostered to a 12U or 14U team.SUBMITTER NAME/Association: Mike Hunter / Huron Hockey Association

Mike would like the girls to have an option to play more games with girls closer to their age level. Would like to have the leagues available for them when we have enough girls to play on them. Will keep JV/Varsity the same. Would like the option for the 14U can float to JV/Varsity. Some mentioned getting rid of the JV team all together for the girls. Brought up there are some girls that are older than 14 that are not ready to play Varsity so where do you put those girls if you do not have

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a JV team for them to play on? Suggested go with a 14U & JV/Varsity, but you could only float between: 14U & JV or 14U & Varsity & limit them for 2 games a day. Discussion on eliminating the 12U girls & creating 14U girls since the 12U girls can request to play up, would like to give another option for the 14U age level. They would travel together with JV/Varsity girls. We don’t have enough for both 12U & 14U at this time we can add the 12U back in the years to come. Motion made by John Sievert, 2nd by Heath Larsen to abolish the 12U program as the girls classification & add in its place the 14U girls classification & no other changes. Further discussion on possibly putting a 2 game limitation per day on the girl players. Motion made by Heath Larsen to amend motion adding 2 game limitations per day. More discussion: did not want to over play one player, but some of the presidents did not want to make that decision without talking with their association and coaches. Brought up to leave as is & can always change it at the Fall meeting giving each association time to discuss. Amended motion dies. Back to voting on the original motion. Motion passes.

PROPOSAL#2 Date: __3/10/17______________ Please indicate which playing rule or by-law you wish to add, amend or replace:

Playing Rule 5C If amending or replacing, please write the rule as it is currently worded:

Rule 5.C. […] When play resumes, there shall by NO warm-up time. All players, except the starting lineup, should go directly to their benches.

Please write the rule as you wish to amend/add it, using different color print and crossing out portions of the playing rule you wish changed/removed:Rule 5.C. […] When play resumes, there shall by NO warm-up time. All players, except the starting lineup, should go directly to their benches. A minor penalty for delay of game may be assessed for violation of this rule.

Please explain why you wish to add or amend the rule:SUBMITTER NAME/Association: Cade Bloomenrader, RIC

Dan informed this rule change would allow the officials at their discretion impose a minor penalty for delay of game when players do not proceed after period break back to their bench & starting 5 on the ice only.Motion made by Tony Leif, 2nd by Randy Honkomp. Motion passes . Randy asked each association to forward this on to all their coaches at all the levels.

********************************************************************************************PROPOSAL #3 Date: _3/10/17_________

Please indicate which playing rule or by-law you wish to add, amend or replace: Rule 5F, Playing Rules If amending or replacing, please write the rule as it is currently worded:Rule 5.F Currently reads; “Even Strength icing: For the Youth JV and Youth Varsity Levels only: When an even strength icing occurs, the offending team cannot make a line change.”

Please write the rule as you wish to amend/add it, using different color print and crossing out portions of the playing rule you wish changed/removed:Rule 5.F Even Strength Icing: For the youth JV and Youth Varsity Levels only; A team that is in violation of the icing rule (USA Hockey Rule 624) shall not be permitted to make any player substitutions prior to the ensuing face-off. However a team shall be permitted to make a player substitution to replace a goalkeeper that had been substituted for an extra attacker, an injured player or goalkeeper, or when a penalty had been assessed that affects the on-ice numerical strength of either team. The determination of players on the ice will be made when the puck leaves the offending team’s stick. If an offending team uses its timeout following an icing, it may elect to change players.If a team shall try and substitute players that weren’t on the ice when the icing occurred, or if they delay the game in any manner, including feigning injury or problem with equipment, the team will be assessed a delay of game bench minor penalty.

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Please explain why you wish to add or amend the rule:SUBMITTER NAME/Association: Cade Bloomenrader, RIC

Dan informed reasoning for rule change: there were too many times the officials were having to make players switch back n forth, some coaches did well in directing their players back on the ice, some didn’t which a lot of time was wasted. Discussion on confusion & staling/delaying the game. Bruce Palmer explained if the team is in the progress of making a change that player has to leave the ice & the original that was changed needs to come back out. As long as they do that in a timely fashion there will be no penalty assessed. No motion. Proposal dies.******************************************************************************************** PROPOSAL #4 Date: ____3/10/17____________

Please indicate which playing rule or by-law you wish to add, amend or replace: Proposal to move the Girl’s Varsity to a bid process. Addition to SDAHA State Tournament Rules to follow Boys Varsity Rules-Page 1(Letter/number/page/etc. – If adding a rule, indicate where you wish rule placed)

If amending or replacing, please write the rule as it is currently worded:SDAHA STATE TOURNAMENT RULES

Following are the rules and general information relative to the SDAHA State Tournaments . Please pass this information on to anyone else in the host associations that have a need for this information. The Boys Varsity Tournament will be assigned through a “bid” (application) process. (7/10)A. Minimum requirements for the bid process are:

Must be at rink located in South Dakota; Must be at rink with 1,500 permanent seats (with standard architectural definitions) with open, unobstructed site lines (does not include

obstructions caused by rink and benches), which can include collapsible seating which meets safety criteria for small children which are; Must be in town with at least 180 reserved motel rooms within city limits, or in city limits of city contiguous with host city; Must be in rink with clean facility with no dirt or sawdust floors in concourse, locker room area or main rink room; Must be in rink with sufficient lighting for television coverage; Must in rink with concessions to provide hot and cold drinks, and hot and cold food, with personal service. Must block 24 rooms per team at time of submission of bid, based upon estimate of teams to be registered. Rink facility must have sufficient requirements for provision of television coverage such as power, access and parking for satellite feed truck.

B. The Gate Receipts shall be the property of SDAHA. C. The State shall reimburse the hosting local a base reimbursement of $3000 plus a 15% incentive of gate for expenses based on a formula considering tournament expenses and incentive to attract additional gate. This reimbursement amount is determined by the executive board or at the fall meeting by the board of directors.D. The balance of the receipts shall be allocated among the numbers of league teams. E. No local may host two (2) tournaments, so if after the bid process for the Boys Varsity Tournament the winning local was already scheduled to host a tournament, that other tournament shall be assigned to a local not hosting a tournament (2010: Sioux Falls, Sioux Center, Yankton) based upon a process similar to the bid process above (excluding the minimum criteria).Additional requirements:

No local can host 2 state tournaments in one season: Revenue sharing on 2011 Boys Varsity gate Date bids due and awarded to be determined by the Executive Committee Please write the rule as you wish to amend/add it, using different color print and crossing out

portions of the playing rule you wish changed/removed:The Girls Varsity Tournament will be assigned through a “bid” (application) process. A. Minimum requirements for the bid process are:

● Must be at rink located in South Dakota;● Must be at rink with 1,000 permanent seats (with standard architectural definitions) with open, unobstructed sight lines (does not include

obstructions caused by rink and benches), which can include collapsible seating which meets safety criteria for small children;● Must be in town with at least 180 reserved hotel rooms within city limits, or in city limits of city contiguous with host city;● Must block 24 rooms per team at time of submission of bid, based upon estimate of teams to be registered.● Must be in rink with sufficient lighting and necessary services for television coverage;● Must be in rink with sufficient lighting, internet access, and necessary services for live video streaming;● Must be in rink with concessions to provide hot and cold drinks, and hot and cold food, with personal service.● Must be hosted by an association with a team fielded at the Girls Varsity level.

B. The Gate Receipts shall be the property of the hosting association to cover the cost of ice and programs.C. No local may host two (2) tournaments, so if after the bid process for the Girls Varsity Tournament the winning local was already scheduled to host a tournament, that other tournament shall be assigned to a local not hosting a tournament.Additional requirements:

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● Date bids due and awarded to be determined by the Executive Committee Please explain why you wish to add or amend the rule:

As was observed this year, the Girl’s State Varsity Tournament has grown exponentially. The attendance all three days, including the opening ceremonies, was large and at a high capacity. Participation at a Girl’s Varsity level warrants a venue and environment that can support the growth of this level of hockey in South Dakota.SUBMITTER NAME/Association: Wendy McDonnel – Sioux Falls Youth hockey Association

Dan asked why any association would vote for this if they were not getting any of the gate admission? Currently with the Boys Varsity the gate fee belongs to the State & split amongst the associations. Sioux Falls did an outstanding job this year, but why would any of the other associations give this up? Wendy McDonnel spoke that could be negotiable. Question asked how many associations have 1,000 seats? Not very many. Wendy spoke reasoning the girls deserve the same attention as the boys varsity tournament as far as giving them what they deserve for their talent as well. All 3 media coverage. Really successful weekend for girls varsity hockey. Discussion is the not sharing the gate. If you force the boys to do that you should do the same with the girls. There is a lot of opportunity to bring additional fan base there & grow that gate as well. Discussed to they need 1,000 seats? Possibly not necessary at this time? Wendy thought they had close to 850-900. Gate taken was $7,860 which was 30% of the boys & gate fee charged is different than the boys. Someday they would like to have the boys & girls state tournaments along with the awards ceremony the same weekend & at the same location. No motion. Proposal dies.********************************************************************************************PROPOSAL #5 Date: ___March 4, 2017____

Please indicate which playing rule or by-law you wish to add, amend or replace: 1) Age Classifications Playing Rules

If amending or replacing, please write the rule as it is currently worded:Implement a junior gold league as currently provided for in the SDAHA playing rules as an additional option for Varsity/Junior Varsity age players. Junior gold teams would have stand-alone rosters of players that are not on an association’s Varsity/Junior Varsity rosters. Associations may only have one or more junior gold teams if the association first fields both a varsity and junior varsity team. Associations that have more than one Junior Gold team must divide these teams equally. A year-end tournament would be held with Junior Gold teams and Junior Varsity teams that finish below eighth place in the Junior Varsity league standings. Only the top 8 teams in the Junior Varsity league standings would qualify for the Junior Varsity state tournament.

Please write the rule as you wish to amend/add it, using different color print and crossing out portions of the playing rule you wish changed/removed:

Please explain why you wish to add or amend the rule:The change in ages in the playing rules for SDAHA hockey will increase the number of players in the Varsity/Junior Varsity age classification. While this change provides smaller associations the ability to field full teams, it results in surplus players that are beyond the capacity of Varsity/Junior Varsity rosters for larger SDAHA associations. The Junior Gold league will provide a player development level for young Varsity/Junior Varsity players and older high school players that are not ready for Junior Varsity play.SUBMITTER NAME/Association: Tony Leif, SDAHA Vice President

Tony discussed reasoning for this additional league: with this new age change we will have additional kids at the JV/Varsity level. The alternatives in front of us are multiple JV & Varsity team. If we did multiple jv teams you wouldn’t be able to split 2 jv teams equally because one will have to link with the Varsity & one will be independent. How do we get a good development opportunity for those kids who are young & are not capable of playing at that JV/Varsity level & some older kids whose skills haven’t developed & give them that same opportunity to develop? Discussed this league would be a good place to put that 3 rd

team for the bigger associations instead of having 2 Varsity & 1 JV, they would have 1 varsity, 1 JV & 1 Jr. Gold(renamed at a later date). This would be a standalone team & do not float up to any team. The JV/Varsity would stay the same. Tony was wondering if there would be sufficient number of teams there to make the league? Would you have a minimum amount of teams for this league? We might not know until Fall, but it is nice to have the option for some of those kids so they don’t leave. Heath spoke given the fact that we are going to have 1 Varsity team per organization Yankton would most likely fit in

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with 1 JV & 1 Jr Gold team if we had enough kids to support this. I doubt with the talent & skill we have we’ll be able to play with Rushmore, Sioux Falls & Brookings at the Varsity (A) level with the 14 kids & realistically Yankton is a JV program right now. The Jr. Gold might allow them to continue playing JV without fielding a Varsity, but develop some of these first year freshman giving our program a leg up. This might keep the kids in the program give them something to play for, but yet allow them to develop that skill set maybe we can move them into the next group of kids. You would need approval to play in the Jr. Gold because the way the proposal is written you would still need to field a Varsity, JV first before you could field a Jr. Gold team. You could have a Varsity team & then request to play down to Jr. Gold if you didn’t feel the kids were ready for JV. Concern about those younger Bantams moving up this would allow them another year to grow, develop & hit that growth spurt. This gives us a format for those smaller programs who don’t have a large # of kids at the Varsity & JV levels. It allows them to still feel like they can compete & buys them sometime until their kids are ready to compete & allows us an avenue to where we can compete. Dan informed the group that we would have to change the name from Jr. Gold because we use the Jr. Gold classification for Varsity & non Varsity when they go out of state to play. We could name this one as a 2 nd Jr. Gold B team.Motion was made by Steve Sheehan, 2nd by Lee Axdahl to adopt proposal 5 as written just as long as there is a minimum of 4 teams available. Further discussion by Annette on how is she going to keep track of who is on which Jr. Gold A or B teams? Is she going to be responsible? We will need to change the name so it defines who is on this roster which sets them apart from the JV/Varsity Jr. Gold teams. Dan said the executive committee will make that decision & will get with Annette soon with a new name. What weekend is the end of the year tournament going to be played on? We don’t need to call it a state tournament could be called a Jamboree. Could be held during the JV & Girls Varsity State tournament, will work this out at a later date. 2 opposed. Motion passes. ****************************************************************************************Proposal #6 - Dan FrenchThis would add rule 7F to Game misconducts/Suspensions of the playing rulesREASON FOR CHANGE:Video review policy.SDAHA has been asked by coaches, players, parents and Presidents to clean up the game and make it safer for the players.In response, I propose the following video review policy.It is important to realize this review process is not to reverse a call made by an on-ice official. It is to hold accountable players that commit serious, injury potential acts. These acts should be blatant and obvious. These acts may or may not have been penalized by the officials during the game.PLAYING RULE: RULE 7F Game Misconducts/SuspensionsGUIDELINES

1. The video review needs to be submitted by a local President. Not the coach, not a parent.The local President submitting the video needs to view it to ensure it is appropriate for review.

2. The video should then be submitted to the SDAHA Discipline Committee Chairperson OR an individual deemed appropriate by the SDAHA President.

3. The video review committee will be made up of the SDAHA Discipline Committee Chairperson, the SDAHA Referee-in-Chief and the SDAHA President. Additions and subtractions from this committee may be made by the SDAHA President with the approval of the other members.

4. This committee may impose up to a maximum of a 3 game suspension. Any suspension imposed will be under USAH Playing Rule 410(a), Supplementary Discipline. A penalty will never be added to the scoresheet of a completed game.

5. If this committee feels more than a 3 game suspension is warranted by the actions of the player, a summary suspension will be imposed until such time a hearing is conducted by the SDAHA Discipline Committee and an appropriate discipline action can be taken.

6. Actions taken by this committee will be recorded with other disciplinary actions imposed by the playing rules and will be part of the consideration if the offending player needs to come before the Discipline Committee for other acts in the future.

7. History of the offending player MAY play a role as well in the length of suspension. 8. I strongly encourage this committee to also involve the local President from the association of the offending player. Open

communication between this committee and the local Presidents keeps the transparency required for complete integrity.

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9. If the suspension is 3 games or less, appeals will not be permitted. A re-review may be asked for by the Association President of the offending player on behalf of the player and his/her family. The cost of this re-review will be $50, non-refundable. During this re-review, the player will have the opportunity to address this committee and answer questions presented by this committee. On this re-review, this committee may eliminate, reduce or leave as is the suspension originally imposed. The decision of this re-review is final and may not be appealed. This re-review will be conducted via conference call. In addition to the above mentioned $50 fee for re-review, the cost of the conference call will be passed on to the local association which may or may not bill the player’s family for the cost of the call.

10. If the SDAHA Discipline Committee convenes for the purpose of #5 above, the discipline action taken by the Discipline Committee may be appealed to the SDAHA Board of Directors as outlined in the SDAHA By-Laws.

11. I also encouraged the SDAHA Referee-in-Chief to use the submitted videos as training tools for officials. Our on-ice officials are our first line of defense during the game to make the game safer. Officials have a much different vantage point than any camera will have. In addition, officials see the action at full speed and only 1 time. This committee has the luxury of slow motion and ability of replay many times over. We very much have support for our on-ice officials. Making the game safer is all of our jobs. We must do our best to eliminate the “cheap shots” from the game and when they do occur, there are consequences for the offending player.

Dan reviewed what the discipline committee would like to have for a video review policy. Any re-review is outlined in this policy.Motion to approve as is by Sam Becher, 2nd by Steve Sheehan.Discussion of #1-What is appropriate for review? Dan informed it will be up to the President. Appropriate to share the video with all. Dan said he didn’t want every video so it would be up to the local president to make sure it is appropriate for the discipline committee to view. Discussed #5 & #9. After discussion. Motion passes . ********************************************************************************************Proposal#7 Date: March 9, 2017

Please indicate which playing rule or by-law you wish to add, amend or replace: Administrative Rule 1(B) “Home Town Rule”(Letter/number/page/etc. – If adding a rule, indicate where you wish rule placed)

If amending or replacing, please write the rule as it is currently worded:Home Town Rule - All players and parents must be residents of the community for which the player participates. In the event a community does not have a SDAHA program, a player may participate in the hockey program of the nearest community with such a program.

Please write the rule as you wish to amend/add it, using different color print and crossing out portions of the playing rule you wish changed/removed:Home Town Rule - All players and parents must be residents of the community for which the player participates. In the event a community does not have a SDAHA program an amateur hockey program or association, a player may participate in the hockey program of the nearest community with such a program. In the event a community has an amateur hockey program or association, a player residing in that community may participate in the hockey program of the nearest community upon request and approval of an exemption by the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association Board of Directors. Such an exemption shall be explained in detail and made in writing to the SDAHA board President by August 1 st of every year and approved by a majority the SDAHA board members. Individual player exemption to the Home Town Rule, if approved, shall be on a season-by-season basis.

Please explain why you wish to add or amend the rule:Under the current rule, teams could roster players from any community not having a SDAHA program. This rule made sense when all teams were in South Dakota. Now that teams have been added from outside South Dakota, the change simply broadens the term “SDAHA” to reference “any amateur hockey program or association.” As the rule is currently written, any of our teams could roster players from cities such as Omaha or Sioux City, for example, because those cities have no SDAHA program.SUBMITTER NAME/Association: Lee Axdahl, VP/Oahe Hockey Association

Oahe feels this rule is out of date since we have out of state teams in our league now & needs to be updated. They substituted the language as seen above. Discussion: once that player has been approved thru the home town rule that player doesn’t need to be evaluated on a season by season basis. For example: the Midwest league allows only 2 switches, out of your

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existing association into another one & back into your home association. You are done for lifetime. Janie feels if you would implement that it would solve your need for having to do it on a season by season basis. Discussion if you would grandfather players in? For example: A player has been playing for an association for years, it would not make sense to send them back to an association that they have not been playing with for several years. Would we have to approve them again with this new rule? Lee said yes. Tony thought this would be a good foundation to approve them. He didn’t think anyone would agree with them wanting to stay. Pretty easy to approve. Tim from Omaha is asking for clarification if they do not have a girls program are you excluding them or would they have to petition as well if they do not have a girls program available for them. Omaha girls do have High School teams they could play on so would they have to petition under this rule? Technically they could play with the boys so this needs to be discussed more. When would these appeals need to take place? According to this rule by August 1 st . All SD players have to do this already for ex: Brandon players who want to play in Sioux Falls petition to play in Sioux Falls already. Once Spearfish gets going those players that play for Rushmore will have to petition to play for Rushmore if they want to continue there. Dan asked how does this affect Freemont? Asked if they had the petitions in early could it be approved before August 1st? Dan said he has looked at them as they came in instead of waiting for the deadline date. Lee would like to see this even across every single team. Would like to see the date of August 1 st pushed back since some associations have later registration dates, possibly Sept 1 or Oct.1 st . Lee would amend the wording of every year to say “once approved to go that association, they do not need to be approved year after year.as long as they are not making a change year after year. Tabled to be discussed on the May 31 st conference call. ********************************************************************************************Proposal#8 Date: March 2017

Please indicate which playing rule or by-law you wish to add, amend or replace: State Tournaments Rules 2.

If amending or replacing, please write the rule as it is currently worded:Jr. Varsity player selection: The SDAHA board came up with the following rules to consider when you are selecting your Jr. Varsity players for the Jr. Varsity State Tournament:

a) Throughout the season, the varsity coach will “freeze” 10 varsity players for each Jr. Varsity and Varsity regular season league game. These may be different players for each game, but must be always be a total of 10 players.

b) The names of these frozen players will be clearly designated on the JV score sheets for those games and they may not play the Jr. Varsity game being played on that date.

c) For the Jr. Varsity State Tournaments, each varsity coach must designate which 10 players will be designated “varsity only” prior to the Jr. Varsity State Tournament. Those 10 players may not participate in the Jr. Varsity State Tournament.

d) For girls Jr. Varsity and Varsity team, to the extent this rule would cause a Jr. Varsity girls team to play with less than 11 players, this rule does not apply and that team shall freeze whatever number of girl players are in excess of the 11 players.(9/2013)These rules will eliminate the Tournament Rule and Administrative rule currently in effect requiring that players playing the JV State Tournaments must have played in at least 50% of JV games. Frozen varsity names for the Jr. Varsity state tournaments must be presented to the SDAHA President at a date to be determined by the state president. (4/13)

Please write the rule as you wish to amend/add it, using different color print and crossing out portions of the playing rule you wish changed/removed:Jr. Varsity player selection: The SDAHA board came up with the following rules to consider when you are selecting your Jr. Varsity players for the Jr. Varsity State Tournament:

a) Throughout the season, the varsity coach will “freeze” 10 varsity players for each Jr. Varsity and Varsity regular season league game. These may be different players for each game, but must be always be a total of 10 players.

b) The names of these frozen players will be clearly designated on the JV score sheets for those games and they may not play the Jr. Varsity game being played on that date.

c) For the Jr. Varsity State Tournaments, each varsity coach must designate which 10 players will be designated “varsity only” prior to the Jr. Varsity State Tournament. Those 10 players may not participate in the Jr. Varsity State Tournament. Each coach must also submit a roster of the players playing in the Jr. Varsity State Tournament.

e) For girls Jr. Varsity and Varsity team, to the extent this rule would cause a Jr. Varsity girls team to play with less than 11 players, this rule does not apply and that team shall freeze whatever number of girl players are in excess of the 11 players.(9/2013)These rules will eliminate the Tournament Rule and Administrative rule currently in effect requiring that players playing the JV State Tournaments must have played in at least 50% of JV games. Frozen varsity names for the Jr. Varsity state tournaments must be presented to the SDAHA President at a date to be determined by the state president. (4/13)

Please explain why you wish to add or amend the rule:

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Teams currently submit frozen player lists, but these lists do not identify who is actually going to play in the JV State Tournament. By submitting a JV roster in addition to the frozen player list, SDAHA can make a better judgment of JV eligibility.SUBMITTER NAME/Association: Oahe Hockey Association

Dan reviewed over above proposal: you would be submitting your roster of eligible players as well as your frozen players. This would be easier & better to follow. Then submit it out to all the associations so they can see who they are playing against prior to the State Tournament. Discussion: do not get rid of the frozen list, but include the ones who are eligible. Need to provide both per this proposal.Motion made by Tony Leif, 2nd by Randy Honkomp. Proposal passes.********************************************************************************************Proposal#9 Date: March 2017

Please indicate which playing rule or by-law you wish to add, amend or replace: SDAHA State Tournament Rules (as amended October 2016)

If amending or replacing, please write the rule as it is currently worded: Please write the rule as you wish to amend/add it, using different color print and crossing out portions of the playing

rule you wish changed/removed:22. All state tournaments will be held in South Dakota.

Please explain why you wish to add or amend the rule:

Although the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Association has member associations outside the boundaries of the state, SDAHA should hold all of its state tournaments within the state. It seems illogical to have South Dakota state tournaments in other states.SUBMITTER NAME/Association: Oahe Hockey Association

Dan spoke how he feels about this proposal. He said this is the end of the season league tournament. To participate in this tournament you need to be a member of the league, play all your league games & the seeding is done by league play. Dan feels this is a terminology on words. He feels we have progressed past State tournament & have now should it be renamed league tournament. He does believe that. He does believe that Girls Varsity & Boys Varsity should be held in the State. The others should continue on the rotation. Discussion we could potentially have the Girls JV State tournament in Omaha if we allow them in the rotation down the road. Dan feels that we should not allow Lake Are & Omaha into the rotation since they are only bringing in one team, but Freemont since they have brought all their league levels in, he feels they should fit into the rotation. It’s not a state tournament it’s an end of the season league tournament. He feels the time has come for a name change. How are we going to manage the rotation & voting rights going forward for these teams that are from out of state & are only bringing in one team or multiple teams? Could we include the Girls & Boys JV State tournament to be in our state since it is a high school team? Also have issues with some associations who don’t have enough motels to host a state or league tournament. Sioux Center is already in the rotation, but discussion on putting into the requirements of hosting a league/state tournament would have to have so this many accommodations just like the Boys Varsity if we feel that this is enough of a concern. This could be a concern of the current or new associations in the State. Some tournaments bring in more money than others so that is why we have a rotation. No action. Proposal dies.********************************************************************************************Tony spoke regarding play down requests. He would like to see documentable reason why they are requesting playing down without using age or size of the kids. ********************************************************************************************Scheduled Elections (President & Secretary)Dan thanked Rhonda for what she has done as Secretary, but she will not be continuing. Tom Hitchcock, Nominating Committee informed he has 2 candidates for President: Dave Mannes (Sioux Falls) & Randy Honkomp (Brookings). As Secretary 3 candidates: Bryan Kouri (Sioux Falls), Mindy Hansen (Sioux Falls) & Mike Hunter

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(Huron). We heard briefly from Mike, Mindy & Bryan was not in attendance but Dan read what Bryan submitted to him. For president we heard from Dave & Randy. There were no nominations from the floor for both secretary & president. Motion from Jeff Scheel, 2nd by Sam Becher to close nominations for secretary. Nominations closed.Motion from John Sievert, 2nd by Sam Becher to close nominations for president. Nominations closed.

Ballots handed out for Secretary & President. Mike Hunter voted in as Secretary for 2 year term.Randy Honkomp voted in as President for 2 year term.

Since Randy was voted president this has opened up his position as Treasurer. President, Dan appoints Jeff Scheel, Aberdeen to finish out the term of 1 year.

Next Spring meeting Vice President & Treasurer will be up for election. Dan will be the nominating chair, taking over for Tom Hitchcock.

Fall meeting will be held in Watertown. Exact date & site TBD.Reminder Randy Honkomp needs each locals treasurer’s e-mail so he can forward the SDAHA Assessments for 2016-2017.

Motion to adjourn meeting by Georg Olson, 2nd by Randy Honkomp. Meeting adjourned.

Attachments Follow:Letter from David & Shawn James, Brandon Valley Hockey Assoc.SDAHA Finances-Financial InformationSDAHA Assessments 2016-2017Players by age 2016-17 per AssociationBoys High School Coaches Report-April, 2017Boys Player Development Report-April, 2017Scheduling/Adm ReportSam Tronnes Memorial Foundation Report

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To the board members of the SDAHA,

We are writing on behalf of our son Garret James who played as a 1st year Pee Wee in the Brandon Valley Hockey Association this year. Garret has been in this organization from the beginning & loves hockey, he also happens to be the very first kid to ever register as a Brandon Valley Ice Cat. He has moved up through different levels playing as a Mite, then as a Squirt before playing as a Pee Wee this year. Garret has been playing hockey with many of the same kids & has developed great friendships over the years. Our family has also been very involved with the Brandon Valley Hockey Association & has put a lot of time & effort into helping this organization move forward with the dream of someday having these same kids wear a Brandon jersey at the Varsity level. Our organization is growing & we have new kids joining each year however we do not have enough older kids to create a new team to match the new age requirements. This will cause a few kids to be pushed out of the Brandon Valley Hockey Association. Garret is one of those kids.

Although it is only a few families that will be affected by not having a team to “move up to” many of these families have been heavily involved with Brandon Valley Hockey over the years & will no longer be able to have a child in the organization. This will include our past president, rink manager & a parent who is currently heavily involved in fund raising to build a new rink.

We are asking you to consider allowing a select few kids to keep playing at the same age level that they have been since our organization started so they can continue enjoying hockey with the friends & families that got us where we are today.

Thank you for your time & consideration.

Sincerely,David & Shawna James

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