New Jersey Policy - Parent Paid Jersey’s Starting in 2018-2019, all traveling players will buy jerseys and socks each season. All traveling players will be charged $100 in their ice bill. This will provide a set of home and away jerseys and socks, as well as a white name plate that can be sewn onto the back of the white jersey. RAHA is growing, and as we get larger we need to look at doing things differently than we have in the past. Last season we added teams at the 10U, 15U and Junior Gold levels, the season before that we added a 5th bantam team. The 2018-19 season will see RAHA add 2 Squirt teams, a 6th Bantam team, a 3rd 12U team, and possibly another 15U team. This means that we do not have enough jerseys for all of our teams.  Moving to a parent paid jersey will outfit our players with new sublimated jersey and sock every year and allow them to keep their jersey at the end of the season. 

Background

RAHA is growing, and as we get larger we need to look at doing things differently than we have done in the past. During the 2017-18 season RAHA had over 340 skaters at the IP level alone. Last season we added teams at the 10U, 15U and Junior Gold levels, The season before that we added a 5th bantam team. The 2018-19 season will see RAHA add 2 Squirt teams, a 6th Bantam team, a 3rd 12U team, and possibly another 15U team. This means that we do not have enough jerseys for all of our teams.

Over the past 5 years RAHA has supplied team sets of jerseys that were passed out at the beginning of the season and handed back in at the end of the season. Those jerseys need to be replaced/updated and with the growing number of teams the old process of reusing the jerseys is becoming a logistical nightmare. It is also costly to keep doing it this way. Currently RAHA pays over $225 a month for the largest storage garage in the Storage facility on 145th Street. That comes to $2700 a year. RAHA needs to have a storage facility, but we should be able cut the storage need in half if we do not need to store the team sets of jerseys. If we buy new sublimated jerseys for all the traveling teams we are looking at a minimum cost of $22,080 for the new set of jerseys.

Last summer the equipment committee started a 2 year process to switch from the current stitched tackle twill jerseys to sublimated jerseys, as well as moving to a new sock style. The first year involved taking bids from companies to supply us with jerseys and socks. We received proposals from 6 companies. We chose 3 companies to each make a team set for our 3 10U girls teams. This allowed us to compare the quality of the jerseys and socks from each company and make an informed choice moving forward in this process. At the end of the season we examined the 3 jersey sets and talked to players from each team to generate feedback on each company. We chose Tough Jerseys because they make a quality jersey and the offered the most versatility in the sock choices. They also were more cost effective than the other companies. This summer the RAHA board approved the following proposal.

All Squirt, Peewee, Bantam, 10U and 12U players will buy jerseys and socks each season. These players will be charged $100 in their ice bill. This will include a set of home and away jerseys($64) and socks($27.50), as well as a White name plate($4) that can be sewn onto the back of the white jersey. The remaining $4.50 per person will be used to purchase 1 set of blood jerseys for each team.

Rationale
 

1) Why are we switching to a different style of sock?

We are switching to a stitched sock made of the same material that the jerseys are made from. This means that the socks are lighter and they have a velcro strip on the top of the socks to attach to the supporter shorts all the kids wear. These socks also come in 2 inch increments for sizing versus the 4 inch increments for the knit socks making them fit better.

2) Why not assign each skater a number and let the kids wear the same jersey for multiple seasons?

This was a method that we considered as a cost saving measure for parents. It would be great if kids could pick a number and wear the same number every year and get new jerseys only when they grow out of them. The problem is that we are too big. We are estimating that we will have around 120 squirts next season. This throws a wrinkle into the situation. We will be getting new jerseys each year. Each team will get a set of jerseys that will have enough of each size needed for each player. This will allow us to be creative with the jersey designs and change it up so that the jersey designs don’t get stale.

3) Why are the Junior Gold and 15U girls not buying jerseys this year?

Junior Gold starts later than everyone else and has a shorter season. We also bought 2 sets of jerseys for those teams last year. The 15U girls level is filled with uncertainty at this point. Currently, we are deciding between 1 or 2 teams and we might need to Co-op with other communities. The plan is for them to move to the new jerseys next season.

Next Step

This year, one of our goals is that every RAHA skater has the correct size jersey and socks. To accomplish this we are had three sizing events.

All Players will receive their socks the first night of tryouts. On the night of team selections The equipment committee will put together sets of jerseys for each team with the appropriate sizes and then the jerseys will be given to the coach the next day.

If there are any issues/questions please feel free to contact Marc Tobias (marct@rosemounthockey.org)