Letter in printable format  

Redwing Hockey Players and Parents:

I hope your hockey season has been a successful one, with new skills learned and accomplished and most importantly that your son or daughter had fun.

I am sure that many of you have heard the rink rumor mill about the rezoning of the hockey zones in Saskatoon. Well, it is not a rumor. Some of the details might not be accurate, but rezoning will happen in the upcoming season. This letter will provide you with the information the Redwing Executive has recommended to the Board of Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association.

Currently we are the largest Zone in the city, with 856 players and 644 families. We have provided a successful program for many years; however for the smaller zones in the city it has been difficult to be competitive and equally as difficult to be financially sound. What has been proposed are two Zones on the West side and 4 Zones on East side.

As your Executive, we feel we have made recommendations to the Board that will not jeopardize the Zone from being successful, or jeopardize hockey players from not returning next year. We came up with eight options and have decided on one that we have presented to the Board of Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association.

We recommend that the current Redwing Zone be divided. The communities of East and West College Park, Erindale and Arbor Creek will be one zone. They will be Zone G Redwings and we expect that they will have 440 players according to this year's registration. (2006-2007)

The other Zone will consist of Sutherland, Forest Grove, Silver Springs, Willow Grove and the surrounding acreages on the north side of Highway 5. We expect they will have 387 returning players next season.

This decision was not an easy one. Our hope is to have the least amount of disruption to minor hockey in our Community.

Decisions have been made on the financial division of the assets of the combined Redwing Zone. It has been decided that $27,000 be allotted to the new Zone for the purchase of new Uniforms. Also $3000 has been allotted to the new Zone to develop a web page. The remainder of the equipment will be divided equally. The remainder of the financial assets will be divided on a per-capita basis (number of current players from 2006-2007 season that are eligible to register for hockey in the 2007-2008 season).

We will be developing and signing letters of understandings between the two Zones with regards to the Zone's Bingo, Draft and the Redwing Tournaments. These letters of understanding will insure that both Zones' will continue to benefit from these programs.

The Board of Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association will vote on the rezoning proposals on March 25, 2007.

We believe this proposal is in the best interest of all current and future Zone G players, and that the overall re-zoning proposal for the city is in the best interest of all players who are registered in Saskatoon Minor Hockey.

Our Annual General meeting is scheduled for April 22, 2007, 2:00 pm at Dr J G Egnatoff School. We will have elections for many positions in both Zones at that time. Please plan to attend as your input is invaluable. Having committed volunteers on the Executive is imperative to having a successful Zone and ultimately a successful hockey program. It has been my pleasure to serve you as Commissioner for the past year.

Regards,

Mike Dunphy
Zone G Commissioner
415 Vincent Crescent
Saskatoon SK
(306) 222-5666