State Playdown Information

Needham is a District 3 Team.  

• LINK to the MA Hockey District 3 contacts page 
• LINK to the MA Hockey State Playdown Guide. Please review.
• LINK to MA Hockey Playdown brackets (the HOME team is the top team on the brackets and is responsible for scheduling the ice)

To be eligible to play in a Playdown, you must submit an application to play after our registrar sends you the draft roster to approve at the beginning of our season. Applications have a deadline so please be aware.  

Participating in the State Playdown is a TEAM EXPENSE.

To Schedule A Playdown Game (HOME TEAM SCHEDULES PLAYDOWN ICE)

1. Look at your current practice schedule and see if there are sheet(s) of ice that meet your timeframe. If you identify a sheet, you need email/call the HEAD coach who is sharing the 1/2 sheet and tell them you need the full sheet for a playdown (just to keep them in the loop).
2. If you can't use your practice sheet, find another sheet on our NYH Master Schedule that meets your timeframe. Contact the other coaches to confirm it is OK to take their ice. You will likely need to swap one of your your practice sheets with them to keep things fair.
3. Once you have a few sheets in mind, propose them to the Playdown opposing teams coach and see which one(s) work for them.
4. Once you have secured a sheet (keeping a backup sheet in mind incase there is a conflict), send the NYH Operations Manager an email to hold the sheet (Nancy O'Brien, nyhaoperations@yahoo.com)
5. NYH Scheduler will email back a confirmation that the sheet is tentatively reserved for your playdown game.
6. Once you get confirmation from the NYH Scheduler, now you need to get & confirm that date/time for:
7.        a) two refs from Ed Vahey, evahey@mahockey.org and a timekeeper of your choosing
8.     b) For playdown games, please follow the steps provided at the playdown meeting. Make sure you schedule the game on the District 3 website.
9. Once you have everything confirmed, send email to NYH Operations who will make the schedule changes. It is not officially scheduled until you get the change notice from the NYHA website (changes will be posted within 24 hours of receiving the confirmed date & time).
10. At the game, you pay the refs and timekeeper in cash prior to the start of the game. The "away" team is responsible for half of the cost of the sheet of ice. Ice fee should be paid by check payable to the "home" team organization. Verify ice cost with "home" team as costs vary.
11. Referee rates are as follows(subject to change):                                                       Squirts: $40.00 per ref.     Girls U10: $40.00 per ref.    PeeWee: $45.00 per ref.      Girls U12: $45.00 per ref.        Bantam: $50.00 per ref.    Girls U14: $50.00 per ref.    Midget: $60.00 per ref.    
12. Timekeeper rate(subject to change): $20.00