Festivals

WHAT IS FESTIVALS

To be able to understand Festivals fairly, you need some background information. The objective of USA Hockeys Player Development Program is to select and train the most competitive mens and womens ice hockey teams to represent the United States at the Olympic, National, National Junior and Select levels of international competition.

The attainment of that goal begins each summer as USA Hockey hosts a series of Select Festivals and Player Development Camps for boys players ages 14, 15, 16 and 17 and girls players ages 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. Nearly 1,300 athletes representing each of USA Hockeys 11 Districts participate in the week-long Festivals and camps, which attract scouts and evaluators from every level of hockey. Festival participants receive on- and off-ice training under the direction of leading USA Hockey coaches, along with current and former National Hockey League and Womens National Team players. Participants are chosen through an evaluation process conducted at the local and District levels.

LOCAL AND DISTRICT EVALUATION PROCESS

Each state in the New England District conducts tryouts to send a representation to the New England Festivals. These 5 states include CT, ME, NH, RI, and VT. The final outcome is to send the 17 best players (15 skaters and 2 goalies) at each age group for each state to the New England Festivals.

During the New England Festivals, the kids are there to showcase their talents. They are not there to win a tournament for their perspective state. There is NO championship game. Every team gets 4 games for the players to demonstrate their talents in playing the game of hockey. For the 16/17 year olds, 5 teams for each age group are created by mixing the 85 representatives, putting players from each state on different teams. During the Festival weekend, a host state is responsible for coordinating and executing the event. One of the more critical parts for this weekend is the coordination of the festival evaluators. New England has put together some of the best evaluators; the evaluators come from Division 1 and Division 3 New England College and USA Hockey National Development Team coaches. The 17 best players from each age group are selected and sent to the National Festival weekend.

New England also provides a festival opportunity to the 12 and 13 year olds. Even though they do not move on to the National Festivals, New England provides an opportunity for these young skaters to experience the festivities. This helps take some of the novelty out of the experience if they make it in the latter years and they can focus on the task at hand, showing off their skills and playing hockey.

NEW ENGLANDS WORK IS NOT DONE

New England provides more player evaluation and player development after the National Festival selection process is complete. New England provides a 4-6 day camp for the 13-17 year olds at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont. This is to provide a setting that allows athletes to compete at their highest level. It is not a tournament, but rather a grueling week of training and competition meant to showcase our players. Winning is not the top priority. The top priority is that players experience a week of development and outstanding competition.

They are invited by the New England Festival directors during the Festival Weekend. All players who attend the New England festival are eligible to attend the development camps. The camps are filled to capacity each year by using a first come, first served registration process.