Kodiak Hockey League 2024-2025 President’s Report
president@kodiakhockeyleague.org
www.kodiakhockeyleague.org

Thank you to all the volunteers who made our season a success:

Countless hours go into making this program a success and we are incredibly appreciative of everyone’s involvement. This season, we had 22 coaches registered and 6 managers. There are a few people I'd like to specifically honor, as this was their last season with KHL. This was Ron McClaren’s last season as LTP Director; if you see Coach Ron, please say thank you! He, along with his family, has given a tremendous amount of time to our program and we are grateful for all he has done. Thank you, Coach Ron, we will miss you, and appreciate all you’ve done for KHL, as the LTP Director and KHL Board Member! Connor Beuthin will be transferring out this year, after coaching with KHL the past four seasons. This is a tremendous loss for our program, especially at the 14U level. During his time here, he won the 14B State Championship, and this past season, won the 18B State Championship. Thank you, Coach Connor, you’ve been an incredible asset to KHL and we will miss you! If you’ve been to a Saturday game, you’ve seen Roy Scherler. He has most recently been our referee coordinator and spends many Saturdays refereeing our games. He also teaches our players throughout the games, explaining the calls to the players and helping them gain a better understanding of the game. Thank you for everything you’ve done for our program, Roy, we appreciate it and will miss you! 

Please remember this organization is run 100% off volunteers, whether it’s the coaches, assistant coaches, managers, scorekeepers/timekeepers, board members, and more. There are so many people who contribute to the success of our program and we are grateful for it- thank you to all who contribute! 

This season by the numbers: 

204 players total: 
LTP - 21
8U - 50
10U - 43
12U - 36
14U - 36
16/18U – 18
57 of the 204 players are girls 

Tournaments: 

Turkey Shoot – we had 7 teams at the invitational 
Presidents’ Day – we had 7 teams at the invitational
Mac Attack – we had 2 teams at the invitational (only available to 8U)
Ponytails – we had 3 teams at the invitational; this is the first time we’ve ever had this many teams attend (10U, 12U, 14U) and our 12B team won the Ponytails Championship game! Congratulations, girls!
State – we had 7 teams attend State 

Congratulations to 18B, who won 1st
Congratulations to 10A, who placed 2nd
Congratulations to 12A, who made it to the semifinals

All of our teams had tremendous growth this season and we want to commend our players on their determination and hard work throughout the season and at the State Tournaments. KHL’s goal is always to register one A team and one B team for State, from each age group. This is based on commitments from coaches, players, and especially goalies. This year, we continued our working relationship with other leagues across the state, including Copper River, Tok, Barrow, and Juneau, to help round out teams who may otherwise have been unable to attend, due to lack of players or goalie. 

Assessments: 

This was the second season that KHL has done assessments. The main intention of assessments is to give coaches an idea of the skill levels of their players at the start of the season. This also helps coaches determine if they can develop both an A team and a B team. We have a short amount of time from the start of our season until Turkey Shoot registration (typically October 31st) and the deadline for State declarations (December 1st). However, the Board, in discussion with Head Coaches, has removed the Assessment Policy going into next season, as it doesn’t seem to be meeting our intended goal. 

Move-Up Policy:

The Board has also recently modified the Move-Up Policy, which is available on our website. 

Camps and Clinics: 

We started this past season with both a player camp and a goalie camp. ASHA supported us in the goalie camp, sending over Cassi Campbell and Hayden Nilson, who provided a coach seminar, try goalie-for-free opportunity for all players, a goalie clinic, and goalie pathways presentation. Both the player camp and goalie camp were well-attended and something we hope to do again next season. 

Ice Time: 

We want to remind everyone that the rink is owned by the City, so we start our season as early as we get ice. While we advocate for both earlier and longer ice, this isn’t a decision that the KHL Board gets to make. The high school team also gets priority for rink usage; just like any facility owned by the City, KIBSD always has priority. The high school team will have a new coach next season, and at this time, we are unsure if they will continue morning practices or if they may do something different. We do keep the SportsEngine calendar updated on the website, and managers keep calendars updated in the app. If you ever have questions about schedules, please reach out to your Team Manager. 

Registration: 

At this time, coach registration and volunteer registration are open and can be found on our website. Player registration opens on September 1st. We encourage everyone to access our website, as we keep the most updated information there, including the season calendar, KHL Board meeting dates, and KHL Board contacts. While some things may be posted on Facebook or other social media, we don’t use social media as an official means of communication. 

Fundraising:

This past season, we continued with the Wine Tasting event, which raised over $5,000.00. Thank you to the subcommittee for their hard work on this event, along with everyone who donated items and attended the event. We are also currently working on Bruin Burgers. We made over 6,000 burgers at the prep weekend, and will be selling them at Crab Fest. As a reminder, this is a massive group effort, and we need all player’s families to participate! If you haven’t signed-up yet, please take a minute to pick up a slot or two. Last year, we made $17,000; it is by far, our biggest fundraiser of the season and is a tremendous help in keeping registration costs from increasing! 

In Conclusion: 

I want to conclude by reminding everyone that KHL’s mission statement is to provide a safe, fun, competitive environment, with an emphasis on sportsmanship and teamwork, where hockey players of all ages can develop skills. KHL defines success as continual player development through active participation in the sport of hockey, while building sportsmanship and character. Hockey activities are designed to meet the needs of all levels of youth, with progressive and challenging programs as they move up age divisions. In knowing that, I want everyone to remember that ultimately, we want all of Kodiak’s youth to have the opportunity to develop a love for this game. Through things like our gear swap and scholarship program, we try to make this program as accessible as possible. We will continue working on ways to grow our program in a positive direction, knowing there is always room for improvement. If you are interested in learning more about volunteer opportunities, please reach out to info@kodiakhockeyleague.org! 

Thank you to all who made our 2024-2025 season a success. We have many things to be proud of and we will continue working on making our program great! If you ever have a question for the Board, please email us at board@kodiakhockeyleague.org. You can also find Board Member's roles and contacts on the website here:  https://www.kodiakhockeyleague.org/board.