Re: NHL-CWHL affiliation on the horizon
Once again your assertions make no sense. They are responsible for defining the rules and regulations that all of the girl's teams operate under and yet they are irrelevant??
Saying that the people that coach and run hockey camps were not created by them is kind of curious as well. Does that mean that the GTHL or OHF are irrelevant since they didn't create those people either?
The evidence of the success of girls hockey in Ontario is pretty obvious and overwhelming. To assert that the OWHA had nothing to do with that would seem to require at least some sort of evidence to support the assertion.
You are the one not being rational. The rules and regulations of hockey have been created by Hockey Canada and the OHF. There are very few additional rules developed and imposed by the OWHA, and most of those they have added are dumb ones. For example, suspended players/coaches not being allowed to participate in team practices, parties, etc. Provincial championships where too many mediocre teams can participate, where teams advance by wildcard after being eliminated, and where teams play only 10 minutes periods, which they never do in real games. Extra suspensions routinely applied over and above OHF guidelines. Changing rule applications to suit their whims on appeal, contrary to OHF guidelines, even sometimes overruling referees decisions and replaying key games.
And while we are talking about referees, how about the fact they have done nothing to develop or supervise referees beyond collecting the additional certification fees the decided to charge to ref in the OWHA. Geez, you don't even have to prove you can actually skate to gain referee certification for the OWHA. They could care less if the refs are atrocious, supervision is non-existent. Often the refs don't even show up and their is no penalty. The best refs in the province were trained and developed in the GTHL, and even though they are right there in their backyard the OWHA doggedly resists using them. How is any of this good for the game?
The ONLY thing they have done (or is it not done?) that is a positive, is to make the granting of releases virtually automatic at the end of the season, not requiring residency. I will give them that.
Yes, I give the credit to the development of the girls to the coaches and hockey schools rather than the OWHA. This does not make the GTHL/OMHA or OHF irrelevant. Where do you think all those coaches and camp directors got their training? They are overwhelmingly products of OHL branch systems, ie GTHL, OMHA. The girls benefit greatly from access to these coaches and training options, as a result to the proximity to the local boys system which gave these leaders their training and experience.
Furthermore, a high proportion of the top girls in the PWHL (ie Team Ontario players and D1 recruits), actually spent the better part of their hockey development years directly in the boys hockey systems.
In actual fact, the OWHA does just about everything it can to try to sabotage the recruiting efforts of D1 coaches. Unlike other jurisdictions, it does not share lists of prospects or other information at its camps for scouts. It discourages scouts from attending its events. It discourages CAN-AM type events that the scouts prefer and withholds sanctions for them indefinitely...including Stoney Creek last year. It calls and tries to bully players into going to the CIS instead of the NCAA. It does not help players succeed at all.
Here's the important question: If those who run the OWHA were instead suddenly applying their system in a remote part of Canada or a non-hockey hotbed in the US, do you think the success in that area in developing or placing talent would improve at all? I think not, and I suspect you might be one of the few who might think otherwise.
That's why I think the OWHA has nothing to do with the success of girls in Ontario.
Coincidentally, I just discovered today that they sell Sam Adams in Ontario too.
