PHA Summer League

The Pacific Hockey Association 2012 Summer Season begins play on Sunday, April 22nd, with the start of the regular season’s first games. The season will run into late September and possibly early October. The entire schedule for all 5 or 6 divisions and teams will be posted on the Goalline website by April 29th.

We will be taking the first 32 teams that register for the Summer. We will no longer be offering an A Division level of play. We continue to have unbelievably strong demand for out PHA beginner program, which starts up again Sunday, June 10th in San Mateo. Divisional alignments and team placement for the Summer League are close to being determined, as we try to realign our divisions each season to try to keep each level competitive. I have attached an early draft of those divisional alignments and look forward to your feed back.

Our top division is now B+ and will play their games on Sunday and Monday nights in San Mateo. Our B Division will also play exclusively in San Mateo and mostly on Sunday nights, with some Monday night games. All other divisions will share ice in San Mateo and Vallco on Sundays and Wednesday nights. To prevent the distance between games played during holiday breaks, we will be asking teams if they are interested in playing games during those breaks. More on that as we get closer to setting up divisions.

As of this writing, it appears we will off only for July 4th and possibly Labor Day weekend, depending on how the schedule plays out. If you are having a team wedding, party or going to a tournament, send us those dates and we will do our best to make sure your team is off for that weekend.

The PHA Policy Guide was updated, but it appears not to have made it online. That will be fixed shortly.

We are going to pass on that for this Summer, however check the next paragraph for some ideas I want feed back on from the players.

During the summer, I will be spending at least one day each week working to change our league operation so that it is smoother and more customer friendly. I plan to take the PHA office and website from the 1990’s to a more user friendly business model. I will be ending our landline phone mid-summer and my cell phone will become the PHA’s main number. Yes, I will give everyone the number. In addition, all league email will me going to that phone, so as I can more rapidly respond to issues should they occur (and we all know how any Sunday can turn into a Benihana Sunday!).
I would like to make it so that no one will ever fax me again. All summer, we will be updating our Goalline website appearance as well as begin using it to its full capacity. By early summer, I will have the capability of doing direct swipe credit card payments on site at the rink. We have already converted all our on line registration forms to pdf format with larger boxes for the number. I would hope that everyone will take advantage of this and email me the registration forms rather than fax them. Look for some sort of opening night registration table at each rink during the week of April 22-29. Details will follow.
One problem that I hear from lots of players is that either when a team has ended up in the wrong division, or a not so talented lineup shows up for a game, that we have these lopsided scores. I would hope that teams would respect each other enough not to run up the score. The same should be true for individual players. We don’t give trophies for top scorer in each division, we give them to the Most Valuable Player in the division.
In our Tahoe tournament, we have a way to penalize teams that run up the score. It works well within the format of a tournament, but would have substantially less impact in league play. I would be interested in ways we can address this. So if you have an idea, please forward it.
Finally, I know I have been threatening to retire from RCPD for the past 7 months, but that comes true on Saturday, June 9th. Just in time for the first beginner session the next day in San Mateo. I deliberately switched my schedule to working weekend days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 6 am to 6:30 pm) so I would have more free time during the week to work on league issues. In addition, I check the emails each morning before I leave for work at 4 am to see if there is anything I need to address before I leave each day. Should a critical issue come up, feel free to call my cell phone at 925-305-0987, which will be the league’s number come mid-summer.

For the Summer, there is no change in price. It is still $496 per person or $7440 per team for a 16 game season and playoffs. And there is one more change in the payment rules for this season. I am fully aware of the economic situation out there. Times are tough, money is tight and I do everything I can to work with players in financial straits. Declines still are high for monthly payments. We will still have 1, 2, 3 or 4 month payment plans. I am bringing back the 6 month payment plan, with one change, if a player wants to go 6 months, the player needs to come up with $196 up front. From there, we will charge $60 a month for the remaining 5 months.

1. Registration begins for the Summer League on April 1st and concludes on April 29th. We will be taking team and individual registrations until the league fills up at 32 teams. Teams are expected to be paid in full by April 29th, or initial payments made by all the team’s players by that date. We are still doing monthly payments and as long as your first payment is completed by April 29th, then you and your teammates are eligible for the team and individual price. However, if by April 29th, you have one or more players that have not made an initial payment, then the entire team will be charged the higher price of $530 per player or $7950 per team. You know who these guys are, now lean on them.
2. Monthly payment plans are still in effect. Our monthly plan is set as follows: 2 months @ $248, 3 months @ $165.34, 4 months @ $124. The 6 month plan is $196 up front, and then $60 a month for the remaining 5 months. We know the economy is bad and players have other more important needs, but the credit card delinquency rate this season was again phenomenally high. As such, if your card does not process, we will immediately notify you. Should it not process a second time, then you will be suspended from the league until the amount past due has been made up. If you are in dire financial straits, call the PHA and I will see what we can do on an individual basis. I want you to play hockey!
3. The PHA can still only accept Visa, Mastercard, Check or Cash for payment.
4. You will still need to complete our PHA registration form to register. The forms have been updated on line with bigger boxes for credit card numbers. Make sure you list all 16 numbers on the credit card legibly and the expiration date. We do not require the special number on the back yet, although once the cell phone swipe system is in place, we will need it. If you are sending a check, please don’t make it out to me, PHA will do. After completing the registration form, you can Email it, fax it, US Mail it or give it to your captain, who will then forward it. I will send you a confirmation email that I received your payment by US Mail, email or fax. If you don’t get one within a couple of days, please call or email to make sure it got thru. This past Winter several emails and faxes didn’t get to the PHA.

PHA Office Number: 925-634-7427
PHA Fax Number: 925-634-7429
Email Address: pha@playpha.com
PHA Mailing Address: Russ Hughes/PHA
2420 Sand Creek Road #301
Brentwood, Ca. 94513

Click Here for Registration Form

PACIFIC HOCKEY ASSOCIATION

SUMMER 2012 INFORMATION