Good evening JAHA players,

The talk and news of COVID-19 (aka “coronavirus”) has been inescapable lately. With unprecedented cancellations and postponements of major events both nationwide and regional, even Juneau staples like the Gold Medal basketball tournament and Folk Fest, the JAHA Board of Directors called meetings today to evaluate JAHA’s role and ultimate response to this threat in our community.

After talking it through, the decision was made to postpone the remainder of the Winter 2020 season until at least the end of March. This is effective immediately, meaning games scheduled for Sunday, March 15th and later will not happen until further notice. This was a very difficult conversation to have, but in support of the health and safety of our members as well as considering CDC’s social distancing recommendations, we felt it was JAHA’s civic duty to remove itself as a possible source of spread within Juneau.

We will actively monitor the situation and issue an update on the season, banquet, and board elections no later than Friday, March 27th. There are a number of possible options for the season that may be pursued depending on timing and other developments:

• Resume the delayed season in whole, including remaining regular season games and playoffs.
• Go right into playoffs, either double- or single-elimination or some other accelerated format.
• Cancel the remaining regular season games and playoffs.

In the case that any regular season games are canceled, prorated refunds will be issued automatically. At this time, we will wait on issuing refunds until a decision has been made about the postponed games.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as this all unfolds and hope to resume the season as quickly as we can.

If you have questions:

• About JAHA’s decision and how it impacts you as a player, contact info@juneauhockey.org.
• About Treadwell Arena’s operations, contact lauren.anderson@juneau.org

Please be safe and stay healthy. We will see you on the ice again soon!

Jason Soza
President

The Rainforest Classic is coming up fast, February 21-23, 2020!

This year, registration is open to those 21 and over. There will be two tiers of play, equivalent to JAHA Tier A and a combined Tier B/C.

You can register as a team for $1,000 or as an individual for $100. With registration you are guaranteed 3 games with potential for a fourth game if you advance to the championship and you will also be invited to attend the Rainforest Classic Banquet on February 22nd.

Register now and be sure to follow the Rainforest Classic Facebook page for tournament updates.

Please help us spread the word about this awesome Juneau hockey tradition! There will be a beer garden at the rink during the tournament for spectators. For those who want to play, simply go to www.RainforestClassic.com to register!

Due to scheduling constraints the regular JAHA Board Meeting will be held Tuesday January the 14th, 5:30 pm Juneau Public Library, downtown large meeting room. Sorry for the inconvenience.

As always, members are encouraged to attend. Your comments are taken at the start of the meeting.
Michele Drummond,
JAHA Secretary

See below for the Fall 2019 JAHA Playoff Schedule.

All championship games will happen on Sunday, November 24th. You can also find this schedule on the JAHA – Juneau Adult Hockey Association Facebook page.

Tier A
Tier A 1 Thursday 14-Nov 9:15 PM Rank 2 vs Rank 3
Tier A 2 Sunday 17-Nov 5:15 PM Rank 1 vs Winner 1
Tier A 3 Wednesday 20-Nov 10:15 PM Loser G1 vs Loser G2
Tier A © Sunday 24-Nov 7:45 PM Winner G1 vs Winner G3

Tier B
Tier B 1 Sunday 10-Nov 5:15 PM Rank 1 vs Rank 4
Tier B 2 Tuesday 12-Nov 9:15 PM Rank 2 vs Rank 3
Tier B 3 Wednesday 13-Nov 10:15 PM Loser G1 vs Loser G2
Tier B 4 Sunday 17-Nov 7:45 PM Winner G1 vs Winner G2
Tier B 5 Tuesday 19-Nov 10:30 PM Loser G4 vs Winner G3
Tier B © Sunday 24-Nov 5:15 PM Winner G4 vs Winner G5

Tier C
Tier C 1 Sunday 10-Nov 6:30 PM Rank 1 vs Rank 4
Tier C 2 Sunday 10-Nov 7:45 PM Rank 2 vs Rank 3
Tier C 3 Wednesday 13-Nov 9:00 PM Loser G1 vs Loser G2
Tier C 4 Sunday 17-Nov 6:30 PM Winner G1 vs Winner G2
Tier C 5 Tuesday 19-Nov 9:15 PM Loser G4 vs Winner G3
Tier C © Sunday 24-Nov 9:00 PM Winner G4 vs Winner G5

Tier W
Tier W 1 Monday 11-Nov 9:00 PM Rank 1 vs Rank 4
Tier W 2 Monday 11-Nov 10:15 PM Rank 2 vs Rank 3
Tier W 3 Thursday 14-Nov 10:30 PM Loser G1 vs Loser G2
Tier W 4 Sunday 17-Nov 9:00 PM Winner G1 vs Winner G2
Tier W 5 Wednesday 20-Nov 7:45 PM Loser G4 vs Winner G3
Tier W © Sunday 24-Nov 4:00 PM Winner G4 vs Winner G5

Tier 40
Tier 40 1 Sunday 10-Nov 9:00 PM Rank 1 vs Rank 4
Tier 40 2 Tuesday 12-Nov 10:30 PM Rank 2 vs Rank 3
Tier 40 3 Wednesday 13-Nov 7:45 PM Loser G1 vs Loser G2
Tier 40 4 Sunday 17-Nov 4:00 PM Winner G1 vs Winner G2
Tier 40 5 Wednesday 20-Nov 9:00 PM Loser G4 vs Winner G3
Tier 40 © Sunday 24-Nov 6:30 PM Winner G4 vs Winner G5

Earlier this season, a few proposed rule changes were noticed to the JAHA membership:

1. Eliminating helmet stickers in favor of a list of eligible players that scorekeepers can reference.
2. Changing the roster freeze date from two weeks to four games.
3. Allowing full slap shots in Tier B.

We heard your feedback, considered the options forward as a board, and are moving forward as follows for each rule:

1. HELMET STICKER ELIMINATION: No more stickers! Instead, the JHO scorekeeper has a reference list of all eligible and verified JAHA players and to double-verify, names can be validated against this website. It’s up to players to notify the scorekeeper if there is ever a question over a player’s registration status. Remember, every player on the ice must be registered for both JAHA and USA Hockey to be allowed to play. Failure to abide by this could put everyone on the ice at risk if there is injury and egregious violations could put all organized adult hockey in Juneau at risk. While there was discussion of printing, storing, and distributing roster labels for each team, this has proven to be much more complicated than originally planned and so you will need to continue to write names on your scoresheet OR if you have a team member who wants to produce labels for your team, you are always welcome to do so.
2. ROSTER FREEZE DATE: We got some great feedback that basically was: given how games are scheduled, “four games” may not allow for an accurate observation of teams’ competitive parity since not every team may play the other over this span. We will adopt the rule change as-is (since both two weeks and four games have already passed), work on an updated version that considers the feedback we received, and update it again before Winter season.
3. TIER B SLAP SHOTS: After careful consideration of the concerns we received-primarily that this rule could increase the number of injuries-and discussion, the board decided to allow full slap shots in Tier B effective Sunday, October 13th, and will observe games for the remainder of the Fall season. The main drivers behind this decision were: the availability of protective gear for those concerned about injury (i.e. full cages) and the positive impact to the flow of Tier B games by eliminating whistles for over-the-waist windups that are difficult to be consistent with. Secondarily, the lack of observed injuries in Tier A directly related to full slap shots, the low number of opportunities for players to actually take these shots, and the idea that players will never get better at slap shots if they aren’t allowed to try them also contributed to this decision.

A little more on slap shots: we encourage you to PRACTICE your slap shot in a non-game situation before trying it out with your team and WATCH YOUR WINDUP. A high stick on a windup is still a penalty, so be mindful of who is around before you line up a slapper.

Thank you all for your participation in this change to JAHA’s rules! We are always looking for ways to advance the sport here in Juneau and trying to keep how we run current based on user feedback is one way we can do that.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at info@juneauhockey.org.

See you on the ice!

—Commissioner Soza