Club Announces 2023 Fall Season Sign-up

Joe McGrath
General Manager

The Hellcats Hockey Club has announced the posting of the sign-up for the 2023 Fall Season. The 2023 Fall Season begins on September 5th.

The Hellcats were involved in Division 1, Division 3, and Over 40 A. We are considering expanding to Over 40 B for the 2023 Fall Season if we can get enough player interest.
Game days with primary and alternate days are:
  • Division 1 – Tuesday / Thursday
  • Division 2 – N/A
  • Division 3 – Thursday / Monday
  • Over 40 A & B – Sunday morning
This season will comprise a 15-game regular season format with single elimination playoffs for the top-four teams in each division or top six teams if eight or more teams. The rosters will lock after the 6th game.Player fees are subject to change but are currently assumed to be $670 for a full-season and $420 for a half-season; this may be adjusted due to the number of players signing up and whether they are full-time or half-time.

A 2023-2024 USA Hockey registration will be required. Register at www.usahockeyregistration.com and be prepared to add your registration number to your BenchApp profile in the registration field. All players must abide by Alameda County Public Health Department guidelines.

All members and prospective members are encouraged to sign-up for the Fall Season as soon as possible.
Thank you,
~Cappy and the AssCaps

Club Announces 2022 Fall Season Sign-up

Joe McGrath
General Manager

The Hellcats Hockey Club has announced the posting of the Sign-up for the 2022 Fall Season. The 2022 Winter Season begins on September 6th.

The Hellcats were involved in Division 1 (Gold A), Division 3 (Gold C) and Over 40 A. We have affiliate relationships with the Cross Czechs in Division 2 (Gold B) and Men of Moderation in Over 40 B.
Game days with primary and alternate days are:
Division 1 (Gold A) –Tuesday / Thursday
Division 2 (Gold B) – Wednesday / Monday
Division 3 (Gold C) – Thursday / Monday
Over 40 A & B – Sunday mornings.
This season will comprise a 12-game format (12 regular-season games) with single elimination playoffs for the top-four teams in each division or top six teams if eight or more teams. Rosters will lock after the 7th game.

Player fees are subject to change but are currently assumed to be $480 for a full-season and $300 for a half-season; this may be adjusted due to the number of players signing up and whether they are full-time or half-time.

A 2022-2023 USA Hockey registration will be required. Register and add your registration number to your BenchApp profile in the registration field. You will also need to complete the Sharks Ice liability waiver:

All players must abide by any County Health guidelines.

All members and prospective members are encouraged to sign-up for the Fall Season as soon as possible.

Thank you,

~Cappy and the AssCaps

Club Announces 2022 Summer Season Sign-up

Joe McGrath
General Manager

The Hellcats Hockey Club has announced the posting of the Sign-up for the 2022 Summer Season. The 2022 Summer Season begins on June 13th.

The Hellcats are involved in Division 1 (Gold A), Division 3 (Gold C), and Over 40 A this season. We extend a heartfelt appreciation to the Oakland Seals, who merged with us the past two seasons as the Hell Seals. We affiliate with the Cross Czechs in Division 2 (Gold B).
Game days with primary and alternate days are:
Division 1 (Gold A) –Tuesday / Thursday
Division 2 (Gold B) – Wednesday / Monday
Division 3 (Gold C) – Thursday / Monday
Over 40 A – Sunday mornings.
This season will comprise an 8-game format (8 regular-season games) with a championship game for the top two teams in each division. Rosters will lock after the 5th game.Player fees are subject to change but are currently assumed to be $195 for a full-season and $185 for a half-season; this may be adjusted due to the number of players signing up and whether they are full-time or half-time.

A 2021-2022 USA Hockey registration will be required. Register and add your registration number to your BenchApp profile in the registration field. You will also need to complete the Sharks Ice liability waiver:

All players must abide by any County Health guidelines.

All members and prospective members are encouraged to sign-up for the Summer Season as soon as possible.

Thank you,

~Cappy and the AssCaps

Club Announces 2022 Winter Season Sign-up

Joe McGrath
General Manager

The Hellcats Hockey Club has announced the posting of the Sign-up for the 2022 Winter Season. The 2022 Winter Season begins on February 8th.

The Hellcats were involved in Gold A (now Division 1), Gold B (now Division 2) via a merger with the Cross Czech aka Hell Czechs, and Over 40 A via a merger with the Oakland Seals (aka Hell Seals) and fell just short in two Championship Games this past Fall.
Game days with primary and alternate days are:
Division 1 (Gold A) –Tuesday / Thursday
Division 2 (Gold B) – Wednesday / Monday
Division 3 (Gold C) – Thursday / Tuesday
Over 40 A – Sunday mornings.
This season will comprise a 12-game format (1 pre-season game, 11 regular-season games) with single elimination playoffs for the top-four teams in each division. Rosters will lock after the 6th game.
Player fees are subject to change but are currently assumed to be $470 for a full-season and $295 for a half-season; this may be adjusted due to the number of players signing up and whether they are full-time or half-time.
A 2021-2022 USA Hockey registration will be required. Register at www.usahockeyregistration.com and be prepared to add your registration number to your BenchApp profile in the registration field.
All players must be vaccinated and abide by County guidelines (which currently require a mask worn indoors).

All members and prospective members are encouraged to sign-up for the Fall Season as soon as possible.

Oakland Ice Center Restructures Adult Leagues — Club Announces 2021 Fall Season Sign-up

Joe McGrath
General Manager

The Hellcats Hockey Club has announced the posting of the Sign-up for the 2021 Fall Season in response to structural changes put in place by the league, which increases per game costs and eliminates guaranteed playoffs in a shorter league format.

The traditional 24-game Winter season/18-game Summer season will be dissolved in favor of a three-season 12-game format (Fall: September to December; Winter/Spring: January to April; Spring/Summer: May to August) with single elimination playoffs for the top-four teams in each division.

Fall Season begins September 1st, 2021, and will ends December 20th, 2021. It will have one pre-season game and 11 regular-season games. Players will qualify for playoffs by participating in 4 regular-season games, and rosters will lock after the 6th game.

The Over 40 league may be divided into Over 35 and Over 50 leagues with the same format on Sunday mornings.

With this new structure, we have seen the cost per game for the club increase from $518 per game to $548 per game, which we will apply across a 14-spot roster. Player fees are subject to change but are currently assumed to be $470 for a full-season and $295 for a half-season.

All members and prospective members are encouraged to sign-up for the Fall Season as soon as possible with the awareness that Health officials may require on-ice mask-wearing at any time. A general meeting for Sunday, August 15th, 2021 at 5 PM PT to all members to discuss the changes to the league format a lionk will be sent to all members who complete the membership form.

Download Meeting ICS file

Club Report on October 10th League Captains Meeting

Joe McGrath
General Manager

Last Saturday evening SharksIce hosted a Captain’s meeting regarding the impenitent approval to reopen by Alameda County Health Department.

 
TL;DR
  • Opening October 18th
  • No public skating
  • No scrimmages
  • Drills only under the supervision of a SharksIce Coach
  • Everyone registers with the rink to enable contact tracing
  • Cost not determined yet
  • The Hellcats will try and run two sessions a week.
Meeting Notes
 
28 Captains in attendance out of a possible 73
 
The current plan is to have the rink reopen under the same rules as gyms:
  • Operate at 10% of capacity
  • 10% capacity of each enclosed area
  • 10% of the ice capacity
They have calculated their max capacity based on public skate, and at 10% capacity, 35 people to be on the ice at once. They will operate much as they have with their kids’ camps, which began on June 22nd.
  1. Check-in outside the rink
  2. Don’t come if you’ve had exposure to someone with Covid or have traveled to high-risk areas (there was mention that the HVAC and dehumidifier reduces the risk in the facility)
  3. Your temperature will be taken upon each arrival
  4. They will clean the facility after each session
  5. No lockerrooms
  6. Arrive dressed with skates on (goalies are an exception)
  7. 35 to 36 players, on the ice under social distancing guidelines; 6 ft when your heart is at rest, 12 ft when you are exercising
  8. mask on at all times, including on the ice
  9. Four pods on the ice
This is the same model as San Jose. They mentioned the Santa Rosa might be reopening soon. They had criticism for Vacaville (which they didn’t mention by name), as a superspreader event would affect all ice facilities. They also noted that Nazareth Ice Oasis in Redwood City, Promenade Ice Chalet in Palos Verde, Ice Station Valencia in Santa Clarita, Desert Ice Castle in Cathedral City, and Ice-Plex in Escondido have all closed permanently due to financial issues stemming from COVID-19.
 
They sent a survey out in advance, asking if teams wanted to skate alone or with another team.
  • 50% responded with another team
  • 50% alone
Many Captains mentioned that they might only get 50% of their players out under these conditions. We recommended that SharksIce consider skill-based sessions open to individual players.
 
The cost was not provided, but they offer financial aid to anyone who has been economically affected by COVID-19.
 
They will begin with the teams who had regular season cut short and try to make them whole before opening to the broader player community.
 
They have a lot of ice available; kids are typically done at the rink at 8 PM.
They are targeting Sundays to be the day to start with adults.
 
Renting ice time
 
A household or social bubble might be able to rent ice, but if that approaches a team’s size, they will not allow it.

Club Announces 2020 Hockey Restart Player Survey

Joe McGrath
General Manager

Corona-virus and Covid-19 have transformed all our lives. Even now, as many parts of the world attempt to restore ‘normal’ activities, it is a threat to our health and well-being. We want to know under what conditions you will be returning to the ice, and ask you to fill out this survey. We will publish the results.

The Oakland Ice Center had a kids camp the Summer under some explicit rules: “The County mandates that no player will have participated in another camp for the free weeks prior to our start date. The player will not be allowed to participate in any other social setting activity outside of this camp. Once registered, the player must stay in their group for the entire two weeks. Groups must comply with social distancing guidelines at all times; There will be no loitering in the facility. All guests will be health screened by an EMT prior to entering the facility. This will include temperature check and questions regarding COVID-19 symptoms. All players will need to wear a mask in the facility at all times, even on the ice.”

The adult league will not return until the Alameda County Health Department has approved Oakland Ice Center to resume league play. Additionally, they may require specific measures to be taken to lower the transmission of the corona-virus. They have posted their current protocol, but some measures taken elsewhere include:

— Required testing
— No use of the locker rooms
— Coming dressed to the rink
— More time between games, so there are fewer people in the facility (i.e., fewer games or more time between games)
— The wearing of a full-face shield
— The wearing of some other type of mask on the ice
— A player tests positive; the team forfeits game(s)

We would like to know more about how you are thinking about returning and under what circumstances. Many people have relocated elsewhere during the pandemic, lost income, and/or reevaluated priorities. We expect that this will have a dramatic impact on all the teams in the league. Answering these few questions would help us understand what a return to hockey might look like for the Hellcats.

Take the 2020 Hockey Restart Survey

The Hellcats Hockey Club Announces

Club Announces 2020 Summer Season Sign-up

Joe McGrath
General Manager

The Hellcats Hockey Club has announced the posting of the Sign-up for the 2020 Summer Season. All members and prospective members are encouraged to sign-up for the Winter Season as soon as possible.

Additionally, the Club will look into booking ice before the season begins. Cost for Club Members will be $20 for an hour and a half. This is the last ice time slot so the Team Skate is likely to go on past 10:30 pm.

This Thanksgiving Hellcats are accepting nominations for Hellcat of the Year

Giving Thanks: Nominate Your 2019 Hellcat of the Year

Walt Comisky

Walt Comisky
Club Social Director

We are pleased to announce that we are excepting nominations for a new award, The Hellcat of the Year. In recognition of 20 years of service making sure that there enough players, that the rink gets its money, that there is a goalie for each game, the Club’s Board of Directors have accepted Alex Bernstein’s motion for the creation of the Cappy Cup to honor the individual who exemplifies what it takes to make beer league special.

— Dedication — Valor — Beer Duty —

Nominations are being accepted today and will close on January 24th, 2020. The Board will then vote on the recipient who will be honored in a small ceremony.

All fans, press, and members of the Club are eligible to make a nomination for this award.

The Hellcats Hockey Club Announces

Club Announces 2019-2020 Winter Season Sign-up

Joe McGrath
General Manager

The Hellcats Hockey Club has announced the posting of the Sign-up for the 2019-2020 Winter Season. All members and prospective members are encouraged to sign-up for the Winter Season as soon as possible.

Additionally, the Club will look into booking ice before the season begins. Cost for Club Members will be $20 for an hour and a half. This is the last ice time slot so the Team Skate is likely to go on past 10:30 pm.