The Tyke and Hockey School programs across Hamilton were rolled- up into a city-wide Initiation Program (IP) last year by the Hamilton Minor Hockey Association. Coronation voted against this decision, but was outvoted.  HMHC agreed to run the IP out of Coronation Arena as a concession to our concerns about removing our young families and budding hockey players from neighbourhood hockey and the Coronation family. For financial reasons the IP made a decision to consolidate their program next year at Scott Park and the Mohawk 4 Pad, leaving Coronation Arena without a program for 4, 5 and 6 year olds for the 2013/14 season.

At the Coronation AGM in February, members voted to repatriate hockey school and tyke back into Coronation and to begin taking registrations. We were working with our Councillor, Brian McHattie, to change the current way in which hockey ice times are distributed by the City to ensure that we would have the ice time we needed to run our program. However, this decision was not taken lightly by HMHC, who voted to suspend Coronation’s membership immediately and to expel Coronation as of April 1^st if we did not stop taking registrations for IP aged players. They were backed by our governing body, Minor Hockey Alliance, in this decision. Expulsion would mean Coronation would not be able to run a select program or enter any tournaments and would become a ‘renegade hockey league’.

After substantial negotiations between Coronation Minor Hockey and HMHC, with the assistance of Councillor McHattie, a compromise has been agreed to:  Coronation has agreed to not offer a tyke or hockey school program this year, leaving IP to run the program out of Scott Park Arena. Coronation has been reinstated in good standing with the HMHC. Pending the closure of Scott Park Arena, the IP will return to Coronation for the 2014/15 season.   There will also be a review of the decision-making process among the house leagues with regard to how programming changes are made in the future.  The Coronation Executive believes this last point will be a key component in determining the future of community hockey and the existence of a program out of Coronation Arena in the future.

A special thank you goes to our councillor, Brian McHattie, who supported and advocated on behalf of community hockey run out of Coronation Arena.

Posted: Monday April 15th, 2013

Thank-you to all the players, coaches, convenors, family and friends who made 2013 Super Saturday a fantastic event.  Without the many volunteers that dedicate countless hours of their time, Coronation could not exist. Special thanks to Dana Boyter for coordinating the crowd-favourite BBQ and to Diana Boatsmith for coordinating the trophies.  

This year witnessed some of the most electrifying games in the history of Super Saturday. After Raintree Irrigation, Pee Wee division, won 1-0 with the only goal scored in the last 6 seconds of the game, the Bantams went on to one-up the excitement with an unprecedented overtime that went from 5 on 5 down to 2 on 2 without goalies before the winning goal was scored. The Novice, Atom and Midget divisions also saw one goal games go right down to the wire with the midget coaches and players saying a heartfelt “thank-you” to John Paxton, who stepped down from the Coronation executive after decades of service.

Here is a link to update you on our team successes! Super Saturday Champions!.pdf

Posted: Monday March 25th, 2013

Tyke and Hockey school programs will return to Coronation arena for the 2013 -2014 season. After a thorough debate at the 2013 Coronation Minor Hockey Association AGM it was decided with a unanimous vote of members to offer kids aged 4 through to 17 a chance to play in their community. The Coronation community is excited to be accepting registrations on March 23^rd in person during our Super Saturday Celebrations or by mail for our programs. More information can be found on the registration page of our web site.

Posted: Monday March 4th, 2013