We have had quite a lot of parent contribution on the blog about the Okanagan Hockey Academy contract and the picture is not pretty.The bottom line is that once you sign on the dotted line, you are essentially handcuffed to Okanagan Hockey Academy and you forfeit your rights financially and otherwise to challenge any decision they make regarding the welfare of your player.
Promises are made, contracts are signed and promises are broken. It's a sadly predictable pattern which is repeated over and over again. It seems the parents who are adept at the art of negotiation, fair the best under this current system. Whereas, those who turn their player's future over blindly trusting the OHA owners, tend not to fair as well in the "tryouts."
By now we have all had the opportunity to read the contract and even the OHA "people" have weighed in saying to the effect, "You've read the contract and if you don't like it, don't sign it." Finally we are in agreement with OHA owners. If you don't like the contract, don't sign it and take your player and your hard earned dollars elsewhere.
At a minimum, for those who still believe OHA is a good place to send your player for hockey development, then by all means, trickle your payments at the slowest rate. Protect yourselves and negotiate the best team position possible by holding out on payments until the last minute. If your son is promised a spot BEFORE the tryouts, get it in writing.
We have had one parent who was wise enough to dole the payments out slowly, which provided him with ample opportunity to hit the eject button at such time when the program did not meet the expectations or the promises of its directors.
Imagine for a moment the AA families of the 2007/2008 season. Each family paid a hefty sum to send their player to OHA and entrust their sons with an NHL star who ultimately was a "no-show" a good bit of the time. These players were cheated! If a parent in this situation wanted a refund, it would not have been granted according to the rules of the contract. These families were simply stuck in a one-way contract and a program that did not deliver. OHA claims they have rectified the situation by moving the head coach into a new role for 2008/2009. However, we can assure you they did absolutely nothing to address the issue for the entire season, even though they were well aware of the situation, essentially leaving these trusting families high and dry.
We can appreciate the fact that some families will continue to send their sons to OHA and we acknowledge there are bright spots left in the program, Robert Dirk and Blake Wesley to name a few. Still, in these situations where parents are prepared to take the risk, and sign the contract, it is advisable to select a payment option that will empower you with respect to your son's hockey future.
40 comments:
very few families will be sending their boys to this school even if they wanted to. Have you looked at the economy lately?
I think that these boys wound up with good compensation, instead of having Dixon Ward at practice, it wound up being robert dirk or steve o'rourke or jason o'leary. Since every one agrees they are good guys and coaches, i think it worked out for the better.
Bill Rotheisler did almost ALL and i mean ALL the coaching for the AA team.
I saw a few kids come down from quad to work with Dirk last year. I know Dirk went down to help with AA last year but less than a handful of times. He himself knew it was a bad situation and his son who is a quality player was on AA not getting developed. It was frustrating for all of us.
Bill did all the coaching. Whoever wrote that Steve and Jason and Robert carried the team is so full of shit.
Never said they carried the team. They were Bill's support guys. Of course Bill did most of the work, he was most knowledgeable about the boys and team, but he was supplemented by the other's.
he was 'supplemented' because the head coach was a big fat zero no show, eh? oakes knew what was going on the whole time and did nothing because Dixon is an owner. The same is true for the goalie coach who was rarely there but is also apparently an owner and personal bud of Alan Kerr. Don't kid yourselves these guys stick together as they rob these families blind. Where is their power skating program? This is another thing they advertise and don't deliver. Ask yourselves why POE is on the move. In part, because they don't let their egos overload their ass and because power skating is an important part of their program.
What does it say about the quality of their recruiting, coaching, training, and teaching, within their pricy program when you see the overall performance of all their teams? That pretty much tells it. If they want to blow smoke up somebodies butt and say winning isn't important its all about the development and people believe it, more power to OHA. They sure as hell can't sell their program based on successful performance. How else can you sell it when everyone is handing you your head.
Please, tell me its not so! This is on the homepage of the OHA website. "Once a part of OHA, always a part of OHA." LOL I thought there might be hope for those who moved on to better programs.
Ok, here's the one thing on here that I love reading about that makes zero sense. POE is on the move? They single handedly got academy programs banned from playing in their league, got banned from the scheduling meeting to talk about exhibition games, had teams risk having their associations suspended by not showing up to play them. David Roy is a great man, his integrity and honesty are second to none. No one will ever question that, however, if this blog is to spread truths, his program is in serious serious trouble. I spoke to him not to long ago and as I've stated on here before, he's scared because he has nowhere to play and has had to let coaches go already.
It's nice to talk about POE on this blog, but i did not hand over my son and $36,000.00 to them. So lets keep talking about the problems OHA has. OK.
What about underage drinking in the downtown bars?
14-15-16-17-year olds. Oh i forgot OHA will not hold their hands. Does anyone want OHA to be known as a Day Care. YER THINK!
Well you should probably get your story straight on that one. If by downtown bar, you mean Earl's restaurant then your back on track. Are people supposed to tell kids they can't go to a place like earls or boston pizza? They are family restaurants. The boys got served by a waitress that decided not to ID them, and also lost her job for it. So explain what OHA was supposed to do in that case? My son goes to OHA and I don't think he needs supervision to go to a place like Earls. You trust that people will do their jobs and due diligence and not serve drinks to minors. So what's your solution? Not let the kids go to restaurants? I've been reading over this blog for some time now and I keep finding people posting inaccurate comments like this one. We have had no issues with OHA, never had to negotiate with anyone for a place on a team, are american and do feel like we are getting what we paid for. Our son has been invited to numerous junior camps in both the USHL and BCHL and I have no doubt its thanks to what's been done at OHA. We read the contract, signed it and trusted that our son would give us no reason to need to go ask for a refund when he got removed from the program. There is a point where people need to take responsibility for their kids making the right or wrong decisions.
Good for you. You are one of the few lucky people that have had a good experience compared to the many that found it mediocre to substandard. Just because people got screwed over by OHA doesn't mean their kids are bad. It's not one or the other. There are a lot of people who these guys screwed over it pretty obvious. You just happen to be one of the lucky ones. Count your blessings.
I get the impression you think the reason a lot of players have left the program is because they got and trouble and asked to leave from OHA without refund. This may actually be the case in a few instances, yet many more have left because the school lied to them about what team they would play on and when left to a horrible team like Dixon's (no show) they left for a better program and wanted their money back. Many more people have left because of the schools inability to live up to what they promised. As others have mentioned Andy Oakes did nothing about the Dixon situation as an example and the customer (parent) and player got screwed. The reason OHA is in the tank is not based on a few boys getting sent home for underage drinking. It's because they have done a lousy job of managing their business. They got greedy and expanded beyond their ability to deliver. They also have time and time again lied to people and not delivered on their promises.
I don't understand what people consider screwed over. Everything they told us, they delivered on. They told us exactly what the program was like, what the off ice was like, what to expect in terms of development. We had several other friends meet with them and they were told the exact same thing. I've been up to watch a lot of games this year and everyone is playing where they should be, might be one or two players that are not on the proper teams, but I think that happens in a lot of programs and associations.
Dear Anonymous (March 19th 11:15 am)
Screwed over, like some of the owners (including the one most mentioned on this board whose favorite activity is drinking, which apparently affected his ability to do his job) inventing an infraction in order to have a "reason" for tossing out a player he apparently disliked. (While, of course, keeping all the money) Said Infraction never occured, as verified by the alleged "victim".
restaurants? My ass pal. We are talking big time bars downtown Pen. Main street and off main street. OHA not doing a thing about it. Where are these kids getting the liquor for the weekend parties. I can't count the number of bag skates my kid did because of others drinking and running all over downtown Penticton. OHA giving bag skates is not exactly enforcing rules.
To Post #12
Alan or Andy : You want us to belive this post was made by a parent. Now we know something else you guys are not good at.
OHA is a joke and the laughing stock of minor hockey in BC.
Big time bars in downtown pen..highly highly unlikely. I'm sorry but in a tourist town like penticton, the liqour laws are followed strictly. They have more inspections then anyone could imagine. So selling to underages and letting them in bars is not happening. One instance it happened and look at the reaction by the restaurant..like i said, factless post.
LMAO on the liquor thing. Those OHA boys are always getting their hands on booze and they are busy getting loaded all the time. I have personally seen them stumbling on their own feet walking out of downtown bars and driven them back to their billets.
What about the boy who stole his billet family car and flipped it off the road with a number of OHA boys inside? No driving rules at OHA, also not enforced or at least for the favoured players.
They just expelled a bunch of kids. It happens every year at OHA. They hang on to bad kids all year to keep the money while all the other kids in the program are made to suffer.
The boys that stole their billets car is exactly right, they stole their car. Should every billet be told by OHA to lock up their keys? Again there is a certain amount of trust that is put on players not to do something stupid. They rolled it and guess what, all got expelled from the program for it. So not enforced? Give me a break. Back to buddy that has seen kids stumble out of bars. Your on your own planet. If your kid has a fake id and went into the bar and has now been removed sorry for your luck. I believe you'd probably be the guy with a what's a few drinks theory. Believe what you want about the rules of the program, kids get caught drinking its an issue, the first time it's generally forgiven. Anything afterwards, then its recurring behavior and not accepted.
to Anonymous March 22, 2009 1:22 PM:
Well, technically they all got expelled, but then one was allowed to come back.... family must've had a lot of money is my guess....
I played with all those guys, they made a stupid decision. The guys that weren't back either stopped playing or moved into a different junior program. The one that did come back didn't have any easy way back in. He went through a lot to be allowed back. The next year he was one of the best players in the program and never a problem again.
all of you guys are so misinformed. They never stole the car the billets fabricated that story for insurance purposes. Thankfully that family is not allowed to billet anymore. All the kids did not get kicked out, in my opinion and anyone who knows those kids they were stand out individuals. Only one of them was told not to come back next year, and he had other plans. In my opinion they deserved to come back they were an asset to the program.
You talk about OHA and expanding to quickly... POE now runs 90 kids with 5 coaches, 3 full time and 2 part time and very little support staff, and OHA has expanded to quickly? But you're right we are talking about OHA. On the final note trust me the liquor laws in Penticton are not that strict I personally live in Penticton and you should see some people I bump into on a Saturday night, I wouldnt be surprised if some bouncers would let my 14 year old brother in. If you're kid has been kicked out of the OHA, do yourself a favour and stop embarassing yourself on this little blog and go beat your kid, because chances are he needs it and it may just straighten him up. Best of all it wont cost you a cent. OHA never took your money, your kid wasted it, dont kid yourself!
the car being stolen and rolled down an embankment is true. It happened 3 years ago at the end of the year.
I wonder how long you disgruntled spoiled adults acting like children are going to keep this up. never mind OHA needing fixing...Better get back on your meds.
uh ohhhhh, looks like OHA is getting hit in the pocket book. This is just what they deserve. People need to be able to say waht they think and this site is great because we can now speak on your piece of shit good for nothing program.
Getting hit in the pocket books? How would anyone know any of that? Not one of us has any information about their recruitment for next year. This is what I dislike about this site. People assume they know what they are talking about. Anytime you try to post something factual the blog owner doesn't post it. Kind of unusual isn't it?
Looks like the OHA boys are getting a little nasty here! Must be hitting a nerve! I think it is hilarious the word is out on these clowns and they don't like it. Liars and cheats. It's great the world is getting informed by way of this blog. There obviously are are quite a number of people who have been cheated by these guys. As the word gets out further this blog will be filled with stories about them. They have no defense. It always comes back to bite you in the butt! The word is on the street now.
Blah,Blah,Blah,its all about the blog owner and their unfair treatment of OHA. Boo hoo. Poor OHA. They are just a victim in all of this. Anyone believe that then Alan would like to sell you that house of his for a couple of million now that the market has tanked up there. Poor little guys. When you run the show like these guys have its just a matter of time before it catches up with you. I would say that time has arrived. What a shame.
OHA is a bunch of phoney who covered up the whole "stolen" car incident as best they could as not to be an embaressment to their program. They did in fact send the guys home, yet got weak in the knees when one of them was allowed to return to the program the following year after they carried on and on about how they wouldn't allow any of them to come back. Must have folded under the pressure getting that 40K check from mom and dad! hehehehe! Oh the pressures of running the program. Alan must of needed to make a payment on his house.
As for the Earls comments. That was a total OHA set up. The boys had made reservations in advance, the restaurant knew they were coming. Coincidentally they were served liquor without being asked for id by one of the OHA's young relatives and to sweeten this -an OHA staff member happened to be present in the bar filming the events of the night! Get real! Who out there takes a video camera to Earls? The boys were advised of the existance of the video by Alan, but do you think that the parents were allowed to see it. Nope. Remind yourselves about the privacy act. No one -especially a minor is allowed to be filmed for any reason without their consent and in the case of minors without the consent of a parent. This is a breech of privacy and could have resulted in a serious legal matter against OHA. And yes Daryl (the billet coordinator) had a major role in this one...guess who was doingthe filming.
There is an old burgundy van in Penticton driven by a dyed blonde lady and her husband, they buy liquor for minors and deliver it to where ever they are. They of course charge the cost of the liquor plus delivery.
Now we know how the Blog owner is making back there 40K. Hows the van running? I hear your boy is living in a house by the school making some money on the side.
If you don't believe that there is at least one couple in Penticton that buys alcohol and tobacco for the boys, then delivers it to wherever they are -you seriously need to do some research, -but first pull your head out of the sand! You will actually find more than one, lets see...I will help you out...start with the used furniture store owner in the old YMCA building the street from Pen High, call them up and get them to deliver your next order...
Oh and by the way...for the person who says that OHA is not there to babysit the boys -at $40,000 per year per hockey player -they should be shining the boys shoes and calling them 'SIR'
Lets talk about OHA's purchase of the Summerland Sting - now called the Penticton Lakers.
Lets talk about even if there is someone to buy the kids liquor. Why should this be an issue? These kids are supposted to be dedicated athletes. They should have been taught the issues that come with drugs and booze. Really they should be able to decide for themselves to abstain. Keep your kids at home if you need a babysitter to keep them off the sauce. Leave the academy for kids that are trying to make there dreams come true and would not take it even if it was pushed on them. Seems like a no brainer to me...
One thought on the Dixon Ward thing.
Wasn't the road between Kelowna and Penticton shut down for a large portion of last winter due to unsafe banks and slides? Food for thought.
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