Friday, January 1, 2010

OKANAGAN HOCKEY ACADEMY: LEGITIMATE GRIEVANCES

Let's talk about legitimate grievances that any player of any skill level would have with the program:


The coaches will teach you the general structure of a typical 1-2-2 but almost always fail to inform individuals and line mates of the subtleties that make the system successful (where to position your stick, when and where to pressure, etc.)

The pervading culture of high-school hockey in Penticton frowns upon extra-curricular team-building (line mates developing set plays, d-men talking to goalies about breakout strategy, etc.)

Individual or teammate-to-teammate improvisation, planned or otherwise, are strictly and forcefully suppressed.

These should be considered more important than who's getting the lion's share of the coach's attention or who's snorting what; these are they real hindrances to your son's development as a hockey player (let's be honest: you AND the oha don't give a f**k about developing "moral values" or wtf they say they do)


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

okay we are looking for a place to send our son to school. Hockey is not good in our area. I can deal with drugs of Penticton but I can't deal with a group not teaching proper systems. Is that really the case at OHA? Alan Kerr seems okay and he's been talking to us now since KIBIT. I was looking for info on the school and found this site. Now I am not confident of where to send our son next year.

Anonymous said...

Best advise I can give is don't listen to this website. it is very silly. go for a tour of the place, or do some real research and talk to the families currently involved, not the ones who have been kicked out (this site). Nothing these people say, including myself, should hold any water. Talk to the families currently involved, you will feel more comfortable. In my opinion, OHA has grown into a strong program that truly develops athletes if your son is willing to put in the work. Yeah its expensive, but ive heard that so are all the other places when you add up all their hidden costs. This is just my opinion, and I am sure I will get jumped on for it - but one thing nobody can argue with is forget all of our opinions and talk to the real families - whos names are not "anonymous" and are currently in the program.

Anonymous said...

Very few kids get kicked out of OHA and that is the problem. OHA waits until the tail end of the year to get rid of the trash. I also think it is naive to think that the only families who are disappointed with OHA are the ones who were expelled. Very naive.

Anonymous said...

Best advise i can give is listen to this website. Don't go to oha if you do you will be very sorry right after tryouts, unless you made your deal before signing your name. Just don't ever drop your pants in front of alan or andy.

Anonymous said...

Here's a few facts for you that people may be interested in. After the tragic accidents involving high school teams and 15 passenger vans, OHA decided to have their staff licensed to drive them. Prior to that, they had a handful with proper licencing and the rest were driving players without the correct classification. They have even had a coach driving players in a personal vehicle while he didn't possess even a full licence in British Columbia. That's the equivilant of having a 16 year old that just got his New Driver designation driving your sons and daughters. I played at OHA, no longer do, but still have close ties to some of the guys there, if you want the truth, ask any of the players. Yes it was a good time, I developed off ice in the gym, onice was ok, we were out matched pretty severely which I don't think helped in front of scouts at showcases, but if I was a parent i'd be looking at things like who's driving your kids and the risk they are taking.

Anonymous said...

okay, person who had the comment at the top, the website is mostly horse sh*t, all exagerations. OHA is a great place to send your son. I play on the Major Midget team and Blake teaches us proper systems and the right way to do it. This year has been the best one of my life!

Anonymous said...

okay person who had the comment on the top, OHA would be a great place to send your son. I play on the Major Midget team and Blake teaches us the proper sytems and the right way to do it. This website is made up of exageration and bull crap.
This year has been one of the best years of my life and would be a great place to send you son!

Anonymous said...

Hi Alan, hi Andy. Still having trouble with enrolment? I heard you dropped the tuition and now you are bringing in girls to keep the boys happy. Crack and girls what a great combo

Anonymous said...

Can you believe it - a known Child Abuser has now been hired to coach the OHA Junior B team? I bet Mr. Marble didn't bring up why the Pursuit of Excellence in Kelowna is getting rid of him or why the MCFD has an amber alert attached to his name? Beware parents - go anywhere else but OHA with this loser on the bench.

Anonymous said...

wow I would bet the people that re on this site actually have a complaint, heres my take on these blogs, for all of you that feel that OHA is such a bad place let me ask a simple question, did you send your player here to learn or just to get him away so you didn,t have to look after him at home, usually at the early age of 13 and older a young man or women have the skills to develop if they are given the opportunity, to bad they never learned the skills that should have been developed by there parents before they got this opportunity, you should be ashamed of yourselves for commenting about a facility that provides a great opportunity to have young men and women develop as hockey players, students and fine young people,your player likely was either a tier 3 or less playerand likely not ready o understand the idea of work hard and play hard to get out of a program what it offers, stay in community hockey thats where you belong, maybe not as a player but for sure as a parent.

Anonymous said...

Since most of the people that comment on this site seem to know little or nothing about the OHA program it would be interesting to talk to someone that knows the program inside and out, talk to Dixon Ward he will be able to tell you about the program, who gets in for discounts or free and who pays nothing to be there, how they manage the players and how they train the skilled players and how the trainable players get thru the system, its a great program for the benefit of the players that want to be there and the development of the ones that go to be part of the 80% of the player customers and then the players that get to be there cause they need them to promote the program, yhe program works for sure just in different forms for players and payors, be sure to sign a non-disclosure agreement before you give them money, or possibly your life will be disclosed to either the public or your player by the staff, cross your T,s dot your eyes then ask yourself do I trust the person Im dealing with, you may be surprised. Go OHA Go