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How do the levels of hockey work. I was looking at the rankings on lets play hockey and I noticed they have several different levels listed for the boys. How does the JV Gold, Bantam, etc work. Age levels. Also which is directly under the HS level kids. Which one is the one that directly feeds the HS hockey.

[quote="grandmeadowhockeyfan"]How do the levels of hockey work. I was looking at the rankings on lets play hockey and I noticed they have several different levels listed for the boys. How does the JV Gold, Bantam, etc work. Age levels. Also which is directly under the HS level kids. Which one is the one that directly feeds the HS hockey.[/quote]

I'll take a stab at this. Due to the fact that the age split for Minnesota hockey (before highschool) occurs not by birth year, but rather during the summer, the levels of youth hockey can be broken up by grade (except for special cases). Thus, you have the categories of first years and second years.

Junior Gold - Post 9th grade.
Bantam - 8th - 9th grade.
Peewee - 6th - 7th grade.
Squirt - 4th - 5th grade.
Mite - 3rd - 4th grade.
Minimites, Termites (the term varies) - before 3rd grade.

Highschool is a separate system from the youth hockey system. Highschool teams have the option of drawing from, in most cases, 9th 10th 11th and 12th grade. If a 9th grader is good enough, he can play at the highschool level. In rare cases, 8th graders will be selected for the highschool squad.

9th graders are in a major transition year, as they often have the option of choosing between playing Bantam hockey, or highschool hockey (varsity or JV).

I hope this helps. If anyone has any clarifications or additions, feel free to post them! This was made in kind of a rush.

A large metro high school has over 100 kids try out.

Top team is varsity
only other team a high school fields is JV and that is usually players 20-40

Metro youth associations then pick up the slack and sponsor high school aged teams. A large association will then sponsor Jr. Gold A and maybe a Junior Gold B team or two.

U16 is only offered by the largest associations and would normally be all 10th graders that didn't make varsity or JV. Junior Gold, A & B, is normally reserved for the older players, 11th and 12th grade.

All of that is generally speaking as every situation, school and youth association, is different.

Plenty also quit playing organized HS / Association sanctioned hockey.

The levels go as follows

Varsity--Sponsored by High School

Junior Varsity (JV)-Sponsored by High School

Junior Gold A--Private Association

Junior Gold B--Private Association

U 16--Private Association

Bantams--13-15 years old

Bantam A--Private Association

Bantam B1--Private Association

Bantam B2--Private Association

Bantam C--Private Association

PeeWees--10-13 years old

PeeWee A, B1, B2, C--Private Association