Dropping Friends From a Beer League Team

[eric42434224 1]

My adult league team started with 75% of the players at a very low skill level. We came in second to last winning only three games (two against the team that never won a game in 4 seasons). Each season some players would leave for various reasons, and we would recruit new, and better players. We never recruited overly skilled players as we wanted to win fair and be competetive. We NEVER even thought of asking a player to leave. Yes we want to win, but never at the expense of having fun. Winning and having fun are not mutually exclusive...you need to balance both to have a successful and enjoyable experience in adult league hockey.

Now in our 5th season, we are tied for second place, one point out of first. We have gelled and play great team hockey. The inexperieced and less talented players have improved greatly, and contribute on both sides of the ice....they are assets now instead of liabilities. Plus it creates a positive atmosphere and a great bond between us all to feel that we are a true team, and that everyone is equal. One of the most rewarding aspects of my team is that we have worked our way up from the bottom and are now one of the better tteams in the league. The team who has won the last 4 championships said we are "the team to beat" in our league because of our hustle and team play.

Now, with all that being said, we do not have the other factor of moving up a division. I am not sure how I would handle that. I think I wouldnt ask anyone to leave, and just start at the bottom again, and work our way up. The players that are in over their heads and that obviously hurt the team will realize this and eventually move down. I do agree that you should be playing at your skill level, so it really is in the best interest of those players to play in the appropriate league to maximize their enjoyment.

Just remember, in any level of adult league play.....dont lose sight of the fact that it is fun. A healthy balance of competetiveness and fun is necessary to really and truly enjoy the game.

JMO.

[stahl7639 0]

The whole point of a "beer league" is to go out and have fun. We are not professionals, and we are not taking runs at any major championships. Keep the friends on the team. Letting them go will ruin their time and experience in the league, and may also cause friction between you and them. I think friendship is more important than a "beer league" win.

[rmnyi 0]

What if one of those guys is the goalie?

I'm a similar situation, our office team is looking to join a league. Our goalie has been letting in 4 bad goals a game, sometimes more. I mean, he can't even slide from one post to the other on wrap-arounds.

And to make the decision even more difficult, he just bought new gear!!!

I don't see how we can win a game with him, we haven't won this year in 7 games.

Goalies are a little harder to come by but same rules apply (my earlier post). How's the defense? Do the forwards come back and help out or does the team start to give up on the goalie if he lets in a soft goal? I like the idea of working with him at sticks & pucks and maybe get the team to play a little more 'D'. Very important, be supportive. Don't get down on the goalie. My adult league had a tourney recently and my team was down 5-1. Goalie was not having a good game but we didn't give up, we scored a couple of goals, the goalie settled down and we won 7-5.

[Leafsrule16 5]

I love going to my sons summer league mite games. He's 5 and this is his first organized team. His team is 0-9 and has been outscored 64-6 but you wouldn't be able to tell that from the lockerroom atmosphere. While the kids are happily enjoying their aftergame snacks, the parents are talking, joking and congratulating all the kids. It's a fun way to spend a Saturday/Sunday afternoon, which is what youth/beer league hockey should be about.

So true. I wish i could go back to those days, I think we all do. Nothing more fun then going out and not caring about the score, no pressure just for the love of the game. No chirping, no crazy parents, fans, all that, just playing hockey for the love of it, and thats how beer league should be. I cant understand why anyone would care about beer league that much that they would kick off two guys that considered freinds, thats quite a backstabbing trick. Why not just go out and have fun with them and let them enjoy the game? And to the guy who said his teams goalie was trash, so what. If you kicked him off the team hed just stay bad, at least by getting playing time in he can only get better.

[GH_ID 0]

You are a TEAM. Stick together. Those guys would be devestated.

[Machinehead2k5 32]

I've played beer league hockey for five seasons now. Our team had a handful of players who could SKATE let alone play what looked like hockey. I was one of the handful who could skate and shoot and pass etc. We went 0-20 and probably had a score differential of 23-2 each game. Was it fun losing that bad NO, but we did have fun growing as a team and learning from one another.

1st : 0-20

2nd: 3-17

3rd: 15-4-1 (lost in the championship series 1 game to 2)

4th: 14-4-2 (1st season in a higher division, made playoffs got knocked out in dbl elimination 0-2)

5th: Starts today.

After last season we had a few people who wanted a newbie kicked off the team (joined us in season 3 and looked like he was playing soccer most of the time) and a girl who's a good skater (also a season 3 new comer, played in some womens leagues) but can't do much when it comes to stickhandling/shooting against the guys in the league (she's 5'5'' 130 tops). My captain told the people who wanted to win all the time, they paid to play and that if they had a problem with it go find another team to play with. HOWEVER our captain sat down with Michael (his work buddy/guy who looked like he was playing soccer, was from Germany) and said if you don't try to improve we might have to put you on our Lower Team (when we moved up some stayed behind in the division started a new team; we have 2 lower division teams to send people to if they don't like the faster paced/or if they're too good for the lower division they can move up to the upperdivision/my team). With Michelle she's always positive on the bench and they both put in a full effort game in game out. How can you cut someone who goes balls to the wall even thought they know they're not as good as rest of the team. Michael as been going to sticktimes and public skating. His skating and shooting has improved and I can't wait to see what he can do this season. The cool part about these two is that they volunteer themselves off the ice during PKs/or when the game is close, they want to win but don't mind sacrificing ice time to do so during close games.

Have a chat with your friends. Tell them that you stand behind them but at the same time HELP them to get better. If the other guys have a problem with them and start belittling them, form your own team. I'm sure there's other people out there that would like to play as well but are scared to jump into a team b/c they don't want to be the bad person on the team and get kicked out.

Semi quoted from Mighty Ducks: "Are you prepared to lose your friends over some guys (who won't be there when you need them), some game?"

I hope this made sense. A little tired/a little hungover. Happy hockeying!!

[RecLeagueHero 0]

I can see this two ways:

I completely agree that beer league is about having fun. Worrying about winning, stats, or having some sort of rec league dynasty team is completly f**king retarded. Being willing to screw up friendships for the sake of a stronger beer league team is equally retarded. That said, it's also usually the most fun to play in games where you're around the average skill level and thus are challanged, but not over or underwhelmed. There could come a point when a team is playing at a level where it's simply not any fun for a less talented guy, or for a guy that's way more talented than the average skater at that level.

[Invert 13]

So, here is what ended up happening. I sweet talked to director of the league to let me have a 2nd team in the lower tier. That way I can have a competitive team and one with friends. They both were happy because they could bring in a few extra friends who were really bad, but would like to play.

[shotty 7]

our team is on the move for winter league and there's a handful of guys that wont be able to hang in the higher divs, and our team gm is ready to cut them loose... which is going to suck because they're probably the coolest people on the team in terms of friendliness... so i see the dilemma first hand. i'm trying to build a second team in a lower div to get them to feel like they're not totally left out, so maybe if you can get on it and hook them up with a lower div team or a second team of sorts that might help...

edit: oops, didnt see inverts latest post.

[hockeysc23 0]

So, here is what ended up happening. I sweet talked to director of the league to let me have a 2nd team in the lower tier. That way I can have a competitive team and one with friends. They both were happy because they could bring in a few extra friends who were really bad, but would like to play.

Good job taking the extra effort and time to make sure your friends were included.

[starsfan71 9]

So, here is what ended up happening. I sweet talked to director of the league to let me have a 2nd team in the lower tier. That way I can have a competitive team and one with friends. They both were happy because they could bring in a few extra friends who were really bad, but would like to play.

That is how you handle a situation, sounds like a pretty tight deal.

[raygunpk 0]

So, here is what ended up happening. I sweet talked to director of the league to let me have a 2nd team in the lower tier. That way I can have a competitive team and one with friends. They both were happy because they could bring in a few extra friends who were really bad, but would like to play.

Great captain, excellent friend.

[MN old but fast 0]

Beer Leauge = fun Not the NHL. Friends are more important than hockey. Why are you playing? I play for fun and some time with my pals. We have a few weakers players but we can cover their weakness with our superior team work on the ice.

Are you playing for a billion $. If not then do not drop your pals!

[rjdlucky 0]

It is definitely tough dropping guys that you have played with for years. To be on the team that long they are probably good guys and that makes it that much worse to have to let them go. I hope that when my skills diminish to the point where I am no longer competitive in the league that I am in I will be able to admit it to myself and seek to drop down a level. This way I do not put anybody in the uncomfortable position of having to tell me this.

My personal way of handling this situation has been to pick up a few new players and say that you are merging with their team. That has worked on several occasions. Now you're not telling a guy he isn't good enough to play with you but it's becoming more of a numbers game.

Hope this helps.

[fawn111 0]

I'd rather lose with my team, than win with a collection of ringers.

[nexusrage21 1]

Let me first state that I am not a fan of dropping anyone. However, my teams have found ourselves in situations where we simply have too many guys. It builds a troubled situation because of a few factors.

1.) This is probably the biggest problem, our league doesn't charge a team fee, each player pays the same amount no matter how many players are on the team.

This is probably the biggest factor for us. If a team fee was charged we could easily take on a few guys because people wouldn't feel like they were being charged too much while not getting to play enough.

2.) We've tried splitting the team up into two teams in the past.

Unfortunately, most of the guys have only been playing for a short while, so splitting the team up leaves us with too little talent to be competitive. And when I say that I don't mean, fighting for a championship, I mean we never have a shot in a game. At the end of the season, half the people don't even want to play hockey anymore it is so frustrating.

Add to that, guys end up not being able to play with people they would like to in order to keep things somewhat fair and balanced. The guys who I am closer friends with tend to be the better players, we have been playing together for longer, going back to pick up street hockey when we were kids, but to make things fair we end up split up.

Now, we have gone back to one team, but we still had too many guys, so basically I did a first come, first serve rule for this season. I'd say we ended up with 2 good players (I always gauge good as better than me) 4 terrible......yeah terrible players, and the rest adequate. Maybe some of the people who couldn't get on are mad about it, but this just seemed like the best way.

If we had to leave someone off, I'm glad that it wasn't because of playing ability. Plus, save for one guy who has a bit of a warped view on his play, all of the "terrible" guys are willing to get out there and work.

-- Actually, that's another thing, we've always done regular pick up sessions, rent outs, open skates so even people who aren't on the team get to still play with everyone if they want.

[Chadd 916]

I missed most of this season due to illness and work schedule and the guy who took over running the team ran it into the ground. Now I have guys calling me to put it back together for the fall. The problem is some of the guys don't want to play with this guy or that guy, and in some cases I can see their point, I just don't want to some out looking like an asshole in the end. Usually my preference is to just cut the guys who make the ultimatums, but I'm getting tired of all the politics. I was hopin that the guy that crashed the team would be able to keep things going and I could fade into the background a bit.

[nexusrage21 1]

I've had the same problem Chadd. The worst is when something needs to be done to better the team such as organize lines, run practices, get shift changes going things like that its, "who put you in charge?"

But when someone wants someone kicked off the team, it becomes my team and I have to do it.

Sometimes there are legit reasons to remove someone from a team, but your teammates should be able to stand up and do it, not push it all on you.

[Chadd 916]

I've had the same problem Chadd. The worst is when something needs to be done to better the team such as organize lines, run practices, get shift changes going things like that its, "who put you in charge?"

But when someone wants someone kicked off the team, it becomes my team and I have to do it.

Sometimes there are legit reasons to remove someone from a team, but your teammates should be able to stand up and do it, not push it all on you.

Actually, the guys usually push me to take more control than I want during games. I figure we're all adults and everyone should be able/willing to pick up some of the leadership. The problem is that the guys that want to be leaders, are often people that the other guys wouldn't follow to a bar.

[sitzlejd 0]

All these folks who get so worked up about who they play with kill me. Just f'in relax, don't take it so seriously and play. Life is about compromises. People would be a lot happier if they didn't hold grudges all the time (esp. grudges about who they want to play beer league with :P) .

[hockeyherb 1]

Our league actually came up with a great new concept last year (well it was new to us even though some of you guys might already do this). It's called a mixed league. It runs on on an off cycle to our usual Fall/Winter, Spring and Summer sessions (so it overlaps the seasons but doesn't start or end at the same time as the others) and it's setup to play one game a week (we do Sunday nights). The idea is to allow people to put together their own team made up of a mix of AA, A, B1, B2 and C players with various ratios to keep it competitive. (like if you have 3 A players you can't have a AA, and you must have x number of B1/B2 players as your core, and if you have a AA player your goalie has to be B1 or lower, etc)

I have to admit when the idea first came out I scoffed at it because I thought what AA/A player is going to want to play with a C or B2 league guy. Now that I've just finished my 6th game in my first mixed season I have to admit it's the perfect type of league for those that want to play a very relaxed game of hockey. It's amazing to see how hard the C leaguers play and how pretty much all the AA/A guys try their best to set them up for a goal. Last game I was about to take a shot from the point but saw one of our B2 guys standing at the side of the net. Rather than shoot I sent a hard pass to him and he actually connected on a one timer for a goal. The guy's smile was as wide as could be and I felt much better about that assist than if I had shot and scored on my own. We still have refs for each game but I rarely see more than 2-3 penalties per game because this league pretty much knocks the ego out of everyone.

Our league in Austin isn't huge (maybe around 400 guys/gals for our biggest season) so many people know each other after playing in the league for a few years but this gives everyone the chance to play with their friends who they typically can't. For me it's also been a great way to meet people in the other divisions that I don't know but now I'll know them when we meet up in the bar after league games in the future.

One other benefit for the rink has been an increase in revenues. This league has brought back some people that dropped out because their schedules didn't work with the changing days of the regular league, people that got tired of some of the league 'politics' (ie they got dropped down a division in the draft and felt slighted) or people that just wanted to play some extra hockey each week.

[Machinehead2k5 32]

Hockeyherb, here in Atlanta we have a league similar to that. it's the REC league and the Open league is the more competitive league. The skills range from AAA-3v3 (uber beginner league). Each team has a certain amount of higher skilled players 2 or 3AAA players max etc. It makes for some good laid back hockey. The goalies rotate from team to team during the season. Each game your team will have a different goalie and subbing from one team to another is allowed if the team doesn't have 10 people.

[IniNew 53]

All these folks who get so worked up about who they play with kill me. Just f'in relax, don't take it so seriously and play. Life is about compromises. People would be a lot happier if they didn't hold grudges all the time (esp. grudges about who they want to play beer league with :P) .

The whole reason to play with beer league is friends. There's not a damn thing wrong with wanting to play with specific people.

[sitzlejd 0]

I want to play with friends too, but I'm not going to kick someone off to get a friend on.

[IniNew 53]

I want to play with friends too, but I'm not going to kick someone off to get a friend on.

Right, which is a different situation then what the OP had. He wanted to move up but felt some of his friends weren't ready, and instead of kicking them off the team managed to get a separate team together for the higher league. The right choice in my opinion.