About Us

Hey everyone — Casey here.
First off, I genuinely appreciate everyone dragging themselves out of bed early on a Tuesday to play an AWESOME hockey session. 

This whole thing started back in the COVID days when only six people were allowed in the building. I’d text a few players, a goalie or two, boom — 

Easy.

Fast forward a year or two… now I’m texting 30+ people trying to get 20 skaters and 2 goalies. I also have a job, so that quickly became way too involved. That’s why I set up the website — to save time on my end.  It was cheap at first (intro pricing is a liar), and now… not so cheap (those introductory rates are VERY short lived!). 

Once the site was rolling, the next issue popped up:
TEAM COMPLAINTS!
“Teams aren’t fair.” Was what I would hear a lot.
Even though I was doing the best I could to make them as even as possible.

So Josh and I started doing a draw the day before, which actually worked pretty well for awhile. Yet somehow… the complaints still continued and seemed to grow even more.

The draw itself also turned into a whole thing — way too much time consumed, and way more feedback than I ever imagined.

I started this so I could play hockey with my friends and have fun!:
I don’t get paid for this.
I pay just like everyone else (plus the website ain’t cheap).

Fast forward to today:

Plan A:

Now we have nominated captains by the previous captains and they do the draw.  If for some reason that doesn't work (people have lives outside of hockey I guess), then we do Plan B;

Plan B:

The AI approach to making the teams as fair as possible.  The draw is now quicker and simpler. When you sign up, you’re assigned a skill level score and preferred position (forward/defense). That info goes into ChatGPT with instructions on how to balance two teams for a game, and two seconds later it spits out very fair-looking teams — and explains how it did it.

Here’s the part I cannot control:
Cancellations after the draw is done, teams are set, and everyone has had the chance to view their teammates and plan their outfits (you know you wanna look good out there for the audience).
 

Things with different players lives happen after teams are posted. If there are a lot of changes, it can force last-minute adjustments — sometimes right before we hit the ice (so please always bring a white and dark jersey).

I truly try my hardest to keep things fair, but stuff happens.
“A” players bail last minute due to their kid letting the hamster out and they can’t capture it.
I have to replace that players spot with someone on the waitlist (I promise I go in order), but that person might be a “C” level player whom knows enough to keep the Hamsters in their cage the night before a hockey game.
Skill levels vary.
The balance shifts.

Also — hockey is unpredictable.
An “A” player might have an off day.
A “C” player might suddenly score 7 goals, 8 assists, and your mom’s phone number.
It happens, this is how I got my wife’s digits (True story).

I’m probably one of the biggest fans of Tuesday Morning Hockey, let's rock this and have a blast!