2025 - 2026 Season Opening Letter

Below are selected highlights from our Season Opening Letter. The full letter was recently emailed to all PYH members.

To Our Members:

It is incredible to think that another season of hockey is approaching a close, which of course means that registration and tryouts for next season is upon us / around the corner. Pembroke Youth Hockey continues to be one of the top programs in the state of Massachusetts. We are one of the top 15 largest town based programs in the state despite other towns around us on the list being much larger. This is a credit to the tradition and efforts of all that have played for, coached for, volunteered for and rooted for Pembroke Youth Hockey over the past 52 years!

Part of remaining a strong program means evolving with the times to offer the best hockey experience possible. Below you will see that we have been giving a lot of thought to how we best support our members and ensure that PYH continues to thrive. Please reach out with any questions and good luck to all of our teams in the stretch run of our current season!

Topics:

• Move to Bay State Hockey League

• Flexibility around Game Only players

• Costs

• Registration for 2025 – 2026 season

• Tryout Schedule

Move to Bay State Hockey League

We have made the decision to move our remaining South Shore Conference (SSC) teams, over to the Bay State Hockey League (BSHL). In certain scenarios, should BSHL not have enough teams for parity at a certain age group / level, some teams may remain in SSC. We have been adding more teams to BSHL over the past few years and had positive experiences. This past season half of our teams were already in BSHL, including 14 of our 23 coed / boys teams. We also had 5 girls only teams through our Pembroke / Plymouth partnership playing in SSC and are confident in the number of girls teams moving to BSHL to move these teams as well.

Flexibility, Scheduling, Rink Proximity, Scoresheets and Standings, etc have all been positive experiences with BSHL. As other programs had similar positive experiences, there has been more towns moving towards BSHL. For the upcoming season, many more towns and more teams from already participating towns are planning moves. After careful review, we feel strongly that a move to BSHL is in the best interest of our program.

Flexibility around Game Only players

Over the past few seasons, we have seen a number of players drop from PYH as their calendars reached a breaking point on balancing town hockey, club hockey and other commitments. This has been an issue for our top level (A) teams in many divisions, which then has a trickle down impact through the division. This is a reality that we are all aware of and that other programs (and other sports) are also dealing with. We firmly believe that more town sports is better for kids, particularly at younger age levels, but understand (and experience ourselves), that this does not always work out. Based on this we will be offering a, ‘game only’ option for the top level team in each division for the 2025 – 2026 season. Our expectation is that there will be a handful of players per age group that are able to stay engaged with their PYH friends and wearing the spoked P based on having this option available. This is new ground for PYH and we will monitor the uptake of this option and adjust as necessary. Once teams are made and preferences from registration are accounted for, there will be communication with teams on how many kids selected the option, etc. Note that any cost adjustments will be made post team selection.

Costs for the 2025 – 2026 season

Tuition will remain flat across all age levels for the 2025 – 2026 season.

We will be working to increase sponsorship opportunities and fundraising to continue to try and keep our costs from rising. Based on this, we will be holding off on ordering uniforms at registration and share uniform ordering info later in the spring. Be on the lookout for opportunities to assist in lining up sponsors!