A Beginner’s Guide for Hockey Parents
So Your Kid Made a Travel Hockey Team—Now What?
Welcome to the exciting (and sometimes chaotic) world of travel hockey! If you’re reading this, chances are your child just made their first travel team—and you might be feeling a mix of pride, excitement, and maybe a little panic. Don’t worry. You’re not alone, and you’re in for a wild, rewarding ride.
What Is Travel Hockey?
Travel hockey goes beyond your local house league. The Huskies Hockey Club is one of over 30 Tier II travel clubs in the Chicagoland area. Huskies travel hockey gives players the chance to compete at a higher level, against other Tier II clubs, while continuing to grow as athletes, teammates, and leaders. It’s about more than just hockey—it’s about effort, development, and loving the game. Our teams compete in leagues based in Chicago, including the Chicago United Hockey League (CUHL) for Mites (kids 8 years and younger) and the Central States Developmental Hockey League (CSDHL) for Squirts on up (9 years and older). League placement varies by season, based on what’s best for each team.
Understanding the Playing Levels
Playing levels are categorized by their birth year. Oftentimes, you will hear a player or team referred to by their birth year. “She is a 2014” or “that team is mostly “2012s” are common phrases you will now hear a lot. Age levels are combined in pairs. For example, “Mites” are kids 8 years and younger, “Squirts” are 9 and 10 year olds, “Peewees” are 11 and 12, “Bantams” are 13 and 14, and “Midgets” are 15 and older. Sometimes you will hear the level referred to by the name “Squirts” and sometimes by their age “10U.” In the end, they are the same.
You also may hear a player or team referred to as a “Major” or “Minor.” This means that they are either the older or the younger of the two ages in a playing level. So, a “Squirt Minor” is 9 years old, while a “Squirt Major” is 10 years old. Another important thing to know is that checking does not start until the players reach the Bantam level. Before that, “checking” is a penalty.
What to Expect
Time Commitment
Expect multiple practices per week, games on weekends (sometimes both Saturday and Sunday), and out-of-town tournament(s) throughout the season. Your calendar is about to get busy—color-coded even.
Pro Tip: Sync your calendar with the team schedule as soon as it’s released. It’ll save your sanity.
Financial Investment
Yes, it’s an investment. Costs include:
- Tournament Entry Fees
- Uniforms & Warm Ups
- Off Ice Workouts (for our players aged 9 and up)
- League and Ref Fees
- Additional Skills Sessons
While it can add up, Huskies changed the way Travel hockey works by providing an all inclusive price (with payment plan option) to eliminate the need to fundraise for tournaments.
The Gear
There’s a LOT of gear. Helmet, skates, gloves, pads, sticks… and don’t forget the giant bag to carry it all. Make sure everything is labeled—hockey locker rooms are gear black holes.
Laundry PSA: Air out the bag after every practice. Seriously. Unless you want your car to smell like a wet locker room for eternity. Getting those gloves and skates to DRY between play is key. Can your gear go in the wash? Absolutely. Many families toss everything (except helmet and skates) straight into the washing machine while laying it out to dry after washing. This helps get rid of the bacteria our players sweat out while on the ice.
Parent Life: What’s It Like?
Hockey becomes a second family. You’ll be spending a lot of weekends with these other parents—sharing bleachers, hotel breakfasts, and late-night games. Most are incredibly supportive and just as new to this as you are.
Bonus: Kids form strong bonds with their teammates, and you’ll likely make some lifelong friends too.
Tournaments: What to Expect?
Tournaments are a great way for a team to bond at the beginning of the season and show off their skills as they progress. Some things to remember when participating in a tournament:
- Tournaments are stay-to-play – meaning you must stay in one of the tournament’s required hotels for your child to participate. If your team is traveling more than 75 miles from your home rink, you will need to spend two (maybe more) nights in a hotel.
- The hotel will be assigned to your team by the tournament company. Your team managers or staff will work hard to get you into the best accommodation possible, however sometimes the tournament has a vision, and puts you in a hotel that is closest to the rinks you will be playing at.
- Game times will be released, on average, 5-7 days before you arrive. This can be frustrating from a planning perspective, but I promise you will get used to it!
- Games can start up to 15 minutes earlier than their scheduled time. Arrive EARLY always.
- READ THE RULES! Every tournament operates differently. Sometimes the tournament rules are DIFFERENT than your league play rules. Always ask your manager to pass along the tournament rules so you can read up on how the tournament game play will work.
- You might have an early game time on a Friday – this means you will need to travel to out of town tournaments the night before. Traveling early could mean your practice might be cancelled. This is a normal part of travel hockey, and your practice will not get rescheduled. Since you are headed into a weekend FULL of hockey – your players development wont skip a beat.
- Most tournaments are a 4 game minimum – meaning you will get to play at least 4 games. This usually breaks down into 3 pool play games, and then at least one game in bracket play. At that point, you are done once your team loses or, ideally, when they win the whole thing! Depending on how the tournament operates, you could have 6-7 games total!
Bonus: You get to explore a new city with your family & teammates!
Game Days: How do they work?
Game Days are full of excitement and nerves! Believe it or not, game days aren’t just about the kids – Parents and Guardians are involved too!
- Expect to arrive between 40-60 minutes prior to puck drop – your coach will let you know how early they want you to arrive.
- Depending on your team, your player will likely participate in a warm-up activity prior to getting in their gear
- Coach will need the locker room for a team discussion around 15 minutes before puck drop
- Who runs the clock during home games? YOU DO! All parents will be asked to volunteer during the season to operate the clock, score sheet, and more! To keep costs to a minimum, we lean on our parents to volunteer to help run the game.
- You may have to drive to another state to play league games. Being in Chicago, you can expect drives between 1-2 hours for some games, while others could just be minutes from your doorstep. This could take you to Bloomington, Mount Prospect, or Crystal Lake—and even just over the border to neighboring states like Dyer, IN or Kenosha, WI. The CUHL has 111 teams participating in its league and the CSDHL has upwards of 250 teams who participate. These teams come from states surrounding IL and beyond.
- Spectators can absolutely cheer for their team and it’s encouraged! What is NOT encouraged is yelling at the refs, coaching your player from the sidelines, and poor sportsmanship toward your opponent.
- Can’t be there in person? NO BIGGIE! Most rinks have a system called LIVE BARN. This is a subscription-based service with Live and Video on Demand available where you can watch games from anywhere you have access to Wi-Fi or a data plan.
Fun Fact: Most of the referees are under the age of 16 (some as young as 12!). Please remember they are only human AND likely still learning the ropes on how to be the best ref ever. We wouldn’t want someone to yell at our kids for a simple mistake – please refrain from interacting with refs from the sidelines.
Keep Perspective
Yes, travel hockey is competitive, but at the end of the day, it’s about development—on and off the ice. Your child will learn teamwork, discipline, resilience, and how to bounce back after a tough loss.
Celebrate the wins, support them through the losses, and remember: it’s supposed to be fun.
Final Thoughts
Your weekends will get longer. Your trunk will be full of gear. Your wallet may occasionally sigh. But you’ll also cheer louder than you ever thought possible, beam with pride after a great play, and get misty-eyed watching your kid grow through the game.
Welcome to the travel hockey family. Let the adventure begin.
