If anybody knows of no check or semi-skilled rec league U16 I think Midget level? for the fall please let me know. I'm looking into Canlan but don't know if that will workout. Thanks.

You should message Bernsie. He is there for you.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Isn't shakes the King of No Contact Hockey around here?

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He will for sure tell me to listen to drs and he should never play again. My son was a skater for cryeye. I'm a barbarian.

I'm hoping shakes will know of one. Canada has a league but around here, I'm only seeing MN and a few places on the east coast. Both started with in the last 5-10 years or so.

i don't know anything about U16 no check rec league. Didn't know that existed. Don't know why it would exist. Kids that age have already been checking for a couple years I think.

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It's mainly been started for people that want to play but don't want to or can't risk the injury. Kids who get 2 or 3 concussions and don't want to stop playing, stuff like that.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Maybe you can come over and tell my 15 year old that's what he is when we tell him he'll probably never play again.

We were hoping to get him more into golf this summer but caddying has been canceled for him so that went out the window too.

I'm guessing you'd have to check with house teams at each rink to see what they have. Not that you want to drive to Wisconsin, but I imagine you'll see something at the Pleasant Prairie RecPlex before anything in IL opens up.

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We've made that drive. Only an hour. We'd do it if we needed to.

Vipers and Comets are the 2 clubs in the area....I guess you'd have to check with them. RecPlex also has regularly scheduled Open Hockey.

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just got me thinking....my hockey son graduated HS 2 years ago. I do NOT miss the smell of his hockey bag!!

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When I was playing, I was unaware of any no-check rec leagues. House league would be the closest to a rec league, but it definitely had legal checking Pee-Wee and older.

Things may very well have changed, though.

As a partial aside, it's not so much the legal checking and contact that causes danger in hockey. It's the poorly administered checks and those who don't properly receive them/prepare themselves. Our club mandated that everybody attend the checking clinic. You could tell when clubs were too lax on that, because it would get dicey out there. Either that or there were just a ton of jerk kids, which is entirely possible.

That said, it's fair if anybody wants to avoid checking. Just offering my experience.

Truth there....when my son played in the IL High School league, the Spring season brought in a lot of less experienced players because it was cheaper. You also had a lot of U16 players that would play down with our HS club, so the skill level was greatly varied.

We had a defender absolutely plow a kid out cold. It looked horrible, but it was a clean check. Kid was playing the puck on the center line tried carrying it and stupidly put his head down. There was video after....totally clean play regardless of the kid getting absolutely blasted.

1st year, my son learned very quickly that it was a different skill level and you don't try to dance the puck over the center line

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Never thought of that. That's a great idea. Similar to what they are doing with football where some schools are only playing flag.



Checking is a big part of hockey, but once you leave high school 95% of all hockey players never play in a checking league again. I think it's great that there's a way for younger kids to keep playing in a competitive setting even if they can't or don't want to be a part of checking hockey.

I'll be on the lookout and let you know if I hear about any leagues or teams being formed.

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That should probably be your job.

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Oh yeah, spring league was notorious for that. We'd get guys on our teams who didn't want to play varsity hockey - they'd rather play Central States club for some reason, usually the result of them not making AAA. Of course, AAA got watered down and these kids wound up exactly where they belonged on the spring teams. I remember it being really elite with only TI and CYA to speak of around here, then Mission and Chill got involved and suddenly everybody thought they were a AAA player. So naturally, Central States became a phenomenon for the kids who couldn't make AAA. Those kids that showed up for spring league and then went back to club for the Fall never really fit in with the rest of the team. Even our underdeveloped 16 and 17 year old brains knew these kids thought too highly of themselves.

yea when i was a kid there was Minor Hawks and TI, then Minor Hawks folded right around the time CYA was formed. There was never more than 2 AAA teams in the area. Now there's at least 4 or 5 I think between CYA, TI, Mission, Fury. am I missing anyone?

There's definitely not enough talent for that many teams. A buddy of mine, his kid was on CYA and then everyone his age who was any good went to Mission. he was like 3rd line on Mission so he left and had to go to Milwaukee to find a decent AAA to play for. Spent the last two years commuting from Chicago to Milwaukee to play for the Admirals. Paid off because he was first line for the Admirals and got a lot fo good exposure. Just got signed by a good junior team. I think he's hoping to stepping stone his way to USHL and then college scholarship.

The Mission team his age is loaded. They were ranked #1 in the country the last couple years at various points. From what I hear, all Mission teams are loaded. They have all the Coyotes Logistics money to throw around.

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Thanks, all.

He was hit pretty hard in December and a week later had a seizure. The drs couldn't say for sure if it was his history of seizures or the hit that caused it. His dr says he shouldn't play and we ignored that advice before but as his parents we are both really struggling with the idea of putting him out there again. Hoping for another option. We'll see.

Sorry to hear about your kid's issue. Have a u16 and even though my kid plays physical, we have stuck with Central States so far instead of going to HS hockey as it is often referred to as Football on Ice. It even happens in Scholastic League as we know some kids there who have gotten concussions as a result of cheap shots.

While I have heard of some no check leagues in Canada, have not heard of any here in Northern IL, Indiana or Wisconsin.

Best bet may be to find some guy who rents weekly ice time at the local ice rink and plays rat with his buddies. I know a few guys who do that here in Oak Park and they seem to have some HS kids come out for extra skating. Granted you are skating at 10 or 11PM. Oak Park used to have a league for adults who took their adult learn to play hockey classes. Granted something like that may be below his skill level, but who cares at this point?

There is a new rink that opened in Hammond and their adult programming is just getting ready to start (as they have been too busy making $ renting to Illinois club teams the past month). You can see what programming they have if you are closer to Indiana.

Good luck.

.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."