2025-26 Youth Travel Registration Now Open!

Dear AHA Families,

We are pleased to announce that registration for the 2025-26 Andover Hockey Association season is now open for our coed and girls full season youth travel teams Please read this note carefully as it contains important information concerning the registration and placement process, as well as information on AHA’s refund and installment payment plan policies.

REGISTER NOW!

COED YOUTH TRAVEL REGISTRATION LINK

GIRLS ONLY YOUTH TRAVEL REGISTRATION LINK

Which AHA Programs Are Now Open for Registration?

Registration is open now through Wednesday, March 12th for the following 2025-26 full season youth travel programs:

• Mites/U-8 (Birth Years 2017-2019)

• Squirts/U-10 (2015-2016)

• PeeWees/U-12 (2013-2014)

• Bantams/U-14 (2011-2012)

Registration for AHA’s 2025-26 Learn to Skate (LTS), Learn to Play (LTP), Mite House League (MHL), Fall High School Half Season (HSHS), Winter Midgets, and Rec Hockey programs will open at a later date.

What is the 2025-26 Tuition for AHA Full Season Youth Travel Players?

The AHA Board of Directors has a fiduciary duty to the organization and its members to ensure that we are acting as responsible fiscal stewards. It is at times difficult to balance that duty with delivering on our mission of providing a developmentally rewarding hockey experience to our members. We pride ourselves on providing our members with access to opportunities to learn from the best in safe, clean, and convenient facilities.

As a non-profit organization, all of our expenses must be matched by our revenues on a yearly basis. However, our revenue is unknown until certain factors, most notably the number of players who commit to play for AHA and the number of teams we put on the ice, are finalized. Most years this does not take place until May or June, making it particularly challenging to set firm tuition rates in February or March - despite months of careful budgeting and hours of planning meetings.

The Board has determined it is in the best interest of the association that final tuition rates for next season’s youth travel programs will not be determined until rosters are finalized (i.e., players have accepted offers), and will be based on the variables as discussed above. That said, we realize that we cannot expect families to commit to the season without having a reasonable expectation of what their tuition will ultimately cost next season.

While we are hesitant to raise our rates, and in fact have historically kept tuition rates generally flat, it is our expectation that the cost of our material expenses, notably ice time, league fees, skills providers, uniforms, and equipment, will continue to increase. Keeping in mind that we have only raised our tuition rates for most programs by less than seven percent (7%) cumulatively over the past seven seasons, the Board has approved a reasonable price increase to offset the expected rise in our expenses for next season. Such increase would cap youth travel tuition at an amount per program not to exceed a fifteen percent (15%) increase from the 2024-25 season.

Our strong intent is not to raise rates, given that as a town recreational youth sports program it is our mission to serve the Andover community. We further appreciate and understand that youth sports can be expensive and so we try to make our program accessible to everyone that desires to be part of this amazing experience. By setting our tuition rates in this manner, we can allocate for the most efficient use of ice time, which is by far our largest expense. For reference, 2024-25 tuition rates were as follows:

Coed:

• Mites - $1750 (plus $500 for supplemental full ice games, see below for more details)

• Squirts - $2350

• Pee Wees - $2350

• Bantams - $2550

Girls:

• U-8 - $1750 (plus $500 for supplemental full ice games, see below for more details)

• U-10 - $2350

• U-12 - $2350

• U-14 - $2350

Goalies: $500 (plus additional fees for GDS goalie training, see below for more details)

When Is Payment Due?

A fee of $250 will be charged to all skaters ($20 for goalies) at the time of registration. This non-refundable fee will be applied in full to tuition for all players who participate with AHA for next season. Players with an outstanding balance will not be permitted to register for next season.

Please review AHA's Refund and Installment Payment Plan Policy and contact treasurer@andoverhockey.org should you have any questions. For families who utilize the installment payment plan, an initial tuition payment will be charged once your player is rostered to his or her team this spring. The balance of the tuition will then be charged in installments before the start of the season this fall.

What does AHA Offer for Goalies?

In recognition of the extra expenses incurred by our goalie families, AHA has a significantly reduced tuition for goalies. We also have an arrangement for special discounts, preferred scheduling, and off season training from our goalie skills provider, GDS. AHA’s full time youth travel goalies are charged a flat tuition fee of $500. Any full time goalie wishing to participate in AHA’s goalie training program through GDS would then pay an additional fee depending on the number of sessions in which he or she participates at the AHA discounted rate. For more information about the AHA goalie program, please contact operations@andoverhockey.org.

What Will AHA’s Youth Girls Program Look Like Next Season?

As in the past, we plan to host our traditional full season girls only teams at the U-8, U-10, U-12, and U-14 age levels, composed of a full season game and practice schedule as well as sessions with AHA’s skills vendors and special programs and events for our female players.

In addition, girls who are full time players on an AHA girls only team will be permitted to participate with a corresponding (i.e., age and skill level) AHA coed team for all practices and skills sessions, and for games on an as-needed basis, for no additional cost. If your daughter is interested in this option, please contact placements@andoverhockey.org with a copy to girlsdirector@andoverhockey.org. Girls interested in this opportunity should plan to attend both sets of on-ice evaluations in March.

Finally, once again next season, alternate players will be permitted on girls only teams. Please see AHA’s Alternates Policy for more information.

For more information about the AHA Girls program generally, please contact girlsdirector@andoverhockey.org.

Should My Mite/U-8 Age Level Player Sign Up Now?

Boys and girls birth years 2017 through 2019 need only to register now if they would like to be considered for placement in our Mite/U-8 travel program and have at least one year of experience in the MHL or an equivalent program. If you intend for your player to participate in the MHL, there is no need to register at this time; MHL registration will open later in the spring and payments will be due in the fall.

If you are uncertain whether your player would be ready for Mite/U-8 Travel, please contact your current AHA coach or mitedirector@andoverhockey.org. Note any 2017-2019 players who are not selected for a Mite/U-8 travel team will automatically be registered for, and placed onto a team in, the MHL in the fall.

In addition, players who play on a Mite/U-8 travel team will be eligible to participate in a supplemental “full ice” games-only program for an additional fee. That program runs from approximately Thanksgiving through early March and features additional full-ice games against other towns during weekend time slots that do not conflict with regular AHA games. Please indicate your interest in this program during registration.

My Child is a 2011 Birth Year Player Who Will Also Be a High School Freshman in the Fall - for Which Program(s) Should They Register?

Male 2011s (second year Bantams) who will be entering their freshman year in high school must register as full season AHA Bantam players in order to be able to participate in AHA’s Boys Fall HSHS program; in doing so they will be permitted to participate in the AHA Boys HSHS program at no additional cost.

Female 2011s (second year U-14s) who will be entering their freshman year in high school and who register as full-time AHA U-14 players can automatically participate in the AHA's Girls Fall HSHS program at no additional cost. Female 2011s (second year U-14s) who will be entering their freshman year in high school and who are not full-time AHA U-14 players are welcome to participate in the AHA's Girls Fall HSHS program at that program’s full cost.

Please see AHA’s policies with respect to high school players with Bantam / U-14 eligibility for further information. As noted above, a separate registration for AHA’s HSHS programs will open at a later date.

When Are On-Ice Evaluations?

On-ice evaluations for AHA’s full season girls youth travel teams are scheduled to take place during the week of March 10th, and on-ice evaluations for AHA’s full season coed youth travel teams are scheduled to take place during the weeks of March 17th and 24th. Specific dates and times for each age group will be posted in advance, but plan for each age group to have at least two sessions on-ice. Evaluations for other programs if needed, including AHA’s High School programs, will take place at a later date.

We are aware that the Pike School’s spring break includes the week of March 10th and 17th. If your child attends Pike and will be traveling that week, or is otherwise unable to attend an on-ice session due to injury, illness, or other unavoidable conflict, please register and email placements@andoverhockey.org in advance to let us know which sessions your child will miss.

A Note to Families

AHA is non-profit, community centered organization managed by unpaid volunteers who are balancing their own personal and professional commitments while spending countless hours in service to members. Player evaluation and placement is a daunting process which takes months of planning and weeks of hard work. In addition, not only do we need to assign hundreds of skaters to the correct teams, but we also need to ensure that each team has the best coaches available and appropriate goalie coverage.

The AHA Board understands that tryouts can be a stressful time for players (and even at times more so for parents), and are cognizant of the fact that many families are trying to choose what they believe are the right options among competing opportunities for their children. For planning purposes, it is our goal to post next season’s AHA youth travel team rosters no later than Friday, April 18th. AHA believes that posting rosters for a new season while the current one is still ongoing could have a detrimental effect on team chemistry and unity, especially during a playoff push. Our target date coincides with the end of the 2024-25 season (VHL playoffs may run as late as April 6th this year) and the start of Andover public schools spring break, as well as many youth sports spring seasons. If you have specific questions about your player’s options prior to the release of rosters, please contact placements@andoverhockey.org.

Who Can I Contact With Questions?

If you are a new AHA member, please set up an account through our website, www.andoverhockey.org. Please make sure each player is registered only once.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to direct them as follows:

• General evaluation/placement/team formation process: placements@andoverhockey.org

• Registration questions: registrar@andoverhockey.org

• Website/technical difficulties: webmaster@andoverhockey.org

• Financial including refund and payments: treasurer@andoverhockey.org

We look forward to a successful completion to the current season and an even better experience next year!

Sincerely, 

AHA Board of Directors