Hello KMHA Hockey Families. I would like to welcome you to the 2025-2026 Kitchener Jr. Rangers U12 Select season tryouts that will follow House League (HL) Assessments on September 6th and 7th.
My name is Luke Simon, I am the Head Coach for the U12 Select Team for this coming season and would like to share some information about the upcoming season and Tryouts. And no, this is not an AI write up.
With coaching at various ages and levels over the years, there is an important philosophy that I try to instill in every team I coach that is in addition to overall growth and development of the players. That is, a great team is a team that bonds and works well together as there is no I in team. I want to have players understand no matter what age or skill level they are, that they are always a piece of the puzzle that needs strength and support to succeed. This includes how we all come together as players, coaches, parents or siblings, as we all have a role to play in building the necessary support to make it a successful year, and build the basis around what it takes to be a good person.
Tryouts
Tryouts for Select will be by invitation only which will be based on House League Assessments that I will be attending. To determine interest in wanting to try out for the U12 Select team, I would like families to email me prior to HL assessments, letting me know if you are interested in your player trying out for the Select team. Please provide the following information; Name, preferred position trying out for, Left or Right Shot, and which team(s) they played on last season. This will allow me to get an idea of what players may be interested in trying out. Please note though, that tryout invites will be limited based on my evaluations during the HL assessments, for which players wanting to tryout for Select are required to attend first. More information about the tryouts to come to those players that are invited by separate email after the HL assessments are finished. Tryouts for Select will be the weekend of September 13th and 14.
Please Email [email protected]
Both during the HL Assessments and Select Tryouts, I want to provide some information in terms of how I will be evaluating, along with how success is measured during the process, with the goal of being a fair and positive process for all. High level as there many factors in the decision making:
- Hockey Skills (Individual Skills - Skating Passing Shooting, Player Tactics - Decision making, and Team Tactics - Positioning/Teamwork)
- Focused Work Ethic and Effort,
- Positive Attitude on and off the ice while maintaining good sportsmanship, and
- Coachability
Some information about the Season
There will be 30 Games which include guaranteed Tournament games and Exhibition games. Please note that the U12 is a minor age category for Select. Therefore some teams we will be playing against will be U13 where it might be a combination of U12/U13 players. Regular weekly practices are scheduled for Monday mornings for the most part, along with a second practice that will be scheduled during most weeks (early Saturday Evenings - to be confirmed). There will also be some time for dryland either bi-weekly / once a week (time to be confirmed).
Tentative Tournaments Scheduled are:
- BCHL Tournament of Friends, Brantford Ontario - November 21st to 23rd, 2025
- 2026 Doug Jarrett Memorial Tournament, London Ontario - February 20th to 22nd, 2026
- Alliance Select Championship, Kitchener Ontario - April 2nd to 5th, 2026
- *Potential Post Season Tournament - April 9th to 12th, 2026 - (to be discussed as option for entire team if interested once team is selected)
I know as a parent, a coach and a past player that assessments and tryouts can sometimes be very stressful, so let's calmly encourage our kids and most of all support them in having fun throughout this process.
Thank you, and best of luck during the upcoming assessments and trying outs!
We are all excited and looking forward to getting back on the ice and getting this season started.
Luke Simon
Head Coach
U12 KJR Select