NCWHL Charter
The Northern California Women’s Hockey League, or NCWHL, is a recreational ice hockey league formed with the following objectives:
- To provide women of all abilities a place to play ice hockey with and against other women.
- To promote women’s ice hockey in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- To promote good sportsmanship.
One of the NCWHL’s main charters is for the game of hockey to be played more for the fun of playing than to emphasize winning. Good sportsmanship is expected at all times. Keep in mind that at all times each player represents the NCWHL and in that respect they should keep the league objectives in mind when participating in league events.
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NCWHL Board of Directors
Any reference to the “Board” shall mean the League President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Division Coordinators. The Board is elected prior to the summer season by a majority vote of NCWHL members in attendance at the general membership meeting. Board members must be at least 18 years of age to hold office. The Board has the authority to set league fee structure and approve payment of invoices associated with the rinks, scorekeepers, USA Hockey registration, uniforms, officials, and other league sanctioned expenses. The Board may authorize advance payment for merchandise for the NCWHL to sell, as well as local tournament ice rental reservations.
Changes to league policies hereby stated in this book, and those that are otherwise implied, require a review period for general membership so that comments can be provided to the Board. The Board, within the best of their abilities, will review issues and comments within 7 days. At the end of the review period, the Board may decide to hold a general membership meeting and approve the changes based on the comments received. The Board has the final authority to make changes and amendments to all policies in an effort to keep the league running efficiently.
The Board may be contacted by anyone in the league with constructive suggestions and criticisms. Every effort is made to accommodate all issues, and all issues are dealt with in a timely fashion.
The success of the NCWHL depends on its many volunteers. Opportunities to volunteer are communicated to the league via email as they become available and are discussed at each Annual Meeting.
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Points of Emphasis
The NCWHL is committed to eliminating unnecessary body contact away from the puck, checking from behind, boarding, and violent stick infractions.
All on-ice officials are directed to penalize, in all instances, infractions that fall into the injury potential category. These infractions include boarding, charging, checking from behind, cross checking, elbowing/kneeing, high sticking, roughing and slashing. This includes slashing a goalie after she has covered the puck. Special emphasis is also placed on unnecessary body contact to players who are not in possession and control of the puck, and any body contact that results in the opponent being thrown into the boards or to the ice with excessive force.
The NCWHL encourages clean play at all levels and remains committed to supporting the decisions of the on-ice officials where players are penalized for the infractions noted above. Finally, the NCWHL is a non-checking, non-fighting hockey league. Fighting in the NCWHL will result in expulsion from the league.
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Code of Responsibility
Players are responsible not only for their actions on the ice, but also for being aware of the other players on the ice and being able to act in a responsible manner for the safety of all players.
Repeated violations of the standard of play in the NCWHL will be reviewed by the Board and could be subject to suspension. Repeated violations after suspensions and additional Board review could result in expulsion from the NCWHL.
The Breakdown: What this really means has 2 parts. First, there is a responsibility on the part of the player initiating the play. You are responsible for how you play and whether your actions are intimidating or aggressive. If you are going for a puck and there are 9 players in between you and the puck, it might not be a great idea to plow through them all just to get to the puck. If you are still learning how to stop, don’t use other players as your cushion. Skate with your head up so you don’t run into other players accidentally (which is really a good hockey play anyway – the skating with your head up thing). It really doesn’t matter if you get a penalty on the play or not. You are still responsible for how you play.
The second part to this Code is the receiving end of the play. When you have a player on the ice with you that is known to use other players as bowling pins, try to avoid putting yourself in a vulnerable position when they are on the ice with you. When you see someone bearing down on you and you know they don’t like to (or can’t) stop, try not to turn your back to them and skate out of their path to protect yourself. We fully recognize that the onus should be on those players to address dangerous playing styles, but we all need to learn to protect ourselves because while checking is not allowed in our League, we are all still knowingly engaged in a physical, contact sport.
As players in this League, we should all value each other and recognize that we all need to go to work the next day with all our body parts functioning. This is in our waivers when you sign up to play. When you agree to play in the NCWHL, you agree to respect all players on the ice, including yourself.