2020 / 2021 Mite Development Program

Come Join The New England Stars Little Stars Mite Development team for the 2020 / 2021 season.  The Stars Mite Development program will serve 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013 birth years for 2020 / 2021 season.  

 Here are some important keys to our program.

• New England Stars Staff  will conduct all practices, skills and cross ice games.
• This is an in-house program.  ALL GAMES are played at Skate 3.
• Practice is on Thursday's at 4:40 pm at Skate 3 White Rink  
• 3 v 3 Cross ice Games will be played on Saturday Morning's Skate 3 White Rink.
• There will be 4 teams of approx 9  players per team.
• Little Stars Jersey and Socks
• Tuition $1095 for entire season
• Season Starts on  October 10, 2020.
• Season Ends on February 27, 2021.

Why Cross-Ice Games?  As recommended by USA Hockey’s ADM, almost all of these games will be cross-ice or half-ice hockey games.  There is a lot of research that shows that playing in a smaller space at this age is a better development model as opposed to full-ice because the players are forced to become better puck-handlers and small area decision makers.  This is important because as they get older, they will need these skills to be good players.  The full-ice games result in less puck touches for most players and also creates a false incentive system that rewards only the players that are fast.  These fast/young players are considered the “best” at this age but often never develop the small area puck/decision skills because they have never had too.  It is actually these young/fast players that can be hurt the most as they develop habits and a style of playing that will become less and less effective as they get older.  Each year as all players get bigger and faster there is less time and space and the game changes to more of an emphasis on puck-handling and decision making.  If you are a player that has never had to develop those skills, you will be at a severe disadvantage.