1. Pre-Tryout Planning

Good tryouts start weeks before players hit the ice. The more planning you do upfront, the smoother everything will run.

Set Your Dates Early

Announce tryout dates at least 4-6 weeks in advance. This gives families time to plan around other commitments and ensures you don't lose players to competing programs that announced earlier.

Consider scheduling:

• Multiple sessions (at least 2-3) to see players in different situations
• Sessions on different days/times if possible for family flexibility
• Makeup sessions for unavoidable conflicts

Book Ice Time and Evaluators

Secure your ice time as early as possible—arena schedules fill up quickly during tryout season. You'll also need to arrange evaluators. The best practice is to use evaluators who don't have children trying out for the teams they're evaluating.

Define Your Evaluation Criteria

Before tryouts begin, document exactly what you're evaluating. Common categories include:

• Skating – Speed, agility, crossovers, backward skating, stops
• Puck skills – Stickhandling, passing, receiving, shooting
• Hockey sense – Positioning, decision-making, awareness
• Compete level – Effort, battles, attitude
• Goaltending (if applicable) – Movement, positioning, saves, rebound control

Use a consistent scoring scale (e.g., 1-5 or 1-10) and make sure all evaluators understand what each number means.

2. Registration and Player Information

Online registration is essential for modern tryouts. Paper forms get lost, and chasing down incomplete registrations wastes everyone's time.

Information to Collect

• Player name, birthdate, and contact information
• Parent/guardian contact information
• Previous team and level played
• Position preference (if applicable)
• Known conflicts with tryout dates
• Medical information or allergies (for safety)
• Jersey size for tryout pinnies

Payment Handling

Decide whether to collect tryout fees upfront or after team placement. Upfront fees reduce no-shows, but some organizations prefer to wait until players commit to a team.

HockeySync's registration system handles all of this automatically. Parents fill out forms online, payments are processed securely, and you have a complete roster of registered players before tryouts begin.

Player Numbering

Assign each player a tryout number that's different from their regular jersey number. This helps evaluators stay objective—they're evaluating #47 rather than "Johnny who played on my son's team last year."

3. On-Ice Evaluation

The drills and scrimmages you run should give evaluators a chance to see every player demonstrate the skills you're evaluating.

Structure Your Sessions

A typical tryout session might include:

• Warm-up skating (10 min) – Forward/backward skating, stops, crossovers
• Skills stations (20 min) – Puck handling, passing, shooting drills
• Small-area games (15 min) – 3v3 or 2v2 to see compete level and hockey sense
• Full scrimmage (20 min) – To evaluate players in game-realistic situations

Evaluation Best Practices

• Use multiple evaluators per session (minimum 3-4)
• Have evaluators focus on different groups of players each session
• Rotate lines and D-pairs to see different combinations
• Include both even-strength and special teams situations if possible
• Score independently—no discussing during evaluation

Common Drills for Youth Tryouts

Skating assessment: Blue line to blue line races, tight turns around cones, backward skating, transitions

Puck skills: Figure-8 puck handling, give-and-go passing patterns, shooting under pressure

Game situations: 1v1, 2v1, 2v2, 3v3 games in small areas

4. Team Selection Process

After tryouts, the real work begins. How you turn evaluation scores into team rosters determines whether your tryouts are seen as fair.

Compile and Normalize Scores

Gather scores from all evaluators and sessions. Some evaluators naturally score higher or lower than others—normalize scores so everyone is on the same scale.

Selection Committee

Form a selection committee that includes coaches but isn't dominated by them. Having non-parent evaluators on the committee adds credibility to the process.

Consider More Than Just Scores

While scores should drive most decisions, also consider:

• Position balance (you need goalies and defensemen, not just forwards)
• Players who were sick or injured during tryouts (if you have prior data on them)
• The borderline cases where scores are very close

Document Everything

Keep detailed records of scores and the reasoning behind roster decisions. If parents have questions later, you want to be able to explain how decisions were made.

5. Communicating Results

How you communicate tryout results matters as much as the results themselves. Poor communication creates drama; professional communication builds trust.

Timing

Set expectations upfront about when results will be announced. Give yourself enough time to make good decisions, but don't leave families waiting longer than necessary.

Method

Options for communicating results:

• Email/notification – Most common and allows families to process privately
• Posted list – Traditional but can create awkward situations
• Phone calls – Good for borderline cases or bad news that needs context

What to Communicate

• The team the player has been placed on
• Next steps (team meeting, first practice, etc.)
• Who to contact with questions
• For players who didn't make the top team, positive framing about development opportunities

Handling Appeals

Have a clear policy about appeals or requests for feedback. Many organizations offer one-on-one meetings where parents can see their child's scores and understand the evaluation. This transparency builds trust even when the news isn't what the family hoped for.

Tools That Make Tryouts Easier

Running tryouts with spreadsheets and paper forms is possible, but it's far more work than it needs to be. Purpose-built tools handle the logistics so you can focus on evaluating players.

HockeySync offers features specifically designed for tryout management:

• Online registration with payment processing
• Automated player numbering and roster generation
• Digital evaluation forms for on-ice scoring
• Score compilation and normalization
• Communication tools for announcing results

The time you save on administration is time you can spend actually watching players skate.

Start Planning Your Tryouts

Well-run tryouts set the tone for your entire season. They show families that your organization is professional, fair, and focused on player development. The investment in planning and organization pays off all year long.

Ready to streamline your tryout process? See how HockeySync can help your organization run tryouts that work for everyone.

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