Manager FAQs

Ice Scheduling FAQs

Our ice schedulers work very hard to ensure practice ice schedules balance out across the season for teams within each age division. All teams will receive their share of “non-prime” ice times: AS-U12 tend to get the early morning ice times and U14-U19 tend to get the late evening ice times.

Why are practice ice schedules released in stages?

• Our ice schedulers are unable to schedule practice ice until we know league game schedules for the 1st half of the season and then again for the 2nd half of the season.
• Game reschedules, tournament blocks, and playoff schedules have a similar domino effect on our ability to schedule practice ice. Practice schedules are released in stages to lessen the impact of these fluctuations.
• If your team adds tournament blocks or game reschedules in your schedule, know that practice ice times for your team and other teams may be impacted as we adjust schedules accordingly. Our ice schedulers will ensure your practice ice balances out, however the assigned time slots or rink locations could be impacted.

Can our team cancel an assigned practice ice time?

No. If you have a practice ice time that your team can’t use, there are a couple options:

• Is it a shared practice? Contact the other team to offer them the full ice.
• Put the practice ice time in the “Practice Pool” to offer it to other SCRA teams, however you are still responsible for the ice time if no one takes it. (Note: This is NOT for game reschedules.) See the Practice Pool pdf for instructions.

Why does the association have to buy “bad” ice times?

• First of all, keep in mind that everyone has different preferences for ice times. There’s no common opinion of what is a “bad” ice time. For example, many families actually prefer the 4pm weekday or 7am weekend ice times!
• SCRA is not able to simply pick and choose which ice times to buy. All ice is purchased as part of our contracts, and “bad” ice times MUST be taken in order to get the “good” ice times.
• SCRA along with all local associations must pool their contracted ice with Ringette Calgary for evenly re-allocating back into practice and game schedules. We are NOT able to simply return “bad” ice.
• All teams must receive some “bad” ice times. The younger age groups generally get the early times because the older age groups must get the late night times.
• Our schedulers work very hard to ensure the “good” and “bad” ice times balance out for teams within each division across the season.

What do the shared ice codes in our SportzSoft schedule mean?

Please note in SportzSoft that the team you are sharing an ice time with will be listed as the visitor.  If your practice time states:

• x15s  - you have 15 minutes full ice at the start
• x15e - you have 15 minutes full ice at the end
• If it does not list another team as the visitor and says “practice” you have full ice