Oshawa Minor Hockey to partner with Generals

A new partnership has been forged between Oshawa Minor Hockey and the OHL’s Oshawa Generals.

The five-year new agreement was announced at a recent open house hosted by the local minor hockey association.

At the open house discussion centred around changes made to the Oshawa system for AAA teams, as well as the partnership with the Generals.

Technical Director Richard Bercuson says Oshawa Minor Hockey teams will no longer be called the Oshawa Minor Generals, but the Oshawa Generals instead.

“The jerseys they’ll be wearing, the track suits, all the other swag for the organization that used to have the Oshawa Minor Generals logo will now be the Oshawa Generals, and everything will now be done through the Oshawa Generals,” says Bercuson.

“It’s good for them, it’s good for us because they’re a top notch organization,” he says.

He hopes as they attempt to change their approach with the AAA teams, the success enjoyed with the OHL team will crossover to the younger players.

“We’re going to look like the Oshawa Generals, the OHL club, our players will wear what their players wear,” says Erend Wakeford, a member of the Oshawa Minor Hockey board.

Bercuson and Wakeford both expressed their excitement to be partnering with “such a storied franchise.”

“I think it’s exciting for all of our hockey players to take on this look,” says Wakeford. “You talk to most of the kids in Oshawa Minor or elsewhere and they’re fans of the city and the Generals, so I think it’s going to be an exciting opportunity for all of our players.”

At the open house, Wakeford went over the financials coming to the organization in the wake of the changes being made to the AAA hockey program.

Wakeford told The Oshawa Express each team run will receive a boost in funding, but it varies per skill level.

As previously reported by The Express, the Oshawa Minor Hockey Board has agreed to invest over $170,000 into improvements on the ice.

These include off-ice training for peewees, bantams, and midgets, as well as instituting a mental performance training program.

They will also be developing what Bercuson calls the minor hockey equivalent of what professional players and teams use to track analytics.

“Each of these teams will see their budgets increased slightly,” says Wakeford. “Slightly is the operative word for some of the teams. For example, for atom players, those parents will see an increase in their budget of $60 [per player] on the season, for peewee players they’ll see an increase of $235 to their budget, for bantam and minor midget, it’s $485 to their budget… and the major midget is $515.”

He says while it is quite a bit of money being invested into major midget, when a player makes it that far they are generally trying to prolong their hockey careers.

“While $515 might seem like a lot in a vacuum, when you compare that to the amount that most of these players and their parents are investing in their hockey career in any event, it’s a marginal increase, says Wakeford.

He also suggests parents are more than likely spending that money anyway on outside development, such as private skating coaches.

In a previous article published in The Express, it was stated the Oshawa Minor Hockey Association was not affiliated with the house league programs in Oshawa, however, Wakeford wishes to make clear both are affiliates of Oshawa Minor Hockey.

Wakeford wanted to clarify this because he has reached out to both leagues in an effort to build a partnership with them just as they’re building a partnership with the Oshawa Generals.

“[We want] to do whatever we can to improve the hockey experience for Oshawa-born players,” says Wakeford.

Bercuson believes the recent open house went very well, and while there were 50 attendees, that’s not as many people as he would have liked.