Apr 13, 2019 | Jennifer Buttar | 4273 views
Issuing of OHF AAA Waivers
First of all, there is no such thing in minor hockey as a “release”. If a player wishes to try out for or sign with an organization other than their home residential centre/zone, they must be granted an OHF AAA Waiver. Residential eligibility rules are initiated by Hockey Canada and enforced by the Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF) and the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA). We don’t make the rules but we are required to operate within them.
If your child lives within the boundaries of the COWHA zone, they must register, pay for, and attend tryouts. If, by Day 4 of tryouts (this year, Thursday April 18th) they are not offered a position by the Head Coach, they are entitled to an OHF AAA Waiver. Provided there remain rosters spots available, they may choose to continue to tryout for the COWHA team or they may tryout for an adjacent centre/zone. Our adjacent centres/zones are: Ajax-Pickering, Clarington, Markham, North Central, Oshawa, Peterborough, Quinte, Whitby and York-Simcoe. If your child wishes to tryout for a non-adjacent centre/zone (i.e. Richmond Hill), in addition to the OHF AAA Waiver issued by COWHA, they must also be issued a waiver by any centre/zone they “pass through” (in the Richmond Hill example a waiver would also be required from Markham).
If your child wishes to tryout in another league (i.e. GTHL), they would be required to have waivers from all 13 teams in the ETA. If your child is not a resident of the COWHA zone (but a resident of another ETA centre/zone) and you require a waiver either from COWHA as an adjacent zone, or you wish to ‘pass through’ the COWHA zone, to a destination of your choosing, we have the right, under the waiver process, to assess your child as a potential player on our team and, as such, they will be required to register, pay for, and attend COWHA tryouts. A waiver is not a ‘free pass’.
If your home centre/zone waives their residential right to your child, adjacent zones essentially assume the same residential rights to that player, once they enter the zone for tryouts or attempt to pass through that zone until they waive them. We hope this clears up the process for you and reduces the number of calls and emails we will receive as tryouts approach.