How does your league weed out ringers?

[Boy Hedican]

Just wondering what some of the other leagues do to prevent ringers from showing up in the low levels. The biggest league in SJ (and the country, actually) does a terrible job managing it.

What does your league do?

Can you think of a FAIR way to do it?

Thoughts?

Click to read more...

 

[blueberrydanish]

In my league the big thing is just knowing everybody that plays at the rink really but its probably a smaller community. When new players come in though obviously some people aren't aware of their ability and if they have already paid for a team and don't get moved quickly usually they stick with them for the season which can really suck sometimes. I kinda just chalk it all up to beer league standards in terms of the management for that kind of thing so not much you can do about it sometimes.

 

[Wilch]

I think people generally do a better job at filtering out these 'ringers' in smaller leagues/communities.

I remember playing for a bottom tier basketball league for my friend (many of whom never played organized basketball), and there was always 2-3 teams in the league who'd always win every game by massive blowout margins. God I hate them for ruining what would've been a fun experience.

 

[Kritter471]

The league I play in right now is small enough that we all know the relative skill level.

But IIRC, in a couple leagues in Dallas, you have a "registered substitutes" list that you have to submit before the season of the people who might fill in for you. That makes it a little easier to police since the rink can keep a handle on who is there and who is not.

 

[Recast]

Just wondering what some of the other leagues do to prevent ringers from showing up in the low levels. The biggest league in SJ (and the country, actually) does a terrible job managing it.

What does your league do?

Can you think of a FAIR way to do it?

Thoughts?

Nothing. Tbh, it seems like sometimes they promote it. Also, they don't do anything against biased reffing either.

How do you prevent it? Watch your leagues games. It's your product. Watch it, evaluate it and make the necessary moves. I realize a lot of people are just in it for the money and so their team has teams to play against but, I'm just saying what I would do.

 

[hskates21*]

Nothing during the regular season but you need to have played a min of 5 games to play in the playoffs

 

[NikolaiCakebreaker]

Things aren't any better in Oakland, although there are some rumblings about changes for the upcoming season.

 

[Ruslan Zainullin]

the league i play in is so high level and competitive that we dont have to worry about ringers

 

[Guffaw]

the league i play in is so high level and competitive that we dont have to worry about ringers

Aren't we special

Typical men's league here. It's not really monitored very well, but our league is pretty competitive so it hasn't been a problem. Most of the games are 1-2 goal games.

By ringers do you mean teams or players? Noticed a couple goalies in the over 40 division that took their masks off and looked mid 20's which I thought was BS. Start checking ID's.

As for teams I always wondered why someone would want to stack a team and play a full season blowing teams out. I've been on both sides of that and it isn't fun for either team in my opinion.

I would rather lose to a better team knowing I gave 100% than win 10-2 against a bunch of scrubs.

 

[The Devil In I]

My roller hockey league has 8 different divisions, and most people keep coming back..so the guy who runs it generally knows where people belong. There's kind of an un-written rule that the lowest division is allowed 1 higher division player per team (within reason, can't have D1/2/3, semi-pro players playing in D8..and D7 players in D8 are no big deal).

Teams need to have subs listed on their roster before the 3rd game of the season, and have them approved..so there's no sub-ing in ringers.

Players must play 5 out of 10 games in order to be eligible for playoffs, to prevent teams adding a guy who doesn't pay part of the team fee..just to use him for the playoffs.

Nothing can be done about a new player joining a team that no one knows, and having him be too good for the division. But he won't be allowed back in that division the following season.

 

[shoeshine boy]

we have an eval skate before the season starts. all new players and players who have been out of the league for 3 years are REQUIRED to attend. team captains evaluate them and a couple of board members evaluate as well to look for people dogging it. we run 4 or 5 simple drills and then do a scrimmage. the most telling drills are backwards crossovers. if a guy can do a seamless backwards crossover both ways then he has no business playing in the lower levels. occasionally we will have guys dogging it but usually once the scrimmage starts they forget to be lazy and start playing for real.
if after all this they STILL dog it and we don't catch them we WILL remove them mid-season and either put them on a higher level team that needs a player or just give them a pro-rated refund and invite them to come back next season and play in their proper level.

 

[McDugan]

By ringers do you mean teams or players? Noticed a couple goalies in the over 40 division that took their masks off and looked mid 20's which I thought was BS. Start checking ID's.

Well, it's different for goalies. It's not like a younger goalie gets to put his youth to great advantage. (He's not skating all over gaining a step on older skaters, etc.) If there aren't any 40+ y/o goalies, then you're faced with a choice between having no goalie on one or more teams or bringing in someone who doesn't meet the age requirement. Pretty obvious to me which is the better option.

 

[Pog Form]

I don't think much is done to weed out individuals where I play. That said, though, they tend to re-align the divisions twice each season, so if someone is skating through opponents and scoring 4 or 5 points a game, chances are his team will be winning and they'll get bumped up a division. If anything, it's more of a punishment to the rest of the team.

 

[Ricky Bobby]

The division realignment is something I've scene in all of the bigger, well-run leagues.

I've also scene it in smaller league (i.e. 6 teams) where players get ranked and there is a draft held at the start of every year with a captain appointed from each team. This ensures the ringers are spread out among the teams and also lets everybody across the league get to know each other which leads to a more enjoyable playing experience after you've got to know a lot of the guys after a year or two.

 

[Pog Form]

There's also a minimum number of regular season games that need to be played by each player in order to be eligible to play in the playoffs. The number pretty small, though, like a quarter of the games or something like that.

 

[tarheelhockey]

One suggestion: if you're concerned about a ringer, talk to the scorekeeper before the game and ask him/her to relay the concern to the refs and the rink manager. It's the scorekeeper's job to review the rosters for legality, and most of the time they are happy just to have something to do other than watch bad hockey

That way you don't have to directly play the role of "squeaky wheel", and chances are the issue will be taken care of.

 

[BigBlue11]

anybody notice that concussion crosby has?

 

[Jarick]

Usually if a player is leading or near the top of the division in scoring, they will get moved up at the end of the season. If they are dominating, they get moved up mid-season.

We've had a couple players get moved up mid-season, and both frankly deserved it. One player was scoring 2-3 goals per game as a defenseman and was the only reason we were winning games. The other guy came in as a goalie where we were allowing 5+ goals per game, and we went on a win streak allowing 0 or 1 goals per game until they moved him, and we went right back to 5+ goals per game.

 

[mooseOAK*]

Things aren't any better in Oakland, although there are some rumblings about changes for the upcoming season.

The sign-in sheet is a waste of time because the scorekeeper and the refs don't pay attention to who is on the ice. Maybe they will have chips implanted in the players to prove who is actually playing in the games.

 

[Thepandamancan]

The rink owner has evaluation nights before the season and watches all the guys who try to get into the beginner league. It's technically mandatory, but a lot of guys slip through anyway. This season the best team in the league has two ringers and it was quite scary seeing them speed down the wings on a 2 on 0.

We've realized, there's really no way to stop it...there will always be guys too good. The funny thing is, as a punishment of sorts, they get moved up to a division too good the following season and then they get humbled.

 

[SenzZen]

The division realignment is something I've scene in all of the bigger, well-run leagues.

I've also scene it in smaller league (i.e. 6 teams) where players get ranked and there is a draft held at the start of every year with a captain appointed from each team. This ensures the ringers are spread out among the teams and also lets everybody across the league get to know each other which leads to a more enjoyable playing experience after you've got to know a lot of the guys after a year or two.

I've experienced both of these, and they work pretty well.

 

[Boy Hedican]

The division realignment is something I've scene in all of the bigger, well-run leagues.

I've also scene it in smaller league (i.e. 6 teams) where players get ranked and there is a draft held at the start of every year with a captain appointed from each team. This ensures the ringers are spread out among the teams and also lets everybody across the league get to know each other which leads to a more enjoyable playing experience after you've got to know a lot of the guys after a year or two.

I've always wanted to play in a league that does this. The only issue is you may not get to play with friends. Maybe if there were two leagues...one ran by a draft and the usual.

 

[ChiTownHawks]

The 6 team league that myself and the other captains run is about to enter it's third season and we are very sensitive about ringers. Our teams are balanced by the captains every season and the thing we focus on the most is parity. If one team is really struggling and another team is dominating then more than likely at the end of the season a couple better players from the dominant team will be moved to the struggling team and vice versa.

Also every player that enters our league must fill out survey about their hockey past and go through an evaluation skate before they can be added to the league. Our league is very popular and our waiting list is long so we have no problem telling players to hit the road as we always have people to replace them.

Last year we had to ask a player to leave b/c he was too good and just this past Sunday at our eval we did not allow 2 guys to enter the league b/c they were simply too good.

We are fortunate that we have complete control over our league though and I know that not everyone can say that.

 

[Jarick]

I should also add that my league has over 100 teams across 8 levels.

 

[bigwillie]

Well, it's different for goalies. It's not like a younger goalie gets to put his youth to great advantage. (He's not skating all over gaining a step on older skaters, etc.) If there aren't any 40+ y/o goalies, then you're faced with a choice between having no goalie on one or more teams or bringing in someone who doesn't meet the age requirement. Pretty obvious to me which is the better option.

I actually played with an over 40 team a couple of times in high school when their normal goalie couldn't make it. First time I was 15 and I was probably the worst goalie in the tournament.