The season that I played for the VOSHA Titans was during their first year as an organization. The coach was highly respected at the time and had sent out lots of offers to players he wanted to coach. The tryout session involved 3 skates, 2 of which supposed to be invite back only. However during the sessions, they did not filter any of the players, leading to some players that honestly should have been cut still being there and ultimately making the team.

The tryouts included a simple 10 minute warmup skate, and then jumped immediately into a full ice scrimmage. I believe this system is effective, but at the same time could use improvement. You have a bunch of players that have most likely never played with each other before, now having to form team chemistry and play making in only 2-3 skates? I think that if more teams were to implement drills that showed off solo and team skill it would allow some players to show off what they usually couldn’t. The lack of communication between players and coaches was strong, apart from the few players that already had a spot on the team upon arrival.

With this all said, it was still a decent try out, despite the organization being chaotic for its first year. There was a fair amount of players that showed up for the tryouts, however the skill level of them all together was average at best. I am not sure what the organization’s performance is like now, but based off of this first year I would recommend trying out and aiming for a few different teams with more history.