FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHO IS PNAHA?

The Pacific Northwest Amateur Hockey Association is a USA Hockey Affliiate serving the State of Washington. PNAHA is part of the USA Hockey Pacific District which includes the States of Alaska, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington; and one non-affiliated State: Hawaii. PNAHA consists of its Associations, who assign Directors to represent them at PNAHA meetings and who elect the PNAHA officers.

WHEN DOES THE SEASON BEGIN AND WHAT IS THE ICE TIME PER WEEK?

Our 2 to 3x weekly practices will begin during the first week of September. The month of September will only be team practices. After tiering in early October, we will typically be on the ice 4 times a week -- 2 practice times and 2 game times. Our weekly practice ice times will be set practice times and will be consistent for the entire year. Our two games occur during the weekends -- typical game schedules are Saturday afternoon game times with Sunday mid-morning games to accommodate travel.

GAME & PRACTICE INFO FOR PEEWEE, BANTAM, MIDGETS FOR 2023/24

TBD / Working on that right now… check back in Juily 1

WHAT IS TIERING?

During the beginning of October, there could be one Tiering Tournament for the Bantams (no tiering for Pee Wees), where all the teams in the PNAHA League will play six games against each other and be ranked. After the Tiering Tournament, PNAHA will set up the game schedule for the rest of the season so that your team will play other teams comparable to your skill level.

HOW MANY GAMES WILL WE PLAY DURING OUR SEASON?

There are typically 26 + games played during the regular season (not including any games played in tournaments). Half of the games are Home games and the other half are Away games so we plan to travel 8-10 weekends away. Typically, we travel within Western Washington to locations like Everett, Tacoma, Seattle and Tri-Cities. Since all the games are arranged by PNAHA, the families leave Portland/Vancouver on Saturday morning and return by dinnertime on Sunday afternoon. The team always stays in a sponsored hotel for the nightly rate between $95 to $130 a night dependent on location.

HOW MANY DAYS OF SCHOOL WILL WE MISS?

After the game schedule is set, it will be unlikely that we will miss any school during the regular league season. However, if the team elects to attend tournaments outside of league play, we will typically miss a Friday of school and return home on Sunday afternoon. In 2022/23 season, we missed a total of 2 Fridays of school.

I HAVE A YOUNG SKATER WHO WANTS TO START HOCKEY

That’s great! Your youngsters Birthyear (age) will be used to determine what programs will be best for them to get started. It is widely recommended that prospective players be able to skate safely, the skill level required to skate safely varies on age. Our home arena is a partner in offering USA Hockey/US Figure Skating’s Learn to Skate program. For more information on our home arena’s Learn to Skate classes click HERE

 VYHA TRANSPORTATION AND LODGING POLICY