Gold Category at the MHL
Rules and Regulation change - Section 18.02

The "GOLD" Category will only apply in the Minor Novice and Novice age Divisions on the following basis:

1. An Association will only be permitted to enter a Team in the Minor Novice Gold Category if it registered a Tyke Select/All Star Team with the MHL in the prior Season;
    
2. An Association will only be permitted to enter a Team in the Novice Gold Category if it had a Team in Minor Novice Gold in the previous Season.
    
3. The Gold Categories will have one game per week;
    
4. The Gold Categories will not be subject to Convening - Teams entered in Gold will remain as such for the entire season;
    
5. An Association will (if eligible) only be permitted to enter one Team in each Gold Category;
    
6. An Association may conduct Association player evaluations & practice sessions simultaneously with or after the "A" tryout period ONLY for players who were registered with that Association during the previous season.
    
7. An Association must submit the GOLD team's summer practice roster to the MHL. Returning players will be required to sign a commitment form/roster form and submit to the MHL by May 15th although players will be required to submit GTHL house league certificates during the normal registration period.
    
8. An Association may not register new players on GOLD teams (i.e. from other MHL Associations or from outside the MHL) until their advertised open registration period or August 1st whichever is later. During Open registration, an Association must be accepting registrations for all age divisions.
    
9. Any failure to adhere to these regulations may result in an Association being denied a team entry in the GOLD division.
   

RATIONALE FOR CHANGE:
 
The original concept of Gold approved by the Board last year did not contemplate open try-outs. The Board's intent in adding the Gold Category was to segregate the Super-7 and Super-8 teams in that such teams were all selected by their coaching staffs at the Super-6 level (i.e. Tyke Select) for the sole purpose of eventually migrating, largely intact, to GTHL AA and AAA Minor Atom teams and were thus creating major distortions in the Minor Novice and Novice Red Categories. The concept of try-outs came out of an Area Presidents' meeting in early April 2004 and was reluctantly accepted by the Board at that time.As part of its consideration of the Associations' "A" and Gold team applications for the 2005-2006 season, the Board additionally reviewed Rule 18.02 and concluded that open try-outs should not be permitted as they encourage tampering and could lead to the "gutting" of other non-Gold Associations' Minor Novice and Novice programs. The Board has no issue with intra-Association Gold try-outs using eligible players - eligible players in this instance being defined as only those registered with the relevant Association in the previous season.