The GOJHL has been denied by the OHA for reclassification… again and again the brain trusts of the league are going to appeal and again… let me predict something here… they will be denied. Again.
Whether you choose to believe that the GOJHL should be classified as a Jr A league or just stop trying to be something that they are not. The main point here is that the league doesn’t seem to know what it is doing.
This is the second time that the GOJHL has approached the OHA to bang on the door and yell, ‘we are a Jr A league, let us play with the rest of you!’ and this is the second time that they were not only denied, but told, ‘we can’t help you… go see the CJHL because they can decide this, not us’
So why are they doing this? Why are they going through the wrong channels to get what they want? What are they trying to expose or display? Who is running this ship?
Lets look at a couple scenarios that explains why the GOJHL and their commissioner, Chuck Williams are going this route.
- Confusion – It is simple, with all the paperwork that has to be done, this can all be confusing. Sign on the dotted line here, submit form 3-A if you put a check box at 2-F or 2-H but not 2-R? And in the end they wanted to go to ‘big brother’ to make sure they dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s.
- Renegades – There is a rumour going around that all of this posturing with the OHA and soon to be the OHF is all for show because the GOJHL will break away, either as a whole or as individuals and create an ‘outlaw’ Jr A loop much like the one that entered their territory last season. Lets be honest about something right here, right now. If the GOJHL is doing this just to become an unsanctioned league and are able to call themselves Jr A, then they truly need new leadership at the helm because this would be the dumbest decision they could make. They lose their association with either Jr A clubs or OHL teams. Not to mention call ups from Jr C. and if you want to wiggle down that worm hole some more, there are about another half dozen major reasons that they should not entertain this idea.
- Exposition – Maybe all of this is a game for the GOJHL. Unhappy with being the OJ’s little brother who has all their nice things taken away from them when they want it the most. This game is nothing more than to expose what back room deals have been made to make sure certain leagues are able to keep control over others. To show that the pecking order is predetermined and that no matter how hard they try to be better than their competition, they will never be compensated or recognized for their hard work.
- PR Stunt – If the GOJHL is in fact, equivalent to some of their Jr A counterparts and just never get the recognition they deserve then this is a great move. You are in the public eye, telling people, ‘hey we tried to be a Jr A league so we can show how good our players are, but they won’t let us.’ Thus garnering public sympathy and hopefully an outcry that the OHA rubberstamps their application to be a Jr A league. But the problem remains the same. It isn’t the OHA that decides this, it is the CJHL. And you still haven’t knocked on their door asking to be let in. But if the GOJHL gets more eyeballs and rear ends in the stands because of this attention, maybe a couple curious scouts sit in on a showcase or two and another NHL draft pick comes from their league, then this PR stunt has ultimately paid off.
No matter what the actual scenario is, whether it is listed above or not, the GOJHL will not be allowed to join the Jr A club.
Chatting with individuals over the past few weeks has revealed that it is very unlikely, even if the GOJHL goes through the proper channels, that it will be approved for reclassification. Even though the league may be better run than the past few years, and some of their member clubs could compete with the big boys of Ontario Jr A, the group as a whole will remain in Jr B.
As one contemporary put it, and I am paraphrasing, ‘The GO has been told for years that they are equal to Jr A… now that they want it, they can’t have it.’
It is pretty infuriating to be told you can be anything you want when you grow up only to find out that it was all a lie.
The GOJHL has its place in the Hockey Canada hierarchy. Like it or not, they are a Jr B league, arguably the best in the nation, and that is all they will ever be. As TJHN reported, the league knows the path to put in a proper application, and they know that they have to go to the CJHL and have the member leagues vote on it.
The day that the GOJHL submits their application properly is the day they get denied and the dream is ultimately dead.
But maybe there is a bigger problem here. Hockey Canada is broken down into the CHL and CJHL which is broken down into their own leagues and member clubs, then you have provincial associations and federations and then those have their own memberships and that gives you this wide reaching web with various levels that no one can understand. Webs that make you ask a question like, how can the CCHL build a new development model and be successful at it but you can’t have that happen in the OJHL where there is a greater potential for success…
But that is a discussion for another day. Bottom line is the GOJHL appears to be doing all this for show, to bring attention to themselves and have more clicks at the turn style, whether it is paying customers or more scouts that can lead to better development for their players. And I for one applaud their efforts. Anyway that you can put more eyeballs on your product, the greater chance for success you will have as a league and that leads to greater opportunities for the players who choose to go there.
Good luck to the GOJHL in their reclassification process appeal. I can’t wait for the third attempt that you guys make. Maybe that time you will go straight to the top, sit down at the big table and ask that big question, ‘can we play with the big boys now?’
