To the entire CBHL family, welcome to 2023! I hope you have all had a safe, enjoyable and relaxing holiday break.  

Now that we have crossed into the new year, I wanted to update you on where we are at in our current season and some things we have coming up on the horizon.  

To date, we’ve played 1,540 games across all age divisions. We have just over 1,000 games over the next seven weekends before playoffs begin. Our migration to the GameSheet scoring system continues to be a success. Using the system has netted our league and our clubs many efficiencies. I can’t thank our GameSheet Gurus and our team managers enough for working through this transition.  

I also want to thank SHOA for sourcing and staffing our games so far. The total game count in our region (CBHL games, non-league games, high school games, tournaments, etc) is outpacing the acquisition of officials in the area, but SHOA has managed to fill our games with almost zero cancellations. 

With the season half-over now, we are gearing up for our playoffs. As mentioned previously, we are shaking up how we run playoffs this year. We’ll still host playoffs over two weekends (February 25 and 26 and March 4 and 5), but instead of hosting playoffs at multiple locations, the majority of games, to include all championship games will be held at one location each weekend. This year, the February event will be at the Ashburn Ice House and the March event will be at the ION International Training Center. We are looking to place the preliminary games in our red conferences at Maryland rinks in order to cut down on travel. We are taking these steps, among other things, to enhance the experience of the participants.  Our 2023 Playoff webpage is now live. You can visit it here: https://www.cbhl.org/2023playoffs.  Check back often for updates.

As we start looking towards next season, we are evaluating how we establish fair and competitive divisions across all age groups. Our goal as a hometown league is to facilitate an environment that will help foster personal and team growth among all of our clubs. To put it plainly, we want to avoid situations where teams either chose to, or are forced to play in divisions that are above their skill level, or below their skill level. I think we can all agree that there is no value for anyone involved when two significantly mis-matched teams play each other.  

Earlier in the season, I established a working group made up of representatives among several clubs in Maryland and Virginia. The working group is being directed by an outside subject matter expert, through collaboration of our Vice Commissioner of Competition. The working group is charged with researching potential options for our league to adopt that will ultimately level out the competition across our league. While there is no 100% perfect way to level the playing field, particularly among 10Us, we have been inspired by what some of our neighboring leagues are doing. The working group will present their findings and recommendations to the board in February. The board will then take further steps, to include potential adoption of the recommendations, from there.   

And speaking of next season, in accordance with league by-laws, the Commissioner and the Vice-Commissioner for Competition are completing their term and are up for election in April. If you are interested in being nominated for any of these key positions, please let your club’s leadership know.

As always, we are looking at ways to improve our league and the experiences we provide our members. I’d like to hear any feedback and ideas you may have about our league. Please send me your inputs HERE. 

Again, welcome to 2023! I’m looking forward to watching the remainder of the season unfold and to watch our kids grow and develop over the next couple of months. Best of luck to everyone as they march towards playoffs!

Tom Crosson  
Commissioner