2026 Pennsylvania (March 20-22)

Here is an update for this weekend’s Team New Jersey and Team Pennsylvania tryouts.  We are well aware that everyone has a lot going on during Winter Wars weekend.  We solely hold tryouts in conjunction with this tournament because we know how busy the kids are each weekend so we piggyback it on a weekend we know they will be at the tournament (or at least the majority of them).  With that being said, the scheduling is very difficult as I cannot plan around players also playing up in different age groups or having other activities away from the tournament.  I am also aware that having a very early Sunday morning tryout is not ideal when players have Winter Wars playoff games (potentially that day) and that some once again may be playing up in 18u games which are held very late the night before.  

Typically we would hold all tryouts in Saturday, but the Hockey Dek informed us recently that they booked an 8 hour roller derby event on Saturday which took away our typical tryout timeframe.  So the option was to either get creative with the tryout times or hold them at a rink 45-60 minutes away, which we knew would cause other issues as well.

I am explaining this all to you so you understand why things were scheduled this way and being fully transparent.  So we will get even more creative this weekend, here is how.

• If your child has a conflict with the tryout time for whatever reason they may miss the tryout session, if they are playing in Winter Wars and our staff will be assigned to watch game play of them during Winter Wars and evaluate them there.
  • Full disclosure, with multiple rinks and facilities this is not easy and we cannot guarantee that staff will see every game your child plays and every moment they are on the rink.  We will do our best to watch the during the tournament and get enough evaluation notes on them so we feel comfortable with their skill level.
  • We just recently did this in Colorado for our tryouts there, during our Mile High Mania tournament and it went well.  Getting to watch players in tournament game action is a great way to view them and evaluate.
• Please note that attending the tryout is still preferred.

So what do you need to do?  If your child will NOT be at the tryout session, please go to the following LINK and fill out the info asked so we can make it a point to schedule time to watch them play.  They will not be penalized for this.  BUT we do need to know this in ADVANCE to plan, so please fill out the info at link above asap!
Also, instead of Team NJ and Team PA results being announced on site we will send out results and invite emails on Tuesday next week to everyone.  At that time there will be instructions in the email to register your child for their selected teams.
Any questions, please let me know.

Tryout Fee : covers tryout and each player will receive a State Wars Hockey tryout jersey.