MAHA D4 End of season 2026 update
Dear Association Leaders,
As we take a short break between too many emails and teams forming, I wanted to touch on several topics that come up time and time again. Last season, we had a huge uptick in discipline hearings and do not want a repeat of that. Rules are in place, we go out of our way to make everyone informed, and the district council tries to be fair with addressing issues….yet somewhere things fall off and rules are broken. Please share this with your teams, so I don’t have to share it personally when they tell me they didn’t know.
We will cover these topics again during the season kickoff meeting, but I wanted to share some highlights ahead of rostering to help teams avoid issues.
A summary of recent rule changes can be found on the website: https://www.maha.org/news_article/show/1355032
Distribution List: I got a couple of complaints from people saying that they were not getting emails (I will add that I only send out a few per year, and the website is the preferred method of posting information). If you received this are are no longer in your role or are leaving your board, please share information about the incoming president so that I can update my list and be sure that those who need to know are getting this information. This can happen at any time depending on when your elections are.
STATE CHAMPS!: Congratulations to the 12U Little Caesars AAA girls, 16U Little Caesars AAA girls, 19U Little Caesars AAA girls, 10U Tier 2 HoneyBaked girls, 12U Tier 2 Livonia Knights girls, 14U Tier 2 HoneyBaked girls, 16U Tier 2 Little Caesars Farmington Hills girls black, 16U HoneyBaked AAA, 15O HoneyBaked AAA, 14U Little Caesars AAA, 13O Little Caesars AAA, 2013 Little Caesars AAA, 2014 Little Caesars AAA, 2015 Little Caesars AAA, and 2016 HoneyBaked gold teams for representing the district and winning state championships!
NATIONAL CHAMPS!: Extra congratulations to the 14U Little Caesars AAA and 14U Tier 2 HoneyBaked girls teams for winning their National Championships!
Tryout/tampering: As always, we get plenty of complaints. Please remember there is no permission that can be given for players to be allowed to try out early. Tier 1 rules allow early discussions with players at some age groups, but they must still wait for tryouts of official offers. Please be mindful of the fall tryout dates as they very by age.
Penalties can be severe for coaches or players violating this rule, so please respect your outgoing players and display sportsmanship in building teams fairly.
USA Hockey bylaw 10: There have been several emails sent by MAHA about this and some coaching suspensions for violating this rule. Be sure to document any discipline and provide those involved with an opportunity to give their side before taking action.
For more information: https://www.mahad4.org/page/show/9282966-procedures-and-proformas-for-holding-a-hearing
Financial Dispute Policy: The MAHA Financial Dispute Policy is still in effect but also bound by USA Hockey bylaw 10. If you have any delinquent families, please attempt to handle via a hearing and let me know prior to the start of the season. This prevents families from avoiding balances owed and moving to another association.
Rosters: Cut and paste from last year! “Roster, roster, and more rosters….do I really need to tell people that they should make sure that they have a valid roster BEFORE playing and to double check to make sure that all players and coaches are listed on the roster? This is hockey 101 and the best advice that I can share is to not take anyone’s word and wait until you have a certified roster in hand. Speaking of rosters, remember that the registrars that create the rosters for you are USA Hockey and not MAHA. That said, while they assist us with tracking things like out of district or out of state players, they hold no obligation to make sure that you are following all MAHA rules. That role falls onto the district council and is the main focus of credentialling. This goes for any other MAHA specific rules as well.”
For teams who are allowed to start early August 1st, please note that your spring roster expires when you begin the new season.
50% Player Movement Rule: Speaking of rosters, teams (HC/AC/MGR) moving from one association/club to another shall not have a team with more than 50% of its players from the previous team. This can be waived with a signed letter submitted to me from both association/clubs. If this happens to slip past registrars, rosters will be voided and coaches will face discipline. Do not try to finesse your way around this rule and DO NOT try to place blame on the district council for your team falling apart after the season starts.
Service of Game Misconducts/Matches: Players or coaches who receive game misconducts are required to sit the next scheduled game. In contrast Match Penalties require the player or coach to be suspended from ALL team activities until A) they receive and accept a standardized discipline offer (clarify if the acceptance allows them to return to practice if it is several games long), B) They have a hearing and are found not responsible for the violation, or C) They have a hearing and serve the suspension that is issued. These hearings are held by a statewide discipline committee and are much more efficient than when we used to hold District hearings once a month.
Unserved suspensions follow the player into the next season and even onto a new team. The purpose is to avoid the increase in end of season penalties that we see each year. Coaches should check with new players to assure that they are eligible to play in their first games. This is tracked but will not show up on roster checks. I will consider sending a list of players in the future.
Reviewing Scoresheets: Along the lines of Game Misconducts and Match Penalties, coaches must review the scoresheets after each game to make sure they are correct. Last year we created a process to submit errors for review within 7 days….and we corrected nearly 30 mistakes. I heard that some officials were suspended for repeatedly missing errors, and we also had a few coach suspensions for unserved penalties (which were claimed to be errors).
Do NOT transfer paper scoresheets into GameSheet and come to credentialling without the originals. If it is discovered that any team forged the signature of a game official, there will be severe discipline (even if everything was transferred properly).
Out-of-District players: There are new rules involving out-of-district players. Please see the attachments online for details: https://www.maha.org/2026tryouts
Out-of-State players: The Michigan residency policy remains in place. One important part of this policy is that all Tier 2 and Tier 3 out of state players must submit an interstate waiver (found online). This form is to be completed, sent to the originating affiliate, and then they will forward this to me. This is part of eligibility and must be signed by both before any participation! We had a few hearings last year because teams were not aware of this–despite it being in the emails for years (see note above about rosters and USA Hockey rules vs MAHA rules).
Split Season: Both 16U and 18U teams will continue to have their State Tournament in October. Please be prepared to get rosters in early and games scheduled as many teams found this to be a tight turnaround last year.
Team Names: New rule this season reads in part: Teams may not use ‘Selects’, ‘Elite’, ‘Premier’, or the like in their team’s name or market themselves as such including but not limited to tryout advertising, jerseys, player enticement, etc. Teams found in violation shall have the Head Coach suspended up to the remainder of the current season and the following season. Associations/Clubs rostering these teams shall be subject to disciplinary action.
As always, this email has grown longer than I planned or wanted…but people still claim they didn’t know, weren’t properly informed, or that we didn’t cover every minor detail. Again, these are highlights only…anything not included in this email is covered in the MAHA Annual Guide (control+F is your friend).
Thanks for all you do and please share with your teams,
John Popma
MAHA District 4 Chairman