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Hockey Billeting, has anyone done it?


huzer

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I guess this is a relevant topic on the hockey forum, has anyone been a billet family for a player before? We’ve been asked by a friend who coaches a AAA 15U team if we’d host one of their players for the season. It’s quite a responsibility, but it might be good to expose my son to the work/dedication of a top tier player, too. My son will be a competitive squirt goalie next year.

 

Just curious is anyone has any any experience either first hand or known anyone they’d billeted.

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Without it seeming obvious, I’d want to meet the kid at least briefly before making a decision personally. I’m sure there have been both positive and negative experiences, and it likely boils down to the person you’d be billeting. In all likelihood it would be a positive I think

 

I don’t have personal experience with it so maybe someone else can help you out there.

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Thanks for the feedback. Transportation is mostly accommodated, a lot will depend on which school he attends. I was initially a “no”, while my wife has been for it. I think I’m starting to sway a little bit towards the yes. We have the room, we have the money to afford any extra food. I know we’d get paid, but as you said, it’s more a supplement amount and not something that would cover all expenses. It could definitely make for an interesting hockey season coming up!

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On 7/4/2018 at 2:41 PM, huzer said:

Thanks for the feedback. Transportation is mostly accommodated, a lot will depend on which school he attends. I was initially a “no”, while my wife has been for it. I think I’m starting to sway a little bit towards the yes. We have the room, we have the money to afford any extra food. I know we’d get paid, but as you said, it’s more a supplement amount and not something that would cover all expenses. It could definitely make for an interesting hockey season coming up!

God bless you for even considering it. 

 

Its never an easy decision to bring someone into your home for an extended period of time. It’s a major undertaking and hopefully the kids values and appreciates it. 

 

That being said, if you get yourself a good kid I can almost guarantee you it will help you child in the long run. Having a role model to emulate can be very rewarding. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎2018‎-‎07‎-‎04 at 10:56 AM, revvvrob said:

I do a lot with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL. 

 

I don’t know the set up for the league you might billot for - in the USHL the players often have their own transportation. But I would say this - for the players - it’s about the food. I’m not sure the hosts were paid enough to feed the players properly. 

 

That said - if your family loves hockey and feeds well and is basically sociable with teens (not too involved, not too distant) - then it’s an awesome thing to do. The players will be respectful and appreciative (unless you get a real dud - but I found those are rare) and you’ll create a friendship that will last for decades. (Unfortunately, Curtis Hall, a good kid I became friends with got drafted by the Bruins in the 4th round - i can’t easily root for him anymore)

 

you can always message me if i can help more. 

 

Overall - if the transport is figured out and you feed well and are appropriately sociable .... GO FOR IT!!!!

awesome sir.:clap:

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  • 1 month later...

Our billet kid is heading up to Calgary for the Hitmen training camp this weekend. Good kid, and he's fitting in well. They make 15 year old kids big now. He's 5'11", and there are a couple of kids over 6' on his team. When I was 15, I think I was 5'6 or so...as fate would have it, I had my growth spurt AFTER high school. He's been on the ice with the squirt kids at a couple of practice sessions, as his coach ran a "graduating to squirt" weekend camp this summer.

 

Speaking of squirts, things are about to get busy as my son tries out for a competitve team. The "skills and drills" as they call it is a solid two weeks of skating. He's already surpassed my expectation of him, so I just hope he continues to have fun out there. He was on a dominant team last year, so very few losses to deal with (they lost 4 out of 48 games), so it'll be interesting to see how he deals with adversity this year.

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  • 9 months later...

I'll follow up to my post now that the season is over. As for billeting, it was an ok experience. Our transportation arrangement fell apart about 2 weeks into the school year, which made for some challenges. In fact, the family that agreed to provide transportation more often asked us for help, so we severed that relationship fairly quickly. My biggest concern coming in was transportation, and that issue presented itself fairly quickly.

 

As far as the player, he ended up not quite being the role model we expected. It turns out he's the talented kid that's been catered to thus far in his hockey career. He was the big fish in a little pond, and here, became just another fish in a big pond. He wasn't used to putting in the effort and earning his coach's trust. As such, it made for a difficult start to the year, to the point where we were expecting him to not return after the Thanksgiving break. He was benched a few times due to attitude issues. So while we had hoped he would be a positive role model and influence for our son, that wasn't the case. There was literally zero extra effort put in other than what the team had scheduled. Overall, he's a good kid, respectful, polite, and about what you'd expect from a 15/16 year old. Will we do it again? With our own son playing competitive hockey at a different association, no, we will not. The transportation became difficult, and my wife and I want to watch my own son, not divide and conquer during the hockey season.

 

As an interesting note, our billet's 15u AAA coach has resigned his position after several years (and being named the 15u coach of the year) to become the 10u (Squirt) director at my son's association. My son will be a second year squirt this upcoming season, and is one of only 2 returning goalies. My wife and I are hoping he gets placed at his correct playing level, rather than a default AA goalie because of need. Last year, my son's team was again fairly strong (28-10-2). Their lowest placement in any tournament was 2nd, including an OT championship game loss, and a championship game shootout loss, and his team finished second in the state.

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