What a Hockey School Website Needs

What the site is actually for

Around now the phone at a hockey school starts ringing. Parents want to know which camp suits a nine-year-old in house league, whether the July goalie week has room, and what time the ice starts.

Each of those calls is a question the website could have answered, and parents comparing camps choose faster when the facts are in front of them.

The site's job this season is to let a parent find the right session for each child, see what it involves, and register and pay without phoning. Adult players need the same, in their own part of the site.

Sessions sorted by age and level

Parents think in birth years and minor hockey divisions, not program names. A camp with a catchy title means nothing until the page says it suits second-year Peewee players and up.

Describe each level plainly: new to skating, skating and stopping with confidence, house league, or rep. A parent can place a child against that in a moment.

Then give every session its own page, laid out the same way:

• Who it is for: birth years, level, and whether goalies have their own group.
• When and where: dates, daily ice times and the rink.
• Who coaches: the lead instructor and how many players each coach takes.
• What to bring, on the ice and off it.
• What it costs: the full price, any deposit and what is included.
• Spots left: open, nearly full, or waiting list only.

The last item draws the most calls once registration opens. A session marked full stops a family from planning a summer around it.

Dates, ice times and rinks

Hockey schools rarely own their ice. Sessions move between arenas, start at 6:15 one week and 4:30 the next, and sometimes split between two rinks in a day.

Put the actual times on the page as text, for every day. A parent arranging work around a camp needs to know whether pickup is at noon or at 3:00.

Give each rink its address, the entrance to use and the parking. When the schedule changes, change the page first and email registered families second, so the two always agree.

The coaches on the ice

Parents want to know who will teach their child. For each instructor, show a photograph, their playing and coaching background, and what they teach: skating, puck handling, passing or goaltending.

Say how many players each coach works with, and who supervises breaks and lunch on full-day camps.

Plain facts persuade more than titles. Four seasons of junior and six years coaching Atom rep tell a parent what they need to know.

A worked example

A hockey school in Prince George runs spring skills evenings, five summer day camps and early-morning adult clinics, on ice at two arenas twenty minutes apart.

Its website was one page and a PDF brochure listing camps by name and date, with no ice times. Registering meant mailing a printed form and a cheque.

Every spring the owner spent his evenings answering the same emails: which camp for which age, what time, which rink, and whether there was room.

The new site gives each session a page from one template: birth years and level, dates and daily times, the rink with parking notes, coaches, what to bring, price and spots left.

Each page ends with a registration form that takes a deposit by card, with the balance due in May. The refund rules sit beside the button, not in a separate document.

The owner updates spots left from his phone each evening. The emails that still arrive are the unusual questions, the ones worth a conversation.

What to bring, on the ice and off it

A family new to hockey camps does not know what to pack. List the full equipment, then the extras: sharpened skates, a labelled water bottle, a spare stick, dryland clothes and shoes, and lunch on full days.

Say what the school provides, such as jerseys or pucks, and anything it requires beyond the usual gear.

Registration and payment

Registration belongs on the session page, not in a separate system. Ask only for what you need now: the player's name, birth year, level and position, and a parent's contact details.

Take a deposit or the full fee by card, and say when any balance is due. Siblings should register in one pass, with any family price applied automatically.

Send a confirmation at once, repeating the dates, times, rink and what to bring. Many parents will look for it in their inbox on the first morning.

Refunds, credits and changes

Refund rules are the part parents read most carefully and schools write least clearly. Put them in plain sentences beside the registration button.

Cover each case: a family cancels before a set date or after it, a player leaves partway through, a session does not fill, or the arena loses the ice.

If the answer is a credit, say how long it lasts and what it covers. A rule written down in February prevents an argument in August.

Adult sessions

Adult players are a different audience. Many started late or are returning after years away, and they worry about their level more than the schedule.

Give adult sessions a page that says frankly who they suit, what a first skate is like and what gear a beginner needs. Ice times matter even more, since most adults skate before work or late at night.

The counter-case

A small school whose camps fill each year with returning families may wonder whether this is needed. Its regulars know the coaches and the rink, and register the day the email goes out.

That school's site can stay simple: dates, times, prices and refund rules for each session, kept current, with registration opening on the promised day.

But regulars still forget times and lose emails, and each year new families arrive knowing none of it. The page they find has to answer them without a phone call.

What to build first

1. List every session with birth years and level.
2. Put the ice times on the page as text.
3. Give each rink its address, entrance and parking.
4. Introduce the coaches and what they teach.
5. Write the refund rules beside the registration button.
6. Show spots left and update them nightly.
7. Take registration and payment on the session page.

Step six keeps the site honest during the rush. A page showing room after a camp has filled sends a parent through registration only to be refunded, which wastes a morning for both of you.

Finding the step where parents abandon a long online registration is covered in the registration form where parents give up.

Frequently asked questions

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