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Pickup Hockey Finder
By Bethany | September 5, 2008
A while ago I received a comment from Derrik at Pickup Hockey Finder, and I began talking to him. Here’s an interview that I did with him on his site. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment here, or you can use the Contact Information on his site.
1. What is the site used for?
Ultimately the site has been designed with with two main goals in mind. First for individual player to easily find pickup hockey opportunities. Second, to make it easier for pickup hockey organizers to manage their games and the players who are attending.
2. What made you want to create it?
Don Giroux and I (Derrik) have been organizing pickup games for about a year now. We ran into a number of hurtles along the way, i.e. finding players, keeping track of who is coming, collecting money, etc. Don and I just wanted to skate, and found it easier to invest the time in organizing our own game rather then trying to find other peoples games (which was difficult as well). After 6 months or so, we saw an opportunity and had the desire to create a service where people could find pick up hockey games all over North America. This service, pickuphockeyfinder.com, would make it is easier for the casual or dedicated player to find ice time in their own city, as well as others.
Being able to easily locate games in other cities would come in handy for the seasoned traveler or for someone who relocates to a new area (because of work or what have you) this is an opportunity for ice as well as getting to know new people in those
areas.
3. What are your goals for the site?
To continue to develop an easy to use, user friendly system, that will help the individual skater and pick up game organizer. We will also be adding a third dimension to our website, a team manager system. This will allow teams to sign up and find scrimmages vs. other teams. We have been talking to a few hockey leagues and one area they would like to see is a method for players on a group level be able to find other groups. For instance, the AHA (Adult Hockey League) has an annual ski trip and they often seek ice time with players in their destination city. We are working towards a way to make this an easy process. Another use for the system we are working on is for arena managers to promote and organize their open hockey time slots.
4. Anything exciting coming up?
Growth. Trying to get games posted all over the country. We are also talking with the AHA about organizing their pick up games, but those talks are early. I can tell you we would be honored to post their games, as well as anyone else that organizes a game. We have also been talking with some local arenas on using the site to help organize their public pick up games. They have the same trouble (not enough players, too many players, no goalies, too many goalies, etc). If we can take that national, it would be huge for the hockey community.
5. Anything people should know or need to know before signing up?
Its free! We send two emails a week with upcoming ice times. We hope to taper that down to one a week when we have more momentum. We are also planning on having t-shirts and jerseys with our logo on it, soon…
We have dedicated many hours to this project because of our love for the game. We truly believe this will be a great tool for hockey players and organizers alike.
Topics: Blog Pimpin, Random |
September 5th, 2008 at 3:03 am
Thanks for that. We are really excited and would love to hear any feedback.
January 29th, 2009 at 1:29 am
I found the following site when searching for pickup hockey games. http://www.jmshockey.com/
It is a pickup hockey website dedicated to Minneapolis. I am interested in trying hockey but don’t know how to start in Columbus.