EPISODE 39 | Nashville Youth Hockey Director

🎧 Listen to Episode 39 or watch: EPISODE 39 JAMES PERKINS

He's Run the NYHL Since 2013. His Advice to Parents Hasn't Changed.

There's a conversation James Perkin has with parents more often than he'd like.

A kid didn't make the AA team. Mom or Dad wants to know why, and what it's going to take to fix it.

James's answer is always the same:

If you want to get to that next level, it's on you.

Not "get more lessons." Not "switch clubs." Just — the kid has to want it, and it has to show on the ice.

That's the thread running through the whole conversation — 13 years of running Nashville youth hockey, and a director who still thinks the game gets to decide who sticks with it, not the parents.

👋 Meet the Guest James Perkin is the Hockey Director for the NYHL and the Nashville Flyers.

He grew up in Calgary, playing AAA for the Calgary Royals — 61 games, 47 goals, 46 assists, and a very Jarome Iginla–inspired 127 penalty minutes.

He was drafted into the USHL by Lincoln, then played four years of Division I hockey at Bowling Green, where he met his wife.

A job offer brought them to Nashville in 2013. He coached a year with the Junior Preds before the NYHL hockey director role opened up.

He now runs the league and coaches the Flyers' 10U and 16U AA teams himself.

🔢 The Number That Matters Travel hockey has been called a $43 billion industry.

Not because the on-ice product changed that much.

Because somewhere along the way, house league became the thing you settle for instead of the thing you choose.

James sees it in his own numbers. When he started, more kids played house than travel. Now it's flipped — and he's blunt about why: some associations quietly trash-talk house league to sell tryouts.

"I don't know if I want to say trash talk the house league, but they don't say the nicest things about it."

🏆 "Elite" Means What, Exactly? Sound familiar? It should — it's the same story every travel sport is telling right now.

James doesn't dress it up:

"You can tell who's in it for the money and who's in it to grow the kids and grow the game."

House league was never the consolation prize. For most families, it's the whole point — learn the game, have fun, go home. The problem isn't that travel exists. It's the idea that you're not a real hockey family unless you're in it.

"Everybody starts at the house league, and then they end up at beer league. All roads lead to beer league."

🧠 What ADM Got Right — and Where It Missed James gives the American Development Model real credit: more touches, more efficient practices, especially for the youngest kids.

But he's clear about the tradeoff:

"I think Canada's adopted more of the ADM style too... but where the ADM struggles is the hockey IQ."

Kids aren't getting the unstructured, figure-it-out-yourself ice time that used to build game sense — the pond hockey, the pickup scrimmages, the "go watch one player the whole game, not just the puck." His fix for parents: turn on a game and have your kid track a single position, not the highlight reel.

He's also still not sold on the small-net experiment for 10U full-ice play:

"It doesn't make a lot of sense going from half-ice small nets to full ice and keeping the small nets."

🎯 How Do You Know When a Kid Has the Drive? Same answer he gives every time:

"You can usually tell on the ice — the effort, the second effort. If they have a smile on their face the whole time and they're working their butts off, you have a pretty good idea how much they love it."

And the lessons trap — parents booking a shooting coach for a kid who's never picked up a stick on his own — gets no mercy:

"You're just wasting money."

His rule: he's not signing his own kids up for extra lessons unless they ask first.

💬 The Key to Coaching Communication and motivation, in that order.

"You've got to know your players, whatever age group it is, so you can adapt and teach different ways with different kids."

And a line worth sitting with, for coaches and parents both:

"You are their coach. You're not their buddy."

Building a program culture, he says, starts before the whistle ever blows — hire good people first, hockey résumé second, and hold the line on attitude and work ethic once the season starts.

🏁 Centennial Update Construction on the rink's back lot hasn't started yet, but changes are already visible — a repaved parking lot, fresh paint, and a new classroom space where a pro shop is eventually planned. Bigger changes are still coming; James says they're waiting on the next phase.

🔗 Resources from This Episode 🏒 Nashville Flyers / NYHL — for tryout and program info, reach out through the league

🌐 Youth Sports Hub — https://www.beerleaguelive.com/youthsportshub

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