This is an open petition being circulated to USA Hockey members, providing them an opportunity to voice their opinion to the USA Hockey Management Committee about an impending vote on delaying the introduction of body checking until the Bantam (U14) age group. For our part, the undersigned do hereby state that we are completely in favor of body checking at the Pee Wee (U12) age group, and do NOT want USA Hockey to adopt a new initiative delaying body checking to the Bantam (U14) age level. Introducing body checking at the age group (Bantam) that offers the largest disparity in physical maturity is counterintuitive, and is not in the best interests of the USA Hockey membership. We feel it is in the best interests of USA Hockey and player development to leave body checking at it's current age classification (U12) or introduce it younger.