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Perhaps you have the one who learned and the one who was best backwards?

Led by one guy who learned from the best of the best.

We covered this pretty heavy a few months ago I believe. Extortion lol.

That's straight up robbery. No wonder people choose to play elsewhere.

The birth year that I am most familiar with has everyone at North Catholic and Excel.

I mentioned this before but here goes - Excel fees are separate from PPE and NCHS fees and you are all in for around $30K per year. Chump change. It is not in writing to my knowledge, however all U15, U16 and U18 PPE players attend NC and are in Excel as I know players currently on PPE teams that would be attending Central or other high schools if it were not mandatory......cha-ching.

Is this true? I always assumed it was just "recommended". Is the Excel program included in the season fees for 16U and 18U PPE players?

What I saw in the end was the older kids parents buying into excel trying to get onto ppe (high school ages). There were a few excel / NC kids playing for esmark and the various other “AAA” teams locally. I know one guy that put his kid in the program hoping it would help his kid make ppe. At the time this player would have been U16 and it didn’t help. The following year he went back to his HS. I can’t speak about the younger kids, I don’t think that was happening yet. If it was, I wasn’t aware.

For HS students, Excel begins before school lets out and is mandatory for all PPE players at that level, so your comment on the "older kids parents see the bullshit of the Excel program" does not make sense to me.

OK. Keep telling yourself that.

That isn't true. At the high school level, the kids need to be able to get their before school lets out. Hence the North Catholic version of the program.

So glad someone made this point.

Great point. Isn't the USA Hockey recommendation 3+ practices per game? 60 games is crazy for peewee especially since the kids can also play Middle School.

NO need for a squirt or even peewee to be playing that many games, then you wonder why when those BY are older that no ones getting drafted in tier 1 Jrs or Nahl. they've already skimped on development with to many games and not enough practices.

Kids develop better with practice than they do with games. If you bring it back to what Preds are doing by going independent, the SHAHA '09 model is probably more economical. Play your PAHL schedule, add a few tournaments, and then a fill in the rest of your 50-60 games by playing multiple "home at home exchanges". Cost would be more than PAHL, but you are getting more out of it, but still substantially less than going full independent or PPE.

that's bc the older kids parents see the bullshit in the the excel program..... of course the younger has the waiting, bc they are drinking the kool aid.

Strictly financially speaking, the Excel grade school and middle school programs are actually not a bad deal at all. I have no idea how the on ice instruction is though. From a developmental standpoint I think that private/small group sessions are awesome for developing individual skills and should be utilized by all level of players from house league to AAA. Just like all kids should be shooting pucks in the driveway everyday, or doing dryland training exercises. But I definitely agree with @BACKCHECKING that the more games a kid plays the better chance he has to develop his hockey IQ and his teamwork skills. You simply cannot replicate game type scenarios during a private lesson. We have talked about this subject at length here how todays players are all individually skilled, but severely lacking in the team play aspect of the game. Both sides of the player needs to be developed, and early on because bad habits are formed very easily at the mite/squirt/peewee levels.

I agree going to skating and skill lessons as much as possible will help. The speed of the game that the AAA kids are playing at can not be developed by private lessons or playing the same AA teams that have maybe 1 kid who can play AAA, 3 kids that are AA and the rest that should be playing house. I am not saying its right, but its reality.

This is a good idea. especially if your favorite guy is running tryouts

Theses days skills guys are anywhere from 40-60 for group lessons. A private is usually more. Sometimes you have to pay the rink 10 a session. Now, kids take a ton of lessons early on and make the PPE/Lil 66ers. They can usually hang on for a while. Cause most of the kids do Excel. There is a wait list for Excel at the younger ages.

This is a good idea.

Sure it can start to add up, one day a week is great for younger kids working with a skating coach. My oldest worked with his skating & skills coach until he was done playing. Constant reps of edge work is the best thing, even as they get older. The pros still work with skating coaches. I guess in a sense, I was fortunate what hockey cost just a few years ago compared to now. The landscape has changed as I’ve stated before. There are ways to manage skating and skills sessions that won’t break the bank. In the summer, put a group together with 3/4 kids and skate twice a week your favorite guy.

Someday I think parents will realize that all this doesn't really matter until kids start hitting and hit puberty. I can't even count how many "all star" mites/squirts/peewees fade away once they start hitting and kids hit growth spurt. PPE has absolutely no loyalty to any parents either. There are countless parents who pay for years then when it comes to U16/U18 their kids get cut for someone better. You really would be better off working with a skating coach as much as possible in their youth and take private or small group lessons. It doesn't matter if you play "independent" schedule with 50 games or a solid PAHL with 30. Kids don't develop as much during games as they do in lessons/practice. The PPE practices are just as much of a joke as others. I've seen 60+ kids on the PPE ice trying to run drills and no one takes the time to stop and work 1:1 with kids. Again, invest in skating time and if your kid is good enough, he'll make AAA. That's simple. Otherwise you're spending money hoping you get some leverage. I'm sure there are plenty of parents on this board who know kids who were PPE when they were kids and now are average players on their HS team.

My one son has taken lessons from a bunch of different instructors over the years. At times he never misses a week and other times he doesn't go for a few months. The way I see it is that 1/3 of the kids taking lessons are already playing AAA. 1/3 are not even close to playing AA. The rest are in between. And for the most part, most of the time the kids taking lessons are Squirts and Peewees. I would think that in order to significantly improve a kid better take at least a couple of lessons a week on top of his or her practices. Most parents aren't willing to put the time or money to this extent. Basically, a hundred a week. 400 a month. 7 month season total about 2800. Plus the off season when it probably is even more expensive cause you are probably trying to get you kid on the ice ton. It is rare that a parent trying to save money by playing PAHL will spend that kind of money. More likely, a parent/kid wants to play AAA but isn't good enough so they take lesson to try and improve.

Not necessarily, your kid will develop better and get more out of a GOOD skating coach or skills guy.