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There are 8U and 10U house leagues in the close suburbs. There probably are few options the further you get from Pittsburgh, but it’s not like there are no options. I don’t understand the comment about watering down the PAHL. They have lots of divisions and if you expelled the bottom half of every roster, the top half would be homeless

Agreed 100%. There are plenty of kids that would benefit from in-house leagues. One practice per week, one game per week. 4 'seasons' per year, 8 or so games per. You can sign up for anything from 1 season to 4, like dek hockey. Depending what you want or what else is going on. Keeps the cost down. Keeps commitment down, but allows for an additional skating lesson each week if so chosen. There are so many kids and parents that just want to try out the game, or just have something fun to do, get some exercise or activity... and maybe do more serious hockey from there- or not, and continue to just play in-house in addition to baseball or whatever, don't have to extra money, whatever. A good portion of the kids will proceed to more from there. Some won't, they be happy with in-house just like adults are happy with rec league. But you'd get more people playing and less of the kids that are watering down PAHL just because if they want to casually play they have no other alternative.

Wasn’t talking HS. You of all people should know PAHL is known to have a few.

That is nonsense. Look at NA and Peters, Andrew Seiss and Chris Clackson learned from two of the best Mike Bagnato and Rick Tingle + Mort and earned a shot. PR's Jordan Yoklic just won States as did South Fayette Matt Schwartz, John Zeiler at TJ. Most of these guys have a playing pedigree or coach as assistants and earn a shot. Cody Black at Mars Chris Cerutti Penn Trafford and Mike Schall at Bethel are other Examples. Good Luck to Brian Bearley, 11 years coaching at FR and gets his chance. This list is long and there are many more examples.

Some organizations are a good ole boys club of dads year in and year out. You could be Scotty Bowman and still won’t break in with that group.

I agree with all of this. The goal of little pens is getting them hooked and using that to boost your retention rate out of that program. The minute you get that list of kids registered for your rink, you immediately reach out and educate. First and foremost hammer learn to skate. Get them on the ice with that before the first pens session. Once that starts, your first session is skating heavy. And have your skating director running a station every week. You will dramatically reduce the number of kids laying on the ice unable to do much. Kids laying on the ice or having to be carried around by a coach and unable to participate in drills equates to frustration by the parents and kids that quickly don’t wanna do it anymore. it blows my mind how underutilized in-house hockey is. We are making a whole sector of the population unable to access the game. Not every family is able to manage the traveling around, not every family is able to afford PAHL hockey and there are families not interested in that much time and financial commitment from the start. Some may never but others may get hooked by that low cost less commitment opportunity and eventually want more hence your PAHL program grows.

Why don't the larger organizations take the blue teams and just do in-house or play against 2-3 other very local orgs? PAHL is WAY to spread out for an 8U blue team to drive 2 hours each was for a 45 minute jam. Ridiculous.

Still looking for an 06 or 07 aa/aaa defenseman for the tournament. Email hockeyx10sion@yahoo.com with interest. Thanks

Part of this is the lack of developmental/house hockey at the younger ages. Stick them on a blue mites team or B squirt team instead of helping them develop with more ice time and even internal games in developmental hockey.

Since this is one of the difficult things every year, how about a thread where boards can look to see what coaching candidates are available? Might be a silly idea but also might be a good way to find a coach that a team otherwise may not know how to contact? Perhaps lead to multiple offers where you can pick the best one. Of course no currently employed coach is going to inquire in a public forum but sometimes a coach leaves on their own terms, new head coaches bring in their own staff, or whatever. Maybe somebody is young and looking to get started. And if a board is looking for somebody to help out, they may not know what options are available. So if there's any potential coaches out there, post what level you're looking for and some kind of contact info if you'd like.

Can't agree more with you. It really starts at Little Pens. I consistently see at the organization we are with at least 50% of the kids at each Little Pens season can't skate. Little Pens ends and the organization is pushing the parents to sign their child up for the ADM. It's all about the money and numbers. There are so many kids in the organization that should not be out there until they can proficiently skate, but isn't it great, we have 4 blue teams! They need to start with educating parents how important skating is, then discuss youth hockey in general ( where to start, age groups, tiers, etc.) I consistently hear parents complaining that's there's no communication. It's appears coaches either don't want to be bothered or are scared to give parents feedback. A brief conversation with each players parent would go a long way. I can't tell you how many parents with kids moving up to 10u this year were in the dark on what level team to sign up for tryouts.

You are correct! Was so focused on the kids and the coaching I forgot that but it’s definitely part of the process. The education must begin in Little Pens. Weekly communication throughout that program and a pizza party/certificate awarding where you can discuss next steps etc is where is has to start and orgs must follow through on and upward from there.

Who else would set it? I've heard these rumblings before, but any truth to the rumor that things aren't Sunny between a reigning state champion coach and some parental board members?

…..usually.

I agree with much of what you said, but you left out the need to properly educate the parents of these kids when the kids are just entering a program at a young age. Parents seem more than happy to have their players play in whatever organization is closest to home or where ever the kids friends are playing at an early age, but as they age and the conversations about progression begin to happen, many of these parents take whatever they are told by whoever at face value. Parents need to understand things about how hockey is a "late acquisition sport", what terms like "Tier 1" and "Tier 2" mean, what the "path" for hockey is and isn't, and also what the real chances are of their player "making it" regardless of what "making it" means to each family and player.

I have no problem giving him all the credit if he can do something at central. I hope he does well there as the more good teams at AAA is better for everyone.

I wish Anthony the best at Central which is a huge challenge. WHEN he wins there and he will youll see SV made a miscalculation. He built a great organization at Seneca Valley with development at JV (2) and Middle School (2)teams and was successful every year he coached. Its not easy to win a State Championship (Congrats Pine Richland !)

Allegheny Badgers Hockey is looking for 4-6 players to round out 14-U mixed teams. We have enough goalies and we want to see all of these players have a home! If your player is still looking for a team register here. https://ahabadgers.sportngin.com/register/form/058353814

Allegheny Badgers Hockey is looking for 4-6 players to round out 14-U mixed teams. We have enough goalies and we want to see all of these players have a home! If your player is still looking for a team register here. https://ahabadgers.sportngin.com/register/form/058353814

Allegheny Badgers Hockey is looking for 4-6 players to round out 14-U mixed teams. We have enough goalies and we want to see all of these players have a home! If your player is still looking for a team register here. https://ahabadgers.sportngin.com/register/form/058353814

I got an idea. Quit putting your grassroots programs on the back burner…. Focus hard on little pens/entry LTP, try hockey for free, and learn to skate build a comprehensive marketing plan for your organization and push these programs Watch your numbers grow! THEN…. put the right people in place (not the good ole boys club of recycled dads past their expiration date) to DEVELOP Educate your coaches, have plans to develop that integrate and mesh across teams and age levels and you may just end up with more ingrown talent to have that AA team in your program It starts with building your talent base under your own roof It just seems we are collectively losing site of the big picture The A kids and the B kids deserve the same coaching and attention too

So you paid next to nothing and got next to nothing? What did you expect?

You first

Wake me when the coaches make $40K and full benefits.