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The North Hills Vipers were a pretty successful organization until the late 80s if I remember right, I had friends that played for them. I think they had money problems or leadership problems and declined, maybe tried moving rinks. They ultimately merged with Steel City Stars and played a few years as the Viper Stars. As far as Esmark money, I'm sure they were still getting sponsor money from them. But the Esmark owner/CEO jut retired and sold the Tomahawks and is probably just winding down his hockey philanthropy.

Was there some reason they went from Pittsburgh Stars to Steel City Stars back in the 90s?? What other names have they had? I think they were the Viper Stars for a while too.

Effective 5/16/24, free email accounts from a few well known free email providers will no longer be permitted to register on the board. This is to crack down on spammers. If you are a legit user, please register using a regular email account from your ISP (or wherever). The email address you use to register here is not available to anyone other than me, so you are safe identity wise. Thanks, PB

Thank you all to those of you who messaged me about the 2 spammers we had on the board overnight. I have banned them and removed all their posts. Nothing was hacked; they just registered and posted spam. Thanks again, PB

Wonder why they lost it?

I’m sure the parents will be thrilled when they get billed for the money they lost from the Esmark Sponsorship halfway through the season.

Actually, never mind. It doesn't matter. No use bickering about PIHL hockey, really.

What division is that "winningest coach" in? Probably the one with the biggest disparity in program size.

I thought they stopped providing sponsorship before now, but they just kept using the name regardless.

Looks to me like Esmark dumped them! They must not be getting any money from Esmark!

I'm about 90% sure overqualified is the BC coach, so I can only assume that was a brag about himself beating up on the open division

lol Lazy is not the same as winning now is it? Or maybe you haven't been watching any PIHL playoff games of late? Or do you see Varsity hockey as developmental? If you do just say it. And if anyone can just roll two lines as you say, how many state titles or Pens Cups have you won as head coach? My guess is anyone doing as such has a secure spot at that school as a HC.

Interesting, does anyone know what that sponsorship agreement looked like over the years? How much annual revenue came from it for the stars?

https://www.esmarkstars.com/news

Wow, I guess we should all just get out of Hockey! Try to talk our kids into a different sport and just shut it down in South Western Pa.

So who is this Coach we speak about? You can just tell us the school! I would think more than one shorten their bench as needed!

Hahaha. I have seen the Beaver Badgers and Arctic Foxes getting a TON of respect on here.

This statement is not all true, and a hard statement to follow. The true statement is there is no good coaches anymore! You think pens is where the good coaching is because they have a better record but they have a better record because they have the more developed kids. They have the more developed kids because a lot of them have the money to do extra lessons or fly their kid to Pittsburgh to live with the raw talent the kid has. Also it all depends on what you mean by coaching? Vaping on the bench? Sleeping with the parents? Lying to kids to get them to your team to not play them? Taking 20 kids on a midget team to not play half of them? Skills and drills on the side to make a living?

They were really good and deserved it. Local kids doing great things.

So the high school coach who has won the most games in all of pittsburgh the last 4 years is lazy? And your qualifications are?

You know why you where on the 4th line because your team didn't have a fifth line

The trashing of organizations that occurs on this board is directly proportional to the number of people that have been spurned by that organization. The organizations like PPE or Esmark that cut or didn't call back many of your kids face the most ire. On the other end of the spectrum are Beaver Badgers and Arctic Foxes that take everyone and so everybody is happy. Nobody is coming on here and complaining they got picked for team 4 when they deserved to be on team 3. Thankfully. Lol

Ha. Actually the Shaha 06 AAA team is the only AAA team I have ever seen get any sort of respect on this forum.

Who said "equal playing time"? Not me. I just said 2 lines for 85% of a fast and physical game isn't always the best idea. And whether it works or sometimes it doesn't, it's still a lazy way to coach. Anybody could do it and get the same results. Not so much the other way around. But I guess around here the coaching pool isn't what it is in some other areas.

Aviators are AAA now? 🤦