_{B = 4-15-26 - OFFICIAL INVITE Letter of Interest’} 

_{C=  4-30-26 - The Deposit of $ 750 to the Pa Hockey Foundation DUE May 15^th 2026.} 

_{D = 8-15-26 - TOURNAMENT PACKAGES MAILED BY PAHF}

_{E = 10-1-26 - Registration Deadline for ROSTERS + WAIVERS (ND) + FINAL PAYMENT DUE}

_{Invites are ATTACHED for 2026-27 Governors Cup Events - Deposits are required to Secure your spot for EACH Team}

Ohio - Pennsylvania - Challenge (12 Team) Limit - All Levels

Cleveland Dec 18-20-2026 - Brunswick (Strongsville)

 2025 Champions - Padua Ohio

Pittsburgh Dec 27-29 2026 - Alpha Ice Complex - VAR/JV

 2025 Champions - Thomas Jefferson VAR and Seneca Valley JV

Several Schools Pre-Registered for Both Events- Ohio (6) and Pittsburgh (10 VAR & JV)

Indiana - New York Governors Cups - (16 Team) Limit 

o National Invitational Scholastic Showcase – South Bend

 (November 14-17, 2026) 

 14 - PRE-Registered - MD (2) ILL (3)IND (1) MICH (2)

OHIO (4) TEXAS (1) WPA (1)

o National Invtational Scholastic Showcase – Jamestown

(December 4-6, 2026) 

13 - PRE-Registered - CAN (1) CONN (1) ILL (1) IND (1) MD (!) NY (2) OHIO (3) WPA (3)

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BMjmKd6Wm/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1GVv9q99wR/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Some of interesting notes are:

--The 2026/2027 season will still have the same number of games, but the season will end a earlier for most age-groups. Whereas the 2025/2026 regular season ended on 2/15 for girls, 3/1 for 12U-18U coed, and 3/8 for 8U-10U, the season will now end on 2/21 for 12U-19U coed and girls, and 2/28 for 8U-10U. This cuts a little over a week out of the season, but teams will have to play the same number of games. This year's calendar is below,

--Will have to play a minimum of 3 games in the first 2 months of the season and a minimum of 3 games in the last 2 months of the season.

--Can only play 1 placement game per day. Some teams took advantage of playing additional placement games. This will be harder now.

--Fayette Ice Miners and Vipers organizations formally lose membership status. They have been dormant, so this is more an operation of the bylaws.

--several comments in the minutes suggest there is percolating frustrations over tryouts. A committee will be formed to evaluate policy proposals for future consideration.

--"The Executive Administrator presented a few topics that will be considered for rules/policy changes in the near future, in advance of tryouts next season: non-PAHL rosters, PAHL AA2 rosters, and the policies recommended by a committee for tryouts, poaching, and recruiting."

--Interesting comments from Second VP report on placements for all levels. While claiming overall success, they acknowledge members' initial declarations can be improved. They specifically call attention to a situation in 12B1 division where a player may have been overqualified and raise that a player could be ruled ineligible to a team due to overqualification for a division. They don't identify a team, but a quick look at the 12U-B division shows there was a Huskie with 58 goals and 15 assists in 18 games. Interestingly, there were no higher placed Huskies teams at the 12U level, so it will be interesting to see if they really disqualify a player from the only team in his organization.

--May migrate away from SportsEngine as the website provider. Don't anticipate any data loss in a migration.

--Took action on several changes to the rules and game manual. All proposals emanated from the league. The proposed rules were at Rule's Proposals The actual new rules are in the minutes. Some were modified from the proposals.

--one interesting change is that while a player can still drop to a lower division post-placements if he or she changes organizations, it is impossible to drop to a team in the lower division in the same organization. There were already rules in place requiring a 75% vote of the placement committee to make such a change, an athlete cannot drop to a lower placed team in their organization. I can see issues with this if a team folds during placements, which should be a rare occurrence, but with injuries, it is possible. They may have over-regulated this one, because they will still permit a player to change organizations and play at a lower division with the 75% approval of the placement committee. Given the comment about the 12U-B player, we might see the placement committee actively block more player movement than they have in the past.

For the casual observer with no seat at the table, the minutes are helpful to see what's coming down the pipe.

Clearly the Pens way outpace everyone else locally when it comes to revenue and expenses.  I was curious to see how they compared to some other teams across the country (that are nonprofit).  Just a smattering of some hockey teams:

I could be wrong about some of the association names, not always easy to track down. Still, Pens seem really up there with their expenses (and revenue to cover it). I wonder what all of those expenses are for teams like the Pens and Mission.

EDIT:

Nevermind, I found the information on their form 990.  Pens expenses, mostly in the "Other" category:

Ice Rental Fees: $1,161,419

Coaching Expenses: $509,190

Clothing and Uniforms: $288,586

Tournament Fees: $268,223

All other expenses: $723,261

Not sure what constitutes "all other expenses," but that's just from a casual quick glance. For comparison, here's how North Pittsburgh lines it out:

Ice Time - Travel Team: $1,024,945

Ice Time - Development: $116,369

EMTs and Referees: $89,331

Tryout Expense: $16,629

All other expenses: $31,074

That "All other expenses" bucket is quite large at the Pens.

Also, by comparison, Chicago Mission has a more detailed expense breakout.  They have salaries and wages of about $480,490 (Pens have zero, mostly because I assume they are all employees of the Pittsburgh Penguins directly, but have Coaching Expenses under other?).  They also have an Occupancy expense listed as $861,614 (rent?). Their other expenses are:

Program Related Costs (maybe ice time?): $1,674,282

Bank Charges: $61,971

Utilities: $9,405

Misc.: $9,108

All other expenses: $500

Anyway, I digress.  I just find that all interesting.  I'm not going to deep dive into everything, but 22% of the Pens expenses just being listed as "other" seems like an outlier to me.

"The USA Hockey Development League is being designed to work in cooperation with Tier I hockey, not to replace it. The current Tier I structure consists of 13O, 14U, 15O, 16U, and 18U age groups. The USA Hockey Development League is intended to have two age categories, 15U (consisting of 14- and 15-year-old players) and 17U (consisting of 16- and 17- year-old players). Existing Tier I programs that become a part of the USA Hockey Development League would still be allowed to field a total of five teams but in the following age groups: 13O (Tier I), 14U (Tier I), 15U (USA Hockey Development League), 17U (USA Hockey Development League), and 18U (Tier I). USA Hockey Development League 15U teams will compete against other USA Hockey Development League 15U teams, in addition to being able to play games against 15O Tier I and 16U Tier I teams. USA Hockey Development League 17U teams will compete against other USA Hockey Development League 17U teams, in addition to being able to play games against 18U Tier I teams. "

Great News for all of youth hockey that these folks are being exposed publicly and forced to try to explain the rationale.

But it got me thinking about what happened to all of those BB Cheerleaders lauding what they do and how well they run everything, where are they now?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2026/05/07/lord-of-the-rinks-black-bear-youth-hockey/89503875007/

************I don't want to bash any of the orgs, just a simple list of players.***************

Let's start list of local players that have gone on to play NCAA D1, D3, or any level of Professional hockey. List Male or Female just to be fair. If you know their path out of Western PA list that also. I suspect that if some of us old timers can jog out memories the results might be a bit interesting.

I heard a rumor that SHAHA did not get enough of a turnout and will NOT be fielding an 18U AAA team this season.

In the next month or so, I will be upgrading the forum software to the newest version.  I'll follow-up when that is complete.  

Have a great day everyone!

https://gofund.me/446e18f8a
 

Howard Halle

MEDIX LLC

4122873215 or

howardhalle@comcast.net

Sitting in the stands yesterday at a rink, 

I heard about a paid coach that is staying with the same team 3 years in a row because he's got a side piece mom on the team and another kids "sugar daddy" throwing money his way.

Another coach that has his apartment paid for by a dad on the team.  10-year-olds that are relocating their entire family because they didn't make the local team they wanted.  

ANY ADVICE? Like what's the end goal for these parents making deals with coaches, when I assume their kids just aren't good enough to make the team legitimately?

Also,

ADVICE : If you're at a public rink with others around, might be wise to not gossip about other players, coaches and families.  You never know who is nearby, small world this hockey community.

• “Tryout” means any process on or off-ice that evaluates a player or group of players for the purpose of choosing players for a program or team. A Tryout also includes any team practices, off ice training sessions, open skates, skills sessions, or identification skates which include a player that is not on a regular season USA Hockey Roster with that association’s teams or program. USA Hockey programs, coaches and administrators are not permitted to operate a program outside of USA Hockey as a means of avoiding the prohibitions on tryouts or recruiting. While USA Hockey does not restrict a coach’s private business, if a coach runs a private camp, meeting, event, skate or skills clinic outside of USA Hockey for one or more players, then the coach and/or team/program should be investigated as Code of Conduct/tampering and the player should face disciplinary action."

Yet I see multiple PAHL teams, U13 and older, posting Open Skates, Clinics (*not associated with tryout), and "Meet the Coach" Skates happening this week and into next week. Some have already happened.  The question is will PAHL or USAH actually follow through with the appropriate punishment (ie not eligible for District and National Tournaments), or will they continue to look the other way?  

The organizations are making no attempt to hide these. They are publicly marketing and promoting them.  Some even using paid advertising on social media.  Or does this mean with the new Development League coming this season, USAH cares less about the Tier I and Tier II divisions and will just protect it's new investment for now.

Ready to make a real impact in youth hockey? RMU Island Sports Center is looking for a motivated leader to help drive player development, coaching, and program growth across our ice, inline, and dek hockey programs.

This role is ideal for someone who brings strong experience in youth hockey development and coaching, and who understands how to build athletes the right way—through structure, consistency, and passion.

🏒 What You’ll Do:
• Lead and support on-ice development across youth and adult programs
• Work closely with the Hockey Director to grow and manage all hockey operations
• Serve as an active coach and instructor, running practices, clinics, and camps
• Mentor coaches and help establish consistent development standards
• Assist with program planning, staffing, scheduling, and budgeting
• Deliver a high-level experience focused on player growth, safety, and enjoyment

✅ What We’re Looking For:
• Proven background in youth hockey coaching, instruction, and development
• Ability to design and implement age-appropriate skill progression
• Strong leadership, communication, and organizational skills
• Passion for building players both on and off the ice
• USA Hockey certification (preferred)
• Ability to manage multiple responsibilities in a fast-paced environment

💡 This isn’t just an operations role — it’s a chance to shape a culture, develop players, and positively influence the next generation of hockey athletes.

📍 Location: RMU Island Sports Center
📩 Apply now: Job #498519

https://careers.pageuppeople.com/856/cw/en-us/job/498519/assistant-director-hockey

#HockeyJobs #YouthHockey #PlayerDevelopment #HockeyCoaching #RMU #GrowTheGame

my son was the one of the lucky ones he was part of the click played with some of these guys in youth friends with some but I do feel bad for some of the other kids that go play there. Yes, my kid benefited let’s get that out of the way.
 

It all started to go downhill when slippery rock got put on suspension. pa hockey brought his kid the coach from slippery rock showed up. During the end of their reign another parent and their kid took over. we would laugh and watch this team manger run over and get the score sheet every game to make sure his kid was getting his assist’s to become the all time points leader at iup. Now the last two years or so, Armstrong’s president and his kids have taken over. Iup has turned into daddy hockey at its finest. It’s crazy to think this is even happening in college with players that are now adults. If you are friends with certain kids or dads you will be on team one. This is why we get our butts kicked first round at nationals every year or worse, do not win the weak chma some years. We have some big kids with good talent on team 2 that could have helped. Never saw any of them get a call up some should have made it right out of tryouts. The best players do not get put on team one. We had all these small and average size guys trying to show off and do Michigan’s every game they post it all over socials. when it comes time to play the good teams that have guys that are all 6’1 - 6’5  these smaller guys literally get knocked off the puck, pushed around, beat in the corners, physically dominated by players that are bigger But hey look so and so scored a Michigan and had 4 goals against one of the worse teams in the country. Size and strength is a huge issue when playing the good teams. There is a lot of self entitlement with certain players and parents. Heck, we still had parents drinking in the parking lot before club hockey games like it’s a U14 AA tournament in Cleveland!!! It was embarrassing at times, especially when the team manger would be hanging out in the parking lot with said parents! being at games, seeing the way some parents acted along with some (not all) of the players, often reminded me why the female goalie incident happened at Armstrong the way it did. Same kids, same parents, same president. Same terrible humans. 
 

Those kids playing on the second team really get shat on. They are paying the same price we did (over 3k) they get no internet streams. coaches that don’t care along with little to no social media stuff. There was a weekend last year both Lawrence tech teams came to iup to play. After we (team 1) played LT team 1. the student broadcast team starting packing things up as both schools second teams were taking the ice. I thought to myself, why can’t they stay and broadcast the second team? I see tons of streams for second and third teams on the internet (RMU & WVU locally, Kent state I can go on and on) I ask one of the guys, everything is set up why are you folks not covering the second team. The answer was “we were not told to, we work for team 1” such a shame, the equipment was set up, everything was there, these kids shelling out all this money get treated like red head step kids. LT’s second team I think was one of the top teams last year. this just furthers my point of daddy hockey and making it about certain kids. Can’t use any resources for the betterment of the ENTIRE PROGRAM!  I was told last year a few of the guys on team two wised up, quit and said they were not paying any money due to how the team is treated & run. Good for them! That team is just a money train to fund the daddy hockey of team 1. To put out that kind of money for what they get is borderline criminal! 
 

Hopefully this gives some insight for any folks looking at club hockey. My hope is this inspires change at iup hockey for kids in the future.the cycle of daddy hockey is removed. all the teams get real coverage the program grows. Thank you for reading. Best of luck to all the future club hockey players! 

They need new leadership bad!