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I hate the BY model. I am the middle school coach for a local team and I have several 06 players who are on a winning BY travel team, a playoff team, a large organization team. They are the best players on their travel team. I watched a few of their AA games and was shocked at the disparity between top player and bottom player, and those in between. It looked no different to me than the disparity that you see on all Tier 3 middle school teams. The top 3-4 players on the team carried the others and that's not good for development of anyone. If these top 06 players had been placed on a team with the better 05 players in the organization it would have been much more beneficial to their development. Likewise, the "lesser" skilled 06 players would have benefited from playing with other "lesser" skilled 05 players. In other words, several of these kids should have been on A Major teams with mixed age rather than BY AA. I realize this is a common theme in all of the posts here, I'm simply agreeing with it wholeheartedly. I think Saucey's response was spot on. FWIW, I do not have a son on my middle school team. For my son, (he's a midget player), I've always wanted him to be on a team where he is in the middle of the pack talentwise... a few players better, and a few who are weaker.

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I guess that would make me the technologically challenged one. Thanks.

https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022908-district-playoffs Click on the appropriate level and then the age for each group

....and Hatfield (your example) changed their name/logo this year to Genesis hockey club so not a great example. Don’t get me wrong Nenesis8679 is the type of person who bets on football based on the color of their uniform. Just ridiculous. Back to original Mt Lebo bashing. The 15u AAA team lost their first midam game today. Fun times

100%

ASU is a NCAA D1 program and they play in a rundown rink with no amenities but still manage to attract enough talent to be ranked #13 in the country. Maybe the weather?

As an alumni of the D1 Club team (class of 2014), I am incredibly proud of the progress that has been made in the program - including several Conference Championships in the past few years and a top 20 ranking. In my opinion, the efforts and dedication of the coaches and players to grow this program is incredibly impressive. Based on the progress that has been made since I've been gone, I'm excited to see where the program goes from here. I wouldn't underestimate the potential of Pitt Hockey.

No. I'm saying that even with great coaching, player devolopment, success, etc. - I would find that stuff somewhere else. Hard to take seriously a team that spells the nickname as "DAWGS". You know, the age-old question in literature: What's in a name? That spelling was cute back in 1997 or so, to use it now (and let's be honest- even back then) conjures visions of white trash and crazy parents. I could be wrong, and location plays a big part in deciding where to play. But I would assume that the Butler Valley organization attracts people of the "DAWG" mentality more than say, the Wildcats, Renegades, or Vipers do. It's just how branding works. The logo itself, of the spiked-collar, fighting dog comes from the same mentality. On it's own, maybe coupled with a nickname like Bulldogs, instead of the DAWGS, wouldn't be as bad. More traditional, if not necessarily creative, if you will. But the two together make me think of something more suited to a New Jersey travel ball hockey team than an ice hockey organization that wants to be taken seriously. Also heard from a few different people that they are pretty unorganized as well. So there's that, too.