Anyway, back to the topic at hand. We've had a few dealings as a PPE customer. It was good. At times. But not always.
One kid tried out, made a black team. Placement was fair. Liked the program, and the practices. Liked it all, except the power skating.
In our second season - again, liked it all. Had a better coach, good manager, good practices, competitive games. Had another good year and got great experience.
Unfortunately, during the season, had a disagreement with the organization about a policy. Can't elaborate here, but the next season, our player was cut.
Was our kid legitimately overtaken by better players? Possibly.
Watched that team the following year and their two new additions. One was better. One was not better. But such is life. It is a hard conversation to have with your child - but we did, and we moved on.
Another kid tried out a few times, couldn't break in. Felt most who made it were rightfully placed. All except one - who couldn't keep up. How this one made the team every year is a mystery.
After a few rounds of tryouts, our kid observed that many of the incumbents don't even try at tryouts. Eventually stopped trying out; felt it was a fix. Again, we moved on.
So in the end, our time in the organization was good. It is not easy to get in. At times, felt like bystanders, maybe victims, of politics. Is that unique to PPE? Probably no. We didn't agree with the way they did everything, but youth hockey is not run as a democracy.