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Let's just call it another "Posey Project". It was his way of getting the many sheep out there to pay an extra 1K per player so they could be called Viper Stars and not Vipers.

I'm not sure what exactly you are referencing, but I mean, maybe, based on recent comments, the solution is doing their jobs?

In the 1990s, there were 3 triple A organizations - Steel City/Pittsburgh Stars, Mt. Lebanon/Pittsburgh Hornets, and Amateur (later Junior) Penguins. I believe the Amateur Penguins was the only one of those three to be AAA in the 1980s. A lot of things hurt HS hockey in the area. It hurt when the PIHL started to require things like minimum grades and students being enrolled in the school they played for. All of a sudden, there was some off-ice accountability. I am sure there was a lot of rule-bending that all of a sudden ended, and in some cases probably resulted in the death of some teams. Even mighty Meadville, who dominated the 1990s, was a victim around 10-15 years ago when it came out that half of their players were enrolled at Cochranton HS and not Meadville (their justification was it is the same school district, and technically there was some precedent with Armstrong Central in the 1990s). Then the new wave of rinks in the 1990s and 2000s hurt because they increase ice fees to cover the cost of their newly constructed facilities. Somewhere around 2000, the Easton Synergy stick came out and normalized paying $100 for a stick, and about the same time, the top end skates starting increasing in price $50 or $100 every year. Top end skates were around $250 in 1995, and by 2005 they were double that. The other equipment crept up as well. Being more organized also drove up costs. Players had to have matching helmets and pants, nicer jerseys, etc. They look much better on and off the ice for sure, but it's not cheap to do that. So while hockey was always expensive, it got much more expensive. The number of new rinks also had a bit of an unintended consequence of increasing the difference between bad and good HS teams. If you watch one of those old games in the 1970s or 1980s, there are about 5-6 kids on the ice who can skate forward and backward and turn both ways , and the rest look like guys who started playing when they were 13-14. Nowadays, there are many more kids who started playing at an early age. I'm sure you all know, an average player can skate circles around a bad player. If you are a good player, but live in a district where your HS team is terrible, is it really any fun to get pounded 11-1 every game? It's no longer like the old days where you could at least be competitive with 3-4 average players. Plus, with kids at cyber schools, charters, and other alternative schools, and with kids jumping organizations at younger ages, representing your high school or community is just not as important to them. So anyhow, a whole lot happened, and I don't think you can blame any one thing. More like a death by 1000 paper cuts. I do think that the programs that have survived are generally much stronger today, and it does seem to have settled out over the last 5-10 years. The whole NCAA thing makes my head hurt. Someone here probably has stats on this, but there are around 60 NCAA teams, and each team has a maximum of 18 scholarships. A lot of teams don't grant 18 scholarships, and it's often more like 9-10 total scholarships they split up among the 25-30 players on their roster. On top of that, something like 35-40% of NCAA D1 hockey players are foreign, and I sort of assume that the scholarship dollars go much more in their direction. So anyhow, hardly any NCAA roster spots compared to the number of kids playing, and many of those people on those rosters are not scholarship players....oh and scholarships are only a 1 year commitment anyhow. Coach thinks you're not working out? He'll give your scholarship to another player and cut you. Just nothing like football, which is 130 teams in the highest tier of D1 and 85 scholarships per team. Or basketball, which is only 13 scholarships per team, but over 350 teams. In both cases, very few foreign players, certainly nowhere near what hockey has. https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-hockey/scholarships

Once adults figured out that there was money to be made it was all over. It's every sport, happening for decades. https://changingthegameproject.com/the-professionalization-of-youth-sports/ Parents want their kid to play on the same teams as the other kids their kid started with. Their kids want that. So they jump onto the hamster wheel of lessons and summer hockey and AAA. It is hard not to give in to the peer pressure. Parents also think this is all leading to college scholarships, too. Most don't really think their kid is NHL material.Many have no idea that NCAA D1 is the only place this happens. I have a pretty good hockey player. People assume my kid is going to get a scholarship to play hockey and when I explain that we are likely going to continue to pay lots of money for him to play because like 90 percent of the hockey kids playing, he is not D1 material, and they are so shocked... because their kid is not playing at my kids level, so if my kid isn't getting anything, then guess who else isn't? People really do have some vague idea that this will lead to money for school. Grades. Grades and high SAT scores may get you money for school. (School is test optional? Well, that SAT score, if good, may help get merit money.)

I don't know enough about Black Bear to state an educated opinion on them, but I will say this: I was reading this chain and signed up for this message board today. I took the name "No Politics" for a reason. My child is a teen who knows tons of kids from many different programs (including the Vipers/Stars/Esmark), and politics like a president/VP/board member's kid and their friends getting special treatment, extra ice time, etc. kills these programs. Parents aren't as stupid or obnoxious as everyone makes them out to be. Contrary to popular belief, most parents I know don't want their kid to play AAA (or even AA). They just want their kid to play where they actually belong, and have fun without political crap like a team manager dictating tournaments that benefits THEIR family instead of the majority of the TEAM'S families, dads coaching just to give their less-talented kids more ice time, and boards who ignore it all because they are friends with those hacks. If a corporation like Black Bear solves these problem by looking at the bottom line ($$$) instead of playing favorites and creating an intra-organization (or even intra-team) "haves and have nots" culture that ruins the sport for the kids and their families, then I am in favor of it.

The whole thing with Black Bear backing Huskies and not giving ice to Vipers or Vipers Stars but giving ice to Esmark came to a shock to ALL members of the NHAHA board. We believed we were in negotiations with them for ice and had been so for over a month.. So, I don’t really have any good answers other than we are working, as a whole, towards finding a new spot. It’s too early to even speculate on how that will end up looking.

5+ years ago I wanted to try and get a registrar position with Mid-Am. I asked around in the PAHL and they told me contact Mid-Am. I emailed a few people at Mid-Am office. Crickets. Zero reply. I then asked a local person who was a board member, how do I apply to be a mid-am registrar? Crickets. I gave up. Which is what they want anyone interested in helping with MA to do. Go away.

Yes, well said Dean Youngblood.

So much this. Have been through it with a kid and about to with another. Trust me keeping your grades and test scores up are the best way to get a scholarship. So much time and money wasted chasing an almost impossible dream of division 1 full ride. Not to mention put that money towards college and they will have a full ride to begin with.

There are lot's of officials out there giving back to the game. The question is do you want those guys working your game? People don't sit in the stands and appreciate that the official is giving back his time. Gas was also $1.15 in 1990, I assume skates and uniforms were less then to. Drive an hour to get to a game the $45 they pay you suddenly looks like a loss and not really time well spent. I would also guess that in 1990 you were paid with an envelope of cash, now your "additional income" is recorded online and you receive a nice fresh 1099 at the end of the year. People are not necessarily in it for the money but the money sure is nice when you eliminate the tax man and are arguably fairly compensated.

Happy Hockey Fan, Unless you are a member of USAH district or national staff, or in a position of administration in a league, you have no right to expect to see such a list of evals any more than you have a right to see the nightly evaluations of NHL officials. AND NO, you do not pay the officials' game fees.... you pay money for your kid to play at xyz org and xyz org in turn pays money to play in abc league... It Is abc league that is responsible for providing officials for their league games and in turn pay for the officials so if anyone gets to see such a list it should be the folks responsible for running the league - not some pissed off self important parent. Just like eval lists, discipline of officials is not normally something made public. I know of two officials that received 1 year USAH suspensions and many other occasions where officials were removed from the schedule for a month or more. The leagues were notified of the actions but it wasn't posted on the interwebs to satisfy the need for a pound of flesh.... Does the HR department where you work send out a memo to all employees detailing infractions and disciplinary actions taken against employees?