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If you're a parent that loves standing around in the lobby for an hour waiting for your kid to come out of the locker room then you're going to LOVE the basketball court and ping pong table!

With Preds 09 AAA and SHAHA 09 AAA improving and making changes, will be interesting to see if Esmark tries to come in and scoop up their cuts. If so it will be the definition of AA team. Getting the kids who really should be in AA anyways. The other option is for them to pack it in for a year, not field a team, and regroup with a better plan next time around. I know Esmark advertised practicing in New Ken and Southpointe, but Esmark never even really took the time to explain how that will look. Parents rightfully have questions about that so why not be specific and detailed? And then it comes out that Esmark (across the entire organization) would just have one single ice slot per week at Printscape. So it's really just PIA & Printscape in name only and PIA for 95% of practices and games. Bad job by Esmark being specific and explaining how that would work. I'm sure other things went into basically their entire 09 AAA team leaving. Bottom line: Have a plan way ahead of time, be detailed about that plan, communicate that plan, and then tactfully sew up your top kids and get their feedback and thoughts about a month before tryouts. Yes it's a lot of work, but it's not complicated. A lot of organizations are dismal communicators and I never even have an avenue/method for gathering feedback in order to improve. Someone said it early in this thread and I think it's true: If you're not getting better you're getting worse. Some 09 organizations/teams across AA and AAA seem to be getting better: Preds AAA, Rebellion AA, and North Pitt AA. One thing they have in common is they all had a plan and communicated that plan. Preds 09 AAA announced their move to Black Bear's Tier 1 Hockey Federation. These kids now have a championship to play for and a league that is well structured. They announced this early. Rebellion 09 AA announced a plan for the season over a month ago. They announced all four coaches (which is a crazy lineup of experience with specific coaches for forwards and defenseman), the fact that they are playing PAHL AA as well as Black Bears AHF league as a showcase team, and even announced what other specific tournaments they are playing like a CCM tournament. All this was announced and communicated early and that inspires confidence that they have it together and have a plan. North Pitt 09 AA announced Cliff Loya as their coach early on in the process. That is a good get as far as a coach and I'm sure that helped them get the interest they are getting, although I'm not sure if he will travel with the team. Bottom line is they seem to have a plan. Those three examples are a lot different from the many teams that seem to be taking a step backwards. Have a solid plan and communicate that plan early and often and you will grow/improve/win as an organization or team.

So esmark no longer plans to have an 09 team? That is awful for kids they offered positions to, who they promised a team to play on, who may be now scrambling to find a team. This is the crappy part of youth hockey that needs to be addressed. #MoneyGrabGoneWrong

Out of curiosity, what are the base season fees for the Vengeance and Esmark Stars?

Attached to Alpha.

That's good about the 08 Vengeance team. 09s may fall of a bit they're still very good. I missed this video until today. The new Vengeance facility. You're really not going to find a better setup. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq3HQcEqtYq/

Couldn’t agree more! Every team coach and manager and organization directors should be doing this. If not, they are doing it wrong and failure is only a matter of time. I would add that you should even start earlier, say at least two months before tryouts (especially with Tier 1 teams), because recruiting is happening whether or not you think it is. Staff in tune with their team/program know what’s going on (people can’t help to talk and most player movement rumors end up somewhat true). Don’t play dumb and act surprised come tryout time. Check your ego and do the things RUSHL mentioned early on and you may have a chance. I know you can’t make everyone happy, but, it’s a shame how many local teams (even successful ones) blow up because of complacency.

Cliff is a good skills guy, can’t speak on his team / game coaching. He was doing something some years back with the rink rats - he ran practices but only went to home games. In general he’s a good guy, wrong place at the wrong time - ppe needed a scape goat imo.