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Tryout season has been made way more difficult than it needs to be.

Exactly. It's funny that we are all having productive discussions here, with each of us offering suggestions -- right or wrong -- as to what the problem may be. The more I read, however, the more I feel it's just a combination of everything. It's not just one reason. You guys are saying eleven declines is abnormal, but I know of at least three teams that had eight declines or more. I honestly don't know why. I agree that you normally see one or two declines on teams. We are seeing crazy declines, movement like we've never seen, and supplementals after supplementals because of it. I can say it's sad, though, because it's the good kids and their families who ultimately suffer.

I'm going to take a guess that at the upper ages, especially 18u, that kids are deciding to play for school only. And why not? I think it's hard for a lot of kids to do both, or have little enough interest in anything else to have the time to do both. Now if these club teams just played PAHL and a few tournaments, that's one thing. You can do 20 games, maybe 4 tournament weekends, 20 school games, and the practices to go with it if you wanted to. But add another 35-45 independent games to that, and now you're playing more than an NHL'er. And going to school, and trying to have a life in there on top of it. Makes it not very easy. They come to the realization that chasing PAHL/Independant isn't worth what they might have to give up. Hockey is supposed to be a fun thing, maybe there are other things they enjoy, too. Whether it's spending time with friends, a part time job, spending a lot of time looking at colleges, wanting a few nights to play video games, or whatever else they could be doing instead of being at the rink 6 nights a week. Friends going out to the movies this weekend? Girlfriend wants to go to the school dance? Too bad, you have to drive to Philadelphia or Columbus to play a handful of games to count towards your My Hockey Rankings. It's stressful, it consumes a big chunk of free time, you might get split up from your friends you like playing with, higher costs, etc. And it becomes increasingly apparent for just about everybody that there is no scholarship to Notre Dame or getting drafted to the OHL coming any time soon. Or alternatively, you can play for school. Still be part of a team, still play good hockey, and actually get a crowd engaged in the game, other than half a dozen dads yelling over the glass at you. And unlike the independant teams, you're actually playing for something. You're at school half of your day, 5 days a week with your peers. It's more likely some of those kids you go to school with care more about talking about and cheering for their school team than the Pittsburgh Icemen, or the Allegheny Badgers did over the weekend. I don't know if I'm right, but my guess is that is contributing to where these players have gone.

As a few people have pointed out, the significant amount of declines is suspect, 1 or 2 is normal, 11 is abnormal. The Rebellion 06 squad was a solid group that had been together for a few seasons. It sounds like about half the team would have been returning players and half new players. That sounds reasonable considering the Rebellion team was on a similar MHR rating level as the Preds "AAA" team and was one of the strongest AA teams south of Pittsburgh. If some of the "AAA" players felt snubbed, that just shows you the entitlement... The Preds "AAA" team would have been the 5th best Tier 2 AA team in Mid-Am last season. From what I can gather, the majority of the declines appeared to have landed at Mt. Lebo, which had a low turnout for their original tryouts, which were also held the same weekend as the Rebellion tryouts... So the Rebellion went from 50+ kids at tryouts with a strong returning core, to completely folding in a week... While Lebo went from a few returning kids and low numbers at their initial tryouts to swelling with numbers and having a solid team in a week... Something definitely happened behind the scenes to cause such a drastic shift.

Our orgs Bantam tryouts were just last week. We only had 14 skaters and 3 goalies attend tryouts so pretty much everyone made the team. We have had 5 declines so far and the team is on shaky ground. Parents are pulling kids because they don't like the make up of the team (before even giving them a chance to play together). Does anyone know of a 14U team (2010 BY or mixed) looking for players? My son is a defenseman. We are looking for a committed group of kids and parents that will/want to be competitive. Striving for any level of Major or highest level Minor. We live north of Cranberry Twp so South Hills teams will likely be out of the question due to distance.

Any idea where the declines went? Hopefully some organization in need of a player will see this and get a hold of you. I would email or call the orgs near you to see who might have room.

Bingo. And what team does the son of the Rebellion's President play on? Oh yeah, Lebo. There is your smoking gun folks explaining the situation.

I disagree. Crazy parents will run to whatever organization they "think" is the best. Lots of the Esmark players went to Preds. Guessing because it is a far closer rink and why drive that far to play for the same caliber team. Same with the Esmark kids that went to Badgers. Probably went there after not making other teams because it was close. The thing I hate about BB is they buy up numerous rinks in the same area (PIA, Center Ice, Rostraver,..) and then they can fix ice prices, force their league,... Then your only option is a far drive to escape them. Crazy parents is want causes all the kids running from org to org. Some just have to run because if they don't they will be stuck with a horrible team or like in the case of the 09 Esmark, no team at all.

There is credibility to this “smoking gun”… Lots of ice time fees just walked out the door from an alleged internal sabotage by the SPR president, giving Black Bear the perfect excuse to take over the SPR board if true, as they have with all the other orgs in WPA. Apparently none of the Rebellion 06 core went to Lebo…. They are minimally scattered between Preds/SHAHA or orphaned due to this situation.