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Showing content with the highest reputation since 3/29/2023 in Posts

  1. At the Moon Richland game last night. Richlands first game back in PIHL and the after the 2 hour drive, they had to stand through a 15 minute 67 jersey retirement for the Moon player who passed away last spring in a car accident. So how did they handle it? By hanging a 67 Richland jersey behind their bench. Class act all around from Richland. tenband tv broadcast the ceremony and game if anyone is interested.
    12 points
  2. People have too much time on their hands
    7 points
  3. Not to completely derail this thread, but the Preds are a joke. You mentioned you “spoke to the coaching staff”. That’s great. They will tell you anything you want to hear to get your tryout money and if your kid sucks up to them enough, or your wife is hot and flirtatious, your kid will make the team. However, he won’t see any playing minutes unless you are ponying up and taking weekly private or small group lessons with the coach. Thats a fact. DM me for more info. I know these guys personally and have for many years. Nothing ever changes. Ask some of the 08-12’s who have left because of those exact reasons. They over promise, under deliver, and over charge you.
    6 points
  4. He was impressed with the extra "A"
    6 points
  5. My son played in the AHF. I'll say that the league does a much better job of managing their website. Live scoring, stats, players of the week, all-star teams are all pretty cool and certainly add to the experience. I'll also say that the level of competition in that league is absolutely not worth the 10-12 hours of driving you'd do for a weekend, even if you do get 4-6 games. If you're in PAHL already there's no point in adding that amount of driving and hotel stays to play teams that are equal to the competition out here (at best). If you're an independent team you can easily find equal or better competition within 2-3 hours (Ohio, Buffalo) and not take that long trip on the turnpike.
    6 points
  6. The "parent coach" discussion always makes me laugh... don't get me wrong there are also parent coaches out there that know very little about the game and just are trying to help, but it's like someone that is good at hockey, knows how to coach, cares about the kids, has considerable hockey knowledge is all of a sudden null and void once they have a kid?! I get it, everyone is worried that kids will be treated "unfairly", "favored", etc. if a parent is behind the bench. If anything, I probably gave/give my kids less leniency when I coached them. I know that isn't always the case, but nothing ever is. So "parent coach", "non-parent coach", who gives a shit. Can the guy/girl coach and treat all the players accordingly? That's all that should matter.
    6 points
  7. What is the team average GPA and what are the jobs graduates are now in, that is the only stats that will matter after their 4 years 🤷😁
    6 points
  8. Tier 2 hockey is becoming such a cesspool of misleading organization leadership promoting the pathway to higher opportunities. I was reading various websites promoting that they will connect their players to junior and college teams. Add to that the 9 million private training outfits that charge ridiculous amounts of money to get your kid to the next level and the advent of Tier 2 tournaments advertised as “AAA” showcases or “College Exposure Showcases” where nobody is really there to be scouting. And even worse the advent of competing Tier 2 AA “National Bound Tournament Teams” as we see in Altoona and State College where kids play mostly for A level PAHL teams all season while playing tournaments expecting to compete in States effectively all for an additional $1500-$2000 on top of your regular PAHL team fees. Altoona does have 1 team doing it right as a full season team so I lay credit where it’s due. The increased emphasis on Tier 2 National Bound glory has become an extremely unhealthy obsession in some areas. Add Black Bear to this and the line between non-profit organization and ice rink business is increasingly disappearing where you see organization higher ups running the organization and are on the rink’s payroll at the same time. And with multiple rinks set up this way it creates the potential for the business to keep these programs in cahoots with each other thus creating the shell game where players can be encouraged to be moved around to satisfy their situations of need in their respective organizations and facilities. Based on what I’ve witnessed thus far I’m led to believe that’s already happened. it’s a sad reality with the direction hockey is going in these parts I think the volunteer run organization that’s there for the kids is fading away fast for adults to profit off these kids thus driving up costs and potentially driving families to the point they can’t afford to play all while not re-investing a portion of those funds back into facilities to where we have quality customer service oriented staff, clean restrooms and locker rooms that don’t have puddles of piss on the floor, mold growing in the showers, no extra glass on hand requiring plywood as a fix, as well as effective preventive maintenance on the aging chillers, dehumidifiers and Zambonis A lot of these rinks are not taken care of and it shows I hope I’m wrong but it seriously concerns me where we are going to be say 5 years down the road I’m a realist and I know it’s never going to happen but it’s time to refocus on being honest and doing what’s right for kids End rant!!
    6 points
  9. Unfortunately all the independent/“faux AAA” teams impact the other players and families who would love to play a good, competitive, LOCAL schedule. That is why people get frustrated with organizations like Icemen that take some talent and travel all over the place instead of playing PAHL.
    6 points
  10. 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.
    6 points
  11. I follow your argument, but I disagree entirely. It's been my experience that closed tryouts are far better for both the organization and the players. I do not agree with the implication that most organizations are holding closed tryouts to hide the actual potential playing level of the resulting teams from parents. From an org's perspective, you don't have parents yelling at their kids during tryouts, or accosting evaluators during or after tryouts about their kids. From a player's perspective, observing closed tryouts both as a parent and as a coach/evaluator for years has convinced me that most kids play better at tryouts when their parents aren't watching and preparing their withering car coaching speech the whole time. Most parents have no idea how to evaluate their player relative to their peers. That's just a sad fact. There are many things about how organizations run tryouts that I have issues with, but I am absolutely convinced that the benefits of closed tryouts far outweigh any costs.
    6 points
  12. I do question the inference that paid coaches are better than “daddy ball” coaches. I’ve seen more than enough paid coaches develop a system of pay to play forcing players to sign up for their skill sessions to earn playing time. There are some very good parent coaches out there, they just happen to have a kid that plays. There are obviously very good paid coaches and very bad parent coaches as well. Having a kid on the team or not doesn’t tell you anything about the quality of the coach.
    6 points
  13. One would suspect that the AAA Champion would disagree quite strongly?
    5 points
  14. The Pittsburgh area is great for tourneys - just not there in Delmont. Alpha, Baierl, UPMC and Neville have plenty of hotels and restaurants nearby and all are close enough where multiple facilities could co-host together.
    5 points
  15. I feel bad for the 18u teams. It's the last year of youth hockey for most of the players. They battled hard all year to earn a trip to beautiful Delmont, PA.
    5 points
  16. I think more than one thing can be true here. Do teams typically get screwed over at Belmont? - Yes Was Armstrong the strongest 18AA PAHL team by a good margin? - Yes
    5 points
  17. 100% - publish them anytime possible, but once published they're final. Parents F off. Don't get me wrong, so do I enjoy seeing my kid's accomplishments where others can see them on web pages such as the PIHL and others as they progressed. However, having watched any of those games I will also know which kid won important face-offs. Blocked shots, hard fore-check, positioning and all the other things nemesis mentioned are what create good hockey players and better teammates. I can leave the rink knowing his stats, if any but more importantly acknowledge the little things that few people notice. Sort of like Lindsey Horan said about US soccer fans, this really does apply to a lot of hockey parents. For the 14 and under crowd on here, don't get so caught up in the skills training as there is far too much of that. Find Coaches who will teach your kid how to play the game and they will be successful not only in hockey, but in life.
    5 points
  18. People who are so fascinated and caught up in stats are almost 100% of the time the ones living vicariously through their kids because they NEVER accomplished anything in their athletic lifetime.
    5 points
  19. I’m sure Black Bear would be very quick to buy the facility and keep it operational.
    5 points
  20. If we need more time for the game to be completed before the curfew clock expires, how about allowing players at 16U AA and 18U AA levels to touch up on off sides and also allow them to ice the puck on the PK. Less stoppages of play will allow more time for OT or a shootout. That way we kill two birds with one stone.
    5 points
  21. The reason we have a shortage of officials around the country is due to the post calling out the official by name. I have done games for 20+ years and the behavior of coaches, players, and fans has gotten progressively worse over that time period. Please DO NOT take this as me "calling out" everyone. There are some coaches and players who simply want an explanation and, agree or not, are respectful during the conversation. There are also players, and coaches that decide that they know the game better than everyone involved and thus refuse to have any kind of discussion and simply resort to shouting and swearing until the official has not choice but to impose a penalty for the behavior. That is on the coach and player, not on the official. Unfortunately, this behavior has led to the situation where you have no choice but to take whatever official you can get because no body else will do it. Also, this also isn't exclusive to just hockey, there's a shortage of officials across all sports because of the behavior exhibited by parents, coaches, and players. The simple answer to this is to say "if you think it is so easy, do it yourself", but the earlier post indicates to me that LGP13 probably wouldn't have the temperament to successfully cover a game. There is not a single official in any sport at any level that can say they have never made a mistake on a call or a rule interpretation and that is called being human. I would suggest being appreciative that these men and women are willing to get up at 6AM on a Saturday/Sunday morning so that little Stevie or Sally are able to play their 7AM 10U B game after working their "real job" all week or cover your adult league game at 11PM on a Wednesday night and then get up to go to said job. Always remember, if the officials don't show up, nobody plays.
    5 points
  22. Throw in visiting teams playing at Armstrong’s barn and getting homered by the refs goes into their ranking. The stupid fair play point is in jeopardy for any visiting team before kids lace up the skates. It is an absolute joke. Too bad ballless PAHL stopped posting game stats to indicate penalty minutes for both teams. Seems anabolic hockey parents were up in arms their kid didn’t get credited for an apple in recent games and PAHL caved. Usually the penalty minute ratio at Belmont is 3/1 in favor of the visiting team.
    5 points
  23. This is a good discussion with some interesting points. From my novice perspective, I am wondering if it makes sense for PAHL to activate the stats tracking tools for the U18 and U16 levels for sure and maybe even U14, or at least the AA levels for some of the age groups below U16. I do see some validity to ignoring the stats for the lower ages/lower divisions. The scorekeeper is usually a parent volunteer from the home team. Many are not familiar with scorekeeping and there is often a rush to complete the score sheet as soon as the horn sounds. I get why the stats are enigmatic in those situations, and it probably is too much distraction for an A minor squirt to focus on individual stats, especially when they are inconsistently recorded. Does a hybrid tweak make sense? Keep/report the stats for the upper tier teams where there is probably more knowledgeable/experienced people serving as score keepers, but keep the stats muted for the more development oriented divisions?
    5 points
  24. Better yet, spend you off-season time on soccer, lax, swimming, etc.
    5 points
  25. Hockey isn't about fun. It's about getting to the NHL. You obviously haven't been to a white mite game lately.
    5 points
  26. Problem #1 with this is that a squirt team has played more than 25 games before Thanksgiving.
    5 points
  27. Although it is easy to forget on this board, hockey is a pretty tight community. When someone is hurting, you do see people step up all the time.
    5 points
  28. Most accurate, non arguable, post in years.
    5 points
  29. No speaking for @Danner27but often these verbal commits don't work out because the University will withdraw the offer closer to the actual Freshman year when they get better players to commit. They aren't obligated to actually take you, but it also limits other Universities from talking to you so you can get screwed doing it too early.
    5 points
  30. This^^^^^ PPE coaches have been included in the evaluation process and lo and behold, many gold buckets always seem to advance ahead of those that were more deserving. I think MidAms are a sham and a complete waste.
    5 points
  31. 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.
    5 points
  32. Gotta love the post-tryout/pre-season my d$ck is bigger than yours enthusiasm. Everyone is so excited about their new teams and the expectations are so high I'm getting a contact buzz. Good luck to all the greener pasture dwellers, may all of your expectations be met. One thing I do know for 100% certainty is that the higher the expectations, the harder that pre-Thanksgiving crash into reality hits.
    5 points
  33. Not only are you correct but if the Preds, SHAHA, and Vengeance would play Tier 2 where they belong, and Icemen would play PAHL, this would be an epic conference.
    5 points
  34. Youth sports is big business, and the lengths people will go to in parting families from their money is disgusting. They don't care. I belong to a discussion group and a parent posted asking if a mass email they received for a camp was a money grab, and of course it was. The amount of justification that the guys making money from these camps gave, and the offense they took over it being called a money grab, was mind boggling. All the parent wanted to know was whether it was a mass email or if they should believe what the email said. Then advertise it only as a camp. Don't couch it in all that language designed to make that parent believe that a scout somehow saw their kid play. You know what kids and parents are thinking when you pepper the email with 'personal invite' and mention 'get noticed' and whatever. If someone is savvy enough to ask, they deserve an answer. They aren't targeting that email to the kids who already have an invite to the main camp. Not everyone has the money to spend on 'getting the experience'. You want to make money off other people's dreams and mislead them into parting with their money, too bad if someone lets the air out of the balloon. All this hand wringing over the bad behavior of parents in the stands.....they are responsible for their behavior. But the sport should take a look at their own part in helping to create this monster. People weren't always trying to live off youth sports. What those guys were really upset about was... don't kill my cash cow by confirming that their main interest in sending you that email was your checkbook, not your kid.
    5 points
  35. Brian (bb2j3z) designs the social media and does a great job :)
    5 points
  36. Some may say the life experiences of living with a host family in a new city, and traveling the US and Canada while developing relationships with that family, coaches, and players all while pushing oneself to succeed at the highest level of their sport might be more beneficial than attending a dance at the Burgettstown Days Inn.
    4 points
  37. This^^^^ 100%, especially for the dinosaurs within PAHL that are wondering why the league has been on a steady downfall for years, while other similar Tier 2 leagues actually promote their players, have all-star games, post stats and are flourishing. Below is an example of what the CSDHL does for their players.......and what PAHL does for theirs.
    4 points
  38. I disagree to an extent. AAA in our area grew out of a crappy AA (PAHL) alternative (for 80% of player a few years ago). Kids wanting to work hard vs jag off. Kids wanting to pick practice over a Friday night football game. Kids wanting to show up at practice vs stay home and play video games. AAA had accountability (which most pahl orgs did not). Today it is probably different with dillusuonal parents. But when my kid played he moved to AAA because he was annoyed with the level of responsibility, accountability and dedication in the team, organization and league.
    4 points
  39. I have said this 100 times. But I'll say it again. Kids need to pick a college based on the college they want to got to, the curriculum and the campus. If they have hockey, bonus! But club hockey (unless they are getting $$$, which means D1 in a sports scholarship and D3 typically a large academic scholarship ) should not drive their decision. Just my 2 cents.
    4 points
  40. If we were to eliminate (or neutralize) the names highlighted in this claim and just broaden it with a different location/region where nobody really knows any specifics (i.e. “The Ice Shed in Thunder Bay, ONT” or “The “Cow Castle in Green Bay, WI”), and link it with their local amateur hockey organization…I am sure that I’d be one of many people that would dismiss it as hyperbole, too far-fetched, and absurd to even consider it as having any legitimacy. I’d think, here’s someone that is trying to impress how POd they are with that place and are really making it seem waaay worse than the reality is. But, the sad reality is that it’s 100% true (well, maybe except for the roided out hockey parents…I know nothing thing about that—but I wouldn’t be surprised). What I do know is, Armstrong/Belmont is a “fair play black hole.” If your team name doesn’t begin with the letter “A,” forget about it. I think that they even tax you some FPPs off the top as soon as you enter the rink…just like they did back in the old country as tribute. Seriously, this is the only WPA rink that I have ever seen where the guys wearing stripes actually do think that everyone in the stands came to that rink in order to watch them call penalties…on the road team. It’s like they bait the opposition—especially the unknowing parents—just to instigate verbal aggression the very second anyone from the visiting team sniffles their nose, or squeaks a chirp following their absurdly called penalty. I’ve even seen rookie step-parents get thrown out of there, forced to do the silent walk of shame when they were only doing positive cheering—it was nothing disparaging at all. The parents were by simply cheering on the refs (albeit sarcastically) when the refs called one of their infamous invisible man penalties, or their crowd-pleaser of, “2:00 minor for tripping…over their own blue line”…on their way to the bench. SMH
    4 points
  41. You know, i honestly dont think that there is anyone better for this than the Central Catholic Viking’s own Evan Benscoter. From his dazzling dekes and dangles to his howitzer the kid is destined for greatness. If we’re actually having a discussion about Western PA high school hockey legends, look no further than this living legend himself.
    4 points
  42. Just what we need more AAA mites
    4 points
  43. I missed the part where it says more ice.
    4 points
  44. PAHL always seems to have excuses on how to NOT do the right thing.
    4 points
  45. That part about skating outdoors on the lakes is an understated part. There's something to be said about playing for fun with friends in a non-adult ruled competition just for the fun of it. It develops creativity without fear of mistakes and a love for the game more than structured skills lessons and AAAA mite leagues. And I'm sure there are a multitude more of public rinks available which create more opportunities for those that otherwise might not have them.
    4 points
  46. Edina is a Minneapolis suburb. The district has about 8500 students, which is about the size of North Allegheny School District. NA is by far the biggest suburban school district around here, and they don't have 165 kids trying out for their hockey team, which I think is the point someone else was making.
    4 points
  47. The closest rink to your house, best cost and a place you feel welcomed... and then reevaluate at u14/u15.
    4 points
  48. Oh, nobody. He meant that in general. There's video of the signing (probably signing money over to the owner is what they signed lol) from the UPMC Center on their Facebook page. The owner looks like he's right out of central casting as a con man, cheap used-car salesman suit and all. I'm surprised he stopped short of blowing cigar smoke in the faces of the players while they signed their papers.
    4 points
  49. And that is where the issue comes in. The guy who owns the team has a history of being very shady. I can only assume the team will fold mid-season and he will have "lost" all the sponsors money.
    4 points
  50. Damn that's a shame. Always hear about some of the great venues teams travel to for nationals, and these players will wrap up their youth careers at delmont.
    4 points
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