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This is absolutely true. It’s how my oldest ended up with the 66ers a few years back. A coach in a PPE jacket approached my wife after a jamboree in delmont and went on and on about how talented our kid was. He was 7. I’ll admit, we were naive and swooned. So we jumped ship the following year and quite honestly it sucked. The environment there was terrible for my son and my family. I’m sure it’s great for others but we we’re definitely the black sheep of the group.

PPE is a white collar clique. Predetermined rosters based on parental income and butt kissing, but then again that's pretty much everywhere nowadays. It's so funny to me to see what Cranberry has become. It was a whole different world growing up there in the late 80's. I avoid it like the plague now.

There are some local organizations that do a good job of preparing their 8 or soon to be 9 year old's for full ice by using the last few weeks of practice to introduce full ice concepts, D zone breakouts, offsides, icing etc. There's also a handful of mite to squirt transition camps during the summer. RMU runs a great camp for that. That being said, it's not nearly enough experience to prepare them. A ton of first year squirt games (especially at the A minor and B level) are all 10 skaters bunching up by the puck and countless offside calls. As @HereWithPopcorn mentioned, the goalie pool gets shallower every year, and I agree that it has a ton to do with not allowing "full time" goalies at the 8U level. There are some kids that are just born to be goalies. Let them play the position.

This is so incredibly true, and EXACTLY why a lot of people are moving towards the 'AAA" model at the squirt and peewee level. They don't want the parent coaches anymore. My oldest kids first year squirt coach couldn't even skate. A true "bender" in every sense of the word. He apparently played football growing up, but got his USA hockey coaching certs and was a decent guy they decided to make him the head coach. The drills at practices were atrocious. It was a terrible experience all around.

Is Vengeance cheaper than PPE?

So you guys are saying the ADM model is creating weaker hockey-minded players? So 6 year olds playing full ice is a better method?

As of 2019-2020 USA hockey numbers there are 1,554 registered male players ages 15-16 in Western PA. Lets say its an average roster size of 18 players on a team. That's roughly 86 teams. PPE and independent 'AAA" teams and at the 15O and 16U level make up roughly 10 of those teams. 180 legit AAA level kids out of 1,554 doesn't seem like a far stretch to me. Roughly 11% of players in the area at those ages. I don't see why there isn't room for having 4-6 AAA programs in this area.

I had exposure at PPE (lil 66ers) with my oldest and it was not a good experience for my family. I was not a fan of their style. Different strokes for different folks. I wont go into details. That being said I have really have no idea what else is out there for 'AAA' at the squirt and peewee level. We will most likely stay in PAHL and continue to do lessons and extra training stuff on our own. Worry about the extra A when he's a bantam. But to answer your question, yes I would explore the other 'AAA' clubs. I actually like the SCIR hybrid model of playing a PAHL AA schedule and independent AA/AAA games. The problem with that is we are very far from Alpha. I think the biggest cost difference is travel expenses and tournament fees.

Nice Post @Saucey. A lot of good points. I really appreciate this board when we can have thoughtful and intelligent conversation about the sport. While I agree with a lot what you said about the level of competition locally and people leaving for AAA for ice time and coaching, I will bring up one thing. I have family members whos daughters are heavily involved in extremely competitive dance and cheerleading where they travel across the country for competitions and showcases etc. They all know there is virtually zero opportunity for a professional avenue after the girls are 18 to pursue their passion of dance or cheerleading, but they still dump the time and money into because it is what their kids are passionate about right now. They have the type of girls that would be bored dancing locally or cheering for their HS football team. Every kid is different. Some kids, like your son don't want all the extra stuff that comes along with 'AAA' hockey and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I have a son who is the exact same way. He's happiest playing house league honestly. Some kids, however DO want to travel to MN or TX for tournaments even if its just when they are 12-16 years old. My youngest has that mentality right now. He wants to skate every day, he wants to play at the highest level he can. Will that change as he gets older? Maybe, maybe not but I will facilitate whatever I can to make him happy.

I don't think anyone is arguing the fact that good players can come from anywhere, just that the desire for the third A is watering down what already relatively small talent WPA has at that playing level. It does suck that PPE has essentially cornered the market and sticks their nose up to any other AAA program in the area.

They teach that move at the Hextall Goalie School

I believe the mom of the kid who was being whacked by the goalie uploaded the video to a private FB hockey mom group that my wife is a part of. There were a few comments saying something along the lines of "he was checking to see if he was ok" and "I don't see anything wrong with what the goalie did". Fortunately though, the rest of the hundreds of comments were against his actions.

You should see the comments on Facebook defending the goalies actions. Unbelievable.

Because they can't let down the curtain and show their parents what other options are out there. There should absolutely be a Pittsburgh AAA tournament every year. PPE, Vengeance, Preds, etc. Put it all out there and let the games do the talking. There is NO way PPE would ever agree to do that though unfortunately.

Wait, Vengeance only practices twice a week?

Well, this thread has certainly taken its fair share of twists and turns.... For the record, we have decided against the ice kings program simply for logistical reasons.

Wouldn't surprise me at all. They might as well field a '11 and '12 team too. Just eliminate the viper stars all together

My 2013 has done skates with TK, NE, and Tyler at IC. Enjoyed them all. They all have their benefits for sure. We may end up doing the TK/NE thing as the practices will be at Mt. Lebo which is closer than PICE. Not to completely derail this thread but my very reliable source at printscape has told me that the deal for a second sheet is 95% done. Printscape's sponsorship is up in a couple of months and they hope to have a second sheet up and running by October 2021. We will see. That would be a game changer though for the rink rats/canon mac/ peters etc. Not to mention its always good to have more ice in WPA!

I have a 2009 and a 2013. My 2009 isn’t interested in doing summer hockey as he plays travel baseball and enjoys that much more. My 2013 is completely addicted to hockey and would be on the ice every single day if we could. We have tried so many other sports with him and he could care less. Yes, I realize it’s pretty ridiculous to be doing all of this for a soon to be 8 year old but trust me when I say it’s him driving the train here, I just pay for it. A lot of his teammates are doing the TK/NE thing. We also live very close to Southpointe but are not with the RinkRats. That might change soon though with the strong rumor of a second ice sheet coming there.

I am 99% sure the ones you can hear clearly are players in the box or, yapping at each other from the benches. Just judging on their tone of voice and choice of words. Sounds like a 17 year old hockey player to me haha

https://www.firstlineevents.com/ Yes, they did. They aren’t playing tournaments though, only playing against each other. That’s one of the reasons I was leaning towards the ice kings.

Per a contact a Center Ice - "All PAHL and PIHL games will take place as normal, including 8U jams. Just this HockeyTime Tournament was cancelled. Expect to be required to submit roster and guardian list prior to game time and to have ID's and temperatures checked at entry."

Thanks for the input guys. Just trying to find something to do on top of a few camps and some lessons this summer. A few of my sons teammates are doing the TK/NE thing, so we are weighing our options.

Fight happens with 2:15 left in the third if anyone wants to get right to it. Gotta love the group of squirts in the corner waiting to take the ice watching this unfold. Preds player takes a run at Huskies player with a 5-2 lead in the 3rd. Classy stuff right there. I don't have a dog in this fight (pun intended) but after watching this, then watching the 2nd period to solidify my thoughts, the officiating during this game was unbelievably terrible. Not to defend the parent/coach/player that you can clearly hear berating the ref for allowing this to go on, but holy hell the ref had ZERO control over this game. He was just out there getting his laps in.