forbin

I am trying to be extremely optimistic about Jan 4th, but I can't help but feel like our kids wont play until middle of February at the earliest. Sure the cases may go down from now until the 4th, but you can bet on them rising again around the 10th of January (approx 2 weeks after Christmas) when people really start noticing symptoms. My pessimism for this has resulted in me purchasing synthetic ice for my basement. Not a very big area, but at least it keeps my kid skating a bit and shooting. I can't take another 3-4 months of him being depressed about not playing.

I mean every thread on here turns into a PPE thread, so you might as well finish your sales pitch.

PPE is more expensive than esmark especially when you factor in the cost of the excel program, because lets be honest here if you don't do excel, you don't make the team.

Not defended the Preds because I have zero affiliation with them whatsoever, BUT the direction from the PAHL is only that league games and jamborees are suspended. Says nothing about practices and team events.

RMU will add kids to their lower in-house levels around this time of year. Usually, those kids are graduates from the fall session of their learn to play hockey program, but I have also seen some outside kids be evaluated by one of the directors and allowed to join at a discounted price. That being said, with roster restrictions this year because of covid, I am not sure they will be doing that. Would your child be in the intermediate or advanced level at UPMC? If not, I would look at the winter session of learn to play hockey at RMU. It starts in January. I would suggest using the rest of this season to develop skills, then play a summer league (all three rinks you mentioned offer one), and then start fresh with whichever program you choose for the fall season. Hopefully this global state is a bit better by then and a more "normal" season commences. If you plan on joining a PAHL mite travel team, be advised that the majority of them do their placements in early spring. Based on your location, I am assuming you live in the Cranberry/Mars/Wexford area? There is also the Pittsburgh Yetis at Frozen Pond down route 8. I have no experience with them other than my coworkers son is currently playing on their red team and that team is doing very well. He says good things about their mite director, Levi.

The mite in-house program at RMU is the largest in the area and Blaine and Bob do a fantastic job running it. They offer four teams at each level from Tier 6 to Tier 1 (which are the travel Red and White teams). My son started at 5 years old there and progressed from tier 6 to 3 to 1 (red), then finally his last year of mites was with the Lil 66ers at UPMC. I regret leaving for UPMC during his final year of mites as I preferred the practices and power skating at RMU much more, and we obviously weren’t with the “in crowd” at UPMC. My son ended up missing playing with his buddies at RMU. My only complaint about the in-house program at RMU is that there isn’t practices during the week at the tier 6-tier 2 levels, so you end up practicing on Saturdays and playing games on Sundays. We ended up filling in the weekday gaps with lessons and public skating. If you have any questions please feel free to ask here or DM me. I grew up playing for NP at Baierl and enjoyed it very much. I don’t believe any of the people involved when I played there are still involved, so I can’t speak for program now, but they are always competitive at the older levels. I know my sons AA squirt team always struggled against theirs. UPMC offers a good in house program and the lil 66ers Red level teams. I just wasn’t a big fan of the BS and koolaid drinking that goes on there. Too many parents worried about the extra “A”. Different strokes for different folks. You have to understand that an extremely small percentage of players make it past the youth level, yet pretty much everyone of those mite parents think their lil 66er is going to be drafted first overall. Some of the conversations we overheard were nauseating. Its a very long journey and many others on this site have had experience with youth hockey for longer than I have been alive, so I’m sure you will get a lot of interesting responses and help. My biggest advice to you is go somewhere that you feel comfortable with and your daughter has fun with. If that means going where some of her classmates play, then maybe go that route for now. Hope this helps!

@hockeyisgreat Where were you? Because all PAHL ADM jams this season only have 4 teams. Look at the website. I am naively optimistic that we can get through this coming weekend and hopefully thanksgiving tournament weekend. I could see PAHL halting play until after Christmas. Hopefully the rinks can still stay open for practices during that time.

ADM games can only have 2 games at once this season. 4 teams total and only parent per player. Around 80 total people on the ice and in the stands. I gave my kid the choice of wearing a mask while playing or not play at all. He chose the mask. Everything will be shut down again soon anyway. Just trying to get ice time while we still can.

I think most everyone in WPA is under the mentality of get it while you can and keep things as "normal" as possible. My sons team has games scheduled in OH and a tournament in NY.

I don't think PPE "requires" NC and excel at the 14U,15O,16U levels but I am positive it helps your chances out tremendously for making the roster. As does daddy's pockets... I think the new "prep" team is the only one that you have to attend NC for. Someone please correct me if I am wrong

1 on Penn State played for PPE. 2 on Mercyhurst both played for PPE. 1 on Bowling Green played for PPE. There is definitely a trend here...

He's saying with the NHL aiming for a January 2021 start, the UPMC complex will likely be closed starting in December for training camp. Meaning, PPE will not have a home rink.

My assumption would be that they do not want to be scrutinized for their "questionable" social distancing practices.

Having recently stayed in a hotel out of state for business I can say I felt like it was the cleanest hotel experience I have ever had.

Thanks for this insight. We have a couple of parents on our team that are hesitant to play out of state.

Wow. What a giant POS. Looks like he was a sub too which makes it even more embarrassing for his teammates. Absolute joke.

Looks like it..... http://myhockeystatistics.com/entre_un.php?o=3&s=374&x=1&d=13634 Maybe its the girls team? Still pretty bad either way Edit: to add that it also appears that PPE is playing in the 10U AA division as well...

Absolutely. Google says RMU's sheet that the college team plays on is 1,200 seat capacity, and UPMC is 1,500 per sheet. If I am reading the note from Paul Day on this correctly, it is the capacity for the entire building based on the fire code. We should be totally fine for all PAHL and most PIHL games to be played as "normal". If Baierl says its 1,000 seat per sheet I would think all of local rinks are very similar in seating capacity size or more. The stands there are not very large, especially on the World rink.

I'm assuming the rink owners will talk to their lawyers and get everything sorted out today. I would anticipate almost all of the rinks being able to operate as "normal" moving forward. PIHL and PAHL need to have a meeting ASAP and get the new guidelines set. As long as everyone follows the protocols put in place, the rules at the rink, and stays home if they are feeling sick, I don't see why we cant have a successful season. Anyone know off hand the capacity limits for some local rinks?

Finally! Let's get this show on the road....safely!

I hope he realizes that if he makes it 50 or 75 for indoor, then all of us go away and its one less thing he has to worry about. I am sure he and his staff are getting sick of the calls from crazy hockey parents.

I guess local rinks and organizations are going to have to take the "speakeasy" approach to this in order to get games in. Call them scrimmages, screw MidAm, screw USA Hockey. Just let the kids play. This whole season is a wash anyway, as I highly doubt there will be nationals so just keep doing what everyone is already doing. Follow social distancing guidelines, wear you damn mask, and don't give anyone any reason to complain about whats happening. Hell, this way the PAHL teams will probably get to play more than their normally allotted number of games too.

That is false. They are allowing full roster games 5v5.

What rinks are still enforcing the 25 limit and forcing 4v4? Literally every single rink I have been to in the past two weeks have allowed 5v5 and the two that weren't have as of today, lifted that restriction. Do you think that a certain organization or rink really wants to be the whistle blower to put a stop to all of this?

Who is enforcing these restrictions? Do the police have the power to come in and shut down a hockey game if its over the 25 capacity limit? I think the majority of the rinks are fed up with this BS and will allow full roster games to be played. Most likely still without spectators, and making sure the players follow the protocols.