forbin

Yes, and more organizations need to clearly communicate what to expect from them on their website. Like tell us how many practices a week we will get, roughly how many games, tournaments etc we plan to play in. Cost of uniforms, extra required equipment, whatever else in needed. Total season fees, who the coaches are. It’s like they all try to hide it from everyone else. If you want to switch organizations, or are a brand new parent to hockey, it’s extremely off putting to go to a website and get ZERO information, and then scour through the pages to find a contact to email, only to either not get a response at all or get a vague one weeks later. Just put the information out there and let people make their decision. It might help motivate other organizations to realize why they are losing people and change their ways a bit. Why are organizations afraid of doing this?

A heavily rumored (and all but confirmed) 2nd sheet at printscape would help that out quite a bit.

This is a good point however, getting from anywhere in the south hills to new ken at rush hour for an evening practice 3x a week would be the worst possible commute I could imagine in the Pittsburgh area. I mean you're looking at 1.5hrs one way on a good day, no accidents or weather issues. No program would be worth that for me personally.

The Black Bear rinks in the area (PIA/Delmont/Southpointe) all have their full schedules listed on their websites

LOL do we though?

Let me start out by saying that I have no ill will towards any of the players or parents on the 2013 pens elite teams. In fact my son is friends with and has played with the majority of them. Some seriously talented kids there, no question. We chose to not try out and to stay away from there as it is not the right fit for my son. To each their own. To the point in the post above, It is 100% true. The 2013 BY teams were not picked until 9/15, yet they held tryouts in April and everyone had to commit financially then. I know the 2012-2013 birth years very well and let me tell you that the 2013 gold roster is full of parents who “played the game” over summer and went to all their extra camps and clinics, or are currently in the excel program, and the black roster is the kids who didn’t. These are verified facts. The political BS starts very early.

Personally I'd rather my son choose to play junior hockey at 18-20 years old and pay $15k/yr for it, take some online courses to figure out what field of study he wants to really pursue all while playing good hockey and making lifelong friends and memories, than make him decide what school he "needs" to go to straight out of high school that may or may not have a club hockey program he could play for all while paying $40k a year to the college, PLUS the club hockey dues only to find out a couple years in its not the right fit and have to start over or abandon it all together. Every single player and family have different views on the right path. Statements like the one below are so antiquated and out of touch with the reality of todays youth it makes me cringe. People are waiting until their mid thirties before getting married and having kids now. Letting your kid play a couple years of junior hockey is not going to "set him behind his peers". "Be aware that to some extent you may be setting them behind their peers. Their friends will start getting real jobs, married, starting families. Your kid will still be messing around with hockey and school. Maybe having a hard time finding a girl because they aren't making money. Mentally that can be hard. All to extend a hockey career that won't go past college for club hockey...."

I make my 9 year old rewatch every single practice and tell me exactly why he messed up the drill or missed the shot. Then he does 100 pushups for every mistake he makes. He will thank me when he’s in the NHL in nine years. Couldn’t do it without livebarn!

Personally speaking, as a parent of a "top" squirt who was recruited by TE and asked to tryout at PPE and declined the offer, I can say that there is a lot of talks about this exact thing with parents of players at this age group. Time will tell. Currently there are 2-3 squirt teams in the area that are full of parents with the mindset that PPE isn't the end all be all for their kid.

They “help” them for 4-6 years from mites to peewees and then dump them to esmark or vengeance for kids from Michigan. It’s an awesome development model for local kids.

I never said one win. I'm talking about certain "faux" AAA teams beating multiple different "legitimate" AAA teams, multiple different times over the past few years....

So if a team declares AAA and plays against other "legitimate" AAA teams, and beats them, would you not consider them to be AAA? Just asking

I have said this before but I don’t see how BB being in the area is a bad thing at all. With the AHF offering a half season option, I could see many PAHL teams taking advantage of this. Say you take a 10U AA PAHL team and get your 6 preseason games, 14 regular season, 4 ODSET, add in AHF half season and that’s another 16 games spread out over 4 weekend trips to Philly/NJ, throw in a local tournament and a travel one somewhere else for another 8-10 games, maybe 4-6 independently scheduled games and you’ve got yourself a good season of around 50-55 total games with a good variety if opponents and decent amount of travel. I don’t see BB offering an AHF West division until they get more clubs on board here and that can’t be done without buying more rinks because that’s the whole thing about the AHF is that they make their own rules and schedules and it’s all done so by one group of centralized people, not by the rink. I have heard strong rumors that BB is looking at Alpha, which would make total sense as BB are now partners with the USPHL. Just wait a few more years until Black Bear buys UPMC and everyone’s head will explode.

You're absolutely right, they aren't really accomplishing anything. The way I understood it is that teams will be listed alphabetically but still have their rating listed as well, therefore little Jaxton's dad will still be able to export to an excel file and "rank" them anyway which I'm sure he will gladly do.

I mean I wasn't gonna say anything.....LOL

There are some MAJOR ulterior motives at play with this "fundraising" by one person in particular who has weaseled his way into the program...

There’s one former NHLer in particular I could do without exploiting everyone in Pittsburgh and turning every single thing into a giant money grab….but that’s a different story. I think this is good news for SSA. Might help get more talent in the door.

I see on their site that the Vipers aren’t fielding 10U or 12U teams, but the Viper Stars are….what’s the story here?

Unfortunately that is EVERYWHERE with mites these days. Coaches and parents are completely nuts. I first hand saw the following this past season: -SCIR coach jumped over the boards to yell at ref -66er parents ridiculing players and making fun of opposing teams parents in stands at tournament -PREDS coach tossed for stepping on to the ice to yell at ref -SHAHA Dad tossed for walking onto the ice and pushing ref - Allegheny/SCIR coaches screaming at each other on bench - Allegheny parents calling player multiple obscenities' repeatedly -LCL coaches instructing their kids to take out opposing players (confirmed to be true after speaking with players after game) -RMU coaches getting tossed for arguing with ref -SCIR dad getting tossed for screaming at ref All of these at the red level and are 100% true. It was absolutely insane and it's no wonder why nobody wants to ref mite games anymore.

Locked to prevent any type of slippery slope from happening. I understand the Athletic is website that anyone can access (if you pay), however this player is still underaged and therefore it is against this websites rules to discuss him by name.

100% agree. This is the reason we left.

Wow I have never seen someone downplay the development model of NCAA D1 programs ?

Its only matter of time until AHF is in Pittsburgh and personally I see it as a good thing. Strong rumors that BB is looking at buying up a couple more rinks in Ohio and Buffalo area, so I could absolutely see an AHF West division happening. Maybe it will force PAHL to restructure a bit, or teams could probably play in both and get a nice variety of opponents and a hefty schedule.

Do players develop more during games or at practice?

Those are some deep thoughts…. ill see myself out