forbin

We know. We all know this, but unfortunately for you not all of us have kids that old yet and this is a forum for discussion. Therefore discussion of younger birth years will take place.

I have to have a team? I don't. But if I did it would be an independent team full talented players and like minded people. And I don't see a single thing wrong with that. Let's agree to disagree on this and that's fine. Limited ice time, 3-4 teams sharing the ice for practice or only getting 20 minutes of full ice time per week, dad coaches who only focus on their own kid, uninformed parents who have never played hockey in their lives running the show, organizations having SIX squirt and peewee teams because they refuse to cut anyone are reasons why I look elsewhere.

Just to play devils advocate here, there are people who spend $30k or way more a year on clothes and shoes, or hobbies like hunting and fishing, or on eating out at restaurants for God's sake so what exactly is the difference if they choose to spend it on their kid playing hockey? I guess I'm in the minority of people here who don't mind teams going independent, mainly because I have been around and involved with PAHL for over 30 years and I can totally see why people are sick of it. I also love the traveling part of playing hockey because it's what I grew up doing. My kid loves it too. I personally would rather spend my weekend driving to NY to play 2-4 games against teams you wouldn't otherwise play, do some other "sight seeing" stuff, stay in a hotel, eat at some good local restaurants, and throw back a few whiskey sours with the other dads, than drive to Westmoreland for a 9am game on a Sunday. Then again, everyone's lives and financially situation is different so I completely understand the other point of view. I make a comfortable living to support that type of thing without the financial stress, and I am fortunate enough to have a job where I am able to get the "honey do" list done during the week. Yes, all roads lead to beer league. There likely isn't a single person on this board with a child who will play hockey professionally, but the argument that it's a waste of money to play at the highest level you can is a stupid one in my opinion. A busy kid is a good kid. A kid whos traveling for hockey every weekend is likely a kid who isn't getting into trouble otherwise. That's it. Carry on. P.s. the younger BY Preds teams all look very strong. This trend of going independent will not stop. *Steps off soapbox*

Not really, I just see that they haven't won a game yet, or even come close to winning one and are ranked 40th out of 42.. I wouldn't be too thrilled about it if that was my kids team. Then again they are all first year squirts and its a learning process.

I am guessing the 11 Vengeance parents are not happy. As well as the 12 Foxes....yikes!

Seriously? For peewee minor?

Without trying to out him here, yes he played esmark U16 and varsity PIHL. He is an undersized D man. I'd say he was upper middle of the pack but a really smart player. He went to tryouts, made the team and he has some family close to the town he plays in so it worked out. His dad isn't naive to think that his kid will play past these next couple of years, but they have the coin and his kid loves to play so they are making it work.

USPHL ages out at 21. Tuition is around $10k for most clubs. Some clubs cover housing in that cost, some don't. My coworkers son is on his second year with a USPHL team after playing esmark/pihl and doing online college. He's having a great time and knows it likely wont lead to anything but beer league after.

What do those costs relate to? You should be able to secure ice time and refs for two games for less than $700 total. Or am I misreading this?

Agree 100% that the automatic offsides is an absurd rule that needs to go away immediately.

and normally the only teams that travel to places like Detroit, Boston, Chicago etc. are the independent ones....

For my youngest specifically I'm definitely in this boat. This will be his 5th year of mites and I am sick of playing the same teams over and over again. Doing a bunch of AAU full ice tournaments and games this year to get some variety and a bit more a challenge. I am without a doubt on the fence about what to do next year for squirts. This wasn't an issue for my oldest as he played A minor for squirts and peewees, but still it got annoying seeing the same teams coached by the same dads at the same rinks with the same crappy refs over and over again.

That's generally the same model used for all orgs with BY teams. Which I'm totally cool with as long as it equates to either more practice slots or more games or both. Also having non parent head coaches is another big draw for a lot of people as it has been discussed at great lengths on this site.

In this scenario would it mean that ALL minor pure BY teams would be obligated to play in the AA Minor division? What happens if the team is weak? Seeing that in a couple of cases so far this year....

Independent AA

I agree and honestly I don’t see it as a negative thing... maybe it will shake things up a bit around here.

BY makes sense to me for first year squirts, but only if their only competition is also all first year squirts. For the simple reason that everyone is generally on the same playing field. Obviously you'll still have those stand out kids who played one or two seasons of full ice AAU that have a better idea of how the game is played, but for the most part everyone will be learning as they go. In a perfect world that would be possible in PAHL, but looking at the current teams it appears there's only 3 total 12BY teams this year? (preds,foxes,vipers). Looking at MHR it seems the foxes team is really struggling against mixed year teams, which is no surprise at all.

Off topic but in regards to PAHL and their rules. I watched a game between two 07 PAHL teams this past weekend and saw a total of 3 body checks. Is this because teams don't want to risk getting penalties and messing up the FP points and all that BS or just because its preseason? Like, honestly I was shocked. There was AT LEAST 20 perfect opportunities for someone to lay a good hit and nobody did.

Preds 12BY is playing PAHL. 11BY team is a very skilled group of kids and are playing an independent schedule.

And I think that's part of the "legit" vs "faux" AAA argument/problem

Little Ceasers, JR Flyers and Florida Alliance all came to Pittsburgh to play in the ATC tourney against the Vengeance a couple of weeks ago. I'd consider all three of those clubs to be quality AAA programs.

At this point I'm just waiting for the EXCEL Academy Daycare to pop up. A competitive environment for your hockey minded infant/toddler ages 18m-4 years. The sad thing is that I personally know of a couple parents that would be all over it.

Ice Castle is the only one I can think of that meets Black Bears M.O. and I don't see them selling.

Ice rental at New Ken is $325/hr for peak times. Not sure what it was prior to BBS taking over but it’s still about $100 less than RMU and Baierl...

Absolutely. The 2011 and younger goalies are pretty much non existent in this area. I know of at least 6 large PAHL organizations that had zero or just one goalie show up to their mite evaluations this year, and several of those same organizations struggled to fill their 10U spots. Even the 66ers didn’t fill all of their goalie slots this year, and obviously this thread is a telling sign of PPE at the squirt level too. Not sure if this is because there isn’t much emphasis on the position at those ages with the ADM system, or they don’t really nurture the kids that WANT to play goalie. Then you also have the parents that don’t want their kid between the pipes. In Pittsburgh specifically maybe it’s because Fleury is no longer a Penguin which I’m positive had an effect on the number of goalies in this area in years past. Either way it’s not a good sign for the future....