YardSale

2 hours ago, aaaahockey said:

Part of this is the lack of developmental/house hockey at the younger ages.  Stick them on a blue mites team or B squirt team instead of helping them develop with more ice time and even internal games in developmental hockey.  

Why don't the larger organizations take the blue teams and just do in-house or play against 2-3 other very local orgs?  PAHL is WAY to spread out for an 8U blue team to drive 2 hours each was for a 45 minute jam.  Ridiculous.

29 minutes ago, stickboy said:

What are you shopping for that you are going to find out at tryouts?

offers on a team that is good enough for Johnny

5 minutes ago, nemesis8679 said:

As the title says. Why? Not even just regular tryouts, but teams having supplementals at the same times as teams are still doing regular tryouts?

As a parent, I would have no problem with my kid going to tryouts for 4-5 organizations. But it's really hard to do that when you're possibly going to miss at least a day at other places. So now you're sort of forced to put all your eggs in one or two baskets instead of going to several and missing a day or two of each.

Now this has to be on purpose, because there's not a lot of hockey going on right now at the rinks but not only are dates the same, but times overlap.

I get every org wants to get the commitments first before the others, but they're also missing out on kids that would otherwise perhaps at least get in the door of another org and consider playing there.

It's just another hockey thing that seems to be made more complicated than it needs to be.

I think your point about taking your kid to 4-5 tryouts is exactly why they do it.  If there was any sort of allegiance to an organization they would just schedule whenever.  But with everyone window shopping around town, you have to try and lock your kids in before they see something else they like.

4 minutes ago, stickboy said:

Bingo!  Mom and dad finally realize the dream is not attainable and pull back. 

 It’s the same thing every year. We never listen to those ahead of us that tell us exactly how it is. We think they are just bitter and it’s going to be different for us.  But in reality it is the same:  If at 15u/16u you aren’t a top player on Pens or at a top nationally ranked out of town program, Tier1Juniors/NCAA/pro hockey isn’t in the cards.  Yes, there are a few exceptions, but be honest: is your player the exception?

From what I’m reading lately, it seems that maybe folks are waking up and bowing out of the AAA rat race and going AA.  Maybe we’ll start seeing some better AA and high school hockey in the coming years?
 

 

 

One can dream for that outcome, I'm not holding my breath.

1 hour ago, zam said:

I wasn't saying AA players aren't capable or deserving of moving up to AAA teams at that age.  I was being more critical of the organizations. They treat AAA as a club, you either belong or you don't, it's hard to break in. So they keep bringing in "AAA" kids that peaked when they were 11 years old.

Reminds me of NHL coaches, same 30 dudes keep switching teams. How often does a new up and coming coach get a chance?

 

Only argument I have regarding the "no lack of customers" sentiment is that Esmark and Vengeance '09 had really low numbers at their skates and V barely had a turnout at tryouts.  That doesn't tell me AA kids are wanting to move up and aren't being taken, that tells me AA kids are happy where they are and see low end AAA for what it is.

3 minutes ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Is that Tier 1 or Tier 2?

Tier 1 based on the post in the tryout thread

7 hours ago, Hky05 said:

Apparently 09 vengeance handed out offers?! 

To who? I thought they had 8-10 skaters at each session?

How was '09 Vengeance last night?

Just now, hockey07 said:

It’s $5100 for next year 

Bigger question is what does that include?  It is hard to compare apples to apples on a lot of the posted prices 

Unfortunate if true, every year you see the posts of the girls teams desperately looking for players to round out their rosters.  Not to mention taking those girls and shipping them off to other cities to play instead of playing locally.

1 minute ago, hockeydadx3 said:

Sounds like you know something hockey55. Share. 

I think he is asking in the context of the low numbers at other tryouts.  Are there Pens cuts coming to the rescue?

Not a good turnout at Esmark ‘09 night 1. Not sure exactly but not enough for a team with no cuts.

2 minutes ago, PittsburghHockeyFan said:

Does anyone know how competitive these Tier 2 Vengeance birth year teams are going to be? Seems like it may just be a bunch of kids hoping to wear the Tier 1 V, but will never even sniff the roster.

It is tier II, it is the old SCIR birth year teams.  They definitely have some competitive teams

11 hours ago, aaaahockey said:

I've heard the same.  Not necessarily out of area but that they can't field teams at certain levels.  

Where are they not able to field teams?

5 minutes ago, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

Was NHAHA doing well at PIA?? I don't really remember. The rink has struggled for years and some of the maintenance issues and other problems there might have given people a bad impression of the facility. I haven't been there in years, so I don't know if those issues have been resolved. I sort of assume they have fixed some of the more obvious and uglier issues, but people might be cautious of that as well.

Their overall numbers had been dropping year over year.  

1 hour ago, nemesis8679 said:

Why are the Huskies having such a hard time fielding teams? I would've thought they'd be in a great position of starting something fresh. But it just hasn't taken.

I don’t think the AHF is all that appealing.

10 minutes ago, IceMom said:

Esmark? 
*EDIT - Sorry, You don't have to actually answer that. Just taking a wild guess. The KoSICK effect usually results in things like this. 

No, it was a PAHL organization.  I'm not going to say who. 

1 hour ago, Macky85 said:

The estimated 2024-25 fees are now posted on their website.

This conversation is interesting, many organizations don't post their fees at all.  I know my organization last year just hit us with a bill (which was way higher than I anticipated)

3 hours ago, Pucks11 said:

Welcome to AA hockey. Don't blame the refs. This is everywhere across AA.

I actually thought the reffing at WPA states was really good.  From the games I watched, they let the teams play.

5 hours ago, Saucey said:

I mean, how can you tell for sure? You don't know if players that already have a spot came. Because I can't think of any organization that doesn't already have a good idea of who they want at the older ages.

The difference here is there is no current ‘09 team. You would think players would come to the skates to see what is there.

8 minutes ago, Icebucket said:

That Allegheny u18 team should have a legitimate shot at winning being placed at 2A.

Are teams placed based on season performance?  I always thought it was based on organization size.  

14 minutes ago, Happy Hockey Fan said:

PIHL does a horrible job of placing teams after they lose a bunch of scoring and seniors. Losing half a team to graduation always has a big negative effect on teams. It is even worse when those seniors account for 75% of the goals scored for a team. I have seen it time and time again over the years. Those two factors need to be added to their “formula” in order to make it much better. I have seen it happen  to many schools. And has made some kids senior years really tough because they are playing in a division where they get beaten badly a lot of times and lose many games. Whereas if placed properly they would have been competitive but still not on a championship caliber team. Meaning they were way out of the correct division. It leads to teams going 1-19, or 2-18 etc. 

if TJ is losing half their team and are moved up, I believe they will probably struggle a little. Unless they have a program big enough to add quality players to their varsity roster. Do you know if they 1 or 2 JV teams? If they have 2, restocking the team may not be as hard. If they have 1 it will be much harder(especially if their only JV team barely have enough kids to play games).

 

Would there be any merit to PIHL adopting the PAHL placement game idea?  Teams get placed based on past performance and the "formula", but then get to play 2 games against similarly placed teams and see if there is a problem.

2 hours ago, Ihearthockey said:

Feel free to post tryout dates in this thread but there's a conversation I did want to get started.

Perhaps I've never noticed it in the past but is there much more overlap/conflicts in tryout schedules this year?  It's like the organizations are forcing kids to make a decision and stick with it and whatever happens...happens.  There may be alot of good players without homes if they get cut from their incumbant team.  Of course, I think we all know there's a way for some of these kids to find their way onto another comparable team, backup plans so to speak.  But it just seems that this year is going to be do or die with all of the conflicts.  

Thoughts?

I’ve not noticed, do you have any examples?

26 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

I figured people lick their fingers and see which way the wind is blowing.  Open skates for teams etc they will figure out fast what chance their kids have unless they are delusional. 

Speaking of, how are the skates looking?

6 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

Agreed. Need to figure out a host org and a coach.  I think pens, one North hills and one south Hills team would be fine. Same with 08s. 

How much ice do the south hills teams get? Plenty of ice at PIA.