YardSale

Better yet, spend you off-season time on soccer, lax, swimming, etc.

I like that, might also keep some teams from not playing a few local games because of ranking.

As a non-badger, I’ve watched this happen repeatedly as recently as last year. The refs completely hammer the home team.

I’ve been part of multiple big organizations and my experience has been that there are checks and balances within the board and haven’t experienced anything close to what you are saying.

Which is a huge revenue business: “A $19.2 billion market in the US means the youth sports market rivals the size of the $15 billion NFL,” says a December 2019 report from Dublin’s GlobeNewswire. Totaling $24.9 billion at that point, worldwide youth sports markets “are expected to reach $77.6 billion by 2026.”1 https://onlinesportmanagement.ku.edu/community/commercialization-of-youth-sports#:~:text=“A %2419.2 billion market in,reach %2477.6 billion by 2026.” https://finance.yahoo.com/news/latest-global-youth-sports-market-153000303.html

I believe it is hard to get parts in. Didn’t PIA have a similar issue and were down for some time?

I agree with this. The scores of WPIHL and SHIHL games were all over the place. ACHA was the same. Mike was a fantastic goal scorer but there were some better all around players from here at that time.

On 7 teams in 14U AA

The sheets at PPI are usually pretty booked I believe.

They also have an 8U program

Just the ones on the PAHL list.

14U group 2 is AA Minor. The Huskies team is mostly 2010s. They are eligible for AA Minor due to the number of 2009s on the roster. The Aviators submitted their 2 2010 teams as 1 and 2, the 2009 team is 3 and in group 3. The foxes 2009 group largely left.

3Ice has a tv contract and some decent sponsorships plus only 7 players per team and 8 teams. They also get decent turnouts at the games. That is much more feasible than this new league. Why so many players per team?

Much of that is rectified by knowing the coach coming in to the season. As mentioned earlier, there are some really good coaches in PAHL. I don’t think that stigma is on PAHL. That is a coaching issue.

Which part of PAHL AA do you not like? Is it the fact that all the teams schedule their own independent games instead of having an extended league like BB?

I go back and forth on split season. I’ve talked to Ohio coaches who hate their situation and think all their kids are at a disadvantage aver other states. Grass is greener? I don’t know.

I’m under no illusion that I have an answer. My approach is make AA as competitive as possible in this region to entice as many kids as possible to play in it. You approach is more top-down. I’d love for that to happen but I don’t see that happening in the near term. I hope I’m wrong.

Are you talking split season?

Ok, I assumed hockey, my fault. I still believe we should do everything we can to further hockey in our area and not ship all our talent all over the country to play. Perhaps that is the idealist in me wanting to make things better for the next generation but that is what I believe.

Let’s also be clear, none of those Icemen and lower “AAA” team players are getting full rides anywhere.

While i may not be as decorated as you, I played very good college hockey. When I played, hockey in the area was not what it is now. I played Am Pens and spent most of my time in Buffalo. While I do not regret that time, I would have loved the chance to play 20 games In the Pittsburgh area then play 30-40 in other locations. I always LOVED playing the Hornets because I got to play all my friends and have some good, healthy physical hockey against people I knew. I firmly believe all of these teams that could play a 20 game PAHL AA schedule here, but don’t, are a detriment to hockey improvement in our region. I believed this in the ‘90s, and still believe it now.

Unfortunately all the independent/“faux AAA” teams impact the other players and families who would love to play a good, competitive, LOCAL schedule. That is why people get frustrated with organizations like Icemen that take some talent and travel all over the place instead of playing PAHL.

Aviators are the last one I believe with the Huskies now taking over at PIA.

They split across Renegades, Badgers, Aviators (who now have an ‘09) and Icemen (who now have a second ‘09 team).