Rewster

Graduation. The best players from the previous year graduated. It happens in public schools.

Steve Weeks mentioned the Pens Elite and Pittsburgh products at least 3X during the telecast. He seemed sold.

Don’t you know already? (I’m being semi-facetious when I say this…) Youth hockey development ‘can’ be a waste of time, money, energy, and resources if you take it too seriously. Some people would say that you’d be better served if you spent most of your money on a game that yields more of a tangible return. Having been involved on all sides of the hockey landscape over the years…It’s now easy to see how the financial benefactors can separate themselves and collect the endowments of the less informed. I’ll also add this, don’t let your child’s hockey development ever become a burden to you (or your family). Let them have fun while you (and your family) cultivate lifelong friendships. Hockey has no parallels with other sports when it comes to this bond.

Common sense ain’t so common anymore. What you’re proclaiming eliminates the introspective and “personasl” point of “personal conduct” element of human behavior. There’s still the 3 artificial levels of financial (in)security that we grapple with.

There’s a great point that you make here and I’d like to further…which is found in every competitive athlete. That is, the opportunity to play at the most competitive level possible. This point has been glossed over; or marginalized to almost the point of insignificance. There’s an obvious Mendoza line of legitimate AAA squads in WPA. I’m not arguing that. If there’s any doubt about who’s not “varsity material” at the 18U point in their hockey careers …well, we all get hit with the proverbial “wake-up call” to continue with our life’s work at some point in our competitive athletic lives. Some receive the news earlier than others. My whole contention is: Why nip the hockey player’s personal growth, achievements and core competitiveness in the bud at such a young age? Hockey is an absurdly expensive sport to begin with. If this isn’t acutely made aware from the start; then there is outside criminal deception involved. This ain’t soccer or basketball…hockey is expensive. All I’m saying is that there is a high percentage of people that strive to find that definitive feeling of what it’s like to reach their highest level of competitive success. It’s a fleeting moment in a young person’s life that can’t be replicated. Why censor that in an absolute fashion? Life is full of experiences. It’s the one’s that are achieved through hard work that always stand out the most. The one absolute that I have always contended with is…when that pure athletic competition is over; you can’t ever replicate it. Not in the same capacity as we had at this age. When it’s gone…it’s gone.

Just looking at their records and comparing our local AAA teams amongst the usual nationally recognized teams…so far, it doesn’t seem like Pittsburgh’s AAA representative teams are out of place. It’s obviously still early in the season, but I don’t see an immediate downturn when compare the numbers and common opponents across the region at this point of the season.

Canon Mac won the PIHL AAA regular season championship in 2021; and won the Penguins Cup AAA in 2015. Unfortunately, they have been unable to sustain the numbers and consistency since then at the AAA level. Its difficult to determine who moves up and down in divisions because the talent and participation fluctuates rapidly from year to year.

So…it was a “thing” and I am not just imagining it. When I heard that it was still going on, it immediately brought back memories of stories that I heard about how competitive the games were. Although, I never played in them, I do recall thinking that it must have been challenging just to make a team.

So, I came here thinking/hoping that there would be some chatter and/or information about this year’s event and tournament. I remember it kinda being a big deal of an event several years ago; but not sure how it is now. Does anyone have any suggestions, as to any links, maybe streaming/broadcast, or useful info? I think that I found some older stuff but the pages need updated as it still includes their tryout schedules. My brief investigation turned up no dice. At least not any topics on the games that jump out at me I am curious to see how the hockey things stack up and shake down from across the commonwealth.

Great. Another streaming service to add on to the ever increasing number of apps and viewing platforms that I already pay out the nose for. What’s one more little, tiny, minuscule, hardly noticeable automatic recurring charge gonna do? BB is quickly moving down my personal scale of organizations who negatively impact my finances and lifestyle unnecessarily.

Those who go to MidAm are based on their team / coaches nominating their players though, correct? At least that’s how I remembered it so many years ago. If that’s the case, and if there’s a down year or two locally, I’m not sure that Ohio, WV, Kentucky and Indiana can cover the gaps adequately with their representatives over any extended period of time. Also, how does it work if the kid’s billeting? Either a local kid going to MN, MI, or New England? Or, one from out of the area, but staying and playing here in Western PA?

Right…unless the guy is asking for an opinion (or asking if he would offer his firsthand knowledge and experience as an expert on minor/amateur youth hockey). I’d suggest that the best approach is to not give unilateral advice. Frankly, this point should not be assumed and glossed over as it rings true in a lot of facets of life. With that being said, I find it hard to believe that a 6 year-old has enough foresight and understanding of what their actual goals are and the commitment that is required for any of it to move along on a scale that is appropriate for a kindergartner’s age level of understanding. Not to mention, this is coupled with the obvious role where the “yes” parent is going along with the 6 year-olds wishes without any pause to contemplate anyone’s future. For a parent to knowingly accommodate all of these wishes made by a 6 year-old child; it demonstrates a slew of red flags…none of which appear more obvious than the parent’s lack of a restraining governor. I’ll admit that I’m making several assumptions in this case (i. e. child’s age being truly 6 years old; the lack of an occasionally oppositional parent AND THEIR involvement (or really anyone with a backbone that’s willing to simply say “no” to the child and parent). It’s easy for me to draw such a straw man’s analogy with obvious labels. Regardless, just going off a fraction of what has been described thus far…this is still nothing short of a parent acting as an enabler of the child. It’s a disservice on many levels.

Considering that this form has 3 “Attempted Threads” with time stamps of August 6 & 7 2018; and December, 2022…I’d think that it’s safe to say that it’s high time to take this old horse ‘round back of the shed and, um, ‘let her run free.’ Stick a fork in it…it’s done:

It kinda sounds like Canada’s secret to producing the world’s best hockey players for multiple generations; has finally been unveiled…The love to play the game against higher competition while having a sheet of ice to skate on…plus genetics, of course… I’m being facetious. But, my point remains nonetheless…(plus the money thing is quite important, if that wasn’t already assumed).

I’d love to know a little bit more about Jon Sr’s training methods. I don’t know any details, but it seems to me that he’s obviously doing something right. If anyone that has any information that they’d be willing to share privately and confidentially (i.e. written plan, home exercise program, nutritional assessment and any supplements, seasonal/time of the year protocols, etc) please feel free to DM me. There’s a ton of newer sport-specific training methods centered on the holistic approach…especially the previously much-overlooked side of sports involving mental health and management. There’s still so much information and knowledge to be gained.

What age group? As far as I know, at the 18U AAA level, there were 2 teams—Gold (Major or better team) and the Black (Minor or not as good team). I think that it was similar to PPE’s Gold and Black. The Gold team billets, lives there, and goes to school there. The Black (Minor) team would do a preseason training camp, then go out to tournaments/showcases, then reconvene on a weekend when no tournaments were scheduled, and do High Performance Weekend training for 2 days. They’d do that every month or so. It would consist of: Tournaments, High Performance Weekend of practice, tournaments…etc. Players lived at home and commuted for everything. As far as I know, that Black team folded. The Gold (Major) team has players that live and stayed in/near Cincinnati. It’s the customary billeting, online schooling, some minimal commuting, and/or something similar where they have regular practices during the week, and games or tournaments on weekends.

Yes and no. They’re springing up all over the country now. They’re part of TPH (Total Package Hockey). Philadelphia is starting (buying) one for this coming year. I draw parallels with the model that PPE uses. Only, they’re in a lot of places that are not traditional hockey markets. They simply don’t have much in the way of home grown talented hockey players to compile a AAA team. Places like: Cincinnati (Tri-State), Nashville, Des Moines, Atlanta, Ft Lauderdale, Estero/Ft Myers, Huntsville, Phoenix, Waterloo, etc. So, they tend to have to bring in players to fill out their rosters. If you’re a kid that loves hockey and is not going to get seen because you play in rural Iowa, and your parents have the dough to give you a shot that’s better than the local outdoor farm rink in-house league. Pittsburgh is pretty spoiled by the proportionally high number of newer rinks/ice sheets and our proximity to some of the blue-bloods in Michigan, Western NY, and Ontario/Toronto. So, what happens is when non-traditional markets get enough money and support to build a new facility and then TPH moves in and does their thing to attract these kids and their money. Which makes me think (and it’s a little off topic), there’s a lot of old, dark, moldy, smelly, and dingy barns the further north you go (especially in Michigan and Ontario). I’d much rather play out of a new, clean, bright building than some where like an inner city Detroit rink where they use chain link fence instead of glass. Programs like Tri-State (and other TPH) attract players from hockey hotbeds as well because they can sell the facilities, along with their version of high-intensity on/off ice training, and their overall hockey-centric lifestyle. Some kids want that whole experience vs what Pittsburgh has to offer. If you think about it, there’s a shrinking number of AAA programs here with only 3(?) U18 organizations now. That’s a pretty limited number of positions. Most of those positions are already spoken for anyways. Don’t get me wrong, I would not do it. I would have to make a ton load of money to even ever consider it for my son or daughter. But, I get what they’re trying to do.

No truth to that rumor. *From what I heard…they had a legitimate number of players and definitely goalies cut down from Saturday to Sunday. I want to say that I think I heard that there were 11 or 12 goalies that were there each of the first 2 days. I am not sure about total number of skaters. But, I guess it’s easier to pick out and count the goalies rather than the skaters. The goalies are a little different too (in a variety of ways). I don’t know if that tryout number ramped up quickly or what, (and I know how the numbers and talent can reduce at the 18U level) but I’d say that the recent reduction of 06 AAA squads in PGH caused a funneling effect amongst the teams available. When Pittsburgh goes from 6 AAA 2006 birth year-based teams to 3 in about one year…either there is an increase in the number of regional call ups to juniors and/or the incoming 2007 numbers can’t replenish and sustain the competitive levels that are needed. Probably a little of both.

Ogden Mustangs have at least 2 in Philadelphia and 1-2 in Ogden, UT. I think that they own the Philly rink and the team in Utah. But, they are all money grabs, even the main camp I believe. It’s not tuition free until you make the team…but even then; it’s costing money to play in the NCDC.

That’s IF Mr/Miss Strawman makes a ‘no pay to play’ team/league. If, mr Strawman really wants to get looked at by the legitimate Tier 1 organizations, then they are going to have to make that difficult decision to leave all of their friends and family at a young age in order to focus on their hockey progression. There’s big-time costs that start to get involved. Mix that in with increased stress of moving away for the first time; the school and grades will probably slip a bit at first just because of the entirety of everything else involved and slight lack of focus that is expected.and having ups, then they are and The price for everything starts to peak right around midget

I think that tuition is $39,000 / yr for a commuter. So, staying on campus with room and board goes up to $62,000. Then include hockey fees, that price goes up fast.

I think that you’re glossing over my point. My point is that when the usual and customary hierarchy of (*almost) every organization’s competitive ranking of their teams ranges progressively from “B” to “AAA” and there’s an obvious misrepresentation of the organization’s competitive hierarchy…then this is obviously a glaring problem. The Preds can be grouped into this category as evidenced by their “AA” PAHL team demonstrating unquestionably superior peer rankings (or by any measurable metrics / analytics / or comparison of competition through common opponents); when compared with the same organization’s “AAA” Independent team…this is what I am highlighting as my point. Not what level of advanced scouting that is in attendance for their team’s PAHL “AA” games. That doesn’t matter here. The fact that the AA team garnered outside interest at all in the first place (and the AAA team did not) is what is glaring about the whole situation to me. It further illustrates the perceived talent gap between the organization’s same age composition of their top teams. When we look at the price difference involved between the AAA team and the AA team and then look at who’s really benefiting…this should become clear…which is my whole point.