Spear and Magic Helmet

I will say it is true that not every USA Hockey registered player plays high school hockey. However, it is a much better metric than just school enrollment. It shouldn't be the only criteria, but it is an idea that has a lot of merit because it is easily measurable.

It does seem reasonable for the IUP players to be able to audit the books and see the budget. It is technically a student-run organization. Again, it has been years since I was involved, but in general having 2 ACHA teams on campus sometimes meant the lower team was seen as more of an expense because the student government dollars were typically only granted to the top team.

I definitely have heard this rumor before. That's a tough call. No goalie means no team.

Co-ops exist in just about every other sport. There are almost 2000 co-op agreements across the PIAA for just about every sport, including football. One example of this is NFL cornerback Dane Jackson, who for QV (in football). They are eligible for PIAA playoffs. If the goal is to increase high school hockey participation, you have to include co-ops. I will say that some of the co-ops that exist right now would not pass the PIAA guidelines for a co-op, but I think a goal should be to move to PIAA guidelines. There were many unofficial co-ops in high school hockey from its infancy and personally I'd rather have it out in the open the way it is now. There were way too many teams back in the 70s/80s/90s playing loosey-goosey with eligibility rules when the PIHL did not exist and there wasn't the ability or enthusiasm for monitoring the situation. https://naviga.triblive.com/sports/rosters-opportunities-grow-with-school-sports-co-ops/ https://www.timesonline.com/story/sports/high-school/basketball/2015/06/25/dane-jackson-starred-in-football/18504874007/

Depends on the sport. NIL and all of that is a factor now too. In WPa, there's always money for football and basketball.

It's been a few years since I was involved in ACHA hockey, but what you described could apply to several of the other CHMA and CHE teams as well. Some of the local teams have local, non-parent leadership. Some don't. I won't go into the drama I saw with local teams back in the 2000s/2010s, but I will say that it happens. Most of the time, the overactive parents are the reason the team exists at all, so it's a bit of a double edged sword for sure.

Definitely those two things plus general wealth in the community matter a lot more than just school size.

You are right, the schools around here use school size. However, our schools are smaller than those on your side of the state, and at least in WPa, school size is not a good predictor of hockey team strength. A lot of the medium to big schools around here have almost no hockey players.

I think it does make a lot of sense to use "varsity eligible players" as a metric rather than school population. There are plenty of big schools around here that have almost 0 hockey players - I'm thinking Ringgold, Woodland Hills, Penn Hills, and a few others. It always bothers me that school size is blindly applied as a criteria when it's not even close to being the most important criteria. It's tough to see pure schools emerging from D2. I support D2, and certainly we have plenty of co-ops in other sports like football, but to me it makes more sense to have pure schools start in A and then move up or down as needed. years ago, the eastern PA teams used AAA as an "open" division, meaning anyone who wanted to play AAA could, then divided what was left between AA and A. They have the advantage that their high schools are generally much bigger than ours.

I don't know what the best solution is. I do know that there are teams that were in A and are now in AAA. They would have folded if they were forced to stay in AAA while they were bad.

Who is the "best member"?

https://triblive.com/sports/penguins-3rd-round-pick-charlie-tretheweys-journey-brings-him-back-to-pittsburgh/ FYI on Trethewey.

They did and to be honest, when that locker room was built, the rink itself did get some upgrades. Maybe I'm biased, but I remember being there when they didn't have walls or running water in the closet sized locker rooms. It may not have been a palace, but it isn't bad. Certainly better than places like Golden Mile and Neville (South Side).

In the past, the NCAA was so desperate to add new teams that they didn't care about the size of the rink, i.e. late 90s when they added schools like Wayne State, who played in a suburban rink. Some of the NCAA D3 schools were in outdoor rinks back then too. They might care about rink size and location today though. I don't really know if WVU is interested in adding sports or not, but I imagine if they are, the rink will be on campus. https://wajr.com/2025/03/02/regional-hockey-teams-eye-the-opening-of-a-new-morgantown-facility-this-fall/

Where did you hear this?