James Gatz

The meeting minutes from the PAHL meetings provide some insight into the initiatives and trends capturing the attention of the league administrators and member organizations. The 2026 annual meeting was held on May 3. The minutes are at: Draft Minutes Some of interesting notes are: --The 2026/2027 season will still have the same number of games, but the season will end a earlier for most age-groups. Whereas the 2025/2026 regular season ended on 2/15 for girls, 3/1 for 12U-18U coed, and 3/8 for 8U-10U, the season will now end on 2/21 for 12U-19U coed and girls, and 2/28 for 8U-10U. This cuts a little over a week out of the season, but teams will have to play the same number of games. This year's calendar is below, --Will have to play a minimum of 3 games in the first 2 months of the season and a minimum of 3 games in the last 2 months of the season. --Can only play 1 placement game per day. Some teams took advantage of playing additional placement games. This will be harder now. --Fayette Ice Miners and Vipers organizations formally lose membership status. They have been dormant, so this is more an operation of the bylaws. --several comments in the minutes suggest there is percolating frustrations over tryouts. A committee will be formed to evaluate policy proposals for future consideration. --"The Executive Administrator presented a few topics that will be considered for rules/policy changes in the near future, in advance of tryouts next season: non-PAHL rosters, PAHL AA2 rosters, and the policies recommended by a committee for tryouts, poaching, and recruiting." --Interesting comments from Second VP report on placements for all levels. While claiming overall success, they acknowledge members' initial declarations can be improved. They specifically call attention to a situation in 12B1 division where a player may have been overqualified and raise that a player could be ruled ineligible to a team due to overqualification for a division. They don't identify a team, but a quick look at the 12U-B division shows there was a Huskie with 58 goals and 15 assists in 18 games. Interestingly, there were no higher placed Huskies teams at the 12U level, so it will be interesting to see if they really disqualify a player from the only team in his organization. --May migrate away from SportsEngine as the website provider. Don't anticipate any data loss in a migration. --Took action on several changes to the rules and game manual. All proposals emanated from the league. The proposed rules were at Rule's Proposals The actual new rules are in the minutes. Some were modified from the proposals. --one interesting change is that while a player can still drop to a lower division post-placements if he or she changes organizations, it is impossible to drop to a team in the lower division in the same organization. There were already rules in place requiring a 75% vote of the placement committee to make such a change, an athlete cannot drop to a lower placed team in their organization. I can see issues with this if a team folds during placements, which should be a rare occurrence, but with injuries, it is possible. They may have over-regulated this one, because they will still permit a player to change organizations and play at a lower division with the 75% approval of the placement committee. Given the comment about the 12U-B player, we might see the placement committee actively block more player movement than they have in the past. For the casual observer with no seat at the table, the minutes are helpful to see what's coming down the pipe.

But enough people showed up to the Tier 1 triple A tryouts for them to make a team. Maybe they had to cannibalize the PAHL 2014 BY roster to the point that's now a mixed year team (at birthyear prices), but how dare you say they are not Tier 1. You seem to be confusing long standing the USA Hockey tier system with the Vengeance rebranding marketing entering its fourth season.

They have a 2014 Tier 1 team.

I don't know the answers. Not that free AI is much to be trusted, but it may be that Icemen are rostered by the Pittsburgh (PHA) Icemen Hockey Club. I didn't know if some of the independent Badgers teams were rostered by Black Bear. At some point it can be semantics. The non-profits single biggest expense/liability is paying the landlord for ice. Many of the landlords are for profit, and carry significant influence over the nonprofit tenants.

I have never done a study of the branding and identity of the formal rostering Hockey Associations to see, but I suspect wonder if there are some other for profit teams in the region. The ones that come to mind are Icemen and certain, but not all, of teams playing under the Allegheny Badgers brand. I'd define for profit as "not a registered 501(C)(3)." Being a for profit entity does not always mean a profit maximizing heartless monster. I think Icemen are for profit (ie not a registered non-profit) but they don't seem to be in it for a money grab.

Vengeance Tier 1 is a for profit organization as I understand it. I do not know that the Steel City Ice Renegades/Vengeance Tier 2 is. for profit. Isn't the tier 2 program the Pittsburgh Amateur Hockey Association, Inc.? For anyone interested in looking at the non-profit tax returns, they are all publicly available. The Pittsburgh Amateur Hockey Assoc on is at Pittsburgh Amateur Hockey Association Inc - Form 990 for period ending May 2025 - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica for example.

This info helps. Take all this with a grain of salt because I don't have a daughter playing, though several of my friends do. Maybe some parents of girls can weigh in too. Though the PAHL league starts at 12U, there are a several 9-10 year-olds on the rosters of most of the PAHL teams. Some even have a majority of 10U players, so I would not rule out looking at any of the girls team in the area so long as taking on a whole season obligation is not too heavy a lift. Every team we have been a part of has included some girls that also played on a girls PAHL team. There were some scheduling conflicts but fewer than you might thing and everyone made it work well. Now, assuming you still don't want to join a 12U PAHL team, forming a 10U team for local tournaments is doable. I still think it will be easiest to partner with a recognized organization who can handle the rostering. I'd reach out to the different organizational presidents/directors to talk through your goals. Some of the bigger organizations (Arctic Foxes, North/South Pittsburgh/Vengeance ect.) may not be interested or will push you into their programs, but it is worth asking. Some of the smaller organizations (Aviators/Beaver/Lawrence County/Yetis ect.) may be happy to handle the rostering and help find some half-ice slots. Another route could be reaching out to some of the different school club organizations. I may be wrong, but I think most are USA Hockey recognized organizations and can roster teams. May not be the case, but a couple years ago, Hampton had more ice than it could use, but they did not want to give up ice slots. If that is still the case, they may be happy to "sublease" out some ice and to roster your team. I wonder what type of competition you will see at 10U tournaments. I'd look into that a bit more. I can envision a scenario where you face stiffer competition in a 10U girls division than in a lower level 12U division just because of a selection bias of there being so few 10U teams. Looking at the my hockey rankings seems to refute this concern, but I'd try to research which teams are in the tournaments. There are very few 10U teams in the Mid-Am District and they seem to run the gamut ratings-wise. Last thought is that maybe some of the tournaments you are considering do not require USA Hockey rosters for teams. If that's the case, the rostering concerns are moot.

Not to rain on your parade, and maybe I misunderstand your situation/objective, but there is more to amateur hockey on the organizational side than just forming a team. If the aim is to compete as team rostered as a USA Hockey team, you will either need to roster through a recognized organization or become a recognized organization through the Mid-Am. The former is by far the easiest way to accomplish this. Step one will be to have a solution for rostering with USA Hockey. That step may solve, or limit the ice rental issues. That organization may have access to ice or facilitate rentals/splits. Are you willing to share more about your plan? Locking in to only wanting ice at Baierl (and not really much ice from the sounds of it), is this going to be a team in addition to most of the players' usual club team, or would this be the only team most play on? Do you plan on opening tryouts, or is the objective to avoid the try-out process and keep a group together that wants to stay together? Depending on the goals, people should be able to offer some advice that might help.

Hilarious Freudian slip.

Total for Wildcats: 5 penalties (4 minors + 1 match). One player accounted for 2 of them, including a match. Total for Badgers: 12 penalties (7 minors + 3 misconducts + 1 game misconduct + 1 match). One player accounted for 3, including a match and a misconduct. One player accounted for 2, both minors , and coach accounted for 2, including a game misconduct. Unless any of the players with a misconduct has 5 in the season, there should be no fall-out for the minors and misconducts. The game misconduct will likely be an automatic 1 game for the coach. The most serious consequences are for the match penalties. This is speculation, but seems the rules may result in the following: Immediate Suspension: Both players are suspended from **all USA Hockey activities** (games, practices, team events) with all teams (including non-PAHL like high school) until a hearing is held. This starts immediately and lasts up to 30 days if no hearing occurs (rare; hearings are mandatory). - Hearing Process: PAHL Discipline Committee or Mid-Am (USA Hockey affiliate) reviews, typically offering a suspension length or requiring a full hearing. The player's family/association is notified. Representatives (e.g., parents, team rep) attend; outcomes can include multi-game suspensions or more based on severity. - Specific to the Wildcat (Removing Helmet): Under USA Hockey Rule 601(e) or 304 (equipment), deliberate helmet removal during an altercation is often treated as unsportsmanlike or intent to injure, leading to a match. Usual range on some reports is 1-3 game suspension post-hearing, plus any supplemental if part of a fight. - Specific to Badgers (Abuse of Officials): If verbal/physical abuse (e.g., profane language, threats), it often results in longer suspensions (e.g., 3-5 games or more). Coaches with 3 abuse-related game misconducts in a season face suspension until a hearing. Progressive under Rule 411: Repeat offenses escalate. The Badgers had exactly 12 penalties in the game, triggering an automatic 1-game suspension for the head coach.

The scoresheet is at 16U AA1 Scores

Dan isn't coaching 16U this year. I'm not sure he did last year either. He was coaching 16U and 18U at the same time for a season or two, but he has been the 18U coach solely for at least this season and maybe last.

Sometimes the Allegheny Badgers, Rebellion, and Aviators will have a team not play PAHL and play independent. It’s team specific. Icemen play in the THF or AHF depending on the team. I think Predators do the same. There are the non-PAHL Vemgeance teams. Mercyhurst plays in independent schedule.

So was I. I thought the notion of a 5 year old billeting was hilarious.

There are three players on the Aviators 2010 Blue team page who are listed on the roster of the PA16U2 PAHL team playing in the AA2 division. The Aviators PA16U1 team is a 2009 team playing in the PAHL A1 division. The Aviators 2010 Blue team is not a PAHL team and is playing an independent schedule. While not in keeping with the spirit of PAHL's claimed mission, I don't know that double rostering players on an organization's independent quintuple A team and their PAHL team is forbidden. The PAHL rule that address this is in the administrative policies. PIHL Governing Documents - Draft The rostering limitation provides: 4. A male player who appears on the roster of any Tier 1 team – or on the roster of a 10U or 12U team within an association that primarily fields Tier 1 teams above the 12U classification – at any point of the season shall not be eligible for participation in league games with any league team unless removed from the Tier 1 roster and submitted – or resubmitted, if applicable – to the league for approval for the league roster. The Aviators AAA team is not a Tier 1 team, so this rule would not apply as I read it. Aviators win again.