Lifelongbender

I don't disagree with what you said here, except that it's a matter of perspective. Whether a tournament is worth attending is a matter of what your goals are. I have found that going out of town for a tournament is a nice team building thing, and the kids (and the parents) generally have a great time. They're not a great way to find competitive games because they're hit and miss on that, and as we noted, you often end up playing someone you could have played at home. In other words, you don't go to a tournament as part of building your national bound or AAA resume. That's true. But there are maybe some other good reasons to go to them, for some teams. If my kids were on one of those "AAA" or "AA" teams our area seems to have such an abundance of on paper, I'd agree. They play so many games on those teams that adding a tournament seems silly.

Ain't that the truth? My kids have gone to many tournaments, in one case as far as Annapolis, only to face three PAHL teams in a tournament more than once.

There is a committee that meets, but maybe not today, exactly. They look at the results of the games. Most teams will remain where they are, but some teams will be moved either because of the outcomes of their games, or because they appealed and demonstrated through extra games that they do not belong where they were placed. Initial placements are based on a combination of proposed placement (from the organization) and a database of players they keep for reference. Then discussion occurs at the meetings about teams that had unexpected placement game outcomes. To be honest, I agree with those who have said on this discussion board elsewhere that PAHL generally does a good job on placements. There are always teams that either don't get placed right, or for whom there really wasn't a good place to put them, but by and large the system works as well as it can given the huge number of moving parts.

Both begin and end in October and, say, late February or early March. Many, if not most, players do both school and amateur. Amateur games are on weekends, and PIHL games are on weekdays, so it's generally manageable.

sigh. No desire to bury the truth at all. If you look back to the discussion we had about this topic when it happened, I'm sure you can discern my opinion on it. My desire was to avoid this silly discussion, which literally has nothing to do with the St. Margaret Tournament.

Right. That has been discussed elsewhere.

Sort of. Mort, the longtime BP coach, left the organization. He was replaced by a longtime BP assistant coach.

Yeah, what the heck is going on?

The Quest battle camps are a great investment. Both of my kids loved them.

I don't remember a second collapse in the 2010s, no. But stranger things have happened.

Well, that is hilarious on so many levels. You do have to appreciate their sweaters, though. Always been a fan of their uniforms.

I have a friend who does some teaching out there who has had issues with both the rising cost of ice and the ice schedule issue. I think this is entirely correct.

I'm just riffing here, but Black Bear could be the best thing that ever happened to Rostraver. I'm not saying anyone is talking about that. I am saying they should be.

You know, this all sounds dangerously like USA Hockey moving in the right direction for once. I'm not sure how to process this.

Yes, @carroll81 and @Not Gam, that's exactly how they were calling it back a few years ago. I wasn't very precise with my language.