Jack Handey

Particularly sad for kids who made it but are playing in their last year of youth/women's hockey. Please sign the petition - maybe they will at least bring back 18u youth/19u women.

Even if you gather a bunch of prices, you can't use that as an apples to apples comparison. Every association offers different stuff in their programs. Different ice amounts, different training options, etc. And every association has a different ice rate from their home rink.

who's suing who?

If you are looking for the Mid-Am Schedule for 2020, here are all the schedules all in one place. Unfortunately, some of these pages aren't fully populated yet. Hopefully soon. Tier I Youth 18u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022918-18u-tier-1-youth Tier I Youth 16u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022920-16u-tier-1-youth Tier I Youth 15u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022921-15o-tier-1-youth Tier I Youth 14u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022922-14u-tier-1-youth Tier I Girls 19u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022923-19u-tier-1-girls-women-s Tier I Girls 16u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022926-16u-tier-1-girls-women-s Tier I Girls 14u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022939-14u-tier-1-girls-women-s Tier II Youth 18u/16u/14u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022943-west-pa-18-16-14 Tier II Girls 19u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022951-19u-tier-2-girls-women-s Tier II Girls 16u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022952-16u-tier-2-girls-women-s Tier II Girls 14u https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022953-14u-tier-2-girls-women-s High School Western PA https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/5022958-west-pa

I mean that player age is a poor first criteria for choosing teams. Individual players are best developed and have more fun when they play and practice with a team of peers at their skill level. Yes, because the participant pool is much much deeper. Because skill level varies widely at this age, there are not enough participants in any local association's pool to form a full peer group by skill once you've grouped by age. The risk is that your player's skill may regress. The bigger risk is that your player will get discouraged and start to dislike hockey. Your spearhead coach will insist on playing AA or A Major 1, since he's sold you on being a cream of the crop group. Odds are, there will be 1-2 kids who can will carry your team, and 5-7 teammates that will struggle to keep up.

Birth year is a terrible idea for development of nine year olds. You live in Pittsburgh, not Toronto.

A few weeks old in case you didn't see. .. Justin Bieber Teaches Jimmy Fallon How to Play Hockey:

Looking at the ratings, it seems like less of a good idea. Mt Lebo 2004: 92.77 14u AA average: 88.89 Delta: 3.88 14u AAA Top 6 average: 94.78 Delta: -2.01 Mt Lebo 2005: 90.03 14uAA Average: 88.85 Delta: 1.18 14u AAA Top 6 average: 93.35 Delta: -3.32

I think they played independent of PAHL this year.

PAHL Girls playoffs took place this weekend at Belmont Complex. Here are your champions for 2019-2020: Girls 12u - SHAHA Panthers Girls 14u - Arctic Foxes Girls 19u - North Pittsburgh Wildcats Congratulations to all!

She responds to an off topic post with her own off topic retort and then criticizes for going off topic. sMfh.

dumber than no icing while on PK?

Agreed. Hopefully it will work out better than New Coke did for Coca-Cola.

Well what was your association's reason for doing so?

He raises good points about researching the organization. It will be difficult to research coaches at PAHL coaches, since most aren't named ahead of time and you'll just have to roll the dice on the coach. It's not really not possible to research the parents/families that you might be with in the organization. Although I have to say if that insight was available it would be very amusing to see what people did with it. One more note - just my experience, but former pro hockey players are not always good hockey teachers. Speaking of teachers, your youth hockey coach [including ex-pro guys] will be a lot like your child's school teacher. Some years you luck out and get a good one. Some years you will not like them and will look forward to moving on.

Yes. As you describe, some will go to PPE. Some will not make PPE and try another AAA program. Most will go to PAHL travel. And the incoming ADM Red players will land all over the board in PAHL. You should not have an AA or A Major expectation because you are ADM Red now. The common sense approach, even if you think your child is going to the NHL, even if your child is scoring 20 goals per jamboree, is to start in a PAHL program. Get your feet wet first locally. Play local before playing AAA. The AAA designation for 9 year-olds is only meaningful to parents. Your 9 year old does not know nor care about being AAA, AA, A, or B. They just want to have fun and your job is to make fun available. You can look at MyHockey and see that PAHL teams can compete and beat AAA teams. So play in PAHL to start, save yourself thousands in fees, and enjoy the ride while your player develops.

That's one way to look at it but as a coach do I really want a possible throwdown (and a meaningless one at that) right before playoffs? Maybe if it was in January.

The west teams were originally hand selected by PAHL in preseason. While most teams were honored by the selection, they preferred to control their own travel destiny. Several teams didn't want a mandated trip to Philadelphia in February so they skipped out of the nomination. Also, at14uAA, 16uAA, 18uAA - everyone is gearing up for PAHL playoffs and Mid-Am. Those are the prize tourneys for AA kids. Here are some ideas to drive interest in cross state competition. 1. Hold the games halfway in between, like at PSU/Pegula. This alleviates the burden of a cross state drive. 2. Since AA teams are chasing another better trophies, switch the format so that it becomes a single A state championship. Run it in March after local playoffs. It could be opt-in like Mid-Am, or maybe you earn a spot - take PAHL A Major Black playoff champion and finalist and combine them with DVHL A champion and finalist and have a 4 team tournament in early March to crown a PA single A champion. 3. Add a skills competition. 4. Make it an all-star format.

This is funny and entertaining to watch. But... WHERE IS OUR GUY ICEBURGH? https://www.nhl.com/kings/video/2020-nhl-all-star-mascot-showdown/t-277437410/c-5181956

Beware the birth year team. Behind it is always one parent steering the organization for the benefit of his kid.

Not sure what the NP means, but if you are talking about North Pittsburgh - they play out of Baierl Ice Complex, not Pittsburgh Ice Arena.

... has its own swag now?

Seems like they could just do that anyway without the prep stuff. Why do they drop to one team at 15u anyway? Anyone know?

Not at all - this is just an aggregated stat that concisely tells their story. Factor in mid-am, PAHL playoffs, Silver Stick, preseason - they went 27-0-1 against PAHL AA teams. Or just look at mid-am, 4-0-0, 38 GF, 0 GA. Yes that's 4 straight shutouts in Mid Am playoffs. All except Vengeance were in PAHL last year. I think you have the cart before the horse in your argument. Just a little bit anyway. PAHL AA was not watered down by one missing team. I agree if they all came back to PAHL it would be great but that's pie in the sky. The families of Mt Lebo 04 needed a place where their kids could compete and grow.

that's not a solution within control of the team looking to make the jump. Let's try again: What is your advice to Mt Lebo 04 who went 20-0-0 and won every PAHL game 7-1 ? Are you telling them to stay in PAHL ?