Jack Handey

That looks EXACTLY the way a division should look. You know if I recall correctly it was the braintrust at Allegheny that pushed for an AA Minor division. Worked out well.

Here's your MyHockey team count summarized for the last 5 years. Tell me where the trend is. Season Team Type 10u 12u 14u 2016-2017 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1091 1398 1254 Minor Birth Year 214 295 334 Minor Percent 16.4% 17.4% 21.0% 2017-2018 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1266 1539 1400 Minor Birth Year 202 285 330 Minor Percent 13.8% 15.6% 19.1% 2018-2019 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1370 1590 1350 Minor Birth Year 201 308 326 Minor Percent 12.8% 16.2% 19.5% 2019-2020 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1473 1602 1360 Minor Birth Year 199 299 334 Minor Percent 11.9% 15.7% 19.7% 2020-2021 Major Birth Year or Mixed 1287 1387 1250 Minor Birth Year 185 284 327 Minor Percent 12.6% 17.0% 20.7%

I am serious! The impetus for being birth year is to be compared to birth year teams in Tier I. What you have here is a local trend of wanna-be-PPEs.

Here is 14u AA Minor from a few years ago featuring a low participation birth year. NP and SHAHA couldn't form teams and Predators went AAA. Armstrong and Westmoreland were not pure birth year but were close. Does it look competitive? TEAM GP W L T PTS FPP TPTS GF GA PIM FOXES 235 20 13 2 5 31 17 48 93 57 178 MT LEBANON 316 20 11 7 2 24 17 41 72 59 162 RENEGADES 412 20 10 4 6 26 13 39 64 48 251 WESTMORELAND 430 20 10 5 5 25 12 37 90 69 262 SOUTHPOINTE 374 20 6 10 4 16 15 31 54 56 192 ARMSTRONG 457 20 5 12 3 13 16 29 52 75 245 ALLEGHENY 297 20 2 17 1 5 12 17 43 104 230

BY is not a national trend. It is only here because some dads see it in tier I, think that their kid belongs in AAA, and think they can build an AAA contender around their kid.

Yes, every year a part of the PAHL board is up for re-election. Families don't vote though. Your association representative votes on your behalf.

There would be 40-50 teams here, not unlike DVHL.

Yes, AA teams do tend to play a longer schedule. But they are also more likely to report their games into MHR, where the A teams are less likely to report their games.

I don't hate birth year. Works really good in places like Toronto. And works really good in Tier I. You know what isn't going to change? There will always be coaches who pander to parents to build teams around their own kids. That will never change, but it has nothing to do with organizing around birth year.

What a shame, but I've seen it all before. So they'll play eleven year-olds from 4 hour drive away, and backfill their schedule with local tournaments like MyHockey A2 and HockeyTime A2 in which they wind up playing PAHL teams anyway. It's pretty contemptible to think that eleven year-olds can't develop in PAHL, and morally bankrupt to convince others of the same. The good news ahead is that the average hockey parent is pretty smart will eventually figure this BS out. Sometimes you just have so spend enough of your money and your time to realize what's going on.

I'm not really aware of an exodus. So far you mentioned maybe some Preds teams and possibly SHAHA. If they want to play exclusive birth year I say have at it - enjoy the 3-4 hour car rides and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

So typical. They ran away from Renegades because they didn't get their way and now they're running away from the local community because they didn't get their way Good luck playing an all 2010 schedule in Buffalo and Detroit.

Yes. It has been discussed on here before many times. First year checking kids learn checking better when there are mentors around. And for the umpteeth thousdanth time: this market is SMALL, and even the biggest organizations struggle to find 15 skill peers in the every birth year. Why in the world would you put AA, A major, and A minor kids on the same team? Makes zero sense.

I'm pretty sure Aviators are all PAHL teams. So you can't say people went there to escape PAHL. People go there to escape larger organizations or because they couldn't make the right team at larger organizations. There will always be a small percentage of unhappy people who don't get their way. I'm sure huskies will "grow" too when the next overzealous dad can't live within the decisions of his home org.

yeah that's probably a consequence of having an AA minor division. You put a bunch of first year bantams together and they don't know how to check and never really learn since there aren't any second year bantams to show them.

I'm not typically a pro-union person but it seems that a stronger union of associations can put a stop to this nonsense. Say Preds 09 wants to be independent. They want to pick and choose who they play and not have to play whatever junk teams land in their PAHL division? Well the PAHL union could endorse their move (facetiously) and make sure that the team sees NO local games against teams rostered by PAHL orgs.

One person's stubborness is another person's practicality. The preds 12s range in skill from AA to A minor. Same with their 10s. Tell us again how it helps any of them to practice and play together?

LOL. Growth happens through LTP, 8u ADM, house development, girls development, etc. You need to read Saucey's remarks a little closer.

So there's an opportunity for corrupt behavior when the same person or same small group of people controls the roster and the purse. The organization is likely charged by Mid-Am in it's charter with growing the game for its community. But decision making by the person/persons in charge may be done to favor certain members, or to favor certain bank accounts, in place of doing what is right by the charter for the growth of the game. John Q Hockey Director can run a pre-tryout camp, then a tryout, then select a team around his child, then charge higher than normal fees and justify it since he can't buy ice at volume pricing. Then there's payouts to suppliers (jerseys, equipment, referees, EMTs, etc.) All along, the customers who just want a home for their kids, never stop to think or ask about where the money flows. So much could go wrong ethically and morally when you have judge/jury/executioner all wrapped into one.

Hmm... it could be. A small group of parents or maybe only one parent holding a USAH number and can roster kids willy nilly? There's some power there that could be abused. It may not affect any one individual personally, but there should be some oversight to think on behalf of the community if it's a good idea to allow this.

here is this year PAHL 2122 CONTACTS_TEAM CONTACTS BY AGE GROUP - Google Drive

A year later, Huskies are down to 1 team? At what point do we do a charter review to see if an organization is holding up it's end of the bargain?

and Bethel Park falling 8-3. What is going on?

Just to be clear, this is USAH, not PAHL. And it used to be 5 penalties = suspension, now lowered to 4 in this latest round of USAH rule changes. The coach suspension rule was also lowered by USAH in this latest round (15 penalties to 12 penalties).

District and cross-district AA leagues have been discussed before among various circles of coaches, boards, and parents. Even PPE approved of this at one point to make AA hockey more meaningful. Independent birth year leagues are a bad idea in our district because there just aren't enough participants in some birth years to go around. And pre-placing anyone based on last year's rating is generally a bad idea too. Today's AA squirt is not necessary tomorrow's AA peewee or bantam - I can promise you that.