Paul Baxter

FACTS:

Who knows, but for certain all the "big medical minds" who had predicted 2.2 million deaths were WAY off. There won't even be 220,000 deaths in the USA even with padding. I don't know if this will even reach 111,000 deaths... and with all the shenanigans going on about how deaths are reported (politics...), not sure we'll ever have an exact count. But what has happened is because of these terrible predictions, is that our booming economy and record employment (and record low unemployment) was thrown out the window entirely. In the future governors need to use much more restraint when shutting down their states and we need to look a lot more at these computer models that were the root of all of this. Then you have Dr. Fauci who almost totally ignores Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc and Z-Pack and instead touts an experimental medicine from a company that he gets paid! Why let a $2 prescription help you when you can charge $999 (or whatever) for a different med with little track record. POLITICS! This country cannot afford to ever do this massive a shutdown in the future unless we are certain that a virus will almost wipeout mankind.

the average deaths per year over the past 10 years has been around 30-60k. There is a lot of dispute about the accuracy of the death tolls. Furthermore all this isolation may not have been the best idea because herd immunity has helped in the past, now we're in effect delaying that by not comingling. Antibodies are built up by getting exposed to a virus in different degrees. Never in the history of mankind before have we tried this technique of covering up and attempting to insulate ourselves from a virus. We have tested more people in the USA than any other country by far. We have the drugs already to combat this. It's time to get things opened back up, much sooner than later. The death toll projections were wildly incorrect and that was pretty much the basis for the governors closing everything down.

This is now bordering on full insanity... closing everything down for something no worse than any annual flu. Don't get me started here...

Just like the 2002's were a low birthyear, and all the Chinese Corona cancellations are hurting recruitment and filling college teams (probably jr teams too).

You may have a good point there that travel may be down this fall and winter due to people being a bit more cautious. Where once you had mostly everyone on a team go to away tourneys, may turn into 50%-75% or not even having enough players to go. Tourney participation may be down as a result... and some orgs may not want to travel to away tourneys either. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The PIHL must be in a dream world. Under what circumstances do they believe the playoffs could be finished even if the ice re-opens in Mid-May? Organizations are already talking about having several weeks or longer of scrimmages, practice, etc (call it what you want), to get the kids back into shape heading towards tryouts. Nobody has skated since early March. Why they are waiting to cancel when every other sport has called it, I have no idea. It's likely keeping a small glimmer of hope in these kids.

I believe that will also seal the deal that the HS Hockey playoffs are cancelled as well.

Keep in mind those closures are being done at the STATE level... Not at the federal level.

So in visiting the PIHL website and PIAA websites, the winter/spring sports are "suspended" indefinitely. So when the suspension ends, say in early May (or whenever) does the PIAA and PIHL actually expect to resume sports in which their players haven't practiced for months? I have no idea why they haven't just formally cancelled things. Even if we get back to normal (??) on May 1, I just don't see it being of any practical nature to have HS sports for a month. I just think these orgs are sad they will be losing $$ more than anything.

I think that a season will still be possible even if tryouts were held Aug/Sept/Oct. with the season Oct/Nov. through Feb (normal ending date). Time will tell. The main thing is we all need to be really careful and get through this peak so that the damage is minimized.

Depending on the equipment that the particular rink has, it's usually a few days... most rinks usually do multiple layers. The layered process at local rinks is usually much more manual than shown in this video (which shows a Zamboni like vehicle spraying the layers). Local rinks usually do this with a long hose and a tool with sprayer nozzles on it.

I sure hope ALL of the rinks are taking this chance to melt their ice and redo it... some of them have so much buildup around the boards it looks like its been years since that has been done. I remember one rink where the ice surface went down several inches after they did this- it had so many years of buildup...

With Gov. Wolf's latest announcement that schools are closed (for on campus education) at least through April 30, that basically puts a fork in all high school sports for the 2019-2020 season. And likely means no prom, possibly no big public graduations (diplomas in the mail??)… Since nobody has skated for a few weeks, that all but does it for the high school hockey season. Wow what a crazy and memorable year for sure.

I agree with the above sentence...

Ok, lets open the dialogue about what's going to happen with the forthcoming tryout season in regards to the Corona Virus and closings everywhere. I could be wrong, but this might be a very odd spring/summer if tryouts get delayed indefinitely. With the bulk of teams normally doing tryouts in April, this will get quite interesting if the rinks are closed for a while... (on the other hand, if the rinks are closed, that would be a perfect time for many rinks to melt their YEARS OLD ice and redo their ice surface)...

I have a feeling that the PIHL and PA state hockey championships will be cancelled. With all the rinks closing and no public gatherings for probably a month at least, I don't see this being rescheduled. By that point nobody will have been on the ice for a month at least and that's a long time to go between games. If USA hockey cancelled Nationals (which are "bigger" than states), it's likely just a matter of time for the states to be cancelled. There's way too much uncertainty about when this virus will pass/no longer be a threat. It could be weeks, it could be June.

Unnecessary post. If you want to make a suggestion like this, direct message me, the board admin.

Final warning for everyone on this thread. We can hold a discussion here without being potty mouthed.

Multiple posts have been removed from this thread. Thread is now closed.

The above post is from the PIHL's report in Dec. 2019. It reflects two of the incidents discussed on this thread.

LIST OF MAJOR INCIDENTS THIS SEASON 2019-2020 1. A Greensburg Salem parent threw a bottle of water from the top of the seating section at an Indiana player on the ice during a Varsity game. a. The incident was caught on video, and when presented to the Greensburg Salem association, they said that their parents had already told them that the bottle of water was thrown… by the opposing student section. 2. A Moon parent went on the ice during a post-game altercation in a Varsity game between Moon and Plum. This parent gave the middle finger to the opposing spectators, argued with the rink manager about being ejected from the building, then tried to avoid the security guard by returning to the far end of the seating section. The same parent gave a lengthy list of excuses in a subsequent email about why his behavior was justified. a. The Plum parents from the same Varsity game between Moon and Plum screamed at the Moon players as they exited the ice surface, then yelled at a Moon coach because they were upset by some of the players giving them the middle finger. b. An Avonworth parent who witnessed the altercation in the Moon-Plum game sent an email to the PIHL to state his belief that the referees and security guard “lost control” during the altercation and that the referees should be reprimanded. There were only 2 referees on the ice – one of whom was bleeding from the mouth because he was hit in the face by a stick – and at least 16 players on the ice. The security guard was positioned at the player runway to the locker room, where he was supposed to be. 3. A Neshannock parent confronted a referee in the parking lot after a Varsity game, and the parent’s son allegedly suggested that he was going to bring his gun to future games. a. A police incident had to be filed for this matter. 4. Peters Township parents stood in a manner that surrounded a broadcast crew from North Allegheny during a Varsity game, and their yelling throughout the game disrupted the broadcast crew on multiple occasions. a. A league official tried to prevent those parents from using the locker room hallway to exit the seating area after the game since they were clearly angry and disobedient and should not have been allowed near players. Three of the parents were uncooperative and attempted to push their way by, which would have put them among players of the opposing team. 5. A Cathedral Prep parent blocked the referees from exiting the ice surface, demanding that they answer questions for her because she is a “SafeSport rep.” She began berating the officials and standing in their way of getting to their locker room over an incident in the game where a Cathedral Prep player was penalized for shooting the puck after a goal and nearly hitting one of the referees in the face. 6. A Wilmington parent entered the official’s locker room after a Middle School game to complain to the officials about how he felt the game was called. 7. A photographer overheard a conversation between parents of opposing teams at a game between Wheeling Park and Wheeling Catholic. One parent told the other parent that he was going to punch his team’s head coach in the face because his kid was not getting enough playing time, adding that the worst thing he felt that he would get for doing that is a fine. 8. A Gateway Middle School coach loudly told a player on his bench that he will “knock you the f*** out” and then hit the kid on the helmet. The coach then told a PIHL Game Coordinator that he can do whatever he wants because it’s his kid. 9. Norwin scored 5 goals in the third period of a game in which they were already winning 12-0 through two periods, out-shooting the opponent 16-1 in that third period. The top scorers for Norwin were involved in most of the third period goals. The final score was 17-0 in a game in which the opponent only had 8 skaters and no wins on the season. a. Several of the goals scored in the third period included celebrations by Norwin players. b. The Norwin coaching staff attempted to defend these actions on two different phone calls with the Commissioner’s Office. 10. The entire Upper Saint Clair student section moved to the Mt Lebanon seating section in the second period of a Varsity game at Ice Castle. When the security guard asked an Upper Saint Clair parent if the students who were sitting in the other section were from USC, the parent said, “Yeah, isn’t that funny?”

one way to solve this is to publish the actual PDF scan of each scoresheet. If the PIHL is going to pay people to do this work, it ought to be correct and the scorekeepers should be accurate.

Is there no public place to see placement game scores on the PAHL site? I have found the master schedule for each level, but that google doc does not have scores...

I fully agree with your assessment.