hockeyisgreat

So who is this Coach we speak about? You can just tell us the school! I would think more than one shorten their bench as needed!

There seems to be a whole lot of jealousy out there when it comes to Esmark and particularly Yuri. But then again it seems that most people who come here have an ax to grind with someone. All organizations get bashed at some point! But then again that's human nature.

Is the old Empire West League still around? What is the current Best Tier 1 League? I don't care about what's old and what WAS better competition! I just think it is good that there is an option after Pens Elite in Pittsburgh that can compete and sometimes beat the Pens Elite. There is only one Shattuck St Marys who can claim to be the best!

Did you have that experience with Yuri? Did your kid not make the team or get cut after the teams were set? 16U &18U are big boy hockey. Esmark is in it to win it. Want the 18 best players they can find!

Don't know the Pens Coaches but I would have to say that Yuri & Kosick at Esmark have to be doing something right as their 16 & 18U teams are consistently competitive and beat the Pens sometimes. The coach of the 06 independent SHAHA AAA team might have been the best of the bunch. Not sure of his name but b put together really good teams up to last year. I think the 18U Esmark team has 8 or 9 kids tendered to Junior teams!

And are they PPE this year?

Is your team playing PAHL?

Rumor has it Organizations are making promises to try and entice players! Anybody hear of this or having commitment fees waived?

I'm thinking you should have started a new thread for this one! I'll start one!

Care to tell us who those 2 are without us having to look them up? Are they both Pens Elite 18U last year? Thanks in advance!

I think it was put here originally to make people aware of the potential problems associated with the team. Most of what was speculated has come true! And another thing for us all to gossip about!

Just a little perspective! Western Pa had 29 18U teams, All levels. last year 16U/15U Had 52 teams and Bantam 14U had 72 Teams. That's PAHL and Independent. Kind of what I thought. The most interesting is the 11 AAA teams between 15U and 16U A compared to 5 AAA teams at 18U.

Is that Tier 1 or Tier 2?

Will SPR have an 18UAA team for 24-25? Have you had those tryouts yet?

Anybody see anything on Supplementals? Seems like a very quiet year for tryouts. Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out!

Any idea how many sponsors were sold? He probably has no accountant or accounting for how the money was spent! Such a bummer!

Didn't the players know what the travel schedule would be like before they agreed to play for the team? How could it have been different? Were they mad that teams weren't bringing their best to Pittsburgh? I heard good things about the home games to begin the season!

Still have two days till tryouts start! Why give them money any earlier than you have to? Besides I heard they pretty much have who they want through open skates!

I admire you guys for giving it a go. Too many people here were just waiting for it to fail! This forum seems to be for everyone to complain about something so don't take anything personally!

This topic got way off track! I think it's time to shut it down!

Thanks for giving us the update. Sounds like you had the right idea to finish it up with 4 games left!

So what was the consensus? Why not just finish the season with 4 games left to play? Didn't the players know what they were getting into about 2 weeks into the season? Finish what you started and move on! Don't leave the rest of the league hanging!

Bummer for the players who just wanted to play the game they love! Hopefully someone can salvage the idea for next year. Probably couldn't get enough players to travel at their expense!

Who is TPH? Thanks

Armstrong 18U is 3A. They start at 5:00PM Pittsburgh Ice Arena. Tough first game but they should be in contention for a championship. They have a very solid team! Allegheny 18uAA is the host team so they had an automatic bid. they can play with the teams in 2A. Down 4-3 to start the 3rd period