hockeyisgreat

It's great to have your wisdom and opinions here! You are helping a lot of people here from your experience. We may not always agree but what you have to say is always worth reading. Thanks and I hope you keep adding from your experiences.

I think maybe things have changed at some organizations and they charge a separate fee for Head Coach and sometimes dryland. I haven't run into one yet but that is what I have heard from others.

Pens cuts go where ever they want. Don't think most organizations turn them away.

Anybody care to share what the non-parent coach fee typically is per player at Preds or other orgnaizations. Thanks in advance!

Problem becomes the AA. Too many parents feel it is beneath their kids to play A. By playing independent you can hid a weak BY team with a weak schedule and still call it AA. Some come back to PAHL but most don't.

You are right on here Saucey! Most people don't realize how quickly it will be over when they are in the moment. I've seen it from a PAHL schedule and an independent schedule. The travel and hotel costs are not worth the extra expense when the teams you are playing are not any better than the PAHL teams you could have played within an hour of home. I like the PAHL schedule with 4 out of town tournaments.

Anybody know how this is going for this year? Is it growing? Staying the same? Seemed like a nice alternative to PIHL. Are they having a JV division this year? Do they have enough teams? Always nice to hear about what's going on.

Great ideas! Sounds to me like you need to get on the board at PAHL. Do they need a new bunch of critical thinkers on their Board? Too late for this year but it needs to start now for next year. Bottom line if you don't change you get left behind!

What's better: Being on a bad AA team or a good A Major team? Just wondering what most people would prefer for their kids!

I agree with you 100% AA Major and Minor makes a whole lot of sense. That's probably why it won't happen.

So why are they leaving PAHL? FPP ? Because they think there kids are better than PAHL? Because they want to pay more money to travel? I personally think PAHL does a good job of appealing to the masses. There are still a lot more local kids playing PAHL than are playing independent.

Weekend Draft tournaments sound like fun. Where would I find info? Thanks

Great article and pictures. Thanks Brian!

Hey Pa Hockey. Do you know anything about Brian Mitchel and what might be going on with the Pittsburgh hockey Digest?

There is a tweet on Pittsburgh Hockey Digest from 9-7-21! Sure would be sad to lose that coverage of Hockey in western PA. 5 guys listed as contributors on the site. If anyone knows them maybe they could give us some insight.

While we are at it. does anybody know if Greensburg Salem is having their Tournament this year? If so when and is there any way to get info on it?

Went to the Pittsburgh Hockey Digest to check out the St Margaret Tournament that kicks off the High School Hockey season. Nothing!!! Anybody know what is going on? Seems like there were some very interesting scores for sure. Mt Lebo beat Central Catholic 6-0 and Franklin Regional took out Canon Mac 9-1. Does anyone else find them surprising?

Do you mean if they were in the PAHL? Or do you think they should play against each other locally? I think Vengeance, Esmark and the SHAHA 06 team can be competitive with PPE. Why should you care if parents want their kids to play AAA. We have already established that 99.9% of these kids are going to play beer league after 18. Let them play where they can and figure it out on their own. Who are we to tell them where and with whom they should play?

Does anybody know when the PIHL schedule will come out? I see the PAHL placement games are being scheduled.

This isn't an NCAA Football or Basketball town either! I'm sure they spend a whole lot more money on Football then they did on the Hockey team. Why didn't they cut football?

So what does everyone think of the chances that this will actually happen this winter based on article in the paper? I think it would be great but I would be one of the persons looking for the on street parking. Haha

RMU students started a petition on Change.org to have Dr Howard removed as President. So I guess they didn't reinstate Hockey for 21-22 and are still leaving it open ended for 22-23 depending on how much fund raising gets done.

So all other things being equal (Quality of Coaches). Ice time is very important to you. You drive a little farther for a better Ice time. Do your kids play in different divisions? Are their practices back to back? Will you consider changing organizations again somewhere down the road?

My question is for folks with multiple kids playing hockey over several age groups. They get a better feel for an organization as a whole instead of particular birth years. Anyone care to offer an opinion as to why they like where they are or why they switched to a different organization. Seems like Preds, Mt Lebo and SHAHA would compete for the same kids. How do you pick one over the other? I think most others start because of proximity to the rink.

Don't they have board members on their website? I wouldn't know who the rink owner is so it wouldn't help for me to look at it.