HereWithPopcorn

18 hours ago, sadday4hockey said:

I don't think it's a single solution problem, what they meant was they got out in front very quickly to minimize the issues. As is always the case, hockey folks and Pittsburgh folks are usually quite formidable when it comes to helping out neighbors in need.

What is appalling is the lack of visibility from the league announcing there was an issue to the associations in a formalized manner.  So far it has all still been rumor and hearsay of people finding out.

People have too much time on their hands

2 hours ago, nemesis8679 said:

And I have found the longer someone is ingrained into a position, the less likely they are to be open to new ideas from others. 

Do people realize that with the PAHL, it is mainly the associations themselves that help to drive things.  While the Board may have some ideas, everything needs to be voted on.  And as Associations bring forward ideas, those get voted on as well.

What happens more times than not is that things get shot down because it is run like the Senate.  Every Association has two votes, but all Associations are created equally.  So an idea that may benefit larger organizations (Foxes, Allegheny, SHAHA, NP), gets shot down by the smaller ones (Wheeling, Indiana, Youngstown, etc).  And vice versa.

The PAHL is intended to be a facilitator of the league.

So if anyone here does have ideas for change besides running for a Board position, have you Association President raise the idea at a meeting.

1 hour ago, dazedandconfused said:

Thursday or Friday would be likely. There is a placement meeting Wednesday.

It was released last year on August 6th, so the team is definitely behind getting it out this season

8 hours ago, ThePuckDropsHere said:

As a few people have pointed out, the significant amount of declines is suspect, 1 or 2 is normal, 11 is abnormal. The Rebellion 06 squad was a solid group that had been together for a few seasons. It sounds like about half the team would have been returning players and half new players. That sounds reasonable considering the Rebellion team was on a similar MHR rating level as the Preds "AAA" team and was one of the strongest AA teams south of Pittsburgh. If some of the "AAA" players felt snubbed, that just shows you the entitlement... The Preds "AAA" team would have been the 5th best Tier 2 AA team in Mid-Am last season.

From what I can gather, the majority of the declines appeared to have landed at Mt. Lebo, which had a low turnout for their original tryouts, which were also held the same weekend as the Rebellion tryouts... So the Rebellion went from 50+ kids at tryouts with a strong returning core, to completely folding in a week... While Lebo went from a few returning kids and low numbers at their initial tryouts to swelling with numbers and having a solid team in a week... Something definitely happened behind the scenes to cause such a drastic shift.

Bingo.  And what team does the son of the Rebellion's President play on?  Oh yeah, Lebo.  There is your smoking gun folks explaining the situation.

3 minutes ago, BeaverFalls said:

Neither SF or Armstrong are that good tbh. I’m sure this will catch a lot of butthurt responses but they won’t be good enough to compete for a state title. 

Lets also not overinflate the meaning of a state title because it really is meaningless in hockey.  Its not like PIAA football or basketball where you play your league playoffs and then have a whole other series of playoffs to win the title and truly be declared the best.  In hockey it is literally one game of east vs west.

39 minutes ago, Icebucket said:

I haven't seen much of USC this year, but just checked out the numbers from the regular season. Looks like they might not need all their players, just the right 3 players.

This right here.  They are driven by three players and that is it.

2 hours ago, dazedandconfused said:

The USA hockey rule probably isn't a factor as explained above that only applies to National Bound teams however, the PAHL does not allow tryouts prior to April 1st so they would be in violation of that.

Each year associations that are going to lose their ice put in requests for PAHL to provide approval for early tryouts.

40 minutes ago, sarampage said:

My son has been in this situation a few times, including this year.  Fortunately, the club team he plays for has several players who go to the same tournaments, so they do not schedule any games on those weekends.  With that said, his Varsity team also has had players who played for Esmark and skip the HS tournaments.

From what I've seen, it's mostly the kids who play AAA who skip the HS tournaments, even if their AAA team isn't any better than AA.

 

I don't mind as much when there are the obscure weekends that you can work around for amateurs, however Meadville having their tournament over MLK weekend is a crock as that is one of the main 2-3 amateur tournament weekends during the entire season.

3 minutes ago, 2muchAAAinWPA said:

This is one reason people are fed up with Mid AM, same with PAHL.  For a non-profit, these people are making a lot of money and the source of the money (parents) have no say in who governs.  

Each season, the PAHL shares a budget that is approved by the associations which spells out all of the money coming in from advertising and player fees, and where the expenditures are paid out.  There is a small threshold that PAHL can spend without an approval from the membership so there are definitely checks and balances there.

12 minutes ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Very interesting in 18U.  The lower the  division the less FPP .  AA 82% of games get FPP , A Major 73% and A Minor down to 64%.  So the higher the level of play the less penalties per game!  Are FPP unique to PAHL?  Does anyone know the history of the FPP?

Actually, not very interesting at all.  The higher skilled AA is focused on playing the game while the lower levels result in neanderthal type players running around with violent or lazy penalties because they can't keep up.

9 hours ago, Danner27 said:

As many that want to, just have to declare at the start of the season. 

That has changed starting last season.  It is now the top 8 teams in Tier 2 National Bound MyHockey rankings as of mid-February

58 minutes ago, Jkersman01 said:

You don’t think what Kathy Pippy has done for girls hockey isn’t impactful? I’m not claiming the girls program as it is being run right now is perfect. Some people certainly have philosophical differences in that regard and I see both perspectives.

Oh it was impactful.  It destroyed the older 16U and 19U levels at PAHL as the Pens and Steel City started grabbing a bunch of players that didn't belong at those levels to fill out rosters.  And since there isn't a strong base of girls continuing to play at that level, you get divisions with 3-4 teams or no division at all.

Hot take...Nobody cares

9 hours ago, mrfreeze said:

I thought I saw a couple Esmark 05 go in the draft also. I think it was 39 rounds cause they have 3 new teams and the last 15 rounds are those team filling out the 70 man. It's still Tier 2 junior hockey and tuition free if you kid makes the team and is kept on the team and not sent down to to lower teams, I would make sure you read that contract carefully before signing.

 

Its still technically Tier 3 junior hockey.  They tried to go to Tier 2 and USA Hockey said no because of the NAHL, so they basically gave themselves the extra A to call themselves Tier 2 and be unsanctioned hockey.

12 hours ago, HSFBLJ said:

I can't beleive the Peters kid didn't get drafted.  Arguably the best 06 in area.  This just validates that where you play matters.  I doubt many people went to see SHAHA AAA.  He might have had a few looks at the HS level.  I'm just blown away by this.

Lets be realistic.  Just because you put up stats in PIHL AAA doesn't mean a thing as PIHL hockey is not that great.  Additionally he lacks size as well which will be a ding against him his entire career.

7 hours ago, AMR24 said:

That was a decision made by the parents and coaches. Their record may not look great but practically every game was competitive. The team seemed to struggle with “finishing”. Something they couldn’t overcome. Plus they were plagued with injuries all season. You can look at records all you want but to really see growth from beginning of the year to the end, you gotta look at the nitty gritty stats. That’s the true tell.

The true tell is that this team finished below every A+ Black team with the exception of 1 in the MyHockeyRankings.  And that was with playing low level teams all year during the season with their "independent" schedule.

I guess they need more fees for the lawyers.  There is no reason a local Midget aged kid playing PAHL or PIHL should be forced to pay "Union Dues" at $70 for the privilege of playing the sport.

4 hours ago, hockeydadlife said:

I agree, good luck to those teams as the season heads for home.

. Following a few tournaments from the weekend and saw there are a few top teams not entering in games that would lose them points, and that’s a shame.

Then report the scores on their behalf especially if there is online proof of the game.

2 hours ago, Jack Handey said:

Independent?  There isn't any local competition for them? 

There isn't any local competition for them as everyone in 16 A+ Black that has enough games is higher than them in MyHockey ranking.

Smaller organizations control the PAHL and changes that generally get made.  There are 28 associations and all have an equal vote when it comes to rules and gameplay changes.  

An idea like this for AA minor at younger levels only benefits the large 7-8 associations that could consistently field a team there.  That means you would have to win over another 7-8 smaller orgs to get the majority vote for change.

7 hours ago, mrfreeze said:

My statement was only in hope of a school in that area would step up in the next couple years. I know the state of all the programs mentioned and over the last 20 years I have seen these as well as other programs at different levels. To make it work you have to get an AD willing to make it work and a school willing to take a chance, you could have outside influence and investors. It is highly unlikey, but you never know. Years ago W and J was on that path, I would have never thought that school would be a canidate for NCAA or even Robert Morris before they built Island Sports, but it did happen, atleast for RMU. They had a motivated AD, willing school and Hillman Corp as well as some others push and completed the rink. Again highly unlikley it will happen, but you never know.

 

As far as Hunt Armory, it has been 6 plus years and many changes and stahls. It is also unlikley it will happen, but with an upcoming change to local Administration could find this project getting over the political hurdles it has faced. Why do you really think it has not gone through. It all comes down to money and who is making out in the deal. The ones in control want paid or their friends paid to make this happen. I can guarentee you that the people in charge of this project will require the use of certain contrators or firms at elevated prices in order to move forward.

Unfortunately for the Armory, it will even be more difficult with the new Mayor/Administration.

There is no way that someone that ran saying that there is a black Pittsburgh and a White Pittsburgh is going to make a hockey facility that will primarily benefit privileged white families.  Especially when you consider that another gripe his campaign ran on was bouncing underprivileged families for progress in East Liberty and the surrounding areas.  So the East side of the city already has a target on its back.

23 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

Lebo went back to AA PAHL or did they stay independent?  That's big news to me. 

They are still listing 16U AAA and AA on their tryout page

9 hours ago, GrumpyOldPucker said:

hey popcorn... Do some meaningful research before you start spouting shit outa your pie hole! A couple years ago (2017 maybe?) I looked at the historical girls hockey registration numbers for all of USAH for the previous 10 years. Mid-Am historically ranks very near the bottom in total girls registration numbers by district and might be dead last at the National bound levels when compared to all of the other USAH Districts. Add to it that Mid-Am's numbers are spread across 5 states..... and just maybe you can see why there are not that many teams to compete against. If I remember correctly, if you strictly enforced the age brackets - you would have enough players for maybe 8 full rosters at each level u14, u16, and u19 across those 5 states. NOT 8 equally competitive rosters, JUST 8 teams across 5 states. SO don't spout that horseshit line that they didn't have to beat anyone to get there. They truly were a collection of 20 of the best players in the district at the age level.... you cannot ask for more than that. THEY BEAT TEAMS WHEN THEY GOT THERE AND THAT IS WHAT COUNTS! 

Bitch all you want about the boys and the "faux 3a teams" but DO NOT belittle the effort and accomplishments of these girls. They are competing very well against some very good competition from Michigan and the NorthEast! Going into this years Nationals the SCS U14's were ranked #6, the U16's were #13, and the U19's were #29 - the 7th lowest seed of 24 teams per MHR and still they managed to make a very impressive run. 

 

Oh, and that U16 team that you said didn't even have to win a game in districts lost the damn NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME BY ONE GOAL

The data that you provided about potentially having only 8 teams across 5 states proves the point that they didn't have to beat anyone to get there, so thanks!  Also factual is that they aren't the 20 best players in the District at that age level because that would omit all of the girls playing at Tier 1 with PPE, Culver, Gilmour, etc.

What I will give them credit for as an organization is that they have found a financial niche.  Don't compete against the Tier 1 girls, but build super teams at the next level where they know that they will automatically be better than anyone else in their area.  Then you can sell going to Nationals every year to the parents and kids as a faux accomplishment.

And finally, lets not forget that with the U16 team, yes they did win their QF and SF games, but it was only some bogus format that allowed them to be in that position after initially going 0-3.  And then lost to a team in the championship that is a fall league team that hadn't played since October.

1 hour ago, fafa fohi said:

Let's not forget PPE teams that do not win Midams usually get an at-large bid to attend Nationals.  

For Steel City to get to the QF's at Nationals really isn't a success at Tier 2 when you pretty much consider they are the only game in town and go by default to Nationals. 

16U didn't even have a District tournament to win, and at 14U and 19U it was smooth sailing against PAHL teams and other lesser teams.