Saucey

Mid Am is supposed to issue something for all levels of hockey and try outs. I hope we get to a point where this will still matter soon. Every day you hear something where the amount of time gets longer. Now we are into summer, with school districts seeming to start to gear up for closing for the rest of the year. Maybe the next time I invite my kid out to skate with me and I warn him it might be the last for a while, he will listen and join me. Keep healthy, everyone,

Seriously. It isn't that hard to do.

Don't you guys have anything better to do? Danner27 and The King (think it is the same guy) love it when someone takes their bait. Just move on.

I think there are a lot of people who believe this it has been blown out of proportion. I pray it is.

We now have AA and AA squared. 😆 'High level AA' team = marketing ploy to charge more. This AA squared team is so much better than playing in a PAHL AA because it is high performing! What? If they are similar in compete level to a AA PAHL team, guess what...you are not higher performing. Parents caught on to the faux AAA so now they are AA squared. Somewhere in between AA and AAA, I guess. Same old with a new label.

That last line exemplifies one of many reasons teams like the Icemen are ridiculed so much. The superior attitude exuded by the parents and kids, when they aren't doing anything better than playing AA hockey. But 'High performance' is the sales pitch to justify the higher price tag. And the ridicule my kid receives from them to stay in PAHL. Too many crazies in the stands turning their noses up at the plebes. On the other hand, maybe it is good to have a place for these folks to land so they AREN'T on my kid's team. The PAHL team that just handily beat one of those high performance AA teams to win the MidAm is a good example of what RegDunlop7 is talking about. I hate them because they water down PAHL and they are driving up the cost of playing hockey without any discernible benefit to development that is superior to a PAHL team that I've been able to see. As all the AA kids leave, PAHL play is more uneven, and I start having to think about going to keep the play level correct for my kid, and I hate it. But I don't want to travel every weekend or pay more than I already do. Or be at Ice Connection, which is still not a great rink. Good ice times? That's not the word I've heard about practice times on one sheet. Offering things parents want that you can't find in PAHL? Please.

Yetis are meant to play in PAHL, yes? PAHL does not support BY except at Bantam AA minor, which has its own problems as noted in other threads. What are these organizations selling parents currently to promote BY in a market that can't properly support BY at the moment, anyone know?

Agree wholeheartedly. There are a lot of teams with mixed BYs in AA minor because, again, this market can't adequately support BY with its numbers. Also makes no sense why only one division gets a minor age group while all other kids playing at the lower BY will play mixed BY. Only AA kids need to be protected, I guess. My opinion, there were other reasons for doing it. What they were, I don't know. And that 'AA' minor hockey BY is not as good as the A Major hockey mixed teams. You have a kid moving up to bantam who played AA the year before, I would want them to be on the A major team and not the AA minor. Makes it odd when you are trying to go to tournaments I bet. Guess where the tournament directors are going to want to put you....AA, where you are likely to play against AA major BY teams. It's just goofy to me. We've had two seasons of it now. Anyone have a kid who played in it that thought it was good/bad and want to chime in?

Yes! I've been thinking that too, same person.

Agreed. And I find it ironic that many of the people who crap all over the AA kids with comments like this are the same ones trying to form AAA teams outside of Pens Elite, whose market and audience are AA kids for the most part. This is what they really think of your player, folks.

Tier II Renegades 14u won, no surprise there. Looked bored and like they weren't even trying as they toyed with the Icemen in that Championship game.

Yes, first year of checking. The thought was it is safer to introduce the concept in the younger year rather than having all the expert second year Bantams blowing the beginners up. We didn't play in it, so not sure how that worked out....but because some years and some programs can't put together an entire BY together, some of the teams still ended up mixed level. Kind of defeating the purpose a bit. Gonna get my first exposure to it this year I guess. Can't wait.

At the risk of The King coming for me, since my opinion is always wrong...I would say it depends on your kid's skill level and where you want to play. The fact is, PAHL is not set up for BY, nor should it be. Western PA does not have the numbers to support it at this time, as has been said over and over here. The top team for most big organizations is usually BY. If your kid is trying out at a big organization and is a AA player, most likely that will be default BY team, maybe a few exceptional younger kids sprinkled in here and there. If you are looking at one of the independent teams, are you able to judge if the kids are at a similar level? There are some around having some success. Both my kids are in low number BY so this has never really been an option for them, and I really have a hard time understanding the fascination with doing it. Maybe take a look at the coach's kid on that team....what is that kid's skill level? Does he seem to lag behind the rest a bit? Sometimes, not always, that is the primary purpose of doing that, because if it were a mixed BY, that child and a few others would likely not be on that team, and goodness what a tragedy if those children played in a lower division. Mixed BY has been a good experience for us, with teams formed based on skill. They liked playing with different kids each year. Being exposed to different coaches. For the good athlete (and some children, not all), having the more experienced players pushes them and they grow more than they would have on a BY team. I have seen bottom players in the younger BY get left in the dust over the course of a season, so I would say for them, it was not good developmentally. That child may have been better off playing at a lower level. Those bubble children are always hard. The issue with BY teams around here is that you can see a much bigger range of skill from top to bottom, making it hard to compete. And if they get placed in a division with mostly older BY, they get slaughtered. So, in short, it depends on your kid. Don't let coaches tell you how it is so fantastic that the kids stay together....kids don't develop at the same pace. You should expect that some may come and go over time based on skill, growth spurts, etc. If the tryout is looking for skill, you shouldn't see the same kids every year. Keeping them together purely because of age, it's just not good developmentally. And... parents tend to look for greener pastures. Don't do it just to keep kids together, that can't be guaranteed by anyone. It's an art, not a science. Some years your kid is going to have a good year, others not so much. Look for a program that is interested in development at all of its levels, not just top teams. More likely to find that your kid will be placed right and will be developed, whatever his skill.

Ya, that is the first time I ever heard anyone claim 05 is strong. Many of the PAHL AA teams, including the bigger programs, have a good number of 06s. That should tell you enough about that BY.

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