Saucey

And don't forget 10u is frequently a crap shoot because the kids are unknowns and develop so much in these years so even the best intentioned placements don't always work out.

I doubt there are that many chasing the dream so much so that they will leave. Let them go. 2007 is also a low BY, don't forget.

This 1000 times over. A completely parent or player driven market is not great for the growth of hockey. And it drives up costs.

Complaints can be filed with the Attorney General office

2007 was a light BY.

Those are USA hockey rules, I believe. PAHL could eliminate them but then they would not be a USA sanctioned league and thus games would not.count towards qualifying for Midams and nationals.

Nah don't bother. Those folks don't want to hear it. If anything, just say what you do with your own kid because of your own concern with burn out etc and then let it go.

This. I mean, if you call yourself AAA and appear to deserve it, then this Board seems to leave you alone. The other organization in recent memory that had some success was Mt Lebos 04s, I think was the BY. Jealousy may play with Pens, maybe Esmark? But for other organization, if you are calling yourself AAA when you aren't even remotely there, you deserve all the backlash IMHO. Why do people care how we spend our money and time.... because if you know anything about hockey, playing way above your head does not develop players, I don't care how much ice you get and off ice, it just doesn't. And other people care about diluting the talent available to play PAHL.

True. But I wouldn't even spend there at that age with privates or anything until it is clear that hockey is their passion. It is a late development sport, and we really didn't do anything extra until my boys were older and wanted the privates. I had some good hockey players. Otherwise you might as well take that money and stuff it in a drain.

At this age, one of the best things you can do with them that will cost you next to nothing is to....play with them at home. I am convinced that my boy developed some great hands because he was obsessed with....knee hockey. Whoever he could get to play with him, he played. Sounds silly , but those little light balls can move pretty fast. It helped his reflexes. That, driveway play....we get so focused on the skills training, lessons, etc that we miss the development that happens with unstructured play. And quite frankly, if they aren't pursuing the sport on their own time in some way, whether physically or watching it somehow, that gives you a big clue that you shouldn't be dumping a lot of money there.

Unless you are playing PAHL, then you play at the level that the placement committee determines, regardless of what you and your families desire. Although they are letting more weak teams play AA. Probably due to less AA caliber players playing in PAHL. So I would say if your team is not placed AA, you should really consider playing minor. No shame in that, the kids will have a better year. Welcome to the area! Good luck to you.

You would no longer be able to say that you are having "open" tryouts. Although that is basically a farce for most places, but would cut into try out fees generated.

Going to hazard a guess that hockey ops in the various orgs got tired of trying to form a team and making offers to kids playing the tryout circuit and getting turned down. Used to be you made the top team, you stayed. I think its selfish to try out somewhere you have no intentions of playing for, and that happens a lot, people keeping their kids feet moving for school tryouts, too. You mess things up pretty badly for the org and there is a ripple effect....that offer could have been made to a kid who wanted it, now you want to offer to that kid but they've moved on. Too much power is in the hands of parents around here. I know you all like it. It's not that way everywhere.

My kid played on a tournament only team. Not this one. Depends on the age and your goals. Some rural areas, a tournament team is the only way they can field a higher level team.

Maybe people can't afford it, too. The cost of these programs keeps skyrocketing, and they've been around long enough to see you don't get the return promised.

He has a kid who plays and he coaches. It's not a bad thing to alert the general community regarding what is going on so no organization gives him access to a bank account.

I knew a trainer who said they believed they were seeing the kids injured by the end of the season due to too much physical activity. Some truth likely to that.

Sorry that happened to your family. Fortunately there is always a place for goalies. I am sure that he will find a home.

Why bother summarizing without adding to a discussion?

I hate that system because it is never used around here until midams. I think the refs take a couple of games to get used to it and actually miss more than the two person system, and it just adds more bodies on the ice to get around.

I mean, how can you tell for sure? You don't know if players that already have a spot came. Because I can't think of any organization that doesn't already have a good idea of who they want at the older ages.

I thought that was already the case? All the As, divisions, etc are what the local areas do to help organize competitive divisions.

Aviators can't put together a good AA team let alone AAA. Since losing home ice, they struggled to put together any team. That's a good one. But they are trying something new. They have a home ice now? Who knows, roll of the dice. Some of these programs end up occasionally having some success, but it's a flash in the pan success. Usually it's a highly invested dad coach who heavily recruits and makes one good team. Then that kid ages out or moves on and the team falls apart. Vengeance is pretty much all new now. People who started it are gone. Who knows. You kind of have to be connected to that crew of talent to know where to go It's hard to recommend AA anymore. Most AAA is basically AA now. If I had a young player, I would not even know where to have them play these days. Coaching. At this point the best advice is to get good coaching. Fits into your schedule. Easy rink to get to. You can afford it. Good non drama to families.

Playing Jr A to progress to ACHA is a ton of money and delay in schooling to me. And....your student may decide that school and hockey is too much. College is a whole different ball of wax than high school .How long do you want to be away from the academic setting before returning? Maybe you can afford it. Maybe your kid could use a year or so to mature a bit. But to have this become the path to play in college just sucks.

Actually this board is pretty tame anymore. People tired of fighting with each other post pandemic maybe.