Saucey

It happens. Not available for the one in their district, perhaps.

Dude, I am vaxxed. I am tired of people being crappy to each other, however, and wishing death on someone falls into that category. Tired of it all.

Welcome! Turned out not to mean too much as it did not seem to be applied very often.

You exclude the children under 12 who aren't allowed to get vaxxed from that sentiment I hope?

What happened at the MidAm camp?

Oh my god. ? Regardless, it doesn't mean anything at this stage in the game.

One last time...PAHL did not send data because there is none to send. Placement games haven't happened, the PAHL placement committee has not met. People are guessing or other people are reporting it. For instance, I am not aware that the Pittsburgh Vipers are fielding a 16u AA team this year yet they are in there. You sound like a new squirt parent, squirts get placed later than all the other ages, too. You can relax, nothing has happened yet.

No. There are more teams listed for 16uAA than played last year, for instance. I doubt PAHL sent any thing, divisions haven't been set. My guess is self reporting or people looking at organization websites.

Dad is an excellent skater and skills coach. I am glad for Ty, but we all know how hard it is to make it when you aren't big. I thought the NHL was trending towards skill and speed for a while, but not the last two seasons. I would prefer that game over 'grit' and 'goons' as defined by the Canadians...

What commentators have said is true about AA. But goalies are always worth placing somewhere. Try North Pittsburgh Director of Hockey Ops and RMU Foxes. Similar in size to Renegades so may be able to help. Also....go with school district over hockey for location of your home. There are a lot of rinks around here.

Not to say that parking couldn't be added later. Johnstown's rink doesn't have much parking, either.

The link to the presentation indicates other uses in addition to it. It doesn't have much seating for an audience, so maybe not much parking is anticipated. I think it is a very exciting development.

They announced the roster the Friday before the MidAm tryout.

Why was it changed from this to begin with? Does anyone know if anyone compared stats of injuries from before pushing checking to older ages to after? Because quite frankly, all of our observations from individual experience really doesn't mean anything, it's all just conjecture.

Sometimes by 'not being properly placed' the child works more where they do land. My kid was put on a waiting list one season and never had a crappy try out after that again. Once was enough, that lesson was learned. It's not always a bad thing to be cut or whatever. Sometimes you do a child more harm than good by not letting them figure out how to come back from a 'fail'. Some of them need that kick in the pants. And if you are a bubble player, those are always harder to place. Anyway, sounds like it worked out for him in the long run.

That's my point. Don't do AAA at those ages.

, some AAA talent is hiding in the South Hills, especially in the younger (2011, 2010, 2009, 2008) birth years I don't think we should be overly worried about young birth years. Technically there is no AAA at those levels. Just get good coaching and privates, then worry about AAA at bantams. That's the way it used to be.

Sigh. Most likely just adds to the alphabet soup. Do people really think AAA talent is hiding in the South Hills because of an willingness to travel north that is not already playing as high as they could? But not surprising, Blackbear has their AAA options....

That is true. They dominated their division but would have struggled a bit at AA. That is a good little team. I heard they are playing independent this year. Anyone know if they are trying AAA? I hope not. But how many times have we seen the BY team of rising players have an abysmal season playing up in AA? Probably because lower skilled players are playing on the team who aren't AAA Then you risk losing those kids the next season. I've definitely seen that. Again, because PAHL is not set up for BY and again, not having the numbers and the smaller rural areas who can't field that kind of team. I don't know what the solution is. It's hard for organizations to navigate it and I still think it hurts this area's development. I don't think a push for more travel and more expense grows the game overall. But parents want it. Maybe regional AA BY teams that play a shortened season in PAHL against each other? East, west etc, they play each other twice and add teams from other areas/states. Where you live dictates which team you try out for. Name good coaches for each. Give that 'AAA' travel experience and other perks. Rural players can travel in to play if they make a team, so those kids get a chance to play on a true AA team and go to Nationals. MidAm remains the same, any team who wants can enter so if there is a ton of talent, those other kids can compete nationally. Add more teams if there is enough by talent to play. Would that entice back the faux AAA players? We may see that model anyway if Blackbear has its way. All they need is a rink that lets them access players in the north. They sure did their best to pick up RMU.

That stinks. Hockey is so expensive as it is.

I've observed the exact opposite. Many kids I know who play up develop more in PAHL. A top AA player can and does do well up. An entire rising BY playing AA frequently struggles and I think is better as an A Major team if you are going to do it.. But the next year, they tend to be a dominant team at AA. But it also depends on the kid. And size. And if the birth year team is uneven talent, or playing over their heads as a faux AAA team, that is definitely not better. I don't see Icemen improving players. The kids end their season at the same level. When BY trumps talent, some weaker players get put on the team sometimes. It is entirely illogical to play 'AAA' hockey when it is over the team's head. That's not development. It makes no sense to me to play at that level with a roster with some AA players all the way down to low level players and call that superior to a mixed team of similar skill playing in a division of similar level teams, all in the name of playing 'BY'. And I know plenty who were disillusioned with Icemen. The rosters change quite a bit each year. Parents get to decide, ultimately. There will always be an Icemen team of some sort for the disgruntled and disillusioned.

No. Before this BY thing caught on, your top team was usually BY by default, the older kids usually do better than the rising ones in tryouts, with some exceptions. When people talk about BY, they want the same age to be the rising age group, too. Play with the same kids each year, keep them together regardless of how each kid develops, etc. However, when you have a low BY, which the 05s have been since day 1, then your top team may not be all the same BY. There are simply not enough AA 05s playing around here. Even AAA has historically been weak. 07s are also a low BY. I bet this pandemic is going to cause another year or two of low BY, so the issue is not going away. There are probably going to be two teams made up of all 05s in AA this coming season. That's how low the numbers are. It just doesn't work in PAHL because Western PA is not a large enough hockey market to have the numbers of similarly skilled kids. PAHL can't even do it well for the one year they tell programs to do a minor BY team, because the rural programs struggle to field AA without mixing the ages. (Bantam) Can you tell I hate BY? But yes, parents become convinced that is the way to go.

I don't think you meant to ask me, yes?

Wholeheartedly agree. Just don't have the numbers around here. Field your best team and be done with it.

Once a super star, always a super star.