Saucey

15 minutes ago, Rewster said:

Meh, now you could very well be right about the 16U AA PAHL hockey quality being terrible. I have not kept close tabs on the skill level disparity across the board, or the coaching levels, competition, recent history, etc.

I know that this year’s PAHL 18U AA hockey was honestly some of the best Midget Major hockey that I have seen as a conglomerate in this region. Armstrong is obviously the best as they have gone toe-to-toe with just about every reputable Tier 2 18U AA league in the nation; and either won, or tied. Considering that Armstrong was this year’s PAHLs 18U AA measuring stick. There were 4 or sometimes 5 league teams in the PAHL that could have been legitimate players in Tier 2 18U Nationals.

Maybe this is the culmination year for PAHL and the entirety of their divisions and organizations. It could be the brilliance of the bright flame going out in PAHL 18U AA…never to be rivaled again. I’d argue this season was …possibly/probably the best “ever” that came together in the history of the league’s apex age classification.

The 06 BY was pretty strong. You had some kids keep playing that usually quit by 18u and a lot of the AAA options died. I think that is unusual. And....no one cares about 18u hockey, really. All washed up by that age. 🤷‍♂️ 

13 minutes ago, RJUSHL said:

 

There will be more 09 AAA teams than 09 AA teams. Crazy. 

This has been developing for a while. In order to play AA, you have to sign up to play AAA. 😞🤢 All it does is increase the cost of hockey and time spent on it. PAHL AA 16u hockey was terrible quality top to bottom this year. I don't know about 14u, didn't watch any games this year, but I remember thinking last year watching two of the mid am games thinking....this is awful. Bleh. Good luck chasing, all.

On 3/13/2024 at 10:51 AM, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

Hockey budget size is a much, much bigger factor than school size. They also have a rink on campus, which some NCAA schools don't have.

Jeff Docking is a big hockey guy and gets their teams a lot of money. He sort of had a vision like that at W&J, but I don't think he had the support from the administration that he wanted. W&J was a very good ACHA D1 team when he was there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Docking

Too bad the school itself doesn't have the same credentials. 😞

1 hour ago, hockeyisgreat said:

How good is Adrian?  Did you see the game?  Adrian has a great D-3 team as well!  Not bad for a school that has 1700 total undergrads!

Adrian is a hockey powerhouse.

1 hour ago, RegDunlop7 said:

Somewhat surprising result for 16U Tier 2. The SCIR 16U AA team ended up winning States (beat Armstrong and SCIR 15U, who are both ranked higher according to MHR) after losing 8-1 to the Huskies in the PAHL playoffs. Seems like there was some parity in the 16U AA division this year. Good luck to all WPA teams at Nationals!

Not so surprising if you are familiar with that year...any of the top six teams could have gone. The 07 BY was low and the level of play not so good in PAHL this year. There were no stand out teams with stand out talent. And if they had any, they went to play independent. 

Good luck to them!

1 hour ago, dazedandconfused said:

People who are so fascinated and caught up in stats are almost 100% of the time the ones living vicariously through their kids because they NEVER accomplished anything in their athletic lifetime.

Or grandparents with nothing better to do! But watch their grandkids practice on Livebarn! #hockeyisgreat

Just now, Overqualified said:

Other sport teams use max prep or elite prospects 

But for kids to get looks from colleges this counts weather it's D1 to D3 or club 

Meh. Most kids looking to play at that level can get stats from High School. D1 isn't pulling from these levels, either, and they need to go play AAA or juniors for the better programs. Maybe some D3. Club hockey is all over the place with level of play and how you make the team, anyway. Some club teams are purely run by the kids and they pick who they want to drink with. Truly.

Get a team statistician each year and do it yourself. The dad in the stands who is a problem child generally, give him a job.

I am telling you, it really doesn't matter that much in the long run.

Maybe PAHL can release to individual people their own stats at the end of the season. 

Recruiters aren't looking at kids from PAHL for D1. They just aren't.

Why exactly do we need all these stats? Tier II and lower is not typically where you find your future NHLers. The league does have a huge recruitment problem, however. My team kept stats usually so the one time I needed them in over a decade of playing, I had them. I think it would just make the insane landscape....insane. I am fairly certain that a few of the posters lamenting this belonged to teams who heavily recruited.

I don't disagree that PAHL could use some updating. Kids are on social media. Even PIHL has done a great job in the last few years promoting kids and the league. If they don't want to publish individual stats, they could do other things. As can individual organizations. When a kid gets a hattie in a game or goalie gets a shut out, for example. So much is volunteer driven, however, and the fact of the matter is that people crap all over you. A lot.

We didn't travel East often and with the exception of one tournament that drew high ranked teams, the competition from that end wasn't very good. I would not want to make that drive on the regular for league games for sure.

13 hours ago, PUCKCOVID19 said:

im all for it IF they get back to the old them, which I not very certain they will......fill the stands and get back to pre pandemic competition level and attendance.  then pop this kinda question.........    until then nothing wrong with rmu its 5-10 min down the road   

But they have support rn. They should build on the incredible outreach they received to keep the programs. They do need to do what good D1 programs do, and that includes a rink on campus. 

Reading another forum regarding comments made by the PAHL rules' committee, it didn't sound as if there was a great understanding of the girls' landscape. There is no pending litigation, only a fear. 

There is a prevailing knee jerk reaction that is appealing in its simplicity. "It's not fair that boys can't play Tier I and on a PAHL team and girls can, that is not equal, so hence we are subject to liability." This goes to how a segment of society is viewing affirmative action outreaches in general.

This thought process ignores the reality of what it is to be female and try to play. Even Tier I girls teams struggle to find appropriate competition. There are not more than a team or two legit AA teams around here. So good female hockey players struggle to find appropriate competition to develop. Having teams made up of a wide range of age differences is frustrating to development.

Playing with boys helps that development, but as others said, also has a lot of drawbacks. Not every girl is going to want that.

I don't know what the solution is. Triple rostering is a terrible idea, because that does not help the team that comes in as the last choice for that player. Beer league minutes on youth sports teams because of lack of bodies also hurts development, but hey, there is a team out there!

I just don't get the sense that the people who are looking at making this actually knows what it is to be female and try to play around here or sufficiently care. What is new?

1 hour ago, Corsi said:

Yes, my understanding is MidAm asks for...  Name, Height/Weight, Stats (GP, G, A, Pts), Prior Team, and Future Team (if known).  

PPE is the highest ranked team in the District, but that doesn't mean that the other programs don't have individual players that can play at that level.  Making a blanket statement about it being a waste of time doesn't make any sense.

It's been a few years but we found it to be a giant waste of time. I am not the only one. I don't think it hurts to go, but to move on as a Tier 2 player is....the exception for sure.

21 hours ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Looks like the entire Pens Elite 2010 team was invited!

Theoretically the elite are at Pens. No way Icemen can make that claim. No matter, when teams are 'evenly' sorted for the weekend the wanna bes are on the outside looking in, even the PPE players.

19 hours ago, RJUSHL said:

Posted: https://www.midamhockey.com/page/show/8307898-boys-14-2010-tryouts

You mean the Icemen can no longer send entire teams? ☺️

Never been a fan of SCIR teams. But they have been very successful, and they have to give up everything to become an organization that has had....a few successes. Bleh.

7 hours ago, ice is cold said:

I dunno. My son had a parent coach his first 2 years (which he didn't start ice untill u12) and they were both pretty bad. Taught him wrong things, kids acting like idiots, almost dangerous on the ice with no ramifications or correction, it was awful, he wanted to quit. So I think it all depends on the coach. Not all parents, not all paid coaches, not all ex players can be coaches. It takes a person who knows the game, can handles kids appropriately and can discipline in the right way. Unfortunately, that typically lands on a paid coach as they don't have a personal association with a child and said childs friends. And they also typically have coached longer than a parent coach. 

I don't disagree. But paid coaches are used as a sales pitch, like they are always better.

On 2/9/2024 at 4:58 PM, Pucks11 said:

This right here☝🏻☝🏻☝🏻. I know for a fact that in 1 Tier 1 AAA birth year that 4 of the the top 10 teams in the country have parent coaches. I know "pay for" coaches that are worse than parent coaches. The people usually complaining about parent coaches know NOTHING about hockey and just repeat what they hear other complaining parents say or they THINK their kid is better than they are. If you don't like it then volunteer/apply yourself.

It's also a sales pitch....paid coaches!

Or you could just look for the team and coach that develops your kid and fits with him the best. I loathe this fascination with by by by. My kids definitely benefited from playing with and against older players. 

On 1/11/2024 at 9:50 AM, James Gatz said:

This is a good discussion with some interesting points.  From my novice perspective, I am wondering if it makes sense for PAHL to activate the stats tracking tools for the U18 and U16 levels for sure and maybe even U14, or at least the AA levels for some of the age groups below U16.  I do see some validity to ignoring the stats for the lower ages/lower divisions.  The scorekeeper is usually a parent volunteer from the home team.  Many are not familiar with scorekeeping and there is often a rush to complete the score sheet as soon as the horn sounds.  I get why the stats are enigmatic in those situations, and it probably is too much distraction for an A minor squirt to focus on individual stats, especially when they are inconsistently recorded.  Does a hybrid tweak make sense?  Keep/report the stats for the upper tier teams where there is probably more knowledgeable/experienced people serving as score keepers, but keep the stats muted for the more development oriented divisions?

This makes some sense to me. Stats were available when my kid first started, then they shut it off. I don't remember the exact reason why, but it wasn't to prevent poaching. Maybe that became the reason. I seem to think it had more to do with kids and parents focusing too much on stats over development. I did hate when goals and assists were attributed to the wrong kids in PIHL. They use those stats to pick All Stars.

4 hours ago, Law said:

All this is true. SRO crowd of 4,100 tonite. The football team that just won their conference championship across the street and brought their trophy over between periods. Great crowd, great atmosphere. Liberty won 5-3 in their Midnight Mayhem game

That sounds like it was so much fun. 

Hockey should be a bonus with club hockey, nor the reason that you picked the school and for sure.

This is a great article but it only really touches on the very top tier of club hockey, which, just like few kids are gonna play DI, few are going to get on these teams. It didn't delve into anything else that you might find.

3 hours ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Do you think Hockey is Ruined in this area?  I do think the only people who come on here are disgruntled about something related to their kids Hockey experiences!  I'm trying not to "Pounce"!  Neat word!

I have been on here a few years and discussed my views on hockey in this area many times. You participated in many of those threads. My opinion hasn't changed, my kids are almost aged out and I no longer care enough to engage and repeat. If you really want to refresh, you can read my old posts 

33 minutes ago, nemesis8679 said:

ou either have your head in the sand, are misinformed, or have a kid that is on a AA team that is there firstly because of encumbancy or another connection and secondly because of hockey. 

 

He is a cheerleader Grandpa, claiming that he wants to learn the sport. However, he is not overly tolerant of criticism from people who have been playing or have kids playing in the system for years. His desire is to be constantly positive, which is cool. But he pounces on people who are not, which I find not cool.

1 hour ago, Ihearthockey said:

16U AA seems like a clear top and bottom.

SP....yikes.  

Definitely some teams that should have been placed differently. There are kids who can barely skate on some these teams. Yay for the watering of AA.