Saucey

17 hours ago, bb2j3z said:

I assume Interel does Squirt Level and up?    Didn't see it on the site.   

I am not sure, but seemed aimed at AA/AAA level, so probably.

My boy did Interel last year and really liked it. Lot of good feedback from parents. Pens run some good ones, too.

17 hours ago, The King said:

Didn’t even know you existed until I saw notifications that you reacted to my posts. Once I looked back I found a few of your posts and they either made me laugh or were pathetic which I marked with a sad face. My apologies if it made you feel upset or intimidated. Anyway, thanks for keeping up with my content! Hopefully you learn something!

How about entertained? Ask a simple question, get abuse in return, per your usual. You go, tough guy.

So, The King, why go back and react to old posts of mine in dead threads? Been away for a while, catching up on reading the forum? 

19 hours ago, aaaahockey said:

But - was 7-1 too high running up the score?  ?

You know, the couple of you pretending that you don't understand this....you do. The poster who said 'don't be an a$#hole' summed it up. If there was no apparent outcry about it, I am guessing that the foot was taken off the gas at some point. 

1 hour ago, PuckHead7 said:

Again, not my MO and I agree with raising the bar.  However, I’m a little tired of our kids (all of good old USA) being sissified.  They beat us by too many! Whine, whine! 

@Ynot02

Adults don't enjoy this. Not do I see what the benefit is to either team. The only lesson learned is that there are huge jerks in the world. I don't see why this has to be learned in this context.

I don't know how many lopsided games I've played in where some D bag ringer runs up the score, takes a slap shot aimed at the goalie's head in the last few minutes of a game, runs the goalie, etc. You know what usually happens in those games? Fights. Injuries. For what reason and purpose? There is none. The person is a jerk.

If adults struggle to handle this kind of situation, then why are we surprised when our kids start to behave badly when faced with the same?

It's unacceptable. It is the definition of a poor winner and an example of a really bad coach. How do you develop your kids and program with only a few players seeing ice time in a game?

It can't be justified. Anyone defending it....guess you are the D bag in my games and I'll be seeing your kid doing the same thing in a few years. 

Wow. Thanks for sharing that report.  I am going to go play the lottery since my prediction that parents will not be permitted to watch is now within the refs hands. Section b under security guards allows them to remove a whole section of spectators, regardless of whether you did anything or not.

I saw this happen at a recent tournament in New York, so I bet it isn't a new idea. A 14 year old ref made a whole section leave and he wouldn't drop the puck till they left. There were two dads complaining about calls in that section...I think one from each team.  A parent from the NY team told me that all youth sports were cracking down in the area after a fight at a high School basketball game that resulted in numerous injuries. That young ref wasn't messing around. He called a pretty good game, too.

Removing parents might be effective. The majority of parents who don't behave badly might speak up against the ones that do, not wanting to get kicked out, or urge their organization to prevent that person from coming. Policing from within.

41 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

I'm speaking out of my butt but I'm assuming a lot of the Pens local losses come when they go from two teams to one and start bringing in kids from outside PA. Once that happens you lose 3/4 of the kids who have played Pens elite from squirts up.  The imports play here 2-3 years then go to Juniors or other places when they turn 17 so you are left with a small team who doesn't.  Meanwhile the kids who were cut have moved on to other "AAA" programs and you are stuck trying to get either the kids you cut a couple years ago to come back OR getting new kids who may not be as good as the ones you cut and now don't want to come back to your program. 

I bet some quit playing, too. They lose interest once they feel like they aren't going anywhere, go to college, etc.

7 hours ago, PuckHead7 said:

Pay $$$$ for your kid to play hockey, but can’t watch them play in person.  How about use common sense, shut your F’ing mouth, watch the game and leave happy that your kid enjoyed playing the game and that you were lucky enough to be watching them play a game that they love to play.  You like watching at home? ? On crap ass LiveBarn or is NHL TV covering your kids games?  Have at it though!

PIHL and the individual clubs have the right to weed out the bad apples.  One warning, then suspension from 3 games, then suspension for season.  Not hard!  Depending on the severity of the first offense, skip the warning!  I’d give a 3 game suspension to at least 6-8 parents from the Plum/Moon stands right off the bat.

Whoah. Take it easy big guy. Sheesh. Didn't realize I attacked anyone.

I just think people suck these days, and it may very well get to the point where they all get booted from rinks. Can't keep refs, coaches are getting harder to come by....and it is parents who are the biggest problem in any survey. They ruin my experience so frequently that yes, I'd rather sit at home and watch it on the crap Livebarn. And it is crap. I love hockey, I love watching my kids....it is so bad to me, the way people behave, that I stay home a lot.

What you say I completely agree with. However, people don't feel the need to control themselves anymore. If I tell an out of control parent in the stands to be quiet, I am told to shut up, they have the right to say what ever they want... even where it is clear they are out of line. Everyone is entitled and has rights. So, I avoid a lot. I'm tired of it. I think no matter what PIHL does, parents are going to continue to suck. Because I see the same behaviors outside of the rink, too.

I've lost faith in people. Or I am just really getting old.

People won't be happy until they are completely banned from entering the stands. Livebarn is making that possible....drop kids off and make everyone go home. Our kids will be better off. Parents are a huge part of why I really like watching at home.

19 hours ago, PuckHead7 said:

So what you’re really saying is: don’t come on here unless you are whining, complaining, cutting up on somebody, starting trouble, or just plain being an ass.

I didn’t want to bother anybody on the PAHL board if I didn’t have to. I figured somebody on here would have more information than what was provided above.

Sorry, my bad!

Actually, I was kind of thinking why not go to the source instead of whining, complaining, and being an a** on here. My bad.

Why don't you contact someone on the Board in PAHL instead of randomly asking this board if you really need to know?

2 hours ago, Jack Handey said:

AAA and independent teams - well it's no surprise.  The coach is chasing ratings and career goals downstream. 

AA and below - Please share which orgs do this?  

I'm interested as well. That is not the training I remember getting from USA hockey and I know my organization does not condone this. You might still get a coach who does it, regardless.

Or they could quit the independent thing and simply restore those kids to PAHL. Or not field AA teams when they put that talent on the independent team. 

6 hours ago, twoboys said:

I watch a lot of Peewee hockey.  And it is the top kids that drive a team.  The bottom kids are never on a power play or penalty kill.  The third line kids have shorter shifts too. 

At Peewee you only have one 07 AAA team that isn't the Gold.  I think the Black has 12 skaters and one is an 08.  Do you really think that those 12 skaters will alter AA much?  They won't.  AAA isn't the problem for Peewee.  At Peewee kids start moving around.  Look at Allegheny 07 AA this year who leading AA right now.  They basically blew up the team and started over.  How many different organizations lost kids to them this year?  I heard 6. 

 

At 12u coaches shouldn't have a power play unit and top lines yet. Chasing the banner over development. Parents should be pissed if that is going on. Every kid should be getting opportunities to do all these things. 

14 hours ago, aaaahockey said:

Wow that could be ugly. They seriously don't even divide the teams at all?

That was my understanding...might have been AA and everyone else. I was very surprised. In working with the tourney director, I would give our PAHL division, and he didn't care because they just don't divvy any further. I used my hockey rankings to argue my way into playing a competitive schedule, but ya, could have been a mess. I avoid tournaments on that end of the state for that reason, unless I have a AA team.

I was surprised when we went to the Hershey tournament to learn that they don't do divisions. If you are 12u, that is your division. PAHL is ahead of the game in comparison to that.

Not sure how you think that this thread is the best place to contribute to the placement discussion. That presumes someone from that committee is reading it and will remember this feedback come next season. 

It sucks to be misplaced. It happens. Can people do better? Yes. And MHR is a tool to be taken with a grain of salt as others have said. It is useful, but that usefulness is limited. I don't know how many times my kids have gone to a tournament and on paper, should have blown away a team per the rankings or vice versa and that didn't pan out, or got misplaced in a tournament using that ranking. It's not that the scores are reported inaccurately, but like others said, there are other ways coaches fudge. PAHL organizations play under different banners to influence rankings, because if they are trying to play independent games, they know their games played in PAHL will drag down their MHR. It happens. 

Early in the season, MHR is less useful than later in the season. Not all teams are reporting because they could care less what their ranking is. As more and more games are played and reported, it becomes more useful.

I find it is better to judge competition by looking at what teams have played, if available. I know if my kid's team played a common team, I can get an idea of how they will likely stack up by looking at those scores.

Placement is still an art. The numbers don't tell you everything, but they are useful. I think the point is, if you have all the answers, go volunteer some time. 

3 minutes ago, PuckHead7 said:

I would also like to see another analysis later in the season.  One of the comments about stated that some teams have zero or only a win or two, how could they be placed correctly?  I say, for every winner, there is a loser.  Look at any divisions in any league. Top will have close to all wins and bottom close to all losses.  Still think PAHL goes a fairly good job and agree that (sometimes) when it doesn’t, parents or coaches had influence.

This is a good point. Goal differential is a better indicator...you can lose all your games, but if most of them are by a goal or two, someone would be complaining about this team killing everyone in the lower division.

I understand there are discussions for next year to have 12u play more placement games and less regular season similar to squirts to try and alleviate some of that. Agreed re: development. No one wants teams to be misplaced.

Just now, dazedandconfused said:

Icemen as a whole are a complete joke. The powers that be have taken a once thriving Butler Valley organization and dismantled it to the point of which it may never recover. And to what end? To have a group of teams be forced to pay 3-4x what they could be paying as BV teams:

U18 Tier 2 #14 - very good, but why not just be a BV team and save the families a couple thousand in travel costs?

U16 Tier 1 #122/150 Nationally and #10/10 in the MidAm District. They recently found it advantageous (financially) to add a skater from the BV 04 team to this team. At a ranking of 89.87, they would be a perfect fit in a strong PAHL U16 league.

U15 Tier 1 #113/123 Nationally and #12/12 in the MidAm District. They would be a solid fit in PAHL A Major Black.

05 Tier 2 #4 in Western PA and at 89.55 sitting exactly in the middle of 6 other Western PA teams led by the Viper Stars at 90.69 and book-ended by North Pittsburgh 88.52. Again, just another good Butler Valley team that wouldn't need to travel to play all of their games. If them and the VS were in the PAHL AA-Major division, that would be a great 7 team division with Allegheny and Predators being pushed down to A Major Black.

 

I get your point, but if the parents wanted to pay less, they would have their kids playing PAHL. If not Icemen, they would go to another independent. I've had a parent tell me from the U15 team that PAHL is 'too slow'. Chasing the dream.

1 hour ago, miked said:

So had a buddy tell me he was going to learn to skate so he could skate with his little ones who were getting into hockey. So he asked me if I knew any exercises that he could do that would help him progress faster as once a week public skate is only going to take you so far. I started to answer and stopped myself because i started to think, all the dryland exercises i know are about making a skater stronger and faster and i thought, is that really what you want to do to a beginner? beef up the posterior chain so they launch themselves into the boards with as much force as possible? LOL

any thoughts on this? maybe instead of focusing on the posterior chain just focus on core and balance? 

 

Marianne Watkins likes the slide board to work on opening the stride. Can practice good technique, balance there, too.

I think it's ok to work on all the things you mentioned, but flexibility and core strength will help prevent injuries. As adults, our hip flexors and hammies are very tight, which will interfere with stride. Also, don't ignore upper body strength and flexibility. I fell and tore my rotator cuffs when starting out, may not have happened if I had some more muscle tone to protect the area.

Best way to learn faster is to get out there and practice.

1 hour ago, Eddie Shore said:

Without a doubt the best thing I have read here in a long time! 

As a spectator who just sits quietly and watches a game (in 15 years I think I may have yelled at the refs twice).  I am literally the person who gets up and moves from the loud mouth hockey moms.  I am one of those guys who stands down at the end by the boards with the other quiet dads, all of which hate the yelling from the stands.

Even better, if the rink has livebarn, watch it at home. Find myself doing that more and more.

Better yet, rinks should have viewing areas in the lobby and keep parents away from the kids and refs.

2 hours ago, sadday4hockey said:

The other hand, as evidenced at Penn State and Michigan State, some people certainly know how to cover their tracks.

That's the scary thing, isn't it? We're just beginning to figure out how to try and protect our kids. And those two would have passed everything we use to clear. To get access, they have to engender trust.

It depends on how much he is currently skating and what else he has going on. I like to do weekly privates after the season ends before tryouts and throughout the summer. If the child will put in the extra work, then they can benefit from an extra skate a week. But be careful, who is driving the cart, you or the child? At that age, to prevent overuse injuries and to prevent burnout, it isn't necessary to do more.

There is nothing wrong with playing a lower level of ice hockey. Better to be an average player who develops a true lifelong love for the game than burn them out trying to reach for something the kid doesn't want, imho. You don't have to be the best to do something. Just enjoy it.