Saucey

This just happened a few years ago. 16 yr old bled out on the ice. There was some more additional enforcement by some refs in both PIHL and PAHL and then nothing again.

At least as a spectator at Belmont, you can hide in the balcony.

Facts. Always get homered at Belmont. Although there are a lot of teams losing FPP in those age groups it seems.

I feel this was to be expected. Most teams are very young with little standout talent. PAHL at 16uAA is looking very similar. The level of hockey is disappointing, not nearly as good as prior years.

Yes, this too! The school needs to meet 'the broken leg test'. If something should happen to your player and they can't play or decide that they don't want to, are they going to be happy at the school. Congratulations to your son.

Club hockey is weird because the schools seem to set the criteria for what makes M2, M3 etc.RMU told us the levels there really have to do with commitment after the one team. So if you don't want to practice much per week, maybe you look at the last team. Your skill might not mean much between those levels. My boy was told he could play any level there he wanted to, depending on how much time he wanted to devote. And for RMU....there is reason club hockey was not touched when they cut the D1 program. Those teams do attract kids and tuition. Some of those schools, hockey is a draw for people and the school uses hockey as an attraction. Everything Danner said is right on, except in the last few years, it has become harder to make a club team at a big school, which is so disappointing. (And all the more reason not to be chasing around these faux AAA teams, etc) Frustrating that spots are taken up by older players who had the money to pay to play for those Tier III Jr teams. And the pandemic caused a bottle neck. The schools my boy got admitted to, some with fantastic hockey programs and who recruited him heavily.... academically did not have what he wanted to study or were ..not very good schools. Or located in a really bad area like IUP. And like Danner said, at the end of the day, they aren't getting a degree in hockey. The area of study, the school itself, finances, fit for kid... should come ahead of the hockey. If you get the hockey, treat it as a bonus. It all ends at some point. Soon they will be terrorizing us old farts still trying to play.

I would hazard that it would be really hard to do this, considering how different all the teams operate. Scores, schedules and games aren't reliably reported anywhere, either.

Although it is easy to forget on this board, hockey is a pretty tight community. When someone is hurting, you do see people step up all the time.

But....I don't have positive things to say! So why bother responding when you will bemoan that I am so negative! He loved his hockey experience. No regrets there

Cool, cool. Do that, for sure. But you also seem to have an unrelenting desire to chide people for being negative, by your definition. You don't have anything to add to the conversation other than.....be positive! As nd a bunch of exclamation points.

Maybe I think it would have been nice for my good hockey player child to play club. Hard to compete as a 18 year old against 20 somethings who have played all day every day for years. Until you actually know something more about hockey than what you see from watching your little guys, hush.

Yep. And acha gets harder to play as the dreamers who played Tier III juniors take all the spots on the high level club teams I really don't think that is a good way to spend money.

Please, you have been reading and posting non stop on this Board for over a year now! I feel confident that you know by now the reasons people feel AA has tanked around here! Your desire to be a cheerleader for local hockey is duly noted! You are great at it! Keep cheering on those grandkids!

I agree that is what frequently happens, but this year the level of play is such that most teams may be competitive with each other with only a few outliers. It's early, but if you dig through pre season PAHL game scores, there aren't a lot of lopsided ones. It's just not AA hockey anymore. People were very defensive when I said so last year, but the hockey I watched at Mid Ams, although close games, was ....not good. And the winner of Mid Ams got creamed at Nationals.There was little hitting, a lack of hockey IQ and individual skills on display were wanting. Within just a few years of my oldest playing, I can't believe how bad it's become. PIHL is going to be the same way. Doing well locally made not be a great guage of your team. Tournament competition will give a better idea.

A low 2007 BY and an exodus to AAA and there are 11 16u AA teams. 😄 Wow, the level of play got significantly better overnight around here.

Oh that is malarkey. Give me a break. I don't buy this narrative. Maybe a coach pulls a team out of disgust with PAHL, but Mom and dad pull their kid because their kid didn't make AA or to chase the extra A or to follow the kids on that team. If PAHL made a bunch of changes....the disgruntled and disillusioned would still leave. It's done. The cat is out of the bag. No matter what PAHL does, people will move their kids to chase. They do it once....and they never stop. That isn't to say that there isn't room to improve or change. Change needs to happen above PAHL. I think this area needs some rules that make it harder to jump ship every season. But the same people moaning about PAHL will say....oh, no, we need our freedom of choice. I think there is no pleasing people in this area.Dsmned if you do, damned if you don't.

Shocking. aAA kids that don't stand out....

I didn't know that. What schools do you know of that are on this wait list?

For some reason, there is never much fanfare regarding this tournament, info usually comes out later. Since teams are just getting their feet wet, I don't think this is a bad thing. I think the only game that is ever live streamed is the Championship. Check the Pa Hockey website for that information.

I actually don't care at all and this is the only comment that I made. Talking about bad teams at the younger levels.... it's always been that way, just didn't think that point added much to the discussion.

Since when did Esmark ever field good teams at any level other than 16u or 18u? This is a silly argument. I think people are more willing to let their kids play out of PIA when they don't have to drive them there.

That happens all the time anyway. Reffing is not great here.

I hear ya. Then don't have a AA designation. Isn't that what PAHL is moving to anyway? Force all the AA kids to play an independent schedule.

What does that have to do with the teams coming up? I don't see any teams coming up that are anywhere near as good as that Renegades team was. Or tell me which team you think is going to be equivalent. Look at 14u last season. There were a couple of teams at MidAms battling it out. The winner....got their clocks...cleaned...at Nationals. I am not trying to be nasty or negative. I watched a bit of some of those MidAm games and I didn't think I was watching very good hockey. It is a fact that 07BY is very low. And yes, never been overly impressed with what I have seen with the 08s. The dilution to go play AAA coming home to roost. PAHL may be competitive with each other, which don't get me wrong, is good. But 16uAA is supposed to be the big year. I am ok with being wrong. I want Western Pa to be competitive on the national scene. Again, ok with being wrong. Just don't see it at the moment. Someone mentioned Rebellion being really good. Where did their influx of players come from? Did they get all the SHAHA 07s? Don't forget, the Renegades team was largely able to stay together with few roster changes for years. That does mean something. That never happens in PAHL these days.

I don't think that will elevate the landscape that much. We will see. Would be nice to not have whoever goes to Nationals not get their clocks cleaned.