Saucey

This thread is crazy. Come back with your in depth analysis after your kid hits puberty. Squirts. ??

Western PA was well represented!

And I am not blaming refs, this is consistent across the board and appears they have been instructed to call games in a specific manner.

Which bantam division? Across the board, it seems it is hard to earn your FPP this season. Perhaps checking should just be removed from the game entirely.

In looking at PAHL games in the various 14u divisions, I noticed that many teams did not earn their FPP. Is this unusual? Is it adjusting to checking or just the hormones kicking in? Does that improve over the season?

It is up to the home team to input the results from home. Have to do it within 24 hours of the game. Rinks do not have anything to do with it. Scores will likely not be as readily available for a while as a lot of people have to learn this new system.

At 12u, in order to get those games, the Pens Elite has a team this year playing under Artic Foxes' banner in the boys division. A Major Gold. Are those parents paying for PAHL and Pens? That is a lot.

I am not a fan of these organizations, but I do find it refreshing that after they formed their team and saw the talent level they attracted was not AAA, they didn't continue to call themselves AAA. If you want to travel all over the country and pay a premium for AA hockey, more power to you. In my experience, the families who want to do that are a pia on a PAHL team who does not want to travel like that. Although I just hate that PAHL gets so watered down as a result of these players leaving.

Heard Foxes 07 by team lost to NP 1 team 9 to 1. Don't know if that was scrimmage or placement.

The Vengeance program didn't develop the Squirts, those players were recruited from other organizations. And...they are Squirts. If they are still good at 14 and still playing at that program, then boast. They have talent on the teams. But their coaches double shift players and play systems, which USA Hockey says is a no no for long term development. The program seems to be focused on wins over long term development of all players. And playing as Vengeance for tournaments and under the Renegade banner for PAHL was confusing. What was the point of that? Jury is still out. Not going to bring my kids there or recommend a program because they have good Squirts who came from someone else's mite program.

Headed to Cleveland soon for a tournament, where do you recommend having a team dinner on a Saturday night? Staying in Beachwood.

The Pennsylvania Department of State Corporations Bureau website has them listed as a nonprofit corporation. According to an Attorney General publication, they must provide info to members based on their Articles of Incorporation, which can be ordered from the Corporations Bureau if you can't get a copy from BV. (The Articles should also define 'member'.) If they are also a federal 501(c), there are probably more rules governing them. Good luck!

They know where every kid played the year before. So for this division, BY determines the AA label, not skill. They are allowing teams to have 04s, so long as you are mostly 05s. And half the teams you mentioned aren't playing PAHL. This is why Western PA can't, at least in most of these birth years, (2005 is a low birth year) do this. Not enough AA talent left in PAHL to do it properly. Why do this only in Bantam and for a low BY? Makes 0 sense.

If the 05s are on a team of 05 s, I think that is the point of the AA Minor, doesn't matter if they can hang in AA major. I thought the Vipers 05 were playing independent, but not sure, check the PAHL grouping play in list, if a Vipers team is listed in the second group one, probably them. There is so much talent in the 04 BY, and with the ones who left PAHL last year to play Icemen returning, I think you can expect quite a few good teams. That birth year is always fun to watch.

Not to my knowledge.

Actually, I heard that at the PAHL meeting, PAHL explained that for the Bantam age group, PAHL is forming two AA divisions. The placement committee decided that there is going to be AA Major and AA Minor divisions, anticipating that the AA Minor teams are supposed to be 'majority 2005 players'. That is why there are two group 1s. Past years, those birth year teams played in the same AA division, with that crazy split in talent. So although now the younger birth year team will not be in the first AA tier playing against mostly 04s, they technically are still AA. With some teams in A Major black possibly being better than some in the AA Minor category, but excluded from AA if they are mostly 04, not good enough to be in AA major. There are three organizations playing PAHL with 05 BY, so they will have to include other mixed BY teams teams to have a division. It's interesting, because if that trend continues, I think it is possible that AA in PAHL will no longer necessarily mean most talented of all the kids, at least not in the 'minor' division. Weird that this is the only age group that PAHL decided to do this. Is this the only age group with BY teams in PAHL?

Can someone please tell me why it is a good thing to be able to split AA in half, talent wise? Those first year birth year teams should not be in AA unless they can hang with the talent in AA. I had the pleasure of listening to the coach of one of those teams just scream at the kids after they lost to another team of mostly older players. There is a huge difference in a year of development sometimes. I thought, gee, how fun for those kids to lose all their games and then have their coach railing on them for something that they can't control, when they could have had a competitive year in a Division below or a mixed birth year. In years past, but for their birth tear designation, a first year wouldn't have played AA that year, or would have done it on a team of mostly second years. I just don't understand this fascination with birth year. And how good is it for the older kids to play those younger birth year teams? Just don't get it. Add in the talent suck of the PPE and all these independents, and PAHL AA has just been an uneven, watered down mess at some age groups the last few years. What does AA even mean now?

What area of the city are you planning to live? I would check out the programs nearest to there. Getting around town, particularly for a 5 pm practice on a weekday, from North to South of the city, can be quite challenging. That would be a big consideration for me.