Saucey

They have one kid. He's scoring all the goals...a lot of them! Like I said, you get more than one line to score in PIHL, you have a good chance at being number one. Peters does have that, but they have their weaknesses, as already mentioned.

All sound advice Something no one else mentioned is....how interested is your kid in improving his stride? If you are forcing him to do off ice and go to lessons, you might as well give me that money, for as much good as it will do.

Wow, ten AAA players, everyone else should just stay home. Peters dropped one to Seneca, which is close in skill level to a number of other teams. This year is very different with many teams having a lot of turnover. The 04 BY was so large and the 05 so low, that you have a lot of teams figuring things out yet. It's early.

USC has a couple of very good players, for sure. Most of those teams mentioned do. Baldwin has some excellent goal tending that can steal the show. I think the team that has more than one line scoring and/or plays some D, which has been missing in these high scoring games, will be in the best position to take it all. Too early to tell right now.

How are parents new to the sport supposed to do this? I don't disagree in theory.

I don't remember Esmark ever being a huge draw in the younger levels. It was midget up.

Wait, I thought the way that they work is you make up a bunch of inflammatory stuff and then name call everyone who doesn't agree with you...

Nope. Just tired of the poop show that this Board has become. You want to stir the pot, have the balls to post what you 'know'.

Don't do that. If you don't know enough to post it, then don't post anything.

To be fair, that can happen with any organization at any level and any team. I tell my children....all you can do is control you. Work as hard as you can and eventually that pays off, over anyone kissing butt to get their kid noticed, politics, etc. There may be short turn gains for the people working the system, but it turns out that at some point, you have to perform. And quite frankly, you see that with the kids, it doesn't usually help them to become functioning adults. When mommy and daddy can't grease the wheels for them, they have no idea what to do and they...fail at life, not just hockey.

I don't think ncaa Iii is the goal. I think the kids want to go to the Chel or Div 1. Which is my point, not a great choice to go do that.

I have seen some very smart, good people make these kinds of decisions. Say, "I know it isn't going anywhere." And then proceed to overpay for a bad AAA or pay to play junior team. Some think they are getting more than they do, so do fall into that, bought the sales pitch or uneducated category. It really is very emotional for some people. What if....this does lead to something? Do I want them to accuse me of not helping them? You can't fight with that. But you can take advantage of that, and that has been pointed out here many, many times.

I wouldn't knock anymone for paying $14000 a year to play junior Tier III who also understands ncaa div III is as high as their kid is going to get. But....is that really what people are aiming for when they do that?

I think the following is the real reason...we, as humans, are programmed to think our kids are the best and/or want the best for them. Most good ones. Quite a few parents have trouble telling their kids no, too. They don't want to be the dream crushers and literally will finance their child's dream with their house or retirement. Even when all logic tells them it is not going to happen for their child. Or they can flat out afford it and don't care. Those feelings are some powerful stuff. You can't fight that with stats or logic or whatever. It's rooted in wanting to do right by your child, too, so it's hard to fault parents. This is a parent driven market. Until an organization steps in to rein in the AAAs nothing will change. And really, then a non USA sanctioned league would start. If the powers that be don't care why should any of us?

They like to travel their kids like to travel the AA families are so lame because they only want to travel twice the AA programs don't offer enough ice or off ice it's our money let us spend it however we want it's none of your business. There. Took care of everything they will say. Can we talk about something else?

Even if they can't compete in midams? There are still a lot of kids playing PAHL. Just AA wandering off.

My suggestion was that you can play wherever you want just not compete in the good stuff for a year if you change. The point is there is so much shopping people who run organizations have trouble fielding teams. The AA player in a small pond could get out. Maybe an exception is made for a player who reaches that level but his program doesn't have it. Kid doesn't make a team parents think he should have, parents get bent out of shape and leave. A lot of times, once the dust settles and a season gets under way, if they stayed it becomes apparent the skill was judged correctly. Kid has a fine season. But in that haze of anger, they left. I mean, it could always be tweaked to address whatever. I would never want to hold a kid back from developing. I think the people who run these organizations and coach are saying...what happens now is not good. Parents are not the best judges. The point about smaller orgs is good....but then those smaller orgs sometimes just raid and recruit to get a AA team. They did squat for investment at lower levels to grow, but they told that dad coach he can do what he wants, sure bring your prayers over. There is no incentive to try and grow. The trend now is paid coaching at Tier II. That would change it up every age group. Or don't do a league at all. Everyone be independent. Scramble to make a schedule. Bore your players to tears by only playing for a ranking. I think AA pahl's final nail in the coffin will eventually be Black Bear, anyway. But some people are retiring from PAH Most organizations do this and it hasn't slowed the shopping down. People who can afford multiple try outs don't blink at further fees. People are nuts. Don't do it by geography. Play where you want, but suffer some sort of penalty for moving. Or limit number of moves in a lifetime like someone said. I like that idea for hockey. That allows a skilled player to get out of a small market or escape a bad coach. I am all for development and doing what works to develop kids. I just think parents shouldn't have the pull that they do around here. Most are horrible at judging their own kid's skill. Punish recruiting when it is reported. There's one.

Nothing should prevent an organization from booting bad kids and families. Most organizations have rules that can be enforced. It might help clean up the bad behavior everyone complains about and from having those bad eggs just getting moved around from organization to organization. If you can't move junior,maybe people are forced to play nice. Eventually they do run out of places to play, but it takes forever since we are blessed with a lot of rinks. Irish dance prevents you from competing in certain sanctioned events for one year if you move schools. So you can move whenever, but you know you won't be able to compete for a while. USA hockey and Midam could do that. Wouldn't matter if you played independent or pahl, if you changed within the last year, no nationals or playoffs or whatever. So it really only affects the higher talent who want to qualify for Worlds or Nationals. Everyone else can go where they want. You could have it so it only applies to AA. People could still move to develop their kid, they just wouldn't get into the bigger competitions for a year. Or play A major for a year. It would encourage organizations to grow below instead of just pilfering from all the big organizations. It would apply to independent as well....you might pick up those kids, but you can't use them in that year's playoffs or tournaments. It would make families consider more carefully where they go play, it retains some choice for families, but eliminates the grass is greener jumping that encourages bad behavior from coaches with recruiting. Which is on the books that you aren't allowed to do wink wink wink wink. It is really hard to develop properly and run an organization when people can just jump jump every year. This is broader picture stuff. I do believe our market is driven more by parents than a broader picture for development overall.

Lovely thought. I am happy to talk to the kids any day and do so. Best is when a kid asks you what they can work on. Parents are another story. I could care less where a kid plays these days as I have zero skin in the game, so chasing them away is not a concern, but I don't want to be attacked or argue with someone. Unless my opinion is solicited from a parent, which suggests they may listen to what I have to say, I don't bother with them. In fact, if they are yelling from the stands, that signals to me the parent is likely a lost cause, since they obviously already know more than the coaches. Again, who loses in this scenario? The kids.

It's not me I worry about tuning them out souch. I see little shoulders hunch and players who become completely distracted by what's coming out of the stands. Not to mention what I am sure happens in the car....

I wish people would chill. I coach less and less each year. Every time I find what I think is an insane parent free zone, someone comes along and spoils it, sitting in the stands to yell at their 8 year old who still has trouble keeping his shoes tied let alone figure out defensive zone coverage. (And tell them wrong things, to boot.) There is no such zone, I guess. I purposely sought out some really low level stuff, thinking no one will take that too seriously and I can't believe the behavior. ? You are chasing the coaches as well as the refs away, too, you crazy people. I still do it because despite the behavior, the kids make it fun. But I can definitely see the day when I will be done.

RMU has something like that too, I forget what scheduling site they use. It's a little cumbersome to use.

It gets old. Scroll through two people just insulting each other....more insults...two people acting Insane about kids hockey...oh, a nugget of something worth thinking about....more insults....we can do better. This board is better than Michigan's, however.

Sigh. Can't anymore on this board figure out how to have a discussion without name calling and mud slinging? Always so delightful.

Oh dear lord. The first week of rankings. But you keep pounding your chest about whoever.