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We don't have that problem where I'm at.   We have a very healthy board with mostly general consensus.

Yes, both sheets on FB

Ice should be laid down on Labor Day on schedule, We have practices scheduled in rink 2 starting 9/4. 

Rostraver/CFS Bank Center should be getting ice on Labor Day as well as the second sheet at Printscape Arena.   Right now we are on schedule and have rink 2 practices scheduled in Sept. Our first one is on September 6th.

Some of these posts are quite amusing.  From a view on the inside, here was no internal sabotage.

The person in question has two other kids in the organization and is a head coach of his youngest son's 2010 team.  He was also part of the group that did the rebrand/rename from Rink Rats while I was doing designs.  I think he just asked his oldest kid which team he wanted to play on and it ended up it was the one his friends were still at.  Every other family that declined made their own separate decision.  

2 hours ago, fafa fohi said:

That sucks, especially since you had the headcount at tryouts to field one or even two teams.

Question - since your tryouts were open to spectators, do you think there was any chance mom or dad got in their kids ear to dissuade them from accepting their spot on the AA team because the parents felt it was not a good fit for their kid or that the grass may be greener elsewhere and the talent was not up to "their" standards?  My gut says "yes" but what do I know.  

Well at every tryout, we had well behaved parents that didn't interfere with the evaluators.   So thank you for that.   Some board members did want to close off tryouts completely, but they were open last year.   We just made the area smaller to 1/3 of the bleacher this year so evaluators could sit in the middle and watch both ends of the ice equallly.

We had about 5-6 evaluators that were board members (not on the team) + coaches (not on the team) + there was one outside coach.  We just ranked them according to ability and skill.   So the roster was the best players from the tryout essentially.   Sorry I wasn't in the room for the decision process.   I see that there is someone who disagrees with that above.   I've also heard complaints that there was too much turnover from last years team.   Everyone has their own opinion.

It's hard to know what exactly goes behind the scenes with every family.   You'd think at this age level, the kid probably knows more of what they want to do... and the parent just listens to their kid.   Yeah they just want the best for their kid.

31 minutes ago, No Politics said:

A few years ago only a couple organizations -- mainly AAA -- had CLOSED TRYOUTS.  Now everyone closes tryouts, and I think THAT is a large part of the problem (at least at the A-level).

We had open tryouts.   From the bleachers, we had 1/3 open for parents to watch then you could watch from Bubbas at Printscape.

From our perspective, the number of declines brought this team down.   It was a pretty awesome lineup from a very competitive tryout.   We had 11 declines and exhausted the alternate list.   It was just a cascade of events and panic from families that didn't want to be left on a shell of a team.   Our process was coach calling the roster and getting verbal approvals then posting the roster list (pinnie numbers) then they have 48 hours to decline to receive back their commitment fee.   The 48 hr timeframe now seems too long + I like what North Pittsburgh is doing by cashing the commitments on making the roster.   Some joker sent their decline email one minute after the deadline.    We decided to just let it go.  Sad lol.

Well we had 50+ kids tryout and there was an original roster of 18 skaters and 2 goalies. Post tryout, there were many withdrawals because players only wanted to be on this team so a general tryout did not seem feasible to assemble a second team so general tryouts were cancelled.

Then with the original roster, we had called everyone prior to posting to get verbal agreements... then after posting, there was so many roster declines by the deadline + supplemental tryouts did not bear any qualified players to make it feasible to continue on.  The bad situation just snowballed as families got nervous about the team status.  We tried what we could to alleviate the situation, but it became untenable.  

We are disappointed that we weren't able to continue with the team, but this seemed like the best option for the families that remain - many of which are playing their last year of youth hockey.  

Thanks!  At South Pittsburgh Rebellion, we currently have the following needs in order of priority.

18U 2005/2006 AA Thomas - we are looking for some more skaters to fill out our team.   We have a supplemental tryout today on Sunday, 30th at 2:15pm - 3:50pm.   Email VPCoaching@southpittsburghhockey.org to be considered and more information.

16U Daddea - we are looking for another goalie, we have one.   This team will play A Major.

10U Squirts - 1 or 2 skaters at every level below BY to fill out teams.

At South Pittsburgh Rebellion, we currently have the following needs in order of priority.

18U 2005/2006 AA Thomas - we are looking for some more skaters to fill out our team.   We have a supplemental tryout today on Sunday, 30th at 2:15pm - 3:50pm.   Email VPCoaching@southpittsburghhockey.org to be considered and more information.

16U Daddea - we are looking for another goalie, we have one.   This team will play A Major.

10U Squirts - 1 or 2 skaters at every level below BY to fill out teams.

2 hours ago, hockeyisgreat said:

Thanks for the info!  I heard rumor that your 18U Midget team was going to be an Independent AAA team.  Any truth to that?

No, it will play in PAHL AA with 20-30 independent game schedule.  It will be composed of 2005 and 2006's.   Link has team plan.

https://www.southpittsburghhockey.org/18u-aa-2005-2006-team-announcement/

There might be a team 2 at 18U.  Seeing that possibility with registration.

3 hours ago, RJUSHL said:

Have the Rebellion seen an increase in tryout numbers? I would think the potential for lots of ice time with a second sheet would be a good selling point.

The south hills in general had a major ice time crunch. This should help alleviate some of that.

I know SHAHA and Lebo always seem to struggle to get all their teams enough ice with just one sheet. I think last year SHAHA had some teams with just one practice per week, which they found out about after tryouts. And Lebo may still shift some practices to RMU?

Things are good yes.  It helps when you visit the rink for tryouts you can see progress happening from both lobby levels.   We are adding a few more teams based on the current tryout numbers from what we anticipated which was initially 4-Squirt, 5-Peewee, 4-Bantam, 4-Midget (16U), 1-14U Girls, 1-16U Girls, 1 - 19U Girls, 1 - 18U Midget.

37 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

Are they still going to have a way to cover this for things like box lax?  I'm assuming not but thought it would be worth asking. Might be a market for another indoor non ice training facility in the area if not. 

In the off season, it would convert to a multi-purpose facility for their other events like the reptile, gun shows, etc.   But not during the season, it would remain full ice.   I don't think they can do lacrosse any more.

Second sheet should be open by Labor Day weekend.   Work seems like it's moving along.  There was work going on the weekend while we were doing our younger BY 2011-2014 tryouts,

They should have bleachers in the lower corner where the cage was.   That's the end closest to the entrance from the lower lobby.  I don't think they can put bleachers in the balcony area due to a capacity limit.   I would assume yes that the second sheet would be used mostly for practices and game overflows since there's more capacity in the main rink.
 

What's his hockey history and birth year?  Usually you will have played on some travel hockey teams before having a chance to get on PPE.  At this point, you may not know his skill level and how he rates with the rest of the competition.   It sounds like he has a lot of development to do first.

I see another topic very similar this...  it's hard to pin it down to a certain organization.   We have a very great group of families in our birth year and have moved as a core group every year since mites.   We have attracted some players from other teams that did not have a great culture.   Some players departed because they were looking for a higher level of competition.  A lot of the expectations for the season are set by the coach.   Within the organization, there is always some drama with different teams...  usually it's due to parents that weren't happy with the season and head coach and tried to interfere with the coaching plan with usually bad results.   It's usually the exception and not the rule.  I would assume it's the same thing everywhere.

It really depends on the coach at each age level...  then how long have they been at the organization so you know that they have a core group that have wanted to stay season after season.   Each coach has a coaching plan which will drive the commitment and you pick what's right for you.. practices, games, tournaments, travel.  You want to get put on a roster where you feel like you belong and the competition is good... so you may win slightly more games than you lose.  At the end of the day, you feel like your player developed and got better over the course of a season... and wants to come back.

Then also distance to the rink should be a consideration..  you should really consider organizations that are within 30 mins or less from your household.   I'm guessing you are a parent of a younger player so you have a wide spectrum of options to choose from.

I've been pretty happy in the organization I've been in and it's local to our community so we have been there for five years and counting.  Our player is a 2011.  There are many hard working individuals across many youth hockey organizations.   The competition is good for the health of our sport.

yes.. this is from today.

5 hours ago, RJUSHL said:

Don't know if it's been mentioned here but according to people on the board at Rebellion in a Facebook post, Esmark will only have two ice slots per week at Printscape. Two ice slots for the entire organization. That's nothing. So they are advertising as if they are playing/practicing at both rinks, but it's going to be 95% New Ken. I know it's a sales pitch by Esmark to get some south hills kids, but those families may be disappointed. 

Yes that is correct.  Also btw, the second sheet construction has begun.  

4 hours ago, RJUSHL said:

Thanks for chiming in on this board. I know a lot of the south hills teams (Preds, SHAHA, Lebo, Rebellion) have had some major ice time crunches this past season, with a lot of them scheduling ice at RMU, Rostraver, Armory, etc. With the additional ice sheet is it pretty much guaranteed that all the AA teams will have at least two practices per week? Maybe more?

Yes, it will be 2+ weeknight practices per week/70+ team practices per year and at all levels.  We probably won't need to buy extra ice at Hunt Armory or WesBanco this season.

In addition we will have TK Training Academy included - every other week (10U, 12U, and 14U).  These sessions will be run by Tyler Kennedy and his coaches.  Last season, Tyler would come to our team practices maybe once a month at these levels.

3 hours ago, RJUSHL said:

I'm sure we're going to see some PAHL teams announce that they are playing in the AHF in the next few weeks. Badgers, Rebellion, etc. will start with full season PAHL and half season AHF schedule for their AA teams next year if I had to guess.

Nothing planned yet for Rebellion teams for next season.   Currently the SPHC board as a whole does not feel like it's in the best interest of our families to do so nor are we getting any pressure from BB to join.   Yes, there will be some of our girls teams during full or partial seasons in AGHF.  There may be a Rebellion team that may want to buck the trend and go AHF, but it would have to be a team decision made by coaches and parents.   It's going to be a lot more travel in AHF and maybe not in the best interest of the player's development.

43 minutes ago, forbin said:

Wait. 2 practices per team (like 16 slots) or 2 slots TOTAL a week at Printscape for Esmark?

It's for the entire Esmark club...  they have 2 slots per week at Printscape.   It's like us buying extra ice at Hunt Armory and Wes Banco arena.   

Just now, RJUSHL said:

Thanks for the transparency. It makes sense, especially with how some AAA teams have flopped organizations in recent years. The entire '08 AAA Lebo team moved to SHAHA last year for example. Printscape could be a decent landing spot for some teams.

But just so we're clear, the Tier 1 part of the advertisement wasn't in reference to Esmark now using ice at Printscape?

Yes that is correct.   Esmark is not Tier 1 at Printscape Arena.   We were told by BB that they were doing 2 practices a week this season at the rink.  Esmark games would only be allowed if it was extra ice we did not purchase.   

First of all, I designed this flyer for the announcement.   Before everyone goes crazy on the Tier 1/AAA comment, we are looking to expand and accommodate more teams at all levels.  Most likely we are not adding tier 1 this season, but if a team came to us looking for a home at that level.   We would take it so that's why those words are in there.  As of right now based on discussions with Black Bear, we are still their top customer at the rink and will be given top priority to buy ice and then to their internal programs.    Then to third parties like tournament companies and Esmark.

7 hours ago, Rebel Panther said:

The Rebellion rent out ice in Wheeling. 

We also rent ice at Hunt Armory as well... our team has been going out there once a month.   We definitely want more ice.