BeaverFalls

Probably not. There’s like 15 people willing to officiate between Steubenville and Altoona so yeah, the pool is lean. 

Galactic Ice for Sale. Bankrupt ownership. 

10 hours ago, Snap Shot said:

No clue who the group is that actually owns the rink.  This was passed on to me via people who are pretty tied into the rink and what's been going on down there.  

It is. They’ll be out of business soon. 

On 5/21/2019 at 1:10 PM, Snap Shot said:

The current model is going to work for a few birth years, but won't be sustainable in the long term without some kind of development at the 8U and 10U levels.

All I heard was the ownership of the rink was not happy with how he was running the place, and he chose to resign. 

Same group who owns the dormant Lakemont? 

17 hours ago, Birddog said:

From what I know several kids play on both the Mustangs and the Appalachian Elite. But they have different coaches. I know that Haines and Miller are two of the coaches for the Appalachian Elite.

Both programs would be far better or combining. 

On 5/21/2019 at 1:10 PM, Snap Shot said:

The current model is going to work for a few birth years, but won't be sustainable in the long term without some kind of development at the 8U and 10U levels.

All I heard was the ownership of the rink was not happy with how he was running the place, and he chose to resign. 

Hard to do when your tier 2 program draws from multiple other other organizations, unless you’re implying they can do it from Altoona alone.

7 hours ago, Chinstrap said:

The official word is that there will be a Varsity team at North Catholic next season.  Best of luck to the boys.

The Middle School program continues to grow and is a few skaters short of fielding two teams.

Good luck. More teams participating is a good thing!

On 5/22/2019 at 8:21 AM, hockeyisgreat said:

So do we know how many teams they are able to field this year?  They offered tryouts from 10U to 18U.  Do they have players for each team? Are the Altoona Trackers and Mid State competing for the same kids?  How far away does the Mid State Mustangs draw?

Used to frequently from as far as Pittsburgh, State College, Williamsport etc.  Now they are having a hard time even getting interest from their own back yard. 

Tough to justify the cost when you have parents coaching when you’re going up against guys like Grafton, Mish, Bishop, Haines etc just down the road and guys like Bradley and McQuillan in HS.

On 5/21/2019 at 1:10 PM, Snap Shot said:

The current model is going to work for a few birth years, but won't be sustainable in the long term without some kind of development at the 8U and 10U levels.

All I heard was the ownership of the rink was not happy with how he was running the place, and he chose to resign. 

Wait. They barely have enough kids to field 1-2 teams from 10-18U and no girls but they’re going to go to BY teams!?

On 4/29/2019 at 10:27 AM, sadday4hockey said:

They should have shut it down when Weaver left. He knew the model, put in the time and cared about the players, all the players. When Mom A and Dad B get involved, the only concerns are Kid A and Kid B and maybe a few others.

Yep. What do you do when your kid isn’t good enough to make the team otherwise?  

On 5/5/2019 at 1:53 PM, Get off the ice! said:

Simple answer.  Dave was the program and he knew how to handle the parents (boards included).  Now the nuance.   Once he reached his goal (Sam Lafferty), he left.  It took a couple years to fall apart but it was inevitable.  It wasn’t a sustainable model for success.  Plus, after winning a national championship, the expectations were too high.  Too small an area to have success without a “salesman” to bring in outside talent.  Dave also kept track of AAA tryouts and targeted the last cuts.  Plus, you don’t have a Sam Lafferty and a core of really good local talent at every age group. 

Dave was also paid full time as to rink manager to basically coach the team full time. That’s all he really did. He won yes and a very quality coach but that’s basically how they swung it. 

On 5/17/2019 at 12:39 AM, ArnoldSlick said:

I have not heard and nobody seems to know. I heard some rumors about the guy. 

I have a friend who has this friend. 

Lol. Program was dying and you had one of the winningest HS coaches in WPA in Art McQuillan part of the staff of the 18u and you can that staff?  Gtfo. 

Mustangs are a hot mess right now. They’re under new mismanagement (another dad) and I’ll be shocked if they field more than a couple teams this year.

The entire program is a joke. It’s a hockey mom and dad run dream. New board?  Still just hockey moms and dads. That’ll help. Not.