twoboys

Finding the right coach is the hard part. As for cost, the Vengeance fees are reasonable but they do travel a lot. So, keep that in mind. Zieler does a very nice job with the kids. So, if I was on the fence without a clear option I may see if my 09 could make the team.

Yuri is good skills instructor. My kids have never taken a lesson from him. However, I have watched him give lessons plenty of times. I think part of the reason that he mainly gives lessons to older kids is that the older kids want to get in good with him. Last year he did a weekly clinic with Posey and it was well attended. Broken down into two sessions, one maybe 06 and up and one younger.

The Vengeance tryouts are usually early. The 08 and 09 teams turned out to be better than the 10 team. Essentially, most of the top 10 mites stayed with the Pens. However, they are still a very good 10 team in comparison to other PAHL 10 teams. Just not as good as the older two teams. Too early to tell how the 11 team will turn out.

I am not a Vengeance parent but I have watched parts of their practices over the years. The 08 coach does a real nice job. And Zeiler is very enthusiastic. Kids seem to have fun.

For the most part, your mite coaches will be the same coaches for squirt. So, if you are happy then no need to look around. Usually, there are only a couple of kids that evaluate higher than the rest of a mite team. If this is your kid then he will probably have one of the existing squirt coaches as your coach next year. So, you should have a clue who the coach could be at your organization.

You statement was more than facts. It included an assumption that you made.

My kids have played in this. Never thought it was a big deal. It is just more hockey. I think the reason why it isn't more popular is because Pittsburgh to Philly is a brutal drive. The 14U championship ends at 4:50. That drive home is going to suck even if you win. And saving half of a tournament fee is not much of an incentive. Especially, if you are the team traveling.

I don't get it either. It is almost like they are forming the team for the benefit of North Catholic. Trying to give those attending NC/Excel a reason to stay at North Catholic after U16. Or maybe if they get pushed off the team after U15 they can stay at North Catholic and play prep.

Most of the organizations are pretty similar. Generally speaking the better the team the more away tournaments you will likely do. But, I would say most peewee teams are going away for tournaments 3 times. The localized travel is hit or miss. Sometimes you have Erie in your division, for example, and other years you don’t. I would pick the same rink that your middle school team plays out of. Less chance of conflicts.

Prep is high school hockey. So, yes the kids will play high school hockey.

I agree. The kids at Excel and on the Prep team will only be students at North Catholic due to their arrangement with the PPE. These kids never had any intention of playing on a PIHL team. There are other kids who attend North Catholic who want to play hockey. Thus, North Catholic has PIHL teams.

The Michigan way has its flaws too. It requires an organization to field AAA teams at all age classifications even if the teams aren't worthy of being AAA. For example, at U15 there are 3 teams ranked below Esmark. And at the 06 level, Meijer 06 AAA is 0-24 and ranked last at 97. They have scored 12 goals and given up 245. By comparison, the faux AAA Shaha team is ranked 42.

You really haven't explained anything. I have heard that U15 has all but three kids Enrolled in North Catholic/Excel. Which teams will those kids play on next year? Prep or U16?

I still don't get it. It was my understanding that most of the kids from Bantam Major and up already do North Catholic and Excel. Are these kids now going to be on the Prep team? Who will be on the U18 and U16 teams? Kids not doing Excel and North Catholic? I would imagine that U15 would not be affected? Cause they are too young to really contribute at the Prep level.

I don’t get the point of the Prep team from the Pens point of view. Most of the PPE kids at the upper age groups already are doing Excel. What does the Prep team offer that is different? Or is the state of the current U18 AAA team now suddenly making the Pens question whether they can actually field a U18 AAA team? I have heard that the U18 AAA is different cause you have most of the top players gone to Juniors and you are left trying to round out of the team with kids who couldn’t stick with a Junior team. And some kids who graduated may not even want to stick for their last year of midgets after graduating.