twoboys

8 hours ago, HereWithPopcorn said:

Its still technically Tier 3 junior hockey.  They tried to go to Tier 2 and USA Hockey said no because of the NAHL, so they basically gave themselves the extra A to call themselves Tier 2 and be unsanctioned hockey.

Yeah but it is free.  Isn't that the knock that many of you have with the Vengeance and other Tier 3 Junior teams?  That they are a waste of money?

I don't think this is the answer.  If they really want to keep the rankings from the parents, they should have different tiers.  Have blocks of 20 and don't have a ratings for specific team in the 20.  Maybe just an average rating for the group.

Pretty sure most of the time the size listed for a kid is an exaggeration. 

The other interesting thing is that another kid on SHAHA put up almost identical stats.    

If the Icemen pull off two teams at 07, which is the rumor, I would think that the PAHL model proposed by some on here is broken.

I would think for the split season to work a lot of the high school teams would need to  increase their ice time.  Maybe go to 4-5 practices a week.  Like all other high school sports.

2 hours ago, Danner27 said:

Calm down predator’s mom. FYI - the majority birth year AA teams have non parent head coaches & practice two nights a week. Your reasoning - better coaching at “AAA” is extremely far off.  Again,  It’s not real AAA anyway. 

I don't think this correct.  Renegades birth years for example is Dad's except for 05 which was a Dad until the player left for PPE.  Badgers have a non parent at 06 but before he took over it was a parent and had parents at 09, 08 and 07.  Pretty sure Foxes have some non parent at the older ages but parents at the lower ages.  Even the SHAHA/Lebo 08 team that was AAA had a parent.  

It seems as if North Pittsburgh has non parents at the older ages.    

11 hours ago, mrfreeze said:

I think Esmark was quicker to just offer kids spots and make promises in order to secure a core and beat Vengeance to the punch. While some may say this is BS and should not happen and kids should be given a fair tryout and only those who tryout get a position, that is not how it works at tier 1 and the higher you go, tryouts are just a formality. If you are not on their radar and talking to coaches by January, you are not making that team. Tryouts/auditions are done during the season, deals made, kids recruited, agents and advisors doing their things. That is the reality. 

I disagree.  When something like this happens it is because the core of the team wants to leave.  These are kids that will make the team.  They don’t need a guaranteed spot.  Next thing you know most of the team is looking at other options.  It is definitely a slippery slope.  

1 hour ago, RJUSHL said:

I may be in the minority here, but I think the Pittsburgh hockey market (which is much better than it was even 10 years ago) can support four legit AAA teams for each birth year. In some weaker birth years, maybe just three. And when I say "legit", I'm saying a top 50 team. 

It all depends on how many of the better kids play PAHL.  The top 10 kids in AA can definitely help a AAA team if you have 3 AAA teams.  

Hockey is different beast.  No real incentive to hold your kid back like there is for other sports.  When my son graduates high school he will have one year of amateur eligibility left.  So, he he can play another year of U18 or even juniors and still go to college at the same age as a lot of his friends.

Lacrosse is different.  They double hold backs.  

1 minute ago, Pa Hockey said:

Mahoney is going to Colgate ACHA 

Smart kid.

No way there were considering the A or B division players.  That is just the way it is.  Two kids in A had unbelievable goal totals.  One with 38 and one with 36. 

What about the kid from Meadville who lead AA in points?  He had 33 goals in 18 games.  Unreal.

36 minutes ago, hockeyisgreat said:

I agree but a few kids will try to move and some will tryout hoping to move up from a AA team.  If they haven't been asked to tryouts I think they are wasting their time and donating 150.00. Just my opinion of course.

At the 06 level, the coaches know what AA players are out there that have a shot of cracking a AAA roster.  And if the parents haven't take the kid to a AAA skate then they deep down don't want the kid to play AAA.     

Congrats.  Great win!

1 hour ago, RegDunlop7 said:

My original understanding was that the Viper Stars are NHAHA's AA teams (Independent and/or PAHL) and Vipers are NHAHA's PAHL A/B teams. However, several Viper Stars teams have played at the A level over the past few seasons. So what's the purpose of having separate "Viper Stars" and "Vipers" designations while potentially playing at the same level? @AMR24 can you provide some insight?

They get additional ice time, independent games, tournaments and non-parent coaches.  NHAHA, like the Renegades, the Artic Foxes and other teams charge more for birth year teams.  You get more but you gotta pay more.  Not everyone wants to pay more.  And it requires more time.  This isn't for everyone.

On 3/7/2022 at 1:50 PM, Corsi said:

I reached out to my friend about this.  It has nothing to do with the SHAHA organization not making it easy to schedule the independent games, it was that the ice time was already accounted for by other teams in the organization having PAHL games scheduled, which took precedence to the independent games.  He did mention that the organization and the scheduler have been very supportive, but this was an issue with other teams within the organization's regular season game schedule being a higher priority.

This is what I meant.  You gotta have the ice to schedule the independent games.  If you don't have access to the ice it is hard to schedule games.  Usually a team gets so many game slots.  How many varies by organization.   Sounds like the 09 had to use their for their PAHL games and didn't have any left for their independent games. 

People constantly complain about the cost of hockey.  The people that do the most complaining probably don't have kids playing other sports.  Every sport is expensive.  

1 hour ago, Jack Handey said:

Billet.

Don't think that is right.  Only one was a billet, I think.  Rest went up and back.

1 hour ago, RJUSHL said:

I think part of this is true. The "AAA" does make it a bit easier to schedule those independent games, but the letters have nothing to do with the rankings. How these letters are used varies all over the country and the MHR formula has nothing to do with the letters. The SHAHA 09 team is very good and they had plenty of games against AAA teams from other regions this year. They had some success against them.

Exactly.  It isn't the third A but rather the low rating that prevents teams from scheduling with you.  The thing is to get good games as an independent you actually have to travel.  You probably have to have 4-5 tournaments most which are away and 10 independent games half of which are away.  Most likely going to Cleveland isn't enough.  And it doesn't exactly look like SHAHA made it easy for the 09 team since they had to buy ice at Rostraver at times.       

19 hours ago, Carl Racki said:

  Nope you forgot Icemen and Badgers.  Might as well through in Foxes and Huskies as well!! 

 

  Realistically it is PPE and barely Esmark.  My opinion if you are not in the top 30-40 you are not a REAL AAA team.  You may have several AAA players but not the depth.

 

Ps U14 Mid Am:.  SHAHA beat Foxes 5-4, Badgers beat Huskies 3-2.  Badgers and SHAHA for the Championship.  Again, all games pretty much one or two goal games and not sure how many empty net goals are in there as well.  Those 8 teams would make a great U16 AA minor league next year minus NP and add a team but hey,  I guess they should all just go independent and travel the country to find good competition with fuel at $5.00 a gallon. Plus never play each other.

There isn't a 16U AA Minor. 

24 minutes ago, 27adams said:

BV/Icemen has an 07 birth year, and they are advertising AAA for next season, are they not?

Huskies left BV after squirts and before Peewee.  BV didn't want a birth year so they left.  They have never wanted to play independent.  BV didn't let them have a birth year team although they let 04? have a birth year team.  If I remember correctly. 

I think everyone was wrong.  The Latrobe parent never got a chance to actually confront the kid.  Who knows if he would have actually confronted the kid since the Shaler parents put a stop to it by confronting him.   The problem is that the Shaler parents didn't exactly put a stop to it in an appropriate way. 

Coaching JV has got to be difficult.  Sort of like middle school.  There can be a huge difference in talent and size.  I think this would be even worse if the JV or middle school team doesn't have cuts.  

So, high school hockey is developmental?  Hockey parents are crazy to expect equal playing time.  Playing time for other high school sports is not equal.   If you want to play you better be able to contribute.

7 hours ago, fafa fohi said:

As an FYI, coaches for this years 06 Vipers AA team are different coaches from last years team. 

I know.  I just don’t think that they would push an independent schedule.  Parents, who did it last year, I can see pushing it.

On 11/30/2021 at 1:51 AM, nemesis8679 said:

Honestly I don't know. Just what I heard had happened there. From more than one person. 

The 06 Vipers Stars team played an independent schedule last year as well.   I know who the coaches are and really doubt that they forced an independent schedule on the parents.