twoboys

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.

I just quickly looked and last year the 04 Lebo team played 65 games. That is a lot more than a PAHL schedule. They were also ranked over 2 points higher than the next closest PAHL team. They had to go AAA. I also think that the PPE black teams that exist up until Midgets do the most damage to AA. If those 15-17 players were back in AA. That is basically taking the bottom 2-3 kids off of every AA team.

If North Catholic fields a prep team that would be a nice alternative. SSA has a Prep and Varsity. No reason why NC can't have both. Essentially, they would play a national/regional schedule of other prep schools. If the program includes travel like the traditional prep programs and is priced similarly I can see it being a success. But if the Pens are trying to make money off, forcing kids to attend Excel, and pay for the team and tuition then it won't work cause it will just become too expensive.

I think you have to be a Bantam for Penn State's camp. Kent State starts much younger. I think just about every rink has some sort of day camp over the summer. We have always chosen weekly lessons over a camp.

Maybe someone could help me. How did Latrobe and West Allegheny, two AA programs, make it to the finals? Are the classifications meaningless?

It was 12-0 and the end of 2. Ended up being 17-0. Clearly it was was wrong if PIHL addressed it. No way you can say it was acceptable. And a 10 goal game is much different than a 17 goal game with 5 scored in the 3rd.

And every other year you have to travel so some teams may not be interested.

I am still a PW parent so I won't go into details. It clearly happens some of the time.

North Hills isn’t independent. The North Hills Viper Stars play PW AA. 05 Viper Stars is Independent.

A friend told me that the U18 PPE has some spots open for kids that don't make a junior team. So, my guess is that you will won't have a concrete idea about the team until after the season starts.

I disagree. Peewee teams at A Major Black, AA and AAA do not just roll lines when it comes to Penalty Kill and Power Play. Sure they do sometimes but not all the times. The only other Peewee AAA team is the 08 Vengeance. You can not complain about them cause they are 15 in the country. So, you are left with 12 from the 07 Black and 15 from the 08 Black. Can't expect the 08 Black to come back to PAHL cause most of those kids have never played PAHL. The 07 Black on the other hand is mostly made up of kids that left PAHL after 3 years. If you really want to improve AA, organizations should limit the number or kids on AA teams to 12 or 13. The problem then becomes you really need perfect attendance and it becomes more expensive.

Here you go. Local. https://www.alphatournamentcompany.com/atc-thanksgiving-tournament

This whole thread is odd. If the player is that good he has to be on U16 PPE or U16 Esmark and is one of the studs. Or he is an 02 on the U18 PPE or Esmark. In either case, the player has to have a clue about what players are planning on doing. It is a small world at this level.

I watch a lot of Peewee hockey. And it is the top kids that drive a team. The bottom kids are never on a power play or penalty kill. The third line kids have shorter shifts too. At Peewee you only have one 07 AAA team that isn't the Gold. I think the Black has 12 skaters and one is an 08. Do you really think that those 12 skaters will alter AA much? They won't. AAA isn't the problem for Peewee. At Peewee kids start moving around. Look at Allegheny 07 AA this year who leading AA right now. They basically blew up the team and started over. How many different organizations lost kids to them this year? I heard 6.

I get it. It all depends on how bad the losses are. I think some of the scores are made worse by coaches riding their stars. For example, if you are winning easily maybe you should give some other players a chance to kill a penalty or participate on a power play. PAHL knows who scores the goals. If a player scores so easily in one division he single handily can and should lift a team to a different division.

Honestly, you have it wrong. The fact that some of the teams are dominating is due to the fact that they have one or two players who do belong in a particular division. They belong in AAA or AA but are playing A Major black. The damage is done by the stars of a particular team.

They asked to move up PAHL said no.

The Vengeance really didn't influence the Renegades much. Most of the 08, 09 and 10's came from other organizations. Those kids wouldn't be there if they weren't the Vengeance. The 06 team is a different story. Although it was a Renegade team, most of those kids did come from elsewhere as well. The damage to BV was done by the Lemieux Center not the Icemen. Essentially, you have pulled the top 5-10 mites out of most organizations. They go there with the hopes of making the PPE in Squirts. The way to fix AA hockey is to limit the number of games to 10. Or have every team play each other once. That way you can play PAHL and independent games. So, PAHL won't get in the way of a team playing an independent schedule.

I think families head to the Icemen and similar programs because they like the coaching and the ice time. Are you suggesting that BV hire these very same coaches, give them more ice time than a typical BV team and play PAHL? If you are then you are basically saying that you like Posey's Viper Stars model.

It would seem that the PPE should be touting how many of their players have moved on to the USHL and NAHL. Because it seems as if playing in one of these leagues is necessary to play college hockey.