twoboys

I agree that most parents, even parents on a house team, would be willing to pay for a "qualified" coach. This is not just limited to parents of kids on AAA teams. I know numerous parents that dreaded tryouts because they didn't want their child to end up with the same coach for the third year in a row. And the kids aren't AAA or AA kids. I do think it is unreasonable to limit a AAA team to only 3 away tournaments. In many locations, there are only one or two AAA teams. AAA teams are forced to travel to find games.

At the younger ages, SHAHA seems to have the better teams than the Preds.

I think you have a lot of hockey going on. It is okay to say no to some things. At some point you need to emphasize quality over quantity. The other thing to be aware of is that kids are starting to play full ice hockey on the side. They will likely head to Buffalo and Rochester a few times next season to play in some AAU tournaments. I get some parents are offended by this but most of the top mites are doing this. This will likely have no bearing on how your son ends up at 15 but will have a bearing on which team he makes as a first year squirt.

Question about the on-point criticism. How and when did you and your son receive it? Was it comments made to him during the tryout or did you contact the PPE and ask?

It isn't clear what age the goalie is, right? First year travel and looking at Esmark and Vengeance. Esmark means at least Bantams. I would think that most decent Bantam AA teams have two goalies. Same as PPE. Not sure how Esmark and Vegeance treat goalies but at the PPE they pay full price. A lot of PAHL oranizations give a discount. By Bantams, people have a clue as to which organizations have a strong team. If the OP has an 06 goalie and isn't up for PPE or the other AAA teams. Try the Renegades or SHAHA. They have quality teams that are trying to make the jump to AAA.

All members? Clearly, you are exaggerating.

06 is a pretty deep year. There will be the 2 PPE teams. A couple of AA teams trying to make the jump to AAA.

I think the Vengeance is different in that they practice on Friday nights and Sundays. This makes it easier for some families to make practice, particularly if you live far away. This, to me at least, is the difference between the two organizations. I also think this makes it easier to play a second sport in season. I have no idea how a kid plays tackle football and hockey for the Elite. I have been told that tackle football is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday. Off days are Friday and Sunday. And you aren't supposed to miss practices. As far as travel. I think the 08 did travel less when they played PAHL last year. This is what the 09 did this year. As far as tryouts for the Vengeance, one friend's son made the 08 team this year. So, they did take another kid. I think there really aren't that many kids in PAHL that can make the Vengeance. Same goes for the Elite. The Black is a different story. There is a difference in skating between PAHL AA kids and AAA kids. And who knows if these kids will actually tryout.

People have told me that North Pittsburgh has a ton of kids at both the Peewee and Squirt level. A lot of kids get cut from the travel teams. If you really want to play travel hockey then I would at least consider Butler Valley or another program as a fall back to North Pittsburhg. Additionally, try signing him up for the PPE tune up for tryouts. Not all of the PPE kids do it but some do. If he does it then he can see up close where he stands with some of the PPE kids.

Are the rankings relevant because the top four make the playoffs for Nationals?

You provided facts but you did so in order to make them look bad. Am I right?

I just don't get why everyone is so quick to bash other organizations. There are plenty of parents whose kids love hockey and want to play and practice a lot. So, they aren't the best kids but the parents would rather have them on the ice more than other programs offer. Maybe the parents enjoy watching their kids play hockey regardless of whether they win or lose. More ice is better than playing video games. The Viper Stars do have some decent coaches. When you spend time at various rinks you quickly realize that not every coach knows what he is doing. Let alone have the ability to "coach." Every organization has some teams that are lousy. Some, have more than a few. At least the kids are still playing hockey. The people that I know (parents and kids) that are on the Viper Stars are quite happy.

I don't think any defensemen on the PPE squirt or peewee teams are underdeveloped at skating backwards. I can give you positioning but not skating.

I heard that this was the sales pitch. Are the 08 Vengeance kids really playing multiple sports? Or is it because the coach lives so far away that they can only get to the rink on Fridays and Sundays.

I think he/she is making a judgement about your coach and not your kids.

They aren't forcing the parents to travel all over the country. The parents are writing the check so they are fine with the travel.

Not sure if I would agree that he "spearheaded" the bringing of kids to the PPE. The way I see it is he was pretty involved in helping kids improve, securing extra ice and putting together travel teams, etc. The kids he helped were either were or became some of the better kids in 07,08 and 09 classes. And logically most of them made PPE teams.

I just don’t get it why some parents complain about how other parents spend their money. I thought I heard that the PAHL teams were scheduled because some team backed out at the last minute. Lastly if you want these kids to come back to PAHL you better make changes to your organization cause each parent of the icemen likely left because of how your teams are built and/or run.

They aren't going to be in AA. They were just initially placed in top group. Once the placement games are completed they will be placed accordingly.

From my understanding it is all based on where the kids played last year. SCIR has birth year teams so basically the birth year teams all played AA hockey. I am told it doesn't matter if it is Squirt AA or Peewee AA. So for bracketing purposes, the 07 and 06 teams are the same because they are comprised almost entirely of AA players. The third SCIR team has some kids that played "AAA" last year, some AA and some that played on the highest non birth year team. The Foxes 07 team is full of former Squirt AA players. Same goes for the Huskies. The Viper Stars 07 team is full of former Squirt AA players and "AAA" players. The Viper Stars 06 team is full of former AAA players. A guess, all of the 07 teams are not going to play AA. Not sure about the nonbirth year SCIR team. They may squeak in.

My boys are basically the same age as yours. We have played AA. Our fees have usually been over 3000. We get two practices during the week and extra ice on the weekend if we don’t have games. Tournament slush fund included. There are only a few organizations we would move to due to the commute. So, if you are gonna move South look at those or look at the ones north of you are thinking of moving there. PPE for Peewee is about 4500 plus travel and coaches fee. All in around 10,000.