nemesis8679

I agree with all of that. And to be honest once you account for necessities like gas, hotel, food, miles on the vehicle, etc. not to mention extras like lessons on the side, tournament fees, higher price equipment, etc.- I know for a fact another 18u AAA team that would be over 30K and some AA that would hover right around the 20K mark. There are good players and families that just can't do that or don't want to do that. And some of these organizations should have their nonprofit status looked at a bit more closely.

AAA is supposed to be the best, most talented roster's group of kids in an area. When the most (some would say "only") legitimate organization is fielding two so-called AAA teams at each birth year, it's incredible that people still think their kids are AAA players. Or is it AAA parents?

Well at least in the Pittsburgh area they still have a chance at "AAA".

We'll see what happens by 16u.

You mean 2 or 3 of them.

No surprise. They'll all learn that as you go farther and everybody else has talent and a lot of them have even more talent, attitude, personality, and working harder will be the difference. Slamming doors, mouthing off to teammates, and hotdogging will stop you before you even get started.

Disagree. Maybe the bottom half of A, where teams are lucky to field a team. But MHR, which is pretty close to accurate in most cases, doesn't show much evidence that they'd "destroy" most HS teams is laughable. Not in Western PA, anyway. And "destroy" is a big claim. The best local AA team would probably lose to every team in HS AAA, and most of HS AA. Though there'd be some close games.

Yeah, well Frisco, Tx probably wasn’t the place to play to get an audience. And it’s not really a team that’s going to have a big following to a mainstream audience, it’s just not set up for that. Texas isn’t an hotbed for hockey, and the fans there are, are following the Stars right now in the playoffs. And the other teams certainly aren’t going to draw people to attend. Probably would have more interest in the north.

If you get on a team young enough or don’t mind jumping from team to team every year, it’s not hard to be on a AA or AAA team around here. So I don’t take much stock in that. Of course some school districts also have more families with income allowing expense of playing for those teams isn’t as much of an issue. They do have a noticeably good AAA goalie but I wouldn’t say anybody else on that team stands out as elite players. Not knocking anybody, they have a solid team. But those top few teams played no teams of note other than each other.

The past few years I didn't find QV to be insanely talented as much as well-disciplined, playing a team game, and not taking stupid penalties. The A divisions, both of them, had 3 or 4 good teams, a few completive teams, and a bunch of not-so-good teams. Made the top few teams look better than they were. If the top 4-5 teams in each division were in the same division and the bottom teams were in the same division, that would've made for much better divisions.

I'd love to hear more details on the attack, too. Heard it from.four different people. I wasn't there. That's all I know. 🤷‍♂️

I heard NP closed registrations. Maybe not for 18u?

I have heard of a few coaches getting canned. Quaker Valley and Shaler being two of them, which I was surprised to hear. I heard of a few others but not sure on the accuracy. Should be some opportunities out there this season for some coaches to step into places.

What team was that?

09 AAA I'd assume. Had a terrible season which I understand ended with a parent physically attacking the coach. So I could see that team being done. To the coach's credit, he told the parents in the beginning of the season that it wasn't a AAA team. But you know parents, they'd rather get blown out and have the extra A than not. Then have the balls to think the coach was the problem.

You are definitely the parent driving the team manager nuts by going through the scoresheet with a fine-tooth comb because the 17-year old kid or the volunteer parent scorekeeper missed your kid's secondary assist.

In defense of the stats not being a thing in PAHL... Nobody wants to hear "Johnny faced 37 shots, but you have it as 34 shots!" Or, "Robert had the second assist on that goal in the 7-1 blowout and you completely missed it". Also, are they going to count blocks? Shots? Hits? No? Then you're leaving a lot of kids out who contribute very much to their team but maybe not in scoring goals. That defenseman that never gets scored on is totally left out anyway. The kids know what they did. That's enough.

Was told about $23,000 all-in. True? 🤷‍♂️ Buts that's what I was told. Maybe it included some lessons during the season, too. I don't know.

Chicago must've sensed the blood... eh, extra money...

I don't know what NIL means. I don't follow football much beyond some kids I know that play. I didn't know it privatization was prevalent with football, too. But not surprised to hear it.

I know Icemen and Vengeance players that have gone $20,000- $30,000 in with travel included. To get to the level necessary is ungodly expensive. Then the time commitment. Everything centered on the individual to focus and pursue the success. This is why professional race car drivers, golfers, tennis players, fishermen... and yes, hockey players, mostly come from wealthy families. People have seen the money that can be made, so the sports have become focused on the money. School sports (not college) will be dismantled eventually in favor of paid leagues. Sure, they'll have teams. But all the "talent" will be playing for their"elite" teams and they'll frown on their players playing for the free or at least less expensive school team. Basketball is becoming that, baseball is on its way, too. The only sport that doesn't seem to be heading that way is football, yet. Not sure why that is. But they have been doing the private kicker training schools and stuff for a while. All sports now are not for fun, socializing, or health. Sports are money.

Looks like a good program. I've never heard of it, or heard of anybody playing in it. Don't see a cost listed. I hope they're finding it to be a success, the area definitely has room for this kind of thing.

That doesn't even make sense.

That's a problem, too- there really are no in-house programs for those kids. So they end up in all the other levels, further watering down everything for everybody. That's NOT a knock on those kids- hockey isn't easy and some kids just want to have fun and play the sport while having other stuff they enjoy doing, too. They don't live hockey or want to. There's nothing wrong with that. And not everybody has the 15,000+ minimum per year it can cost to play competitive travel hockey at A Major and higher. But it would be great if there was more in-house options available to them. And it would benefit hockey in general by making it more affordable and accessible to get started. Some of those kids would fall in love with the sport and pursue it further. And the ones that just want to play without a huge time and money commitment could do that.

Yes, and A would be much better. It would be better all-around for everybody.