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I missed two ? two players I don’t recall from back In the youth days. One of the guys doesn’t appear to play much as a senior. Great link! better than the acha website.

Two that I know of - 1 at ppe most of his youth, the other from esmark. Both I think are seniors at Ohio U. It was a good game, liberty won in ot.

Liberty plays Ohio U on espn plus tonight if anyone wants to see what the high end club hockey looks like. I’ve been following the acha the past few years - mainly the end of the seasons & nationals at all 3 levels. I’ve helped a few families and players make informed decesions about college and it was very simple - don’t pick a school because of hockey. Pretty simple. I think club hockey is a great thing, I don’t understand why some think I’m putting it down. If you read my posts above I mention how it helps with the adjustment for a lot of kids, gives them new friends instantly etc. Sorry when I call out the BS it offends, like I said youth hockey parents & poltics have worked their way into the local college club hockey. The ones that are offended are usually the offenders.

How is BB treating the HS & College teams that play out of there so far ?

That makes sense. Esmark gets their kid here, montour gets a goalie. Kid plays on both teams with his billet brother - easy to get to practice, easier adjustment for the Dayton kid moving away at 15. Looks like he’s 9-1 in the 10 games he played. Definitely helping that varsity team. did pihl ever put that visa rule in ? Covid hit, I never followed it again. It was specifically target towards bishop mcort. That coach would cry up a storm every meeting back in the day that they can’t compete with out the euro esmark kids. They would smash everyone in A. Pihl was suppose to make it so you had to play up if you had a kid here under a visa or something. edit - It appears mcort is in AA this year, looks like they have two visa’s ? Guess pihl finally went through with that rule.

That relationship was severed years and years ago. I don’t see it being repaired but strange things happen & money talks. I was told esmark placed their U15 goalie from Dayton, OH (tri state) into montour school district this year. Was told Montour did not have a capable goalie going into the season. Someone fact check it, see if it’s true. I haven’t followed much pihl this year. Just a few local teams in aaa. edit - checked EP, looks true. Don’t know the circumstances but the kid is playing for montour.

Talk about reading comprehension smh. I never stated you brought shaha into this thread, I clearly stated why I did. My pitt comments are facts. Regular season best record doesn’t mean anything, the playoff winner from the confrence gets the auto bid. That hasn’t been pitt.

Your always championing shaha’s “aaa” teams - the assumption is your kid plays there or you are involved. If I’m wrong I’m wrong. I only brought up shaha & youth hockey in this thread because you came storming on in trying to derail the topic, adding backhanded insults. you are free not to read or comment on this topic.

@fafa fohi Don’t you have to worry about your kids shaha youth team falling a part with all the printscape rumors & esmark ? We are talking about College club hockey here, hence the topic title.

Yep. He wanted to build W&J into what he turned Adrian into. Ncaa d3 with a High end club team. I knew he had alumni investing etc but never knew they wanted to build a rink. I assumed in those days it would be at southpointe were the club team played. I’m sure that would have worked while they worked on their own rink project. I never knew the reason for him leaving, thank for that info.

It’s pretty much a mix, even locally. The big programs ? Adrain, etc they are recruited like a ncaa d1 team. A lot of 20-21 year old freshman. Nahl bottom kids, ncdc etc. A lot of kids that passed on ncaa d3 - they get treated better at these big time acha programs, they don’t have to follow ncaa rules, drug testing etc. since ncaa d3 does not give out sports scholarships for hockey, they go the acha route getting a little merit scholarships. A program like Adrian has a special dorm just for the hockey players due to their age. Generally the big programs don’t cost any money to play. Last I heard rmu was around $2500, iup was around 3k, john caroll who won the chma last year was like 2k (told this from a local player currently on the team).

Lol we found the Pitt parent! Nice job trying to trash the board and this thread with 10k space bar presses. hopefully the mods can fix it. your spaz out proved my point further, but I said rmu & duq have the biggest political bs & parent involment, not pitt, but yep it’s there to and obvious from you losing your mind here hoping this thread gets locked. Pitt can only manage a 1 goal win vs a m1 program that is consistently at the bottom of the rankings, turn around the next day to lose to drexler a mid level m1 program. oh but you won a few regular season (best record) in the CHMA ? But you couldn’t win the CHMA playoffs to make it to nationals. Lost to JCU last year. A team that is mainly young Ohio HS players, not many at all with any junior experience. Time to leave the chma, pray your schedule gets you to nationals. Sorry buddy, that’s the way it is. Confrence playoff winners goto nationals then the last few spots get filled in based on teams national rankings. Don’t like it - blame the Michigan teams that run the acha our get your people from pitt down to the yearly acha meeting in Tampa to vote! I get it, you’re trying to work the system to get to nationals, I don’t even blame you for trying. local d3 teams have it worse - it’s only based on rankings who makes nationals, leauge / confrence winners don’t matter. No western pa d3 team or eastern Ohio d3 will ever again make nationals. 1/2 of the top 20 are Michigan teams. please don’t smack your keyboard for 3hrs again if you do reply. Calm down. It’s club hockey, not ncaa hockey.

Hard to say, oldest is getting married this summer. Both my boys played for years at ppe & esmark. I’d imagine they will get their kids into hockey but be smart about it. Play for fun.

I’m old - it’s hard to sugar coat things. I just tell it like it is. Both of my boys played, I played & coached (never them). I’ve watched how much the game has changed since I was young, all the way up to my youngest aging out and being done. I’ve watched the sport turn into pure business at the youth level, now I’m watching the college level - both acha & ncaa turn into pure businesses.

I didn’t say anything about any players, I mentioned the politics that are starting to build in club hockey coming from the parents. If stating our wpa acha teams can’t compete with the big time acha programs somehow offends you like I’m talking about the players - sorry I’m just stating the facts. I’ve seen some great acha games locally over the years in the m1 & m3 divisions around wpa & ohio. You are missing the point of my post.

Education. Tired of seeing kids and parents make bad choices they end up regretting. These kids only get so many years to play hockey. Sorry, someone has to tell it like it is.

Club hockey has become a nightmare for kids & parents to navigate as you said. That’s why I put up this post. Goto a college that is affordable or the one that will give you and your kid the least amount of debt. Compound interest on those deferred until the student graduates loans is a killer. When it comes to western PA there isn’t a huge difference from M1 to M3. You are not going to see a M1 team beat a M3 team locally putting up a shot margin of 80-10. Parents and kids need to remember it’s just a club sport. Having the ability to still play & be part of something makes the college transition easier for many. as you stated, many many kids quit playing after a year or two anyway - fall behind on school work, tired of injuries, find other intrests etc.

I’m going to go on a small rant here for a second but this is also to inform parents. Western pa M1 “D1” teams. Pitt has to leave to CHMA that they could never win because they want “better competition”. Their fees to play are in the youth hockey AAA range now. The ACHA favors big name schools and known hockey schools with their secret rankings. They won’t disclose thier formula. Their ACHA rankings were much better when they used my hockey rankings. Bias was harder to manipulate. Example - in the acha a OT loss counts straight up as a loss, you get zero points. A top 5 ranked team lost in OT last weekend, the acha put the game as a tie in the rankings formula and didn’t even try to hide it. In the standings it’s listed as a loss. Back to Pitt - the city game last weekend was pitt vs duqesne. Duquesne is always at the bottom of the M1 rankings. Pitt won by one goal. I watched the live stream, I’m scratching my head trying to figure out how pitt is ranked as a top 20 team (well I know how but that’s another story) somehow duqense managed to get a series against Adrian this weekend, Adrian is always a top 10 team. I watched the feed for game one. Adrain just rolled lines and mainly played the 3rd & 4th lines. Here are the results of both games. 80 shots a game! That’s like midget PPE or ESMARK playing a PAHL A major team. this is what happens when western PA acha teams try to play with the real M1 teams. A lot of our western PA acha M1 teams (and Ohio) are run by local politics to a degree. Lots of Pahl & Pihl parent involvement, Elbow rubbing like the good old youth days. RMU & DUQ are the biggest offenders locally. RMU has kids on their top team that wouldn’t crack the top 10 on their second team. the point - don’t pick a college because you want the “D1”(M1) name. Pick a school that fits the education your child is looking for along with manageable debt / cost. It’s CLUB hockey - glorified BEER leauge. When a coach or “GM” tells you or your son they will put you on team 1 if you go there, tell them to put it in writting, they won’t. These guys get a bird dog for getting kids to enroll. /END RANT If anyone wants to talk local acha club hockey, I guess do it here.

Haven’t seen him since covid. very sad news.

I’m old enough NOT to remember what this site was originally called 5-6-7-8 years ago or whatever changed about it. Anyway, back then yuri did read this place but never had an account or posted. I don’t even remember my old account! Yuri and I talked about this site a few times back in the day. Though I haven’t spoken to yuri in about 5 years, I highly doubt that’s him posting. I’d be really shocked if it was. If you’ve ever exchanged emails with yuri, you would know he writes a bit different than he talks in person.

It looks even worse when you select “all” not just tier 1, Espically U18. Lowly Pahl teams ranked higher.

Sending kids into real junior hockey is how I personally measure the success, along with not putting a team together that has a mix of mid level AA & A major players - calling it “AAA”.

U15, U16 & U18 are all that matters. 15 & 16 being the most important. That place has & always will be a dumpster fire at midget. When 3 Pahl AA teams who HAVE to play some weak teams on their schedule are ranked higher than a tier 1 “AAA” team, that my friend is a complete joke. I’m sure some ego’s were hit hard. I heard Gary canceled the second game against Lebo for the 18’s after they got stomped in game 1. It’s bad for business.

The predators U18 “AAA” lost 8-1 to the Lebo AA Pahl team. They currently have 3 Pahl teams ranked higher than them in the district! That program needs blown up, get Gary out and start over or just go away and be a Pahl / indie aa program. The Columbus chill have a higher rating ffs! Those predators teams are a great example of parents wanting the extra A. These kids are not even mid level AA players, they are bottom line AA players.

Some left while he was still at the mission, others when they knew he was leaving the program for dead. Two western pa kids went to team Illinois after they had enough of the him & You know who at ppe. One of these kids ended up in the ushl, the other in the nahl. If they make it to ncaa d1 I’m sure ppe will put up signs about them.