stickboy

USA Hockey should use some of our outrageous membership fee and develop a standard for AA skill/ability and assign qualified evaluators to do preseason district/regional AA evaluation camp for players to be able to be considered AA. Then associations can only create AA teams out of actual certified AA players. Take the local politics and snake oil salesmen out of it. That ought to thin things down a bit!

What are you shopping for that you are going to find out at tryouts?

Bingo! Mom and dad finally realize the dream is not attainable and pull back. It’s the same thing every year. We never listen to those ahead of us that tell us exactly how it is. We think they are just bitter and it’s going to be different for us. But in reality it is the same: If at 15u/16u you aren’t a top player on Pens or at a top nationally ranked out of town program, Tier1Juniors/NCAA/pro hockey isn’t in the cards. Yes, there are a few exceptions, but be honest: is your player the exception? From what I’m reading lately, it seems that maybe folks are waking up and bowing out of the AAA rat race and going AA. Maybe we’ll start seeing some better AA and high school hockey in the coming years?

Beating a dead horse with semi pro hockey in Pittsburgh.

Sounds about right for the actual talent pool.

I didn’t say prep schools do that. I said most top 10 programs do something similar, OR are prep schools. Prep schools have a different goal as they are developing students also. But there you are paying more for less ice time. Depends what you are looking for and end goals.

Welcome to what it takes to get to Tier 1 juniors and NCAA D1! Like it or not, most of the Top 10 midget programs that provide the best exposure are doing something similar or are prep schools. It sucks, but just the way it is

Why do they need to play both?

Tender to who? If you are getting out of Pittsburgh because your kid has potential for the next level, you better go farther than Cleveland

Faux Selects

PIAA co-op is based off the student population of the host school, not combined. But there is a student population cap for schools they are allowed to have join. I think it’s around 250 M or F, depending on the sport.

BC has a reputation for running their top dogs in blow out games to pad their stats.

So we agree - it was a bad call 😂

Make sure you don’t creep over that speed limit, take office supplies from work, or throw out someone else’s mail!

If you make that call on that play in a state championship, you deserve criticism. Officials in a game of that level should be experienced enough to use discretion. They delivered the ultimate consequence on an act that had no effect on a player or the game. Heck, I’ll willing to bet everyone in attendance was dumbfounded, and if no call was made at all there would have been no real complaint.

It was TheWrongCall!

If I was a TJ parent/fan/coach/player (which I’m not), I’d be disgruntled about the game misconduct call given to their leading scorer half way through the game. Refs called it spearing and gave 5 and game for what looked like a love tap after being crosschecked. Would be interesting to know where the ref is from.

Not a great logistical location. Especially for teams flying in. Let’s put it an hour from the airport, past the city. Then where do you stay, Monroeville, Greensburg? And nothing around the rink to do without driving. People don’t want to travel to an unknown area just to be in the car back and forth the whole trip. Pittsburgh area not great for tourneys.

If the “win” is to get to meaningful junior hockey then both the “crawlers” and “proud standing” will both lose. Basically, it doesn’t matter between any of these programs. One just has better marketing. Pick which one has the coach that is best for your players needs and where your family can tolerate being for 8 months

And per usual, the second tier AAA players crawl back to Esmark at midget with tender and draft dreams.

And this is why you can’t have stats. Would you trust this guy? There is at least one on every team. His kid probably has phantom secondary assist on every goal he is in there for. As someone previously said - the parents ruin it.

Who does the scoresheet and clock in PAHL? In PIHL they are paid employees. Also, someone brought up the refs. That is a big variable. After all, the scorekeeper only reports what the ref relays. I’ve seen plenty of refs that aren’t good with getting numbers right or not bothering with second assists at all.

PIHL uses a 1:50 time slot for varsity. What does PAHL use for midget? If it’s less then be prepared to pay for the OT/SO.

Also teach them how to hit without their stick over their head and hands to the face. That will save a bunch of penalties and time.

I don’t think the new facilities were built for the junior team. It was gone well before that project started. It was for the youth program, and it is a nice use of otherwise dead space. Knock it all you want, but the locker rooms/training/vid room/etc are 10x better than what any area program has to offer other than Pens. You only get that with cooperation between the program and rink ownership. Will never have that at any other rink in Pittsburgh. And don’t say Black Bear can do it, because we know they won’t. Just look around at their rinks across the country. I think this Ven/SCIR consolidation is a good move to protect the programs and keep them sustainible. The most result evolution of Vengeance was a start up to support a small core of quality players. To their credit the teams were successful and people took notice. Naturally it grew in size, but ultimately they weren’t prepared to support the growth and the quality has gone down the last few years. A plan with oversight, standard operations for all teams, and responsible people directing will do it a lot of good. Wish them luck.