aaaahockey

21 minutes ago, sadday4hockey said:

They are over-trained on the ice and under-educated in the classroom.

And what I mean by that is they do not spend near enough time in the classroom on a daily/weekly basis at NC.

It's not a great school either compared to where many of these kids are coming from.  

55 minutes ago, sadday4hockey said:

It's extortion. But the fact that everyone knows it and then act blind-sided by it is........... well, amazing.

Yes was sitting here thinking the same thing. People have literally been saying this for years.  There are exceptions when they want to get a kid in the door or give them one year or if the kid is absolutely top 3 in their Birthyear but generally that's the unwritten rule and you are always replaceable by someone with a bigger credit line. 

1 minute ago, hockey55 said:

Vengeance 2009 changed their tryouts to later this week.  Probably hoping to catch those that didn’t make other teams or if teams fold

Sounds like the 09 AAA teams might be right sizing if Esmark and vengeance aren't able to field teams.  Unfortunately they will just take all the cast offs and continue with too many teams in the region watering down PAHL and keeping hockey dumb.  

48 minutes ago, bender05 said:

rumor has it preds are trying to make a competitive 08/09 16uaa team with those that don't make BY

shaha 09 top 3 forwards leaving? another rumor-one to 08s, one to prds, one to barons 

PAHL or AHF? 

15 minutes ago, nemesis8679 said:

The problem was right in the name they removed. Removing it doesn't change the fact that they still named it after him after everything came to light. And only changed their minds when the backlash was received. Plus, the word "catholic" is still there, that's enough for me to not trust them.

 

Perhaps things still go on, but I don't remember hearing of a school district covering up abuse by moving an offending staff member from school to school, allowing them to continue the abuse.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/288784/school-districts-move-teachers-who-commit-sexual-assaults-to-other-schools-report/

Couple more 08s:

Hornets AA is today 4/13 with callbacks tomorrow and Wednesday.  

SHAHA AAA is tomorrow 4/14 with I believe callbacks on 4/15 and their AA team will have tryouts later in the week.  

27 minutes ago, HockeyFan6687 said:

Anybody know how 08 and/or 09 open skates or tryouts went this week?  Interesting to see the player movement 

08 I have not seen much movement 

4 minutes ago, nemesis8679 said:

And you don't have to entrust your kids to an organization that has a horrible track record of protecting children. 

Well public schools aren't much better at that. 

5 minutes ago, Rewster said:

As HatTrick pointed out…Total Package Hockey

I just looked at their site again and noticed how they have grown their “campuses” since I looked at it last year.

Interestingly, TPH just established a Philadelphia campus this past November (technically, they’re located in Chester, PA):

https://www.tphacademy.com/philadelphia/

Not only does that facility looks really nice, and by having 4 sheets of ice…they can become a destination for Tier 1 hockey and establish themselves as Philly’s preeminent T1 AAA organization. 

I say this because it is becoming apparent to me that the new shine is wearing off when it comes to PPE and their ability to attract the best hockey players in the region. The NHLs Penguins don’t have the same drawing power that it did just a few years ago; especially when coupled with UPMC Lemieux facility and North Catholic/Excel Academy. The price is beginning to lose its luster when the return on investment is dropping off.
I could be wrong. I hope that I am. But, when I see the model used by PPE is pretty much in every major city now; I have to believe that the novelty is not going to resonate with the best players from across the country like it used to. Not when they can do something very similar and do it much closer to their own home.

Especially considering there are 5+ public high schools in the area better than North Catholic.  Pay extra to go somewhere worse?

16 minutes ago, Rewster said:

Their summary just caught me up to speed in a couple of paragraphs…

I think that’s what they call, “unintended consequences.” While attempting to point out problems without real solutions; the end result is actually galvanizing the topic at hand. Which doesn’t really make it go away…but only adds to its attention.
 

In any event, I’d add to this by pointing out that other “developing hockey markets” in the states are trying to model their AAA programs similarly to PPE (or vice-versa). TPH has academy’s located in FLA, AZ, Tennessee, and several places in the Midwest (Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, etc) as well. I’m not sure if it’s sustainable. But, it is occurring in other regions in the country.

If people are dumb enough to pay for it, of course it is.   If you are willing to pay, someone will always be willing to take your money. 

I heard @Chimp Life was available 😜

48 minutes ago, Happy Hockey Fan said:

I was lead to believe that they had to go there. But I guess there are exceptions. 

35 minutes ago, nemesis8679 said:

If you don't, you run the risk to be replaced by someone who will.

U18 is a bit of a different animal. That's after the big dogs have already skipped town generally. 

1 hour ago, YardSale said:

Where are they not able to field teams?

I heard younger ages mostly.  Again I don't have a connection there but I heard they ended up taking a lot of girls on top teams that normally wouldn't make it and had to actually backfill some of the second team rosters after tryouts.   Rumor?  Maybe?  But someone else on the board saying that they heard something similar.  Anyone have a daughter up there with more insight? 

2 minutes ago, sadday4hockey said:

Don't know about that but apparently the girls program is hemorrhaging players to out of area teams.

I've heard the same.  Not necessarily out of area but that they can't field teams at certain levels.  

19 minutes ago, Happy Hockey Fan said:

I have heard that the Pens are removing the rules that their kids have to attend North Catholic and Excel Academy. Anyone else? 

They were never really "rules" anyway.   So not sure what they would change except tell people they arent "rules".  

3 hours ago, nemesis8679 said:

Why are the Huskies having such a hard time fielding teams? I would've thought they'd be in a great position of starting something fresh. But it just hasn't taken.

No one wants to drive that far + what was said above. 

22 minutes ago, Pucks11 said:

All the best players do not HAVE to play for Pens, nor do all the best ones play at Pens at every level. Some families can't afford to play there, it doesn't mean their kid isn't good enough. Some kids go out of town because it's cheaper than Pens. Some parents/kids just don't like the Pens. It's not Pens or die.

Again, every coach thinks they have the best kid. It's PERSONAL OPINION. Those 8 kids that you know for sure at Pens that are better are 1 injury or growth spurt away from being in PAHL.

I guarantee I could make a team at EVERY level of AAA from the leftovers that are not at/cut from Pens and win 8 out of 10 games at each level.

No one said they all have to play at Pens.  I'm very opposed to both what the Pens are doing and especially faux AAA.  I don't even think the kid is as good as multiple AA players on multiple teams.  

I don't think every coach thinks they have the best player at an age group.  As a matter of fact I don't think I've ever heard a coach claim that unless they were blowing smoke up someone's butt to get them to stay.  

32 minutes ago, Pucks11 said:

Their website lists 2 2012 teams and 1 2011 team. There are 2 coaches that overlap from those teams.

Who is to say that they don't have the best forward in PA? It's not like they said all of USA, North America or the World. I am sure there are coaches in Philly saying they have the best kid in PA also. It's personal opinion and at that age no real facts to prove it.

The best kid on my kids squirt team played on the 4th line of 100+ ranked team when he hit 16u. Anything can happen and a lot can change.

They absolutely do not have the best 2011 on either of their 2011 teams last year.   There were at least 8 kids better than anyone on their team at Pens and I could likely name several AA PAHL and AAA players on other teams as good or close to good as him that it would be competitive if they were actually evaluated together.   If their best player was as good as they pretend he would go to Pens as well.  Just a silly thing to say.  

I would actually argue the players should be broken down by division rather than try to compare across divisions.  The best AAA players would probably have a whole lot more points in A or even AA.  That doesn't mean there aren't kids just as good in lower divisions it just means looking at points/goals/assists is really tough across very different divisions.  

4 minutes ago, PUCKCOVID19 said:

which coach is this? 

And which 11 team don't forget those nutjobs have 2 

Back to the main story at hand congrats to all the kids.  Great honor even if you are "telling the refs who to give assists to".  If that's the case these kids have a great future ahead of themselves as politicians. 

47 minutes ago, Rewster said:

Does Tenband.tv cover/stream any of the north hills schools games (or anywhere else)? I honestly don’t know.

I have to believe that there’s sponsorship & advertising dollars involved. Naturally, that would dictate what games/schools get covered through  their online streaming platform.

They had their own direct broadcast or an affiliate’s broadcast of all of the Penguins Cup games and Pennsylvania Cup games. In fact, they have been streaming PIHL games for several years.
It’s just like any other live sporting events that I’ve seen broadcast or streamed. The primary games that are covered are the ones that receive the sponsorship & advertising dollars.  
 

Yes they do North Hills games.  Several out of Baierl.  I believe if your team is willing to sponsor you get more games.  They do a good job of spreading it around.  Here is a list:

https://www.pihlhockey.com/broadcasts

15 hours ago, TheRightCall said:

Your hypothesis is a bit inaccurate, as I know of a couple ——-at least four Pitt players who did not succumb to the allure of the extra “A” and made the Pitt team and excelled. 
 

There is zero need to shell out tons of money to end up on the same place. 
 

 

I'll just say I hope you are right but that's not what I'm seeing the trend being anywhere. 

It's absolutely crazy.   And I'm going to speak my own opinion here but it hurts the sport from top to bottom.  Ever wonder why after pick 5 or so of the NHL draft it's a total crapshoot?   

1 hour ago, Rewster said:

This whole thread seems like it abruptly turned into Western Pennsylvania Youth Hockey’s version of “Grumpy old Men.”

Frankly, it reminds me of a multi-generational commiseration of the “back-in-my-day” old farts sipping coffee and telling stories about how they should have listened to their mom & dad and played baseball (or football); instead wasting their childhood years and dreams by playing hockey in Pittsburgh…since, ya know…’nobody from Pittsburgh ever gets noticed, scouted, or goes anywhere.’
 

I can still picture so many people saying, “Sorry kid, you should have been born further north if you wanna play hockey…yeah, you gotta be from Canada, New England, Michigan, or Minnesota if you want to ever go anywhere in this sport.”

It’s weird how there’s never any mention about how quickly this region has progressed from next to nothing as a legitimate hockey region—when discussed by all of the blue-blood and traditional North American hockey markets (i.e. Boston/New England, Buffalo/Western NY, Detroit/Michigan, Minnesota, Toronto/Ontario, Montreal/Quebec, even Western Canada). It’s truly included in those circles now and accepted as such when considering the talent pool of hockey players that come out of Pittsburgh…only not on par with their overall numbers, of course.

Put it another way, it appears that Pittsburgh is way past the emerging hockey market problems. You don’t ever hear stories about people complaining about 5:00 AM available ice slots; only having 3-4 ice rinks available within an hour drive; or having generations of parents that never skated or played hockey and having to resort to being self-taught… or receive marginal hockey knowledge and coaching from guys that were only qualified because they were born in Canada or Maine.

You make a lot of really good points.  I also think Pittsburgh is a great place to live for hockey (youth and professional).  My issues are with the sport as a whole.  There aren't enough NCAA hockey teams.  Compare it to almost any other sport as mainstream as hockey.  Spots are very very limited.  That creates this terrible system where kids move away to pay to play juniors at 15-16 years old and don't start college til 22 or 23.  The whole thing is broken and a$$-backwards.  The amount of money, time and commitment are insane.  I also understand other sports are getting there as well.  It's still not the same though.  Jimmy from South Park playing football for his varsity team can still get recruited to play NCAA football way easier than little johnny and his aaa hockey team.  The whole thing has become a money making racket and a game where you are really just funding people above you in the food chain.  My remaining boy has no shot at all at an NCAA scholarship for hockey.  I'm guessing he will end up playing club hockey at a high level.  He is half the baseball player he is a hockey  player and based on recruiting to date will probably at least play division III baseball.  I find that insane.