aaaahockey

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.

PAHL or AHF?

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.

08 I have not seen much movement

Well public schools aren't much better at that.

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

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 😜

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

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?

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

Btw for whatever glitchy reason the forum is quoting that as being me saying TJ was the best to represent the west but it was not if you scroll up.

Dunno if a "hot goalie" let's in five plus poster above said they looked suspect. Maybe TJ goalie or defense wasn't so hot but I don't think it was a hot goalie judging by the score. How many shots did Pennridge have?