aaaahockey

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?

Looks like TJ blew it

What's up with no parking at the rink?

0.01% maybe.

I don't disagree with you that's why I said the best kids will rise to the top. My point was more about the few number of players from our region who make it. And even many of the pens who do were brought in for u16.

If 2-4 players from every aaa team in pittsburgh except Pens elite (any birthyear) play free to play juniors or division 3 or 1 hockey I will salt my hat and eat it. Doesn't happen these days. If we are talking pay to play juniors whatever. I'd be absolutely shocked if it wasn't a couple pens elite, maybe 1-2 Esmark and 1-2 other kids across all the other programs.

The few kids who are that good will be found one way or another. And they aren't playing on the low level AAA teams around here with very few exceptions.

4 including one who played two sports. Not sure how that makes the preds legitimate or not but they are almost a bigger money grab than pens black.

I heard directly from a Preds parent that they were told high school hockey wasn't an option next year. Not sure if they were correct, telling the truth, etc (I don't even know the guy he was talking to my brother) but hopefully he's wrong that sounds insane. Maybe they changed their mind when parents got upset.

Yes I think something like St Margaret's would be good for this but the problem is coaches use that tourney to take a look at bubble JV/varsity players so it's hard to say they would even play their best. I'm not as familiar with all the high schools in lower levels but if they are coached like some of the PAHL teams they probably try to play lower to win.

In my opinion you could have swapped TJ and South Fayette with the bottom two in AAA and made the conference stronger and made AA more competitive as well. I think they would have ended in the bottom 4 for sure but were better than at least the two bottom in AAA. I'm not sure about next year depending on the graduating seniors.