Corsi

The $40k number I have does not include travel for PPE. I have some friends that still have kids in the sport (16U and 18U) and they have shared that the expectation is that "AAA" with an academy, billet, coaches, and travel fees you should expect $30k on the low end and $50k+ on the high end. Most of that depends on the academy cost. They also mentioned that some organizations now include "travel" as an upfront cost. They said that the team books all travel (bus, airfare, hotel) for the players and then you are refunded what is left following the season. As far as Pittsburgh goes, PPE is the only program with an academy. Within MidAm, Blue Jackets and Barons have both billet programs and are associated in some way with an academy.

Pure Hockey in Canonsburg... Some of the best staff in the area.

I have been told that is in upwards of $40k...

This is 100% correct, especially if you are in home school district that is very strong academically.

Speaking of 16U, does anyone know why 16U is the only PPE team that doesn't have a roster posted for the 25-26 season yet?

Team officials (coaches, team managers, association officials, etc) submit a list of "nominated players" to MidAm. The deadline is usually at some point in January. After that a group from MidAm reviews the nominations and comes up with a list of players who are then offered spots at an evaluation camp (tryout) in May. In the past they have stressed the point that teams with higher rankings in MyHockey will receive more spots in the camp. Traditionally the vast majority of spots have gone to players on Tier 1 teams with a handful of Tier 2 players sprinkled in. I didn't do a deep dive, but I believe this year at the 2009 camp there weren't any Tier 2 players invited or in attendance.

There are far more players in travel programs between ages 14-19 (approximate ages to play varsity) than there are in HS programs. The player pool gives the travel programs an advantage over the PIHL teams.

MyHockey has 5 "AAA" teams listed at Tier 1 for Illinois at 15O & 16U for last season. 5/5 are in or near Chicago.

I wouldn't say "Not a soul...", remember, you always have the players that are handpicked by the coach, as well as the multitude of out of town players that have been brought in, as well as the players with the parents that have the largest checkbook... but beyond those groups, "Not a soul..." is correct.

There has always been a level of bias at Mid-Am and most of it has been based off of what organization has the influence in a given year. By having the influence it allows you to get more of your team's players to be selected. This is also something that organizations use as a selling point to get players to switch teams (or at least it has in the past). It has been stated on here over and over that Mid-Am is a "old boys club", and it truly is when it comes to the camp selection process. I also understand that it makes sense that the highest ranked teams should get the higher percentage of players selected, that makes sense, but having entire teams invited or moved on through the process is where you really see the politics of it.

The interesting part of this whole conversation is that I would guess that there are hockey people having this exact conversation in other cities all over the US. Has anyone ever asked why players went from a PAHL team to a "AAA" team? Please also remember that unless you want to advocate for a governing body putting geographic restrictions on what team a player MUST play for, you are going to end up with groups of players and their parents banding together to form teams. I feel like this is just "shouting at clouds" at this point, the genie is out of the bottle.

I have been involved with youth hockey at all levels over the past 35+ years and the 1st thing I would stress is the players age vs. the expectations of both the parents and the coaches. I am going to ask what do the coach's practices look like? Are the staff practicing things like a PP/PK system, regrouping, forechecks, or are they practicing skills via "small area games"? I know that at such a young age the players need to develop skills, which will help with the concern about the passing ability. Kids at that age are going to get better practicing, not by playing games.

Beyond the financial considerations with paying to play for a "higher ranked team", we also need to consider the age and maturity level of the players we are talking about. Those players are somewhere in the 9th to 11th grade range right now (2008 and 2009 BYs). Even if families are able to afford to pay to have a player play for one of the teams, the other question is if the player is mature enough to move away from home to live with billet family and also what are the academic options open to them if they were to move to play for one of those teams.

What you are saying in the highlighted quote is not accurate. For every player that is on a "top 25 ranked AAA team" there are probably a minimum of 2 players on each team ranked 26-75 that could play on one of those top 25 teams. From a Pittsburgh perspective, if you are not playing for Pens at "08" or Pens or Preds at "09", just pack it in, right? I'd like to site Florida Alliance North 2009s, currently ranked 29th, have a player that has consistently been ranked as one of the top 5 2009 players in the US for the past few years. Would someone please notify that player and his family that he's just "playing for fun" and they should hope that he's one of those "VERY few exceptions". Rankings are great when pulling a season schedule or putting together tournaments but to make a broad statement like was made above fails to address the roster makeup of teams outside of that range.

My feeling that is less that players from Russia and other Eastern European countries are being "recruited" and more that they are in the US and probably Canada for reasons that are much more geopolitically related and less directly youth hockey related.