Carl Racki

There is some solid men's league games most Saturdays as well.

That is why a lot of the 2006 group left and 2007 group left.

I would guess PAHL. I would hope not AHF since they are not a BB rink

Honestly once you hit 2nd year Bantam teams are always a mess through Midget. Kids jumping around, teams disappearing, ..... Its just hockey. I could give you many examples from 2006-2010.

I disagree, play pickle ball

Is that an actually to be paid as a salary for the coach or is that like a team fund which also usually pays for travel expenses like hotels, food, gas,...

Some kids do not go to North Catholic but I believe all of them do Excell once they are in 9th grade. Pretty sure

Agree, lots of top players that could make the Pens roster that are from Pittsburgh choose to not play there for different reasons. Some because they don't want to spend the money on Excel, North Catholic,.... Not sure what the total cost would be for a year with everything including travel costs but would guess around $30,000. It is a great program with good coaches but costs a lot of money. Look at their 2007 birth year team. They lost a lot of their top players for that reason. Not bottom players. They are still a great team. If you take away the top 3-5 players there is not much difference between the rest and top AA players. I have seen this for years. Believe me. Mommy's and Daddy's that are spending lots of money don't want to believe that though. It is a great program but does cost a lot of money. If you could get the next best group of 15-17 kids in Western PA all on the same team I think they would usually be competitive with great coaching. The problem is it is tough to find parents of all the top players that are crazy enough to drive past 5 rinks to build a team like that. Most people that crazy are willing to remortgage their house to play Pens, Prep,.... Some teams have done it. 2006 SHAHA team, 2008 Vengeance team.

I think the lower level travel teams are great as long as the play PAHL and only do 2-3 tournaments that are 2-5 hours max away. Then maybe one to two local tournaments. The kids really enjoy doing those trips and it is great bonding for the players and families. No reason to take that experience away from the kids. It's not like they are charging $7000 plus team fees and selling a bs product like some other programs. As long as people truly know what they are getting and enjoy it I think it is great. It is when orgs. try to make people believe it is a "PATH" to the NHL or D1 college yet they send very few players to play tier one or tier two juniors, (I don't count tier 3 pay to play as there are over 100 teams and literally anyone can play) that is a far bigger problem. I think players of the lower level travel teams all just enjoy playing the game. I don't think anyone is telling them it is a path to anywhere and do all these extras/spend more money. They just enjoy the game and the families they play with. I think that is great.

That's hilarious. No, its not like AAA amateur hockey but the depth of the top ten players on the top teams in AAA or AA would smoke the top 10 from teams in the d division or A. The AAA schools just have a lot more hockey players to choose from giving them more depth most seasons. There may be some rare instances where that would not be the case but I think they would be rare.

You are correct it was pretty bad in the late 90's through the early 2000's as they would only place teams by school size. I asked for years about changing that. If I remember correctly, they finally allowed teams to move to the open division if they couldn't compete in their current one. That led to a bunch of teams in the open division. They do a much better job now getting teams in a division that they can compete in. It will never be perfect but it is a Ton better

Tier 2 is a joke in my opinion. Missing most of the top teams , teams get in because they are hosts,.....Their is better competition at a lot of the bigger tournaments throughout the season than tier 2 nationals.

It's funny, you are mostly spot on in my opinion. I also thought it was a shame the Preds and SHAHA wouldn't combine and make a legit top team IF WELL COACHED. I can't believe guys would drive across town again to pay a ton of money to play for the 2009 Esmark team. I thought the reason everyone left was they finally figured out that the 2009 Esmark team was no better than SHAHA , PREDS,..... and why the hell are we driving/paying all this money? My guess is it will just be a long drive and a lor of money for a similar team. Makes no sense.

That 14u Icemen team had a great run. They went 20 games straight without a loss before that loosing to the Renegades in Mid Ams. They beating a team 6-3 that was ranked in the 50's AAA the weekend before Mid Ams. A couple weeks before that the beat the Badgers 7-0. They won their first Mid AM game 11-0 against Mt Lebo and the 2nd 5-0 against North Pitt who lost to the Badgers in the PAHL championship game. That's just how it goes sometimes when it is just one game. The 2009 Pens lost to a team ranked in the 60's earlier in the season. It happens. Unfortunately, it ended the run. Would playing in PAHL been better for them? I don't think looking at those scores. Driving to NJ to play AHF probably didn't make the most sense either though as it is similar ranked competition. Playing an independent schedule probably would have made the most sense but it is tuff for the tweener teams to get games sometimes. Preds, Vengeance, SHAHA, and Icemen should have been playing each other but teams are to worried about the ranking. It's a shame.

See this is the problem with hockey. "Theoretically" a lot of people may not want to pay for or have the funds to pay for Excel, Pens, and North Catholic as you would probably pay about $30,000+ for the season. Some people may not want to run their kids 50 minutes both directions to play for Pens. Your top 5-6 players and maybe goalies at Pens are possibly at another level but after that most of the other players are interchangeable with the top players from the other high level local teams. That's why it shouldn't be a free ride for certain organizations and they need to attempt to be as fair as possible. I think Mid Am does a pretty good job. It will never be perfect and there is always room for improvement.

The problem is stats for PIHL, AHF, and other leagues/tournaments are so far off all the time. Shot stats are wrong, goals , assists points, shg ppg, ,..... Kids get mad, parents get mad, leagues here about it. Until they actually make a real attempt to get them correct, why bother. PIHL parents constantly complain.

A decent Men's league team smoked them in a scrimmage at UPMC I believe before their big signing.

Honestly, If the guys playing are enjoying it why not. Let them have their fun. It's funny, there is a pro dek hockey league I never knew about until recently. It's great guys are still playing and having fun. I wouldn't want to be the person funding it though.

Been saying that for years. Would be a great league of 6-8 teams. Because of egos I don't think it would ever happen. They are all pretty close. Call it the PHF (Pittsburgh Hockey Federation). It will never happen.

They should have just played AA. Not sure why teams just won't do that. You have some tweener teams that would dominate AA so they are damned if they do damned if they don't. If those teams list AAA that's fine. If you are not a top AA team then just list AA and forget the AAA. Compete for something and have a good time.

Overqualified should change his name to uneducated. I can't imagine Baierl doesn't make money.

Baierl has come light years from where it was. I am extremely thankful that Jim turned it around and made it a great place to play. You must have an ax to grind or are a moron. I am guessing both.

Again, the biggest problem with PAHL is all the bogus AAA wanna be teams that left. If they could get all those teams back you would have an excellent AA league. Maybe if they did all the PR that the AHF did it would help but I highly doubt it. That league is not much better. Their best beat would be to label it as a new AAA and then they would MAYBE get all the faux AAA teams back and have a good league.

Rankings don't mean much until mid December in my opinion. By the end of December there usually isn't big changes but week 1 through then will have a lot of big changes. Just not enough data the first few weeks.

There are numerous as I have friends who tell me their school has been on the wait list. Not sure why they just don't make it bigger. I know, I know ice but if people want in and are willing to pay I can't believe they don't find a way. Wouldn't be that hard.