Carl Racki

AMEN, READ MY FIRST POSTS ON THIS THREAD AND YOU WILL SEE. LOOK AT THE 07MID AM tier 2 AA SCORES THIS WEEKEND AND YOU WILL SEE AT LEAST 6-7 COMPETITIVE TEAMS AND IF THEY ALL PLAYED PAHL YOU WOULD HAVE A GREAT LEAGUE!! NOPE WE HAVE TO TRAVEL ALL OVER THE COUNTRY TO PLAY SIMILAR TEAMS AND TELL EVERYONE WE ARE BETTER THAN PAHL AA OR WE ARE AAA. The 2007 AAA Vengeance unfortunately registered as AAA or they could have played in the Mid Am tier 2 AA this weekend and you would see they are middle of the pack of the AA group. Check the rankings. Maybe slightly higher. I said I wouldn't answer this again. Sorry

No, they are a great team and have done a really good job. They haven't gone independent so far and yet more successful the all the other independent teams. I don't think anyone on here is saying they aren't a great team. I just think it is silly to keep adding teams to the independent ranks. So far I think they have done it the right way. This thread was about them needing to go independent. Definitely a great team.

No the 2010 Aviators may have been partially been created for that reason. I just know a couple people on that team made the comment about being AAA team last year, to good for AA, and needing to go independent. The Aviators should have played A pee wee major black like most of the other 2010 BY teams. They are young and learning I guess. The 2007 Huskies exist for that reason. Great people that wanted to stay together but Butler Valley wouldn't let them do a BY team so they went to Huskies and it has worked out well for them.

Believe me all of those PAHL and independent teams I mentioned will not be getting ANY meaningful exposure for kids to go anywhere no matter what league they play in. They all travel a lot now. Pretty much every AA PAHL team travels 4-6 times a year. Once you go independent it is more. No one is out scouting teams ranked 70+. Believe me. Thinking a Tier 2 (AA) hockey team is getting scouted is laughable no matter what the league is. It is another money grab. Maybe play to play places scout those but even doubt that. They usually try to get the bottom half of the higher level AAA teams.

I am hoping never. It just means more travel for no reason to play similar teams from further away. Costs players a lot more and for what???

The problem is the parents. Some want to brag about their kid on his AAA team. Others just don't know any better and think it is AAA team as that is what the coaches or organization try to sell them on. They think it is a higher level. Again, these teams may even have some AAA players but not enough for a team. It is ego driven. PAHL takes the remaining best 8 teams. When you have 7 independent teams the remaining teams in that PAHL AA division will be crap. They are actually an A major black division. Look at the 2010 Aviators as an example. I believe a lot of them played on the North Pitt AA squirt team last year. A few people on that team told me how they dominated PAHL and we're a AAA team. I thought wow that's pretty good let me check MHR. I believe they finished 3rd in that PAHL division and did not win the championship in squirt AA. This year they are the 2010 Aviators and went independent. They played peewee AA and got beat up. I also believe SHAHA and the Preds are already independent at the 2010 BY. Same ridiculous trend different birth year. I have tried to explain it over the years to people/parents with young players. Usually I am just wasting my breath. I have already beat this to death. Sorry

I don't care what they did two years ago or in mite. The topic was about the Badgers moving independent next year. I think it is dumb to have a pile of independent teams that travel all over the country and don't play each other. Again go off of the 7 of the 20 games they played that I listed. I think the may have played South point Close on a game or two as well. Close good competition. No one cares about the blow out numbers the playing against the bottom three or four teams. They would be gone. You have 7 teams that could all compete closely in 07 PAHL AA. Again it would be SHAHA, Badgers, Foxes, Vengeance, Icemen, Huskies, Preds and then yes the last one would struggle. I guess the Foxes and Allegheny should definitely go independent also and then we will have 5 independent AA teams and two AAA teams in western Pa. Wait I mean 7 AAA teams in western Pa.

I guess the 2007 Foxes, Huskies, and Preds should go independent with Allegheny. Then we will have the 07 SHAHA, Allegheny, Vengeance, Foxes, Icemen , Huskies , and Preds all independent. They can travel all over the country and never play each other because obviously they are all to good to play in a league together and are now AAA. Makes sense. That's the Pittsburgh hockey way!

Five or six goals. Here are there games from the Allegheny scores from the PAHL site. Foxes 5-5, Huskies 4-1, Foxes 1-4, Huskies 3-1, North Pitt 5-5, Foxes 3-2, Preds in semi 3-1, Foxes in Championship 2-1. That's eight really close games. PAY ATTENTION:. Yes, the Badgers, Foxes, SHAHA, Huskies , and Preds will all pretty much beat up on the bottom 3-4 teams. If you bring the WANNA BE AAA independent teams into PAHL (SHAHA, Icemen, and Vengeance all ranked below Allegheny and some below several of the PAHL teams) and get rid of the bottom three teams it would be very good competition for all of them!!!! 8 of the Badgers PAHL games where either ties, a lose, or within three goals. Even the two or three goal games I don't know how many involved an empty net. Certainly wouldn't say they would be above playing in that group. Again, a lot of those teams may have some AAA players but not a whole roster or the depth. No need to play independent. But hey, go independent and tell all your friends about your AAA team. Hell, play really high ranked teams and just hang on for dear life. Stay higher in the ranking and talk about how much better you are because of your ranking. Plus add lots of stupid unnecessary travel!!!

I hope they just play PAHL. The whole independent thing is a JOKE. I know the 2007 group well. The 2007 Badgers, Foxes, Huskies and Preds we're all pretty competitive. One goal games with maybe an empty net goal to make it two. Then in the 2007 group you have the independent Icemen, SHAHA, and Vengeance who would all be middle of the pack of PAHL 07 AA group and good competition for Badgers, Foxes, Huskies and Preds. AGAIN I BELIEVE THE 07 ICEMEN AND VENGEANCE WOULD BE MIDDLE OF THE PACK WITH SHAHA WOULD COMPETE FOR THE TOP THREE SPOT. All those teams would play each other competitively. That is 7 teams!!! Keep the next best team from the current group and loose the bottom three and it would have been a GREAT Bantam AA league. Nope can't do that we are to good for AA so we will play independent. SO STUPID. Stop the madness. Then for more and different competition play four or five high level tournaments with top AA and lower AAA teams to see how they compare. To many egos. Sure a lot of those AA teams have some players that can play at the AAA level but not a team full or enough depth. The 2007 PPE obviously need to play independent and travel for the competition. The 2007 Esmark team MAYBE. That's it. Other birth years are similar. Stop the madness!!!

Yes, it is ridiculous and sad. USA hockey CLAIMS they want to grow the sport but they just keep making an already expensive sport more expensive. Cost is what kills ice hockey. I know lots of dek hockey players and roller hockey players that would love to play ice hockey but can not because they can not afford it or parents do not want to spend the money. This will help. Having trouble getting refs, why not tack on a $90 fee for them to register plus the jersey, pants, pads, whistle , background check fees,.....

No, the rinks that care handle it. The ones that don't let things get ugly. Isn't there security at highschool football games? Highschool basketball games? Who do they hire. I am done with the conversation. You are impossible. The answer is right infront of you but people have to care and hire/fire people. Blah blah blah

Its not very hard. They just have to care. Baierl has them. Maybe see where they get theirs. Maybe fire ones that do nothing. If they want to pay me enough money I will find them for them.

I can assure you, I could EASILY keep things like this from happening if I was the one security personnel at the rink watching over a single game. You can hear it/see it coming. You just have to take care of it before it escalates to far.

Some do, some don't. I have been at games at Baierl and the security there is proactive. Sometimes it takes a few incidents like these for the rink owners to wake up. Sometimes it is a lawsuit.

Hire CAPABLE security that takes care of the issue BEFORE it gets out of hand. It's not that hard. Not a wanna be security person that is just there to hang out and collect a paycheck. It could have been EASILY avoided with a good security person in the stands. Plus add tough punishments for the people who start these issues.

Has to be security. So if another adult jumped in it would just be one more person fighting. Think about it, It's like in a hockey game when a fight breaks out between two players. Next another player gets involved to try to stop and it just escalates into a large brawl. In that example the ref/linesmen have to stop it not the players. Same reason you need security to stop it or it will just escalate. These people are clearly not reasonable.

I believe the rinks are supposed to have security at PIHL games. If not they should. I would rather pay for security at the game and let the home team run the clock vs no security and pay a pihl rep to run the clock. The rest of your rants sound very unintelligent. Be reasonable. The solution is pretty simple. You are very unreasonable.

Again, where is security during this????? I thought PIHL games had to have security. Same issue at the Mars Vs Armstrong game. Either no security or did they do anything?

Jack Handy, like I said by Varsity it should be earned. I have coached for many years. It is rare on the higher level teams that you have players that do not try to compete. Again, JV and Middle School should be mostly equal time with maybe a power play line here and there and maybe put out your best players for some extra time in the last few minutes in a tight game. They are still learning, developing, and hopefully gaining confidence. That won't happen sitting on the bench and skating around cones. Just my opinion. Should squirts not get close to equal playing time, pee wee, ... What age? Or do you think mites should have to earn their playing time and sit the kids that don't?

As a guy that has played, coached and currently has kids playing it is my opinion that it should be mostly equal playing time at the JV level. Maybe the last few minutes in a tight game go for it or a power play/ pk near the end. For the most part it should be equal ice time with a few bones thrown in for motivation. The coaches job is to develop and push the players to the maximum potential. Also, any more than three lines at the highschool level doesn't make sense. Three lines is plenty. You can always call up if you are short players. Varsity should be earned time but again a good coach will be able to develop HARDWORKING players and playing time should about even out. The better players get more ice time in tight games and a little less in the blowout games. It's not highschool football. People are paying $2000+ to play. That being said, my kids MS team runs a power play and pk sometimes. It is earned. I would personally roll lines except for the playoffs maybe but they don't. It is usually the older players on the pp so it evens out over the years.

Sounds like you should start officiating. I will bet you never have. It is not as easy as it looks.

The problem is PAHL teams get tired of playing the teams in AA that don't belong. If all the wanna be AAA and independent teams just played AA PAHL and you lose the bottom couple teams PAHL would be a lot more competitive.

They should hold the Penguins cup at PPG. Even with the arena mostly empty I guarantee most kids would rather play there. When it is held at the UPMC rink there is no parking and no where to sit. Pittsburgh sports fans only tend to be fans when teams do well. Watch what will happen to the Steelers once they go further into the toilet. Tickets become easy to come by. The other thing to remember when comparing football and hockey is the Pens play 40 plus regular season home games while the Steelers play 8.

I am not asking for schools to foot the entire bill. I would like to see them allocate a similar amount of money to hockey that they give to the other school sports. I believe they pay for coaches, travel, uniforms,....