Wes

If the West (or Central, for that matter) is going to ever be able to compete with the South (philly), they need to pick a team right after Midams, practice and do at least 1 summer tourney before playing at KSG. The South continually has high level players in the boys' brackets, and practically no AAA players play for West or Central, thus making it a difficult task right out of the gate. I enjoy the KSG concept but it needs refinement - especially a playoff game. 3 games is too little.

Sorry @Lifelongbender I had to blow off some steam LOL.

So how's the new owners working out at these rinks? How have the ice rates changed? (I have no stake in this, just curious!)

The mythology of masks (and this "vaccine") is ridiculous. Our entire family got COVID back in January 2020. None of us got the Vaccine this year, nor do we plan to do so. However, the government is pushing this MYTH that you must get the prick even if you have had COVID. No thank you. I won't patronize anywhere that forces me to show proof of vax, when I already have the God Given antibodies in me. If you're that damn concerned about catching coof, don't go out in public. Masks AREN'T going to help unless you are practically wearing a mustard-gas preventing gas mask. So glad I no longer have kids in youth hockey. This is all BS.

I was really pulling for the 19s but they lost to a team they had beat in the round Robins…

That their own website doesn't have this info, and you have to go to Elite Prospects says it all. Glad you're making excuses for PPE.

Show me where their hometowns are listed. They aren't and there's a reason for that. My feelings aren't hurt. My daughter got the same opportunities in college as most of her former PPE teammates, so I am not shedding any tears, smarty-pants.

agree fully, but I think Esmark usually has more local kids on their rosters each year.

To an extent, PPE is a joke because they import kids from out of the area. Several years ago there was supposed to be a rule where they would only have a few out of town kids, but that rule went out the window when winning became the sole objective. So in my mind they really don't do a whole lot for true "local" kids. I know a number of local kids who went to Cleveland, Maryland, Culver and played there rather than PPE. One of our kids lost their spot on PPE when they turned down playing for SSA (because we couldn't afford $25k for high school). All the kids who played (female) SSA also never got cut from PPE. There's a reason why they make the rosters hard to find for PPE and never have any BIOs for the kids, it's because most of the kids nowadays are from out of Western PA.

At that age play as much as possible. Playing with the boys up through 14’s is what made my daughter a good player.

I always liked for the tryouts to be soon after the league playoffs (PAHL, etc.), rather than in the middle of May, June, etc. The kids are fully ready for a tryout right after the season, instead of throwing on skates for the first time in weeks then going for a tryout. We're all done with youth hockey so I don't have to deal with this anymore LOL.

Congrats to Baldwin

The online schedule/stats wasn't online so I couldn't find them either...

I could go on and on about this topic, but I don't want to write a book about this (yet). PPE has it's favorites and frankly you're either a favorite of them or they drop you like a lead balloon. It doesn't always have to do with talent either. A lot is who they can pull from other AAA teams. A while back an Ohio AAA team folded and they "invited" their star players to come to PPE tryouts and then promptly cut several local girls in lieu of out of towners. This was during a time period where they said their rules were only X number of players could be from out of town. When in fact 66% of the team was 1-10 hour drive away. So the PPE name is more a moniker as they don't really do a lot to support or grow local kids, as they'd just as soon grab the best player from Detroit over a Pittsburgh kid. They also love parents who have deep pockets or financial pull (pilots, real estate office owners, CEO's), as those kids seem to make teams year after year while kids to "average parents" don't stick around (unless you are a total stud).

^^^ this 100%