Wes

You're going to compare a 16uAAA team to PIHL Varsity and PAHL 18uAA?? You must be one of the 134 people in the whole tri-state area that even knows the 16uAAA Pens won and how they play only 2 lines. Carry your logic forward. One non-school team won the 16uAAA NC using only 2 lines. the other 120 AAA teams LOST trying to win with 2-3 or 4 lines. What's your point? Yes, I would guess the Pens team was very good and they could get away with rolling mostly 2 lines (which the pros don't even do...). This same 16uAAA team can have players from around the world on it. Can varsity hockey teams have players from around the country (legally)? No Can PAHL teams have kids from anywhere on them? Yes So the probabilities would be that top AA teams would in general be more strong than top school teams, as they aren't confined by boundaries and can pull kids from multiple schools onto one team. School teams on the other hand have to be pretty fortunate if there are more than a few kids in the whole school that play AAA or AA hockey on one team. While we're at it how much does it make a difference if you have a few players that play AAA hockey but those teams are in the bottom 25% of AAA. Equate that to a line on a PIHL team with 3 kids from 16uAAA Esmark and 16uAAA Vengance both of whom were lower level AAA teams. What if you have 2-3 kids from a team like Armstrong AA (or other top AA teams) the last few years when they were really good and in the top 10% of AA? Non-school teams that can pull from anywhere SHOULD be higher ranked than most school teams. This is all pretty much a moot point. Since the school teams rarely, if ever play non-school teams we won't be able to gauge this anyway.

I disagree with that assessment. This isn't even one example as it was school vs. school. If you have an 18uAA team with a lot of depth, I think it can handle itself against a good school team. My experience in watching school teams is that you have a good core (maybe 5-7 kids) and the rest are probably below AA level players. Most of the school districts that I live near are that way. On the other hand if you have an AA club team with a lot of depth, the difference will easily be in the 3rd and 4th lines and the D men 5-8... And most importantly goaltending is super important and if your school doesn't have a stud to lead them good luck. So I will take the money and go with a GOOD club team versus any school team. I didn't say a bottom level AA team, I said a GOOD AA team. I just don't see most school teams being able to go a full game against teams with 4 lines unless they have a GREAT goalie. One sort of indicator will be in a few weeks as the NPitt 18uAA 1 team is rumored to be mostly all NA varsity and they will be playing their placements in the next 2 weeks against good deep teams (AHA and Preds).

For the West in the 16u division, 2 out of 3 games were very competitive and exciting. The West 16u lost 5-2 to South (outshot around 50-20), then they beat East in a wild 8-6 game, and then for the Silver medal they beat Central in a very exciting 4-2 win. The draw for the west was very difficult, as all 5 teams played South first, which were their first competitive games as a team, going up against half a AAA team at each level. I think things would have faired better had they played South on Sunday versus the first game Friday. I hope that the tourney will be moved because I feel that the location is for sure a homefield advantage for the South.

I will agree. I haven't been there in a year, but hopefully the bathrooms have been overhauled and the road into the whole complex has been fixed. All I remember is a literal minefield between Route 8 and the rink itself. Giant car swallowing pot holes... yikes.

@Bob Loblaw which NC team is playing in the UPMC Lemieux summer HS league?

@rock Please post the list or a link to the list thank you.

Our son who is an AA goalie was invited to the camp so there is at least one AA player there in the 2002 group.

I think I've heard more than one story about players getting cut right before Dec. 31 of the season. Thus putting the player in a really bad situation... that combined with the other shenanigans and you probably have enough reason to leave.

Allegheny. Lots of talent all around, was very surprised at the turnout. Didn't see that one coming. I did hear that the Vengeance isn't fielding an AAA 18u team, and it looks like some of the Esmark parents (and players) maybe finally had enough(???). So thus the pickup in # of tryouts...

The 18uAA tryouts that we went to, went well. The team was not "pre-picked..." but we pretty much could guess most of the players who would make the team based on how the 2 day tryout went. The big surprise was a lot of players from Esmark and Vengeance showed up. 19 players in total picked for the team, all 19 accepted. Only tried out one place. Easy on the pocket book this year LOL.

Give me a break. Yes, It's a true story that I relate about Kiski Prep. And yes, I stand by my story about knowing Connellsville kids as well. RE: Knowing kids from other teams. So over 10 years of hockey you don't figure kids meet other kids from all over on various PAHL, PIHL, spring, dek hockey, roller hockey, etc. teams??? Kids today have a very wide network of friends. So thus how we know players from all over Western PA and into WV, and even out in Altoona.

Not baiting you at all. Kiski's coach can ignore inquiries. That's fine with me.

@Eddie Shore Don't you find it a bit odd the head coach wouldn't even respond back to an inquiry? How would they know how good my player is (or if I wanted to give big $$$ (LOL)) without even responding back? In the past I've corresponded with other school's coaches and pretty much all got back to me quickly. Never had one school ignore me like the way Kiski did. I guess they have so much talent that they can ignore feelers. And yes, the coach @ SSA got back to me quickly a few years back when we talked with them.

We live relatively close to Kiski Prep and had inquired a few times (directly to the head coach via email) to see if they might be interested in our player, and never received a response to any of our inquiries. No idea how they get their players if they don't reply to inquiries.

However, if your player doesn't play High School hockey, you might not have heard about it!

@Hoomie There is/was at least one player from Connellsville school district on that team. (That player WILL NOT be named here). That player played for Ringgold instead of playing for Connellsville. So what you're saying is "a lie" as you would call it. Before you start blabbering about people lying you ought to look in the mirror first.

How exactly where these players selected? I read nothing about tryouts.

I'm not a big fan of Co-op teams either... I don't know the players on Burrell but I do know of some of them on Ringgold and I know some of their players come from other districts in the PIHL which have teams in the PIHL. How those players are allowed to play for a team other than their school district's team is questionable at the least. So in effect because of the way these "d2" teams are setup, you can wind up with all-star teams if a bunch of buddies bolt their local team and go to one of these teams and play together.

As the parent of two players, one of whom played AAA and high level AA hockey, we easily spent in excess of $8,000 a season between: Dues, hotels, food, gas, car maintenance, hockey gear, souvenirs, etc. Now that one of our players has moved on to college, that money for AAA and AA hockey is now going to pay tuition... Our other player has been doing AA most of their career and I'd say we spent easily $4k-$5k on the same expenses... so it has cost us a TON and our players probably aren't going to the NHL but they did have one heck of a good time playing hockey (so far). And we really enjoy watching them play.

Wampa1 whatever... thank you for your insightful post. Unfortunately, you're wrong about all your points. I could give a crap about the V teams or who plays on them. My player is very happy with the team he's on and he idoesn't need to pretend to be a faux AAA player either. Nice try and nice cheap shot.

It's all about what the parents (who write the checks) and kids (who mostly have this false notion about playing in the NHL) want to do. We know of multiple kids who were at A Major or A Minor levels who went to play for the Vengeance over the past few seasons. Many of these same kids would likely have problems making a solid ("Real") PAHL AA team. However, some of them still play AAA hockey and are 3rd liners. Keep saying it... it's all about that extra "A".

Thanks. The full scoresheet view was fantastic. Too bad, for whatever reason, the PAHL thinks they need to hide the scoresheet info. Why bother upgrading your site if you downgrade the information available? Dear PAHL: Why is it necessary to HIDE the scoresheets???

Leave it to the PAHL to screw up about the only "good" thing that they had on their crappy website. The online scoresheets were FANTASTIC. Now, we're back in the stone ages and we can't even see game-by-game scores for a given team. What a total joke. Why is this information "confidential"??? Ridiculous.

I didn't state it in my post -- however, my top two posts are applicable somewhat to 14u but mostly to 16u and 19u. The gates are usually wide open at the younger levels to collect lots of $$

AHA 294 (group 1) vs. ICE MINERS 338 (group 2), AHA 7-2 PREDS (group 2) 259 vs. ICE MINERS 338 (group 2), PREDS 3-0