Wes

As a longtime former team manager at the AA level, that does seem very odd... I've never heard of that extreme amount of declines, ever. I think perhaps 1 or 2, but usually at the AA level I've rarely seen more than a very few declines. From the teams I worked with the acceptance rate was easily over 90% most of the time, which meant maybe 1-2 would decline if that out of a team of 20. All in all, it is a real shame for the SPR org that this all fell apart and they will need to do some analysis as to what went wrong. As a side note, the org that we were most tied to over the years for my son (a 2002 goalie), always had outside evaluators come and evaluate the players. I always felt that was the one org who truly picked teams on a relatively fair basis from what I could see. Players weren't permitted to wear the gear of the org while trying out and the evaluators only saw the tryout numbers on their jerseys. This way it was as "unbiased" as possible, if that is fully possible. Of course I would always very closely watch the goalie tryouts and even though some years there would be 10-13 goalies tryout for a certain age level, it was fairly easy to rank the goalies from the top down. I had no stake in the player choices, but I nearly always was right on the top goalies each year and most of the time my personal rankings would spot on match what the outside evaluators picked for each team.

@bb2j3z Who did the player evaluations at SPR tryouts for the upper teams? Org staff or outside people?

How do teams get selected to go to high school nationals? What's the criteria?

That place can't even handle a standard tournament in terms of parking even with the small parking addition they did in the rear. And to top it off there is literally nowhere nearby that people can park and walk. That not a venue that I would have chosen for Nationals.

Was a total waste of time for us, going for 2 days to Ohio. AA Son (goalie) was selected who was the top 18uAA goalie at that org at the time out of ~12 goalies at that level. Had the 2nd best save % during all the preliminary events (I tracked all their shots/saves the whole weekend as I was bored and I was a former goalie dad LOL). Wasn't even picked as one of the top 4 goalies to go the final game for the final choices. Conversely one of the 2 goalies picked was the "tall goalie" from PPE who now I think plays in Erie. He put in very little effort at the tryouts and frankly stunk but was picked to go on. The only possible way this could happen is that this kid knew he was advancing and didn't give a crap of an effort. Both of us agreed it was all pre-picked and a total waste of a hotel and the time spent that weekend. He got a nice goalie jersey to wear out of it. Wore a few times and into the closet with all the other 50 camp jerseys. So glad we're beyond that!

I'd prefer a change back to when the best candidate for the job was hired, with no regard given to color/race/etc. But I am probably going to get blasted for saying that. I think the best person should always get the job or we are promoting mediocrity in the name of "equality". How is an employer supposed to force various groups to apply, especially if they aren't qualified or less qualified? Let the slappage begin.

That rule (only 3 out of towners) bit the dust around 2015-2016. All of a sudden the PPE girls teams started being >66% out of town girls, and routinely only around 5-7 in total would be at practices. My daughter got a TON out of those workout practices (couldn't do any teamwork stuff), but it was a joke. Girls would fly in to wherever that weekend's tourney was, and would play only those games together. Little cohesiveness as a unit and not much bonding as they were never together more than a few hours. My daughter switched to D2 AA hockey and had WAY MORE fun and made much more progress than on the PPE. On PPE she was 4th line. On AA she was first line, PP, and PK and got recruited to play college hockey. So, no I don't feel like PPE does much of anything for local kids.

As soon as the schedule was released as a former team mgr I'd be on the phone immediately. What a waste.

Not sure what levels you had problems with Homer Refs at Center Ice. My son played there and I pretty much felt we always got reverse homered in our own rink. (this was at 14aa, 16aa and 18aa)... By far the worst rinks in terms of homering were Indiana and Armstrong from ~2014-2020.

Correct, they were just a little late to the expansion game, and too bad for that. Hated to lose a decent double sheet of ice. That rink had a lot possibility with a little TLC by the owners.

Good question. In all my years as a team manager I've never heard of a Team PA.

5+ years ago I wanted to try and get a registrar position with Mid-Am. I asked around in the PAHL and they told me contact Mid-Am. I emailed a few people at Mid-Am office. Crickets. Zero reply. I then asked a local person who was a board member, how do I apply to be a mid-am registrar? Crickets. I gave up. Which is what they want anyone interested in helping with MA to do. Go away.

When a person is so intertwined into things (DF), it usually isn't a good thing. As one can easily see, the nepotism runs deep in the world of hockey. I don't care for his work with CHE and yet he's now going to run PAHL too... glad I no longer have kids in that org. It was bad enough under Darcee.

This incident of the coach throwing the stick and gloves reminds me of an incident in 18uAA last year at PIA, where the Preds and Huskies teams got in quite a heated game, culminated by cheap shots by the Preds onto a Huskies player (hit to the head/boarding) which resulted in a shoving match. (Read below) The HC of the Huskies stood up on the bench and was holding a water bottle, and did not do anything other than yell at the officials that they aren't calling the cheap shots. Huskies HC - who was not penalized during the game - gets a hearing with the league (Which I attended as the team manager), and they accused him of improper behavior for "thinking about" throwing a water bottle. Remember - thought police! In the meeting were PAHL staff from Armstrong and Indiana, and those personnel - who either coached and/or had players on competing 18uAA teams - threw the book at our coach and suspended him for 10 games. He didn't throw the bottle!!! We were VERY unhappy that personnel from teams we were in a battle with in the division wouldn't recuse themselves. They didn't and they screwed our team over. I questioned the PAHL personnel during the meeting about their rules and how they can find someone guilty of "naughty thoughts". PAHL= deer in the headlights look to me. Couldn't answer me. So fast forward to this coach throwing a stick and gloves on the ice. If we go on the basis of what happened to the Huskies HC, this coach should at minimum be gone for the year, if not permanent. My guess is he won't be hit hard due to his position with PIHO. Buddy-buddy at it's finest.

https://www.pihoref.com/management

RE: the hit. At that young age unfortunately this happens quite often. large range of kid sizes and it was an unfortunate hit. RE: The dummy on the bench. Clearly needs to be removed from being coach and being the officiating director. That was horrible.

IMHO the RMU D1 programs folded due to the former President of the college. Not due to lack of interest.

a few years ago when my son played 18uAA both teams would usually be in the 10-16 min range of penalties. FPP were often the diff between making the playoffs and not. Just glad we're not in that muck anymore.

PAHL is still doing FPP?? What garbage. Esp. at 18uAA with the longer games. Almost impossible to stay under the limit. Glad the kids aren't in those ages anymore LOL

EXACTLY. At times it is SO MOIST on the floor around the rink it seems like it rained in there. I've never seen that anywhere else but dehumidifiers being off would be an issue for sure.

The bar kitchen still vents (blows) into the rink, so if you sit on the side of the building closest to those vents it stinks like Oil from the chicken wing fryer ? Lots to fix there. Additionally the rink is very humid at times... poor HVAC implementation.

Wifi installed but still not for public access. Livebarn signage on premises but wasn't installed as of ~2 weeks ago. Didn't know they got a new zamboni, and I will have to look at the lights next time I'm there. there were also a bunch of younger guys there cleaning and maintaining the public areas, which is another new thing...

RE: Throw them in a dumpster. That is a tremendous shame if that is truly what happened. Why wouldn't they have rolled them up and given them back to AHA and let AHA give them to the coaches/managers/players who wanted them? Seems like a huge waste of history to toss them. Ridiculous if this is true.

They have multiple internet connections there but Jim refuses to let the public use them, because he has no idea how to properly configure his network. I had previously offered to handle this for free but was rebuffed. Livebarn installs their own internet dedicated connection and doesn't use ones already at the rink. I am hopeful that free wifi will come soon after. The aluminum/steel structure kills cell phone access into the building and you almost have to go outside to get cell phone service.

First bit of news in the Rostraver/BB era, livebarn will be installed (finally).