Tri state spartans

[celly68]

anyone have any experience with this team playing for them? No practices during the week and 3 tournaments a month. 

[PUCKCOVID19]

sent pm

Edited April 23 by PUCKCOVID19
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[Carl Racki]

2 hours ago, celly68 said:

anyone have any experience with this team playing for them? No practices during the week and 3 tournaments a month. 

Sounds like a great way to waste money!

[Danner27]

9 minutes ago, Carl Racki said:

Sounds like a great way to waste money!

Puckcovid would know. 

[Saucey]

My kid played on a tournament only team. Not this one. Depends on the age and your goals. Some rural areas, a tournament team is the only way they can field a higher level team. 

[fafa fohi]

This may be a topic for a different thread, but I never really understood why a parent, whose kid did not make a local U16-18 AAA team would send him away to play AAA in another city or state for his junior year or even worse, his senior year in high school?  I mean, are the scouts all of a sudden going to notice this player whether they play for Team Maryland, Tri-State, Nashville Jr Preds or any team in Detroit but were not good enough to make a local AAA team?  You would think not making a local AAA team would be a sign not to be ignored?

I know of several kids that went through this and ended up being non-drafted players while missing their senior year in HS and taking cyber school.  Maybe it's me, I just don't get it.

[aaaahockey]

1 minute ago, fafa fohi said:

This may be a topic for a different thread, but I never really understood why a parent, whose kid did not make a local U16-18 AAA team would send him away to play AAA in another city or state for his junior year or even worse, his senior year in high school?  I mean, are the scouts all of a sudden going to notice this player whether they play for Team Maryland, Tri-State, Nashville Jr Preds or any team in Detroit but were not good enough to make a local AAA team?  You would think not making a local AAA team would be a sign not to be ignored?

I know of several kids that went through this and ended up being non-drafted players while missing their senior year in HS and taking cyber school.  Maybe it's me, I just don't get it.

Delusional parents who think the whole world is conspiring against them and that if they get out of Pittsburgh there will be some fresh eyes. 

[dazedandconfused]

1 hour ago, fafa fohi said:

You would think not making a local AAA team would be a sign not to be ignored?

 

1 hour ago, aaaahockey said:

and that if they get out of Pittsburgh there will be some fresh eyes

And there will be for sure. Fresh eyes willing to take their freshly minted cash.

[nemesis8679]

2 hours ago, fafa fohi said:

This may be a topic for a different thread, but I never really understood why a parent, whose kid did not make a local U16-18 AAA team would send him away to play AAA in another city or state for his junior year or even worse, his senior year in high school?  I mean, are the scouts all of a sudden going to notice this player whether they play for Team Maryland, Tri-State, Nashville Jr Preds or any team in Detroit but were not good enough to make a local AAA team?  You would think not making a local AAA team would be a sign not to be ignored?

I know of several kids that went through this and ended up being non-drafted players while missing their senior year in HS and taking cyber school.  Maybe it's me, I just don't get it.

But saying, "my kid is such a great hockey player, he's billeting in Ohio to play" sounds so much better at the water cooler.

[Rewster]

Yes and no. They’re springing up all over the country now. They’re part of TPH (Total Package Hockey). Philadelphia is starting (buying) one for this coming year. I draw parallels with the model that PPE uses. Only, they’re in a lot of places that are not traditional hockey markets. They simply don’t have much in the way of home grown talented hockey players to compile a AAA team. Places like: Cincinnati (Tri-State), Nashville, Des Moines, Atlanta, Ft Lauderdale, Estero/Ft Myers, Huntsville, Phoenix, Waterloo, etc. So, they tend to have to bring in players to fill out their rosters. If you’re a kid that loves hockey and is not going to get seen because you play in rural Iowa, and your parents have the dough to give you a shot that’s better than the local outdoor farm rink in-house league.

Pittsburgh is pretty spoiled by the proportionally high number of newer rinks/ice sheets and our proximity to some of the blue-bloods in Michigan, Western NY, and Ontario/Toronto. So, what happens is when non-traditional markets get enough money and support to build a new facility and then TPH moves in and does their thing to attract these kids and their money.  Which makes me think (and it’s a little off topic), there’s a lot of old, dark, moldy, smelly, and dingy barns the further north you go (especially in Michigan and Ontario). I’d much rather play out of a new, clean, bright building than some where like an inner city Detroit rink where they use chain link fence instead of glass.

Programs like Tri-State (and other TPH) attract players from hockey hotbeds as well because they can sell the facilities, along with their version of high-intensity on/off ice training, and their overall hockey-centric lifestyle. Some kids want that whole experience vs what Pittsburgh has to offer. If you think about it, there’s a shrinking number of AAA programs here with only 3(?) U18 organizations now. That’s a pretty limited number of positions. Most of those positions are already spoken for anyways. 

Don’t get me wrong, I would not do it.  I would have to make a ton load of money to even ever consider it for my son or daughter. But, I get what they’re trying to do.

[Rewster]

On 4/22/2024 at 7:44 PM, celly68 said:

anyone have any experience with this team playing for them? No practices during the week and 3 tournaments a month. 

What age group? 
As far as I know, at the 18U AAA level, there were 2 teams—Gold (Major or better team) and the Black (Minor or not as good team). I think that it was similar to PPE’s Gold and Black. The Gold team billets, lives there, and goes to school there. The Black (Minor) team would do a preseason training camp, then go out to tournaments/showcases, then reconvene on a weekend when no tournaments were scheduled, and do High Performance Weekend training for 2 days. They’d do that every month or so. It would consist of: Tournaments, High Performance Weekend of practice, tournaments…etc. Players lived at home and commuted for everything. As far as I know, that Black team folded.

The Gold (Major) team has players that live and stayed in/near Cincinnati. It’s the customary billeting, online schooling, some minimal commuting, and/or something similar where they have regular practices during the week, and games or tournaments on weekends.