24-25 PIHL Divisions

[Icebucket]

Looks like PIHL posted the divisions for next season. Lots of movement between AAA and AA.  3 teams move up, 3 teams move down. 1 team moves down from AA to A.

I know the divisions in A were a big topic last season. This year it doesn't seem to be split by location or upper/lower. Anyone know how it's split?

Overall thoughts on the movement?

[aaaahockey]

52 minutes ago, Icebucket said:

Looks like PIHL posted the divisions for next season. Lots of movement between AAA and AA.  3 teams move up, 3 teams move down. 1 team moves down from AA to A.

I know the divisions in A were a big topic last season. This year it doesn't seem to be split by location or upper/lower. Anyone know how it's split?

Overall thoughts on the movement?

I would say about time South Fayette and TJ move up to AAA.  Probably should have happened a couple years ago. 

[aaaahockey]

54 minutes ago, Icebucket said:

Looks like PIHL posted the divisions for next season. Lots of movement between AAA and AA.  3 teams move up, 3 teams move down. 1 team moves down from AA to A.

I know the divisions in A were a big topic last season. This year it doesn't seem to be split by location or upper/lower. Anyone know how it's split?

Overall thoughts on the movement?

Will add to that Central Catholic moving up confuses me a bit unless they added a lot of new players. The teams that moved down to AA were bottom dwellers and needed to move.  Overall very good. 

[Hockey22]

12 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

Will add to that Central Catholic moving up confuses me a bit unless they added a lot of new players. The teams that moved down to AA were bottom dwellers and needed to move.  Overall very good. 

????  Moving up? They have been in AAA. Where did they move up to?

[zam]

Can anybody explain to me how a 5 win Erie McDowell team moves up to AA?

Don't tell me "Competitive Formula" or 3rd highest enrollment in the PIHL. Did anybody use their brain on this one??

They had a total of 5 wins against the 3 worst teams in the division, smoked by everyone else, graduate 7 seniors.

What am I missing?

[Icebucket]

37 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

Will add to that Central Catholic moving up confuses me a bit unless they added a lot of new players. The teams that moved down to AA were bottom dwellers and needed to move.  Overall very good. 

The 3rd team who got bumped up is Franklin Regional. Going to be a very long season for them.

[aaaahockey]

2 hours ago, Hockey22 said:

????  Moving up? They have been in AAA. Where did they move up to?

Oh maybe they should have moved down then 😂

 

And yes - Franklin Regional is going to be rough.  

[Hockey22]

4 hours ago, aaaahockey said:

Oh maybe they should have moved down then 😂

 

And yes - Franklin Regional is going to be rough.  

I mean Central Catholic was 10-9-1 last year, 14-5-1 in 2022-23 season and 9-9 in 2021-22 season. Not sure that constitutes moving down. (And no, I don't have any ties to Central Catholic) 

[aaaahockey]

1 hour ago, Hockey22 said:

I mean Central Catholic was 10-9-1 last year, 14-5-1 in 2022-23 season and 9-9 in 2021-22 season. Not sure that constitutes moving down. (And no, I don't have any ties to Central Catholic) 

I was kidding hence the laughing face.  

[nemesis8679]

14 hours ago, zam said:

Can anybody explain to me how a 5 win Erie McDowell team moves up to AA?

Don't tell me "Competitive Formula" or 3rd highest enrollment in the PIHL. Did anybody use their brain on this one??

They had a total of 5 wins against the 3 worst teams in the division, smoked by everyone else, graduate 7 seniors.

What am I missing?

No idea. McDowell struggled mightily in A, and some other teams fared far better. Yet they moved McDowell. Who knows what they're thinking.

[dazedandconfused]

12 hours ago, nemesis8679 said:

Who knows what they're thinking.

Not even they do.

[Icebucket]

The two schools that stand out to me are Canon Mac and Butler. I think they will be competitive at the levels they are at but it seems wild that those two schools are AA and A. CM was at the top of AAA just a few years ago and now they have plummeted all the way to AA. Butler used to be a team who could hang at AAA and have now fallen all the way to A(last year, but still).

[aaaahockey]

4 hours ago, Icebucket said:

The two schools that stand out to me are Canon Mac and Butler. I think they will be competitive at the levels they are at but it seems wild that those two schools are AA and A. CM was at the top of AAA just a few years ago and now they have plummeted all the way to AA. Butler used to be a team who could hang at AAA and have now fallen all the way to A(last year, but still).

Canon Mac was not competitive last year.  They are an obvious bump down as was Baldwin.  

[nemesis8679]

On 8/3/2024 at 1:42 PM, Icebucket said:

CM was at the top of AAA just a few years ago and now they have plummeted all the way to AA. 

"Just a few years ago" is plenty of time to graduate quite a bit of good players. If they're not replaced with similar players, or if their program hasn't attracted/built an organization that kids want to play for and eligible players decide to just stick with their travel team, then that's what happens. I'm not sure what the board or coaching situation is there, but that can always play into it.

And I wouldn't say moving from AAA to AA is "plummeting". I'd say it's getting moved down. That happens. If a team moved from A to AA, I wouldn't say that team skyrocketed to AA. Going from AAA to A in for or 5 seasons, then I'd say that's plummeting. 

Edited August 4, 2024 by nemesis8679

[Icebucket]

1 hour ago, nemesis8679 said:

"Just a few years ago" is plenty of time to graduate quite a bit of good players. If they're not replaced with similar players, or if their program hasn't attracted/built an organization that kids want to play for and eligible players decide to just stick with their travel team, then that's what happens. I'm not sure what the board or coaching situation is there, but that can always play into it.

And I wouldn't say moving from AAA to AA is "plummeting". I'd say it's getting moved down. That happens. If a team moved from A to AA, I wouldn't say that team skyrocketed to AA. Going from AAA to A in for or 5 seasons, then I'd say that's plummeting. 

In regards to Canon Mac, I believe it's been the board who ran the program into the ground. And I'd say going from #1 in a level to being completely out of that level is a pretty far fall.

How would you consider it if Peters was AA in 3 years? 

[dazedandconfused]

21 hours ago, Icebucket said:

the board who ran the program into the ground

This is so common at the HS level it's hard to fathom.

As usual, it's the parents who typically ruin things at the Board level of HS and at the Team level for amateurs.

 

[Rewster]

Canon Mac won the PIHL AAA regular season championship in 2021; and won the Penguins Cup AAA in 2015. Unfortunately, they have been unable to sustain the numbers and consistency since then at the AAA level.

Its difficult to determine who moves up and down in divisions because the talent and participation fluctuates rapidly from year to year.

[Hockey22]

2 hours ago, Rewster said:

Canon Mac won the PIHL AAA regular season championship in 2021; and won the Penguins Cup AAA in 2015. Unfortunately, they have been unable to sustain the numbers and consistency since then at the AAA level.

Its difficult to determine who moves up and down in divisions because the talent and participation fluctuates rapidly from year to year.

I have only heard 2nd hand, but @dazedandconfused may be onto something, as I have not heard anything positive about their board. A board not only kills coaches, it kills families who are affected by a corrupt board. 

[Ogie Ogilthorpe]

On 8/5/2024 at 10:33 PM, Hockey22 said:

I have only heard 2nd hand, but @dazedandconfused may be onto something, as I have not heard anything positive about their board. A board not only kills coaches, it kills families who are affected by a corrupt board. 

All pretty much the truth, once the marginal parents got involved, things went south quickly at CM.  Just take a look at last season's lone all-star placement, the son of the board President and far from the best representation on the ice for that program.

[PGHHCKY]

All star was chosen because the board President is best friends with head coach.   Very shady organization ! 

[PGHHCKY]

On 8/10/2024 at 8:19 AM, Ogie Ogilthorpe said:

All pretty much the truth, once the marginal parents got involved, things went south quickly at CM.  Just take a look at last season's lone all-star placement, the son of the board President and far from the best representation on the ice for that program.

All star was chosen because the board President is best friends with head coach.   Very shady organization !

[dazedandconfused]

The sad part is that it's usually the player who ultimately pays the price. When something such as this happens (if in fact it went down as stated) all the teammates know, which means most of the people in the school know and that will stick with that person for a long time.

[dazedandconfused]

They've taken 24 teams for the St Margaret's Event. This means the event is going to drag out over the course of 3 separate weeks unless they decide to play on Labor Day night or a Friday night.

Wonder if the Preds teams realize they won't have any ice for 2 weeks? Maybe they'll get a rebate.

[aaaahockey]

36 minutes ago, dazedandconfused said:

They've taken 24 teams for the St Margaret's Event. This means the event is going to drag out over the course of 3 separate weeks unless they decide to play on Labor Day night or a Friday night.

Wonder if the Preds teams realize they won't have any ice for 2 weeks? Maybe they'll get a rebate.

If they followed through with their plans to have only two teams at each Birthyear now they should have plenty of extra ice 

[zam]

1 hour ago, dazedandconfused said:

They've taken 24 teams for the St Margaret's Event. This means the event is going to drag out over the course of 3 separate weeks unless they decide to play on Labor Day night or a Friday night.

Wonder if the Preds teams realize they won't have any ice for 2 weeks? Maybe they'll get a rebate.

And most games will be about as competitive as Non Conference Big 10 football games.