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Mid-Am Tournaments start today!

Featured Replies

Not a word on their website as to who is playing when!  Absoultely useless for the casual fan!

They need new leadership bad!

Sounds par for the course. Like when they never acknowledged that their 17u team took bronze at the national festival last summer.

Pens Elite 16 U 3        Predators 16 U 2
 

Pens Elite 16 U 3        Predators 16 U 2

https://gamesheetstats.com/seasons/14294/games/2810456?configuration[compact-view]=true&configuration[primary-colour]=BF242B&configuration[secondary-colour]=28438E

So this tells me that the Pens Elite 16 U beat the Predators 16 U Team in a shootout by 1 goal. Sorry I missed it. 

The Predators AAA/AA are filled with very good High School Hockey Hockey Players who are encouraged not to play High School Hockey and the majority of these kids (over 80%) will end up in ACHA M1 if  they dont make DIII NCAA. And can do so after High School.

ALL of these kids should be playing High School Hockey until they turn 19. And can do so with High School Friendly organizations who keep the game count under 60 Total per year (4-5 games a week) and focus on quality instead of quantity. Then players will not be burned out from running all over  the country. 

Edited by Pa Hockey

15 hours ago, Pa Hockey said:
Pens Elite 16 U 3        Predators 16 U 2
 

Pens Elite 16 U 3        Predators 16 U 2

https://gamesheetstats.com/seasons/14294/games/2810456?configuration[compact-view]=true&configuration[primary-colour]=BF242B&configuration[secondary-colour]=28438E

So this tells me that the Pens Elite 16 U beat the Predators 16 U Team in a shootout by 1 goal. Sorry I missed it. 

The Predators AAA/AA are filled with very good High School Hockey Hockey Players who are encouraged not to play High School Hockey and the majority of these kids (over 80%) will end up in ACHA M1 if  they dont make DIII NCAA. And can do so after High School.

ALL of these kids should be playing High School Hockey until they turn 19. And can do so with High School Friendly organizations who keep the game count under 60 Total per year (4-5 games a week) and focus on quality instead of quantity. Then players will not be burned out from running all over  the country. 

 

IMG_6602.gif

19 hours ago, Pa Hockey said:
Pens Elite 16 U 3        Predators 16 U 2
 

Pens Elite 16 U 3        Predators 16 U 2

https://gamesheetstats.com/seasons/14294/games/2810456?configuration[compact-view]=true&configuration[primary-colour]=BF242B&configuration[secondary-colour]=28438E

So this tells me that the Pens Elite 16 U beat the Predators 16 U Team in a shootout by 1 goal. Sorry I missed it. 

The Predators AAA/AA are filled with very good High School Hockey Hockey Players who are encouraged not to play High School Hockey and the majority of these kids (over 80%) will end up in ACHA M1 if  they dont make DIII NCAA. And can do so after High School.

ALL of these kids should be playing High School Hockey until they turn 19. And can do so with High School Friendly organizations who keep the game count under 60 Total per year (4-5 games a week) and focus on quality instead of quantity. Then players will not be burned out from running all over  the country. 

I'm not sure I get your point...  None of these players are being held hostage and forced to play for the organization.  If they wanted to play high school hockey, they could easily move on to another organization.  

1 hour ago, Corsi said:

I'm not sure I get your point...  None of these players are being held hostage and forced to play for the organization.  If they wanted to play high school hockey, they could easily move on to another organization.  

Mostly true but some are held hostage by their parents 😆

On 3/1/2026 at 12:55 PM, Pa Hockey said:
 

The Predators AAA/AA are filled with very good High School Hockey Hockey Players who are encouraged not to play High School Hockey and the majority of these kids (over 80%) will end up in ACHA M1 if  they dont make DIII NCAA. And can do so after High School.

ALL of these kids should be playing High School Hockey until they turn 19. And can do so with High School Friendly organizations who keep the game count under 60 Total per year (4-5 games a week) and focus on quality instead of quantity. Then players will not be burned out from running all over  the country. 

I just don't know what you are hoping to achieve with your crusade to have all the local kids play high school hockey.

Do you just feel these kids are missing out on a high school sports experience? If that is the case, how do you feel about the kids that are clinging to roster spots on varsity teams that would be replaced by higher talent players?  Don't their high school experiences matter?

Are you trying to make the PIHL product better? Adding 1 or 2 players to mediocre teams isnt going to do much to improve the league. And my guess is most of these AAA caliber kids are highly concentrated in 3 or 4 districts.  So the strong teams are just going to get better.   If you are looking to improve high school hockey in the area, you could begin by relegating about 20 teams into a different developmental division.  Then the remaining teams could play a regular season schedule with meaningful competitive games.

Minnesota Michigan Ohio New York New Jersey Massachusetts and other States all the AAA+ AA players A:: Play High School

Crusade ? /

Some of those 16u Predators kids do play varsity - just a quick check 6 played last night.  2 for SV, 1 for USC, 2 for CC, and 1 for TJ

I'm sure they missed games throughout the season but they obviously got enough in to qualify for the playoff roster. 

2 hours ago, Pa Hockey said:

Minnesota Michigan Ohio New York New Jersey Massachusetts and other States all the AAA+ AA players A:: Play High School

Crusade ? /

Just took a quick look at the Ohio Blue Jackets 18AAA team that just played in the championship game last weekend.  Just looking at the 2008 and 2009 players, NOT A SINGLE one has a high school team listed on their Elite Prospects profile.

8 hours ago, Corsi said:

Just took a quick look at the Ohio Blue Jackets 18AAA team that just played in the championship game last weekend.  Just looking at the 2008 and 2009 players, NOT A SINGLE one has a high school team listed on their Elite Prospects profile.

Because why would any kid want to play more hockey right after their season wraps? These kids are already constantly traveling, practicing four times a week, and committing a huge amount of time and energy to the sport. Let kids be kids. Let them play other sports, spend time with friends, and actually have a break.

To have their season end and then immediately throw them into high school playoff hockey is absurd. It’s a recipe for complete burnout. Kids need time to recharge, not another tournament the minute the season ends.

And in fact, if these kids are allowed to be on the team, they end up missing almost all of the practices and games because of their existing commitments. How is that fair to the other kids who could have made the team and would actually be there? And how is that fair to the team dynamic when players can’t consistently practice or play with the group?

8 hours ago, hockeydadx3 said:

Because why would any kid want to play more hockey right after their season wraps? These kids are already constantly traveling, practicing four times a week, and committing a huge amount of time and energy to the sport. Let kids be kids. Let them play other sports, spend time with friends, and actually have a break.

To have their season end and then immediately throw them into high school playoff hockey is absurd. It’s a recipe for complete burnout. Kids need time to recharge, not another tournament the minute the season ends.

And in fact, if these kids are allowed to be on the team, they end up missing almost all of the practices and games because of their existing commitments. How is that fair to the other kids who could have made the team and would actually be there? And how is that fair to the team dynamic when players can’t consistently practice or play with the group?

Let them play both and limit  them to 60 games (3 games a week ave;rage) and have a life outside of hockey  

5 hours ago, Pa Hockey said:

Let them play both and limit  them to 60 games (3 games a week ave;rage) and have a life outside of hockey  

The players on teams ranked in the top 50 or so in the country are already getting somewhere in the 60 game range without playing scholastic hockey and the level of play and exposure in those 60 games is better than they will get on a Tuesday night at 9:15.  The 9PM and later start times on weekday nights is something else that is an issue with some of these players.  Also, there needs to be a consideration given to the additional cost by adding a high school team on top of the expenses of playing that higher level schedule and the travel that requires.  Scholastic hockey is great for some players, but it does not work for everyone because the hockey landscape has changed significantly in the past 20+ years and because of these changes it is not what it used to be.    

On 3/3/2026 at 8:00 AM, Pa Hockey said:

Minnesota Michigan Ohio New York New Jersey Massachusetts and other States all the AAA+ AA players A:: Play High School

Crusade ? /

The local scholastic model doesn't resemble or compare to most of these other areas.  The local model is essentially club hockey using the colors and logos of the local high schools.  But it isn't even good club hockey, the teams are mostly administered by a group of parents whose interests lie more or less in the success of their kid and their team for a few years while their kid is playing.  Very rarely is it administered by a true hockey person, or someone without a dog in the fight. These local players aren't getting any sort of long term development from playing for their school teams. I can think of just a few local teams that have strong consistent coaching and organization leadership that lends itself to any sort of long term development. 

Most of these other areas of the country where it is successful the program is administered by the actual school district and athletic directors. 

Additionally, go do yourself a favor and look up the high school enrollment of many of these schools in places like Massachusetts and Minnesota.  Other than some small private schools, they have 1000+ student schools.  Makes fielding competitive teams and leagues a little bit easier than it is around here.  That's how you end up with 20 awful single A PIHL teams.

And so you want these kids to stop traveling the country playing the Little Caesars of the world and instead stay at home playing (checks standings) um Freeport??

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