Having had bad experiences with Hershey Labor Day tournaments in the past, I look to see if they have gotten any better at placements. Doesn't look like it. Results are at: HERSHEY LABOR DAY SCHEDULE 2026 - Google Sheets

One 12U A division team from Hershey, lost their four games with scores of: 20-0; 20-0; 10-0; and 14-0. That's a real shame that the people running that won't make changes mid-tournament. Maybe that team was comped their entry, but that's a miniscule consolation. Doesn't do much for the other teams playing them either..

Local teams saw some success. An Arctic Foxes team won the 18UA; a South Pittsburgh team won the Bantam A; and Beaver County team won Squirt B.

Edited September 8Sep 8 by James Gatz

3 hours ago, James Gatz said:

One 12U A division team from Hershey, lost their four games with scores of: 20-0; 20-0; 10-0; and 14-0. That's a real shame that the people running that won't make changes mid-tournament. Maybe that team was comped their entry, but that's a miniscule consolation. Doesn't do much for the other teams playing them either..

I can remember my son playing in tournaments where he was on the side winning by that number... Most of the problem was that the organizations, and coaches haven't played enough games to really know where their team slotted in, and then they would have parents that would push to get put into a higher tier. Then they would go away to the tournament, get boat raced and blame the tournament directors for "putting them into that division" when every tournament has the team state what division they want to be placed in when they register.

51 minutes ago, Corsi said:

I can remember my son playing in tournaments where he was on the side winning by that number... Most of the problem was that the organizations, and coaches haven't played enough games to really know where their team slotted in, and then they would have parents that would push to get put into a higher tier. Then they would go away to the tournament, get boat raced and blame the tournament directors for "putting them into that division" when every tournament has the team state what division they want to be placed in when they register.

I know how it works, and I know early season tournaments are tough because there are no My Hockey ratings for the organizers to reference when placing teams. I've warned new managers about this particular promoter though. Their registration instructions are confusing. I just checked and it looks like they have updated them a little, but their instructions direct, "USA Hockey Official Team Registration/Roster Form (1-T), stamped & registrar signed, is required once your registration has been submitted.  Atlantic District teams are required to register and play in the same division and classification as depicted on your official USA Hockey roster.  Out of district teams that register below their designated division and classifications will be placed after careful review."

Many of the teams that play in the B division of the Hershey tournaments have "A" designated rosters. The unsuspecting manager, doesn't know they can register their team in that division, and Atlantic Division teams, like the Hershey Jr. Bears cannot. They were probably comped this tournament to fill out teams when registration was low (speculative on my part), but I appreciate the tournament directors out there that will let a team know they may not fit well and give them the option to withdraw early. Looking at the season final MHR for the Hershey Jr. Bears, they had two PeeWee teams. Their best team was an A team and finished with a final rating of 85.91. Their second team was a B team and finished with a rating of 71.25. I wonder if the team in this tournament was comprised of many players from the lower team from last year. I know they seem to be an A team this year, but there are some tournaments out there that would have moved this team to the B division or helped them find a better fit on a different weekend tournament.