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Ppe 18u prep?


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21 hours ago, PuckHead7 said:

You are confusing all of us with your responses.

Anyway you look at it, the most talented players will still play for the PPE and Esmark.    The others will apparently have a choice.  Play for the new team, prep, if that’s what they are going to call it.  Or, play for the NC high school Varsity or JV.  Those three+ (plus because people still have a choice to not play for any team related to NC or Excel) teams are made up of 70+ players.  Are there 70 ice hockey players that attend NC?  Not sure where all these players are coming from.  Plus, again, the talent just isn’t there.  Not when you subtract the elite players off the list. A major at best.  Give it 6-8 years and maybe it will evolve into a hockey power house.

@RegDunlop7 your last paragraph is what will happen.  However, I do disagree with how good you think St Ignatius is.  They may not schedule with the best teams, as they should, but they are a pretty darn good team.  Excel Prep will be scheduling games with the same Pihl A teams that NC is playing now.  Not Prep!!! 

Just to set the record straight, North Catholic Ice Hockey and Excel Academy are two completely different entities.  One is run by the school and a board of parent volunteers, the other is run by the Pittsburgh Penguins. If any Excel kids wish to play for the school team, they are welcome to do so, as long as they can clear pihl's requirements.

It's laughable to even think that a Pens Elite team is going to schedule games against local pihl teams, especially pihl A teams. 

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6 minutes ago, The King said:

Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. Clearly they are fielding a Prep team that will compete in the same league and qualify for Tier 1 Districts and Nationals.

So they'll have two teams at the 18U level? If so, I don't see anything wrong with the 18U Prep team.

 

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47 minutes ago, Bob Loblaw said:

Just to set the record straight, North Catholic Ice Hockey and Excel Academy are two completely different entities.  One is run by the school and a board of parent volunteers, the other is run by the Pittsburgh Penguins. If any Excel kids wish to play for the school team, they are welcome to do so, as long as they can clear pihl's requirements.

It's laughable to even think that a Pens Elite team is going to schedule games against local pihl teams, especially pihl A teams. 

Lets set the record straight!  I never said that they were the same entity or that they are run by the same people. My point is, NC and the Prep team will be fighting for the same players. If the prep team requires the players to attend Excel, they will obviously need to attend North Catholic.  That still means that the varsity North Catholic team goes down the tubes.

A lot of this conversation was hearsay until today. Reading through the information cleared many things up.

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51 minutes ago, PuckHead7 said:

Lets set the record straight!  I never said that they were the same entity or that they are run by the same people. My point is, NC and the Prep team will be fighting for the same players. If the prep team requires the players to attend Excel, they will obviously need to attend North Catholic.  That still means that the varsity North Catholic team goes down the tubes.

A lot of this conversation was hearsay until today. Reading through the information cleared many things up.

Wrong, they already have that prep team set. Have you folks not heard of the new “under armor tier 1 league” ? The hphl is going into it. its run out of Chicago by 200x85. 200x85 was once owned by the guy who ran the Chicago Mission program who is currently running PPE. Connect the dots, it’s not very difficult. The pens midget team’s will enter this league, the prep team will play in the newly created pack league, after all, four of the teams are prep schools to begin with. This new prep team will benefit PPE in a million ways. Keep kids away from esmark, generate more money, offer a post grad year to continue to play, the list goes on. Welcome to total market control and domination. 

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I don’t get the point of the Prep team from the Pens point of view.  Most of the PPE kids at the upper age groups already are doing Excel.  What does the Prep team offer that is different?  Or is the state of the current U18 AAA team now suddenly making the Pens question whether they can actually field a U18 AAA team?  I have heard that the U18 AAA is different cause you have most of the top players gone to Juniors and you are left trying to round out of the team with kids who couldn’t stick with a Junior team.  And some kids who graduated may not even want to stick for their last year of midgets after graduating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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12 minutes ago, twoboys said:

I don’t get the point of the Prep team from the Pens point of view.  Most of the PPE kids at the upper age groups already are doing Excel.  What does the Prep team offer that is different?  Or is the state of the current U18 AAA team now suddenly making the Pens question whether they can actually field a U18 AAA team?  I have heard that the U18 AAA is different cause you have most of the top players gone to Juniors and you are left trying to round out of the team with kids who couldn’t stick with a Junior team.  And some kids who graduated may not even want to stick for their last year of midgets after graduating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read what I wrote above, there is your answer. There are tons of high quality kids still around at 18u. Dreamers, who will want that post grad year to keep chasing the dream. plenty of good talent get’s drafted in the major junior league’s but don’t make the cut yet so they will go back for a post grad year. Look how many kids who graduate HS that haven’t aged out still go back to esmark for one more year. welcome to total market control. This move will eventually push esmark in line with all the other “faux” crap tier 1 programs such as the predators. It’s already 90% PPE or nothing. Now it will be 100%. 

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Nah!  Over the past 4-5 years, many many people have been turned off by the “Pens and Friends” way of doing things.  Esmark will still be their at the 15u, 16u and 18u levels. The regular 18u PPE team will be just like all of the black teams.  Or maybe both will be sub par since the Prep team has to attend NC & Excel. Might be good next year and the following year.  After that, it will drop.  Only time will tell.

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18 minutes ago, PuckHead7 said:

Nah!  Over the past 4-5 years, many many people have been turned off by the “Pens and Friends” way of doing things.  Esmark will still be their at the 15u, 16u and 18u levels. The regular 18u PPE team will be just like all of the black teams.  Or maybe both will be sub par since the Prep team has to attend NC & Excel. Might be good next year and the following year.  After that, it will drop.  Only time will tell.

Esmark is not much different than “pens and friends”. BTW esmark’s 15’s stink. I’m telling you folks, this move put a nail in the esmark coffin. PPE managed to bring the two team model back that USA hockey is against after bantam. 

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1 hour ago, The King said:

There you go @RegDunlop7. This is a great explanation of how this will mirror USA Hockeys structure and philosophy. Tier 1, Prep, NAHL, USHL, college, pro. All your fees help support these initiatives to monopolize the sport. Oh yeah, they just made an agreement that the NAHL will be the feeder league to the ushl at the winter meetings last week. So the idea of total market control and domination is real. Best of luck Esmark. The NA3HL, NAPHL, and NAJPHL are all about to be stamped with a “property of USA Hockey” seal of approval. Those tenders are about to become as useful as the German dollar I’m 1947. Lots of good out of it for development but lots of people with lots of money will get lots more money and it will all come from you folks. And they ensure job security because they have all the affiliates earning well too. Greed and self preservation are what keeps them from leaving the structure. Most affiliates are run by former hockey parents. They do very well by ensuring the principles of the USA hockey structure appear to be in place. Don’t question it though. Just a suggestion. 
   I repeat what I said earlier, they don’t care about Tier 2. It’s in-house hockey to them. They will do whatever keeps the masses happy and paying the money. Just wait until they control the NCSS. Then they have federal government appeal. So the arguments like “things need to change so Tier 2 hockey improves” are white noise and will never be heard. Think about it, you’re on a message board preaching about Fake teams hurting hockey in the area. It’s never been more lucrative Tier 1 teams, “faux” or not, are what USA hockey will always support. They buy the most ice, they bring in the most money, and they fill the schedules of all the teams in the leagues that they support. What can you reasonably do if you really felt strongly about this? They’ve capitalized on 2 human traits- self preservation and greed. The average hockey parent will do anything it can to get what they want for their player but will never fight the system if it hits a road block. If your passionate about change, you won’t do a thing about it because your kid is done playing or close to it. Or you aren’t getting into a costly legal struggle. So none of it matters enough to do anything about and they know it. 
 

Forcing more skilled players or just more players in general to play Tier 2 would absolutely make it more competitive. It just ain’t happening. 

It went unnoticed last year when the phantoms(ushl) and Maryland BlackBears(nahl) both had upmc patches. Personally I thought there was a PPE tie in but if the nahl is now the feeder league for the ushl this makes sense. All this stuff (even pens prep) is in motion for years before us common folk hear about it. Everyone was scratching their head last year when the pens left the tier 1 elite league and joined up with some prep schools. A year later, it’s clear. 

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actually most were scratching their heads as to why pens played in elite league for so long, not why they got out. they were forced to play low level games all last year. now out of that league and the compete level is spot on. 

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56 minutes ago, g8586 said:

actually most were scratching their heads as to why pens played in elite league for so long, not why they got out. they were forced to play low level games all last year. now out of that league and the compete level is spot on. 

You need to get out of the Pittsburgh bubble or stop following one birth year. Not long ago the T1EHL was the best amateur league, then some teams defected and started the HPHL. Currently the HPHL is the best followed then by the T1EHL. After that you have the NAPHL and USPHL, both very similar but not nearly as good as the other two.

Now, The corporate sponsored under armor league will be by far the best amateur league. This new league will be made up of the HPHL, the Michigan T1EHL teams, PPE & Buffalo JR sabers for its first season. It’s shaping up to start with 20 teams. 

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I really don't think that they are having the 18U Prep plus another 18U team or 16's and 15's for that matter. The numbers just are not there to support it at 18U age group. It will be extremely interesting though to see how many imports will show up for tryouts now and also how many local kids will be willing to change High Schools going into their Junior or Senior years.

And as for the premise that the PPE as a whole will be joining the UAHL, not sure about that either. That league is only 14U Major and above. I think they already have their structure set up exactly the way they want it with the 4Clubs and Northeast Pack. Right there, they cover ALL of their bases as far as getting themselves and their players in front of scouts in all of the hotbeds. Why would they go back to watering it down?

I think the UAHL is other clubs attempting to stay in the game so to speak.

 

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I still don't get it.   It was my understanding that most of the kids from Bantam Major and up already do North Catholic and Excel.  Are these kids now going to be on the Prep team?  Who will be on the U18 and U16 teams?  Kids not doing Excel and North Catholic?

I would imagine that U15 would not be affected?  Cause they are too young to really contribute at the Prep level. 

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15 minutes ago, RegDunlop7 said:

Lol I'm sure 99% of people agree that the 2-49 Esmark 05 team from two years ago wasn't thriving. Esmark has been Midget-only since that debacle.

 

Tier II isn't in-house. But yes, more faux-AAA teams/organizations will keep registering as Tier I which will continue to dilute the talent at that level. Eventually, the tiers will be meaningless.

USAHOCKEY classifies tier 2 as “house”. Not that I agree with it, it’s just the facts. 
it will be interesting to see how the landscape changes but I stand by my opinion (that was created with some friends I have in cranberry) PPE will have 100% market dominance and control. Nobody else will matter. PPE operates like the mob as it is. Everything from scare tactics to tax shelter / money laundering. it not a surprise the head man in charge was one of Bill Clinton’s Campaign managers, he was hired by the pro team to get a new building. 

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20 minutes ago, twoboys said:

I still don't get it.   It was my understanding that most of the kids from Bantam Major and up already do North Catholic and Excel.  Are these kids now going to be on the Prep team?  Who will be on the U18 and U16 teams?  Kids not doing Excel and North Catholic?

I would imagine that U15 would not be affected?  Cause they are too young to really contribute at the Prep level. 

I really don’t feel like re typing things, go look back at some of my responses. The midget teams will still be at PPE. The prep team will be “new” and adds to many benefits for PPE to list here. I would be writing a book if I did. 

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20 minutes ago, Danner27 said:

I really don’t feel like re typing things, go look back at some of my responses. The midget teams will still be at PPE. The prep team will be “new” and adds to many benefits for PPE to list here. I would be writing a book if I did. 

You really haven't explained anything.  I have heard that U15 has all but three kids Enrolled in North Catholic/Excel.  Which teams will those kids play on next year?  Prep or U16?

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Can anyone tell me of another “prep” team/school where the hockey is a separate entity from the school? Where kids must go to an actual school in order to play on a particular prep team for some organization?

I am familiar with some programs where the kids are in the hockey academy, which have online schooling. They do the excel type of training and then practice with their teams. For example, the northern cyclones have online classes at the academy and have 18u aaa, elite, premier, showcase and prep teams.

Are there are other places like this with the ppe and north catholic? I just find it strange! North catholic really looks bad here IMO! Clearly this is about money, which is great, but to be so blatant about it. We already knew the ppe were about the money, so no surprise there. Look I get the partnership helps both but at least put north catholics name on the sweaters, being that they all represent the school...isn’t that the true idea behind PREP? Idk maybe just change the logo to $$$

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