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Hearing rumblings that North Catholic is bagging its "grass roots" program where they developed kids from their middle school team and are moving toward utilizing the Excel players. To the extent that they will only field a varsity team next year. Many players and parents upset over this as kids who began as middle schoolers are being sat out of games to make room for the Excel superstars.

I am sure this is not how the program was set up to be run when it was resurrected.

Maybe the PIHL will step in and not allow this type of situation.

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1 hour ago, SuperStar said:

Hearing rumblings that North Catholic is bagging its "grass roots" program where they developed kids from their middle school team and are moving toward utilizing the Excel players. To the extent that they will only field a varsity team next year. Many players and parents upset over this as kids who began as middle schoolers are being sat out of games to make room for the Excel superstars.

I am sure this is not how the program was set up to be run when it was resurrected.

Maybe the PIHL will step in and not allow this type of situation.

Your comment does not make any sense.  My son's team played them earlier this year and he told me there is no influx of Excel kids on their current roster.  So if that is the case, how could players that "began as middle schoolers be sat out of games to make room for the Excel superstars?"  

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2 minutes ago, fafa fohi said:

Your comment does not make any sense.  My son's team played them earlier this year and he told me there is no influx of Excel kids on their current roster.  So if that is the case, how could players that "began as middle schoolers be sat out of games to make room for the Excel superstars?"  

It does make sense as they have people on the roster who are Excel. They rotate through freshmen who started when they were MS players in order to allow Excel and older kids to play. There is no loyalty to the kids who built the program from the ground up which was the intention of the people who had originally restarted the program. They are planning on fielding a varsity only next year for numerous reasons including because the delusional president of the association is in it for personal reasons instead of the good of the program.

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Then you must know more about it than I do.  I was unaware of any kids that were recruited outside of the western PA area that were brought in to take part in Excel and also play for the school.  

I was under the impression the current crop of Excel players on the team were local kids.

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1 hour ago, SuperStar said:

Hearing rumblings that North Catholic is bagging its "grass roots" program where they developed kids from their middle school team and are moving toward utilizing the Excel players. To the extent that they will only field a varsity team next year. Many players and parents upset over this as kids who began as middle schoolers are being sat out of games to make room for the Excel superstars.

I am sure this is not how the program was set up to be run when it was resurrected.

Maybe the PIHL will step in and not allow this type of situation.

Well "Superstar" I'm not sure where you get your your information, but let me correct you on the "rumblings" that you are hearing. 

     1.The Middle School program is not going anywhere.  Half of the current roster came up through the middle school program. Matter of fact, only 5 players on the current roster we're not with the team since it's inception. 

2. Because we didn't want to cut any players, we have a scratch policy that moves up the line beginning with freshmen. To this date 2 players have been scratched for a game. So those "many parents upset that their kids are being sat out GAMES" isn't even possible 

 

3. There are currently 2 Excel players on the pihl team. Both of these players had to appeal pihl to play. One is a goalie. Most of the Excel players either are not allowed to play school, or choose not to due to their high commitment teams. With that said, any Excel player that hasn't been in the school for a year has to sit out a year to even be eligible to play for the school 

4.  We will field as many teams as we can next season. The numbers will dictate that. 

5. Before you start slandering somebody who gives up a whole lot of his time to make this a quality organization, you should get your facts straight.

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9 minutes ago, Bob Loblaw said:

Well "Superstar" I'm not sure where you get your your information, but let me correct you on the "rumblings" that you are hearing. 

     1.The Middle School program is not going anywhere.  Half of the current roster came up through the middle school program. Matter of fact, only 5 players on the current roster we're not with the team since it's inception. 

2. Because we didn't want to cut any players, we have a scratch policy that moves up the line beginning with freshmen. To this date 2 players have been scratched for a game. So those "many parents upset that their kids are being sat out GAMES" isn't even possible 

 

3. There are currently 2 Excel players on the pihl team. Both of these players had to appeal pihl to play. One is a goalie. Most of the Excel players either are not allowed to play school, or choose not to due to their high commitment teams. With that said, any Excel player that hasn't been in the school for a year has to sit out a year to even be eligible to play for the school 

4.  We will field as many teams as we can next season. The numbers will dictate that. 

5. Before you start slandering somebody who gives up a whole lot of his time to make this a quality organization, you should get your facts straight.

Clearly you are part of the "in crowd" there. It would help to actually check with the actual people who pay to play.

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57 minutes ago, fafa fohi said:

Then you must know more about it than I do.  I was unaware of any kids that were recruited outside of the western PA area that were brought in to take part in Excel and also play for the school.  

I was under the impression the current crop of Excel players on the team were local kids.

There is only one Excel player on the team.  A new goalie.

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1 hour ago, SuperStar said:

It does make sense as they have people on the roster who are Excel. They rotate through freshmen who started when they were MS players in order to allow Excel and older kids to play. There is no loyalty to the kids who built the program from the ground up which was the intention of the people who had originally restarted the program. They are planning on fielding a varsity only next year for numerous reasons including because the delusional president of the association is in it for personal reasons instead of the good of the program.

There is only one player on the roster who is Excel.  A new goalie.  

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58 minutes ago, Bob Loblaw said:

The Excel Program is between the Penguins and the school. North Catholic Ice Hockey is it's own separate entity, and a club sport, the same as any other high school hockey organization.

If you believe that Excel and the school are not connected, then your drinking there Kool-Aid. 

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1 hour ago, Bob Loblaw said:

I'm beginning to wonder if you can read. Isn't that what I said? 

Einstein, I meant that the school and Excel are connected which means the team as well. The school likely dictates how the team is run and the puppets do as they are told. If you think people are happy with the way things are being run then no one in the organization has a clue.

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I can’t and won’t speak for others associated with the MS team. But the organization has been supportive of the team over the course of our season. There is a pretty wide range of player age, size, and ability. Not sure how the NC organization can be sandbagging and bringing in ringers from Excel when the MS team has two wins on the year. Would hope that the anonymous Excel players would have done better.

The MS team works hard and they play as a team for each other.  Have no idea what next year will bring, but as for us, we’re hopeful the program will continue to grow and get back to it’s former level.

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If you are talking about the Golden Days of recruiting players such as Chuck Chiatto, Lynn Sipe, Mike Blum and Tony Taylor then the Excel Academy is certainly the way to go about it.

If you are talking about actually building a program such as Central Catholic, then they aren't doing such a great job. They went from a Varsity team last year to only JV this year and just as one would assume, they placed that JV team in Tier 3 so they could beat up on teams just like the MS team did last season. The reason they only have a couple of MS wins this year is because of the way they ran the MS team last year. Same thing, play Tier 3 MS and beat up everyone. That does NOT help you improve. Question to pose, how many of those MS kids from last season that were in 8th grade actually enrolled at the school?

The link to last season's MS standings

http://pihl_hs.wttstats.pointstreak.com/players/players-division-standings.html?divisionid=95780

 

The link to this season's JV team standings

https://www.pihlhockey.com/jvstandings

 

The similarities are mind numbing.

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23 minutes ago, sadday4hockey said:

If you are talking about the Golden Days of recruiting players such as Chuck Chiatto, Lynn Sipe, Mike Blum and Tony Taylor then the Excel Academy is certainly the way to go about it.

If you are talking about actually building a program such as Central Catholic, then they aren't doing such a great job. They went from a Varsity team last year to only JV this year and just as one would assume, they placed that JV team in Tier 3 so they could beat up on teams just like the MS team did last season. The reason they only have a couple of MS wins this year is because of the way they ran the MS team last year. Same thing, play Tier 3 MS and beat up everyone. That does NOT help you improve. Question to pose, how many of those MS kids from last season that were in 8th grade actually enrolled at the school?

The link to last season's MS standings

http://pihl_hs.wttstats.pointstreak.com/players/players-division-standings.html?divisionid=95780

 

The link to this season's JV team standings

https://www.pihlhockey.com/jvstandings

 

The similarities are mind numbing.

I think we need to compare apple to apples here........how long has Central had a program?  North is in its 3rd year of existence since it went dormant years ago and no, they did not have a Varsity team last year.  

As with all MS teams, if kids live in a district where their school does not have a MS team they are free to play elsewhere.  Last years North MS program / results were from numerous players that in fact, did not end up attending North but wanted to play hockey.  It was a one and done event.

I noticed you did not list last years Tier 3 JV standings - North won one playoff game then lost in the second round.  This years team has at least four seniors, maybe more.  If you think a team that wins one playoff game the prior year is sandbagging to stay in Tier 3 then you are as clueless as some of the others posting here.

A prior post indicated there were only two Excel kids on this years JV roster and both are local kids that were not recruited from out of state.  

Sure doesn't sound like a program being dominated by a bunch of Excel kids.

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1 hour ago, fafa fohi said:

I think we need to compare apple to apples here........how long has Central had a program?  North is in its 3rd year of existence since it went dormant years ago and no, they did not have a Varsity team last year.  

As with all MS teams, if kids live in a district where their school does not have a MS team they are free to play elsewhere.  Last years North MS program / results were from numerous players that in fact, did not end up attending North but wanted to play hockey.  It was a one and done event.

I noticed you did not list last years Tier 3 JV standings - North won one playoff game then lost in the second round.  This years team has at least four seniors, maybe more.  If you think a team that wins one playoff game the prior year is sandbagging to stay in Tier 3 then you are as clueless as some of the others posting here.

A prior post indicated there were only two Excel kids on this years JV roster and both are local kids that were not recruited from out of state.  

Sure doesn't sound like a program being dominated by a bunch of Excel kids.

5 of those eighth graders from last year's middle school team are playing on the JV team this season.

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13 hours ago, sadday4hockey said:

If you are talking about the Golden Days of recruiting players such as Chuck Chiatto, Lynn Sipe, Mike Blum and Tony Taylor then the Excel Academy is certainly the way to go about it.

If you are talking about actually building a program such as Central Catholic, then they aren't doing such a great job. They went from a Varsity team last year to only JV this year and just as one would assume, they placed that JV team in Tier 3 so they could beat up on teams just like the MS team did last season. The reason they only have a couple of MS wins this year is because of the way they ran the MS team last year. Same thing, play Tier 3 MS and beat up everyone. That does NOT help you improve. Question to pose, how many of those MS kids from last season that were in 8th grade actually enrolled at the school?

The link to last season's MS standings

http://pihl_hs.wttstats.pointstreak.com/players/players-division-standings.html?divisionid=95780

 

The link to this season's JV team standings

https://www.pihlhockey.com/jvstandings

 

The similarities are mind numbing.

I'm gonna set the record straight with you son, since you like to throw up links. FACT: The program is only three years old and never had a varsity team. Kind of hard to do at that stage when you don't have the upper-classmen to do it. You want to point out how  Central is so much better, it's a lot easier when you have been around for a long time and you have an all boy enrollment that eclipses North Catholic. 

Next, let's talk about the middle school teams, since you know so much about them. Most people including pihl realize that middle school teams change from year to year especially with small schools. Here's another fact for you. Last year's team was compromised of all eighth graders except for 2. Of the 15 skater roster, 10 of those kids were from Catholic Schools. 1 was from a public school, but planned on, and did enroll at North as a freshman. 4 came from Knoch, who didn't have the numbers to field a team. Fact: when pihl placed the team, it had 11 skaters, hardly a juggernaut. The Knoch kids came after it became apparent they wouldn't have a team. With that being said, everybody was well aware we were in the wrong division, and we tried to change it but it was too late. Happens every year, teams get placed wrong. It's easy to do at that level. Fact: The coach was very adamant about not running the score up on other teams, something that couldn't be said about some other teams in that the tier that were placed low. Fact: the team went out of their way to play scrimmages and tournaments with upper tier teams because it was good for our players. Fact: the team opted up to high division 2 in the playoffs because it was the right thing to do.(and lost by the way) 

That brings us to this season. Obviously the middle school team had to regenerate after losing so many older players. But what I really want to address are your "mind numbing similarities". Do you actually look at the links you put up? If you did you would see that the JV division is super tight. Look at the gf/ga. Look at the scores of the games. How in the hell can you make the accusation that the JV team is beating everyone up? The FACTS state otherwise. 

 

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On 1/29/2019 at 8:03 AM, Bob Loblaw said:

I'm gonna set the record straight with you son, since you like to throw up links. FACT: The program is only three years old and never had a varsity team. Kind of hard to do at that stage when you don't have the upper-classmen to do it. You want to point out how  Central is so much better, it's a lot easier when you have been around for a long time and you have an all boy enrollment that eclipses North Catholic. 

Next, let's talk about the middle school teams, since you know so much about them. Most people including pihl realize that middle school teams change from year to year especially with small schools. Here's another fact for you. Last year's team was compromised of all eighth graders except for 2. Of the 15 skater roster, 10 of those kids were from Catholic Schools. 1 was from a public school, but planned on, and did enroll at North as a freshman. 4 came from Knoch, who didn't have the numbers to field a team. Fact: when pihl placed the team, it had 11 skaters, hardly a juggernaut. The Knoch kids came after it became apparent they wouldn't have a team. With that being said, everybody was well aware we were in the wrong division, and we tried to change it but it was too late. Happens every year, teams get placed wrong. It's easy to do at that level. Fact: The coach was very adamant about not running the score up on other teams, something that couldn't be said about some other teams in that the tier that were placed low. Fact: the team went out of their way to play scrimmages and tournaments with upper tier teams because it was good for our players. Fact: the team opted up to high division 2 in the playoffs because it was the right thing to do.(and lost by the way) 

That brings us to this season. Obviously the middle school team had to regenerate after losing so many older players. But what I really want to address are your "mind numbing similarities". Do you actually look at the links you put up? If you did you would see that the JV division is super tight. Look at the gf/ga. Look at the scores of the games. How in the hell can you make the accusation that the JV team is beating everyone up? The FACTS state otherwise. 

 

The issue with this long-winded post is that the JV division is tight when you look at teams with underclassmen. The NC team is mostly of older players. The only team run the right way from the beginning has been the MS team.

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