AAA Obsession with Travel

[Guest]

Not understanding why all of these AAA teams feel the need to travel all over the place (New England, Upstate NY, Chicago, Detroit), when there are probably 20 teams within a 1.5 hour drive that you can barely beat

Such a waste, why do all these parents continue to feed into it?

if your team is so good that you need to find comparable teams, but if you are taking multiple 5 hours drives a month, your team is .500 and probably would have equally competitive games playing the AAA team down the street...

[Guest]

Here are the reasons:

1. You play these teams during the league season and don't want to play teams 6x+ a year like AHF
2. You already filled out non-league games against these teams
3. these are showcase events or tournaments. Just like AA, A & B travel for a couple tournaments a year, so does AAA.
4. Most AAA teams have 2 big trips a year. At AA last year our team went to Lake Placid, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo.

Not a big difference between AA & AAA for travel. Even costs of AA & AAA are not far off at Sq & PW since BB took over.

Also, there are maybe 5 AAA teams within 1.5 hrs that are way better than other AAA teams. Most AAA teams are competitive against each other. Depending on age PHC, Little Flyers, Jr Flyers, NJ Titans, and a couple other North NJ teams are dominant. Most AAA teams are at the 84-88 rang at minor and 87-92 at major.

[Guest]

What is your definition of dominant? In a lot of age groups, the top 25 or so (sometimes less), are legit AAA teams that need to travel to find good competition

Just looking like many 2010-2013 teams fall outside of this top tier, where they are just wasting their time. Once ratings come out, it might be easier to show this (especially for the teams you cited)
 

[Guest]

I know people that moved to AAA this season because ice time at other rinks is limited and always shared. There reasoning was also if you include all the semi-private and power skate clinics done outside team, the cost is actually less. 4 hours of ice, 1 hr off ice and video sessions is a lot, but kids get better real fast. AAA is for kids that have the desire to make hockey their main sport growing up. At younger ages AAA is way better than Tier 2 because ice time and skating is what these ages is about. Whether these kids have the ability once puberty hits no one will know until that time comes. With that being said, there are 2 AAA leagues. AYHL us upper league with better top to bottom talent than THF. But THF mid to upper teams will blow out all AA teams in AHF. Lower  in the standing teams are AA teams at best. Others at mid-level that may have a losing record by year end, but 75% games will be very close, so they can compete. AAA is all about learning to play the game the correct way: passing, team D, running a PK and PP. The kids get better coaching and learn more than at Tier 2. The reason is the skating of the kids at AAA. There are very few bad skaters at AAA while at AA & A the better skaters can go coast to coast, but not at AAA. Team play is needed to succeed at AAA. Having 3 or 4 good players at AA makes you a top team. So I agree it watered down, but if you put a AA team on the ice with a THF AAA team the AA teams loses 95% of the time. That ratio is 100% of the time against AYHL teams. Stop the hate and realize not all kids are equal at this age and NONE OF THIS MEANS ANYTHING UNTIL PUBERTY & CHECKING START!

[Guest]

I could care less what others think. My kids play AAA and we all love it. Team is average, but ice time is great, cost is high, but not when you include free ice year round and 3 hours of ice (including power skate) from August thru 1st week in March, 4 day summer camp, off ice professional trainer in season skills trainer on ice. Since we only have 3 hotel stays all within driving distance travel not bad. I calculated our AA costs and with 2 privates a month, 2 power skates a month, spring team and summer camps we paid 19.6% more at AA than AAA. AAA is actually cheaper when totaling up all the money you spend on travel and other hockey training. I am the cheapest guy in the world, so if AAA was more expensive my kids would play AA.

I don't give a damn what anyone thinks. We love AAA and spend less then you do. Math don't lie!

[Guest]

They love their extra A, leave them alone.🤣

[Guest]

They love their extra A, leave them alone.🤣

Rumor is distric will have AAAA next year to differentiate AYHL vs THF. Happy because my kid will be AAAA for AYHL team. Now I will have 2 extra letters.

[Guest]

They love their extra A, leave them alone.🤣

Rumor is distric will have AAAA next year to differentiate AYHL vs THF. Happy because my kid will be AAAA for AYHL team. Now I will have 2 extra letters.

🤣
and it will only cost you an extra grand😂

[Guest]

Those of you who think AAA is just an extra letter - whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night.   

I sat a rink this weekend and saw top AHF AA games and top AYHL games happening at the same time. The difference between the same age group at AA and AAA was huge. Those who say it's just an extra letter just have kids that wouldn't make the cut. There is a big discrepancy in skill level between the legitimate AAA teams and AA teams.

Say what you want about the AAA teams that win 8 games in a season, IDGAF - I agree, those teams should just play AA.

[Guest]

Those of you who think AAA is just an extra letter - whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night.   

I sat a rink this weekend and saw top AHF AA games and top AYHL games happening at the same time. The difference between the same age group at AA and AAA was huge. Those who say it's just an extra letter just have kids that wouldn't make the cut. There is a big discrepancy in skill level between the legitimate AAA teams and AA teams.

Say what you want about the AAA teams that win 8 games in a season, IDGAF - I agree, those teams should just play AA.

I think in general, none of us have any problems with the LEGIT AAA kids. The top line kids. Not the kids on the other lines, the kids where if they were put on an AA team, they wouldnt even stand out and dominate

To me, AAA is for the kids who would absolutely dominate AA where they would get bored.

That being said, the 2010-2012 levels have 10-15 AAA teams in NJ or close to bordering states. That is messing up all levels below it.

Let's just say there are 12 teams in NJ at a given age group. The discussion should be, how many AAA teams do we really need?

1 in South Jersey, 1 in Central Jersey and 2-3 in North Jersey?