Parents Union to fight back against Black Bear

[Guest]

I don’t care for BB and what they have done to hockey in our region - but let’s be realistic, the horse is already out of the barn and it’s not going back.

Not a fan of the AHF.  I can’t stand having to travel out of state every other weekend for games.  Hate the double-headers where we have to kill hours between games, not a fan of the showcases with the hotel stays (even though you’re not required to stay to play, many still do).  I also can’t stand the running clock where there are 5 or more goal differential (AHF likes to tout low goal differential as a way to show parity in the league) and the 5 minute running clock overtime.

Despite that we will stay in the AHF because that is where the stronger competition is.  AHF has taken many of the stronger teams from the DVHL, NJYHL, EJEPL - and the stronger players have moved toward those teams.  We moved to a non-BB AHF team this year because AA in the DVHL wasn’t really AA.  Those players and teams are not going back to the DVHL any time soon.

Even if we were to consider going to another team, it would be another AHF team, because that is where the stronger competition is.

The tuition increases are not just limited to BB teams, but BB jacking up tuition gives other rinks/teams the excuse to raise their rates to what the market will bear.  Just look at Team Philly’s tuition rates for next year.  $4K for 16U/18U AA.

DVHL teams will still be great options for kids who are new to hockey and for families that don’t want to spend as much money or as much time traveling to other games - although it’s likely that travel will still increase as the DVHL seeks to find additional teams to add to their league, and they implement their own showcases and events with NJYHL teams.  But they at still at risk of being weakened further if they ever lose any of their remaining large clubs like Genesis or Delco/Little Flyers.

It’s great to want to protest and rally against BB - but where else are you going to go - for many families there really isn’t an option.

We discussed moving to an AHF team when the split happened, but honestly it's been a great experience staying in the DVHL/EJ. Having a balanced local schedule along with the unbalanced ej/nl schedule has been a great mix, playing teams from across eight states. We've also played a stronger schedule (at least according to MHR) than most of the other AHF teams in PA at our age group.

[Guest]

We will see in a couple of weeks which is stronger when the leagues collide at districts. Last year it was the AHF that came on top the most in district playoffs and don't see that being much different this year.

Now lets look at MYR. Based on average per age the AHF is higher then the DVHL at every level in Squirt and Peewee.

Now lets break down Bantam and Midget based on top PA team that play in districts and level average. We will leave the pure 13AA & 15AA out of it since the DVHL don't have them.
It will be level / League top team/ league av
18AA AHF 90.27 / 87.20 DVHL 89.12 / 87.75 - Top team AHF Better Av DVHL
18A   AHF 83.78 / 81.10 DVHL 84.62 / 80.43 - Top team DVHL Better Av AHF
16AA AHF 87.90 / 84.67 DVHL 85.97 / 84.28 - Top team & better Av AHF
16AN AHF 83.11 / 80.26 DVHL 80.40 / 78.64 - Top team & better Av AHF
16Aam AHF 78.70 / 75.48 DVHL 77.21 / 73.62 - Top team & better Av AHF
14AA AHF 87.46 / 85.89 DVHL 86.30 / 83.40 - Top team & better Av AHF
14AN AHF 82.61 / 80.64 DVHL 82.65 / 79.18 - Top team DVHL Better Av AHF
14Aam AHF 79.66 / 76.66 DVHL 78.04 / 75.51 - Top team & better Av AHF
14B  AHF 76.18 / 72.03 DVHL 75.76 / 71.30 - Top team & Av AHF
AHF 15AA falls between the DVHL 16AA /16AN & the AHF 13AA is in line with DVHL 14AN

I know you said at your age but no age does it look to hold true. The numbers are close but majority swing to the AHF.

[Guest]

"Ice Hockey is insane. This is the only youth sport that plays 50+ games a year, 8-12 hotel stays, travel to CT, NY, MD, Western PA."

Have you ever played travel baseball? My son played rec ball and travel ball for yrs and we easily played as much as if not more than he has during the last 2 yrs in the AHF. 16rec league games+ playoffs in prep for travel ball were he would play 2-3 tournaments a month from mid June until the beginning of Sept. A tournament would be 3-5 games per tournament plus at least 1 scrimmage every week against teams within a 2hr drive. Tournaments were up and down the East coast from Maine to Florida and as far west as Tenn.. I love how people cry about travel in a travel league. Play in house & scholastic instead. If you have a good team manager you played 50+ games in the DVHL also. As a PeeWee B American a few yrs back between league/NL and tournaments we would have hit 63 games if it weren't for the gov shutting down the world in the name of covid. He loved every min of it and that what matters.

[Guest]

"Ice Hockey is insane. This is the only youth sport that plays 50+ games a year, 8-12 hotel stays, travel to CT, NY, MD, Western PA."

Have you ever played travel baseball? My son played rec ball and travel ball for yrs and we easily played as much as if not more than he has during the last 2 yrs in the AHF. 16rec league games+ playoffs in prep for travel ball were he would play 2-3 tournaments a month from mid June until the beginning of Sept. A tournament would be 3-5 games per tournament plus at least 1 scrimmage every week against teams within a 2hr drive. Tournaments were up and down the East coast from Maine to Florida and as far west as Tenn.. I love how people cry about travel in a travel league. Play in house & scholastic instead. If you have a good team manager you played 50+ games in the DVHL also. As a PeeWee B American a few yrs back between league/NL and tournaments we would have hit 63 games if it weren't for the gov shutting down the world in the name of covid. He loved every min of it and that what matters.

Your above comments are what is wrong with youth sports. Too many games, too few practices and not enough time to recover. Too many sports are now year round with burnout at all time highs. All sports seasons (hockey, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, soccer) are too long and none of the sports are producing better players. As a matter of fact, ask any USA Governing sports organization and they will tell you players are worse than 20 years ago due to specialization, not developing the full athlete, too many injuries and not enough quality coaching. Of course kids like games, but that is not what makes them better. Practices make them better. A  kid should not specialize until they are at a minimum 14-15 years old. Look at 99% of the pro and college athlete and they all played multiple sports until this age. Just so stupid!

[Guest]

"Ice Hockey is insane. This is the only youth sport that plays 50+ games a year, 8-12 hotel stays, travel to CT, NY, MD, Western PA."

Have you ever played travel baseball? My son played rec ball and travel ball for yrs and we easily played as much as if not more than he has during the last 2 yrs in the AHF. 16rec league games+ playoffs in prep for travel ball were he would play 2-3 tournaments a month from mid June until the beginning of Sept. A tournament would be 3-5 games per tournament plus at least 1 scrimmage every week against teams within a 2hr drive. Tournaments were up and down the East coast from Maine to Florida and as far west as Tenn.. I love how people cry about travel in a travel league. Play in house & scholastic instead. If you have a good team manager you played 50+ games in the DVHL also. As a PeeWee B American a few yrs back between league/NL and tournaments we would have hit 63 games if it weren't for the gov shutting down the world in the name of covid. He loved every min of it and that what matters.

Your above comments are what is wrong with youth sports. Too many games, too few practices and not enough time to recover. Too many sports are now year round with burnout at all time highs. All sports seasons (hockey, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, soccer) are too long and none of the sports are producing better players. As a matter of fact, ask any USA Governing sports organization and they will tell you players are worse than 20 years ago due to specialization, not developing the full athlete, too many injuries and not enough quality coaching. Of course kids like games, but that is not what makes them better. Practices make them better. A  kid should not specialize until they are at a minimum 14-15 years old. Look at 99% of the pro and college athlete and they all played multiple sports until this age. Just so stupid!

Agreed and a lot of the time it's the coaches that drive players away from playing multiple sports. He loved playing both baseball and hockey. His baseball coach is the one that made him decide 1 or the other, he wasn't happy my my kid said okay, turned and walked away. That same coach was the coach the school team. The 1st year for school he was on the team but didn't play because of what happened before. My son was a contact hitter, no power. He had one of the best arms behind the plate, a wall at 1st base, which makes sense for a hockey goalie, and could give you a real solid inning on the mound. That coach was asked to step down the following yr and the new coach asked him return every year since but my kid turned them down. He now plays hockey and golf.

[Guest]

We will see in a couple of weeks which is stronger when the leagues collide at districts. Last year it was the AHF that came on top the most in district playoffs and don't see that being much different this year.

Now lets look at MYR. Based on average per age the AHF is higher then the DVHL at every level in Squirt and Peewee.

Now lets break down Bantam and Midget based on top PA team that play in districts and level average. We will leave the pure 13AA & 15AA out of it since the DVHL don't have them.
It will be level / League top team/ league av
18AA AHF 90.27 / 87.20 DVHL 89.12 / 87.75 - Top team AHF Better Av DVHL
18A   AHF 83.78 / 81.10 DVHL 84.62 / 80.43 - Top team DVHL Better Av AHF
16AA AHF 87.90 / 84.67 DVHL 85.97 / 84.28 - Top team & better Av AHF
16AN AHF 83.11 / 80.26 DVHL 80.40 / 78.64 - Top team & better Av AHF
16Aam AHF 78.70 / 75.48 DVHL 77.21 / 73.62 - Top team & better Av AHF
14AA AHF 87.46 / 85.89 DVHL 86.30 / 83.40 - Top team & better Av AHF
14AN AHF 82.61 / 80.64 DVHL 82.65 / 79.18 - Top team DVHL Better Av AHF
14Aam AHF 79.66 / 76.66 DVHL 78.04 / 75.51 - Top team & better Av AHF
14B  AHF 76.18 / 72.03 DVHL 75.76 / 71.30 - Top team & Av AHF
AHF 15AA falls between the DVHL 16AA /16AN & the AHF 13AA is in line with DVHL 14AN

I know you said at your age but no age does it look to hold true. The numbers are close but majority swing to the AHF.

You're using some HPR style math...ignoring the fact that we play in more than one league. And we do field a 13aa squad, which is ranked higher than all but one of the ahf squads in PA Competitve hockey is not exclusive to the ahf.

[Guest]

MHR don't give a crap how many leagues or tournaments you are in. It all goes under one ranking.

[justahockeydad]

We will see in a couple of weeks which is stronger when the leagues collide at districts. Last year it was the AHF that came on top the most in district playoffs and don't see that being much different this year.

Now lets look at MYR. Based on average per age the AHF is higher then the DVHL at every level in Squirt and Peewee.

Now lets break down Bantam and Midget based on top PA team that play in districts and level average. We will leave the pure 13AA & 15AA out of it since the DVHL don't have them.
It will be level / League top team/ league av
18AA AHF 90.27 / 87.20 DVHL 89.12 / 87.75 - Top team AHF Better Av DVHL
18A   AHF 83.78 / 81.10 DVHL 84.62 / 80.43 - Top team DVHL Better Av AHF
16AA AHF 87.90 / 84.67 DVHL 85.97 / 84.28 - Top team & better Av AHF
16AN AHF 83.11 / 80.26 DVHL 80.40 / 78.64 - Top team & better Av AHF
16Aam AHF 78.70 / 75.48 DVHL 77.21 / 73.62 - Top team & better Av AHF
14AA AHF 87.46 / 85.89 DVHL 86.30 / 83.40 - Top team & better Av AHF
14AN AHF 82.61 / 80.64 DVHL 82.65 / 79.18 - Top team DVHL Better Av AHF
14Aam AHF 79.66 / 76.66 DVHL 78.04 / 75.51 - Top team & better Av AHF
14B  AHF 76.18 / 72.03 DVHL 75.76 / 71.30 - Top team & Av AHF
AHF 15AA falls between the DVHL 16AA /16AN & the AHF 13AA is in line with DVHL 14AN

I know you said at your age but no age does it look to hold true. The numbers are close but majority swing to the AHF.

You're using some HPR style math...ignoring the fact that we play in more than one league. And we do field a 13aa squad, which is ranked higher than all but one of the ahf squads in PA Competitve hockey is not exclusive to the ahf.

so you must be in the EJ or NJ because the DVHL doesn't have 13AA. I looked and the #s they posted are right off of MHR so not sure about the math thing. The comment was more a DVHL / AHF comparison thinking that you were DVHL.

[Guest]

MHR don't give a crap how many leagues or tournaments you are in. It all goes under one ranking.

I was referring to that posters own averages that he calculated, i.e. ahf vs. dvhl. For non-ahf teams, the dvhl is under half of the season (and not all non-ahf teams play in the dvhl at all...like the the age pure teams, for instance).

[Guest]

We will see in a couple of weeks which is stronger when the leagues collide at districts. Last year it was the AHF that came on top the most in district playoffs and don't see that being much different this year.

Now lets look at MYR. Based on average per age the AHF is higher then the DVHL at every level in Squirt and Peewee.

Now lets break down Bantam and Midget based on top PA team that play in districts and level average. We will leave the pure 13AA & 15AA out of it since the DVHL don't have them.
It will be level / League top team/ league av
18AA AHF 90.27 / 87.20 DVHL 89.12 / 87.75 - Top team AHF Better Av DVHL
18A   AHF 83.78 / 81.10 DVHL 84.62 / 80.43 - Top team DVHL Better Av AHF
16AA AHF 87.90 / 84.67 DVHL 85.97 / 84.28 - Top team & better Av AHF
16AN AHF 83.11 / 80.26 DVHL 80.40 / 78.64 - Top team & better Av AHF
16Aam AHF 78.70 / 75.48 DVHL 77.21 / 73.62 - Top team & better Av AHF
14AA AHF 87.46 / 85.89 DVHL 86.30 / 83.40 - Top team & better Av AHF
14AN AHF 82.61 / 80.64 DVHL 82.65 / 79.18 - Top team DVHL Better Av AHF
14Aam AHF 79.66 / 76.66 DVHL 78.04 / 75.51 - Top team & better Av AHF
14B  AHF 76.18 / 72.03 DVHL 75.76 / 71.30 - Top team & Av AHF
AHF 15AA falls between the DVHL 16AA /16AN & the AHF 13AA is in line with DVHL 14AN

I know you said at your age but no age does it look to hold true. The numbers are close but majority swing to the AHF.

You're using some HPR style math...ignoring the fact that we play in more than one league. And we do field a 13aa squad, which is ranked higher than all but one of the ahf squads in PA Competitve hockey is not exclusive to the ahf.

so you must be in the EJ because the DVHL doesn't have 13AA. I looked and the #s they posted are right off of MHR so not sure about the math thing. The comment was more a DVHL / AHF comparison thinking that you were DVHL and since it looks you are EJ you are not in the AAHA district and the poster probably could careless about your team. No where was the comment made that other leagues aren't competitive, the comment was that the numbers are close.

Yea, there are no ej teams in teams in the aaha. And no dvhl teams that play in ej.