Mass Exodus from Philly Rink/Teams?

[Guest]

Any truth to Wissahickon and them losing tons of kids due to the way management handled Covid? I did hear last week that they lost a lot of talented players at the Squirt/Pee Wee levels, not sure the exact reason why they left but Covid and the rink being closed might have played a part.

[Guest]

Any truth to Wissahickon and them losing tons of kids due to the way management handled Covid? I did hear last week that they lost a lot of talented players at the Squirt/Pee Wee levels, not sure the exact reason why they left but Covid and the rink being closed might have played a part.

Based on their website, they are still fielding 14 teams which seems normal for a club of their size. Maybe some better players left because they don't seem to field very competitive teams, but with 3 squirt, 4 PW and 4 Bantam, that doesn't seem like a mass exit.
Also, I have no idea of what their covid protocols were other than when we played against them in March, but weren't they pretty much at the mercy of the city at that point? Hard to blame the club when they had to deal with local rules?

[Guest]

Yes there was a handful of players that left, my son plays at Wiss at the Pee Wee level. I believe they lost the top upcoming 3 or 4 squirt players as they went to higher level programs, also i think a few Pee Wee players went to AAA-AA teams but other than that all Teams have 17-20 players. As for protocols at Wiss, i personally don't like the way they handled it. They could have let in parents and they could have let kids practice. That comes from the club not the city. So i did think politics came in play here. But oh well its over with now and were happy to be playing again.

[Guest]

Any truth to Wissahickon and them losing tons of kids due to the way management handled Covid? I did hear last week that they lost a lot of talented players at the Squirt/Pee Wee levels, not sure the exact reason why they left but Covid and the rink being closed might have played a part.

They didn't have any choice. Kenney would shut them down if found to be actively allowing people in. They didn't want to do it they had to.

[Guest]

The Blazers, Wiss, Snider, and Rizzo Rink are the only clubs that play within the city limits.  They were all subject to the whims of the Mayor.  You can’t blame the clubs when the Mayor specifically says no youth ice hockey.

[Guest]

The Blazers 16 AA team played close to 70 games. It would appear that teams were not limited by the whims of the mayor but it came down to, did a team really want to play and find a way, or were they “choosing“ to shut it down and be a sheep to the ridiculous restrictions?

[Guest]

We paid alot for ice rentals and played all over the place but home. If you want your kid to play you find a way and pay. Thank you for the memories Wintersport

[Guest]

The Blazers aren’t tied to a facility like Wissahickon is.  The Blazers played a lot of games at Grundy Arena.

Wissahickon on the other hand maintains their own facility and under normal circumstances would not play many home games away from WSC.  They already paid for a lot of outside ice at Hatfield.  At some point, the club just can’t afford anymore outside ice unless the parents wanted to pay for it.  The maintenance of the WSC rink and the associated cost didn’t go away just because the kids didn’t play there.

[Guest]

So not playing had nothing to do with choosing to "obey the Covid rules" or concerns about Covid health....and the only reason you didn't play more was purely financial?  So if money was no issue you would have taken the initiative to find alternative ice (where they looked the other way to allow parents to watch), hire refs and find and schedule 30plus non-league games?  I suspect not...and because of that lack of initiative and the decision to simply shrug your shoulders and say "it's the Mayor's fault", might be why people are leaving.  The kids (and the parents that were paying for it) deserved an organization that was very aggressive to ensure the season would not be ridiculously abbreviated. 

[Guest]

I don't think it's fair to expect the club to spend itself into bankruptcy buying outside ice.  Doing so just to appease parents would leave no club going forward.  They also can't control if another rink is following the state/CDC guidance or not.

The whole Covid situation just sucks.  It's no one's fault and a lot of people had to make tough decisions to do what they thought were best to get through it.  Hopefully we're going to return to normal in the fall.