• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

OT: the joy of minor hockey

Isaac25 said:
No offense but you sound like a parent of a house leaguer...Which is fine because house is great for a lot of kids but others are a better fit in a more advanced system. It's always best when kids play with/vs kids of similar skill sets and desire, competitiveness. Being the kid that dominates at a much lower level isn't fun or good for anybody. I see no value in a kid skating around a bunch of pylons all year and being a superstar.
Click to expand...


I agree. I've coached a number of kids that have the drive to be better and want to be top players. Some I am sure have parent pressure but a lot just love the game. I had a couple kids on my team last year that were just that much better then everyone else. At times I know it wasn't fun or challanging for them.

A lot of parents of kids playing in the lower levels are more pissed off and put just as pressure on their kids then parents of kids playing at the higher levels.
 
Isaac25 said:
No offense but you sound like a parent of a house leaguer...Which is fine because house is great for a lot of kids but others are a better fit in a more advanced system. It's always best when kids play with/vs kids of similar skill sets and desire, competitiveness. Being the kid that dominates at a much lower level isn't fun or good for anybody. I see no value in a kid skating around a bunch of pylons all year and being a superstar.
Click to expand...

You missed my point completely. Was merely suggesting that some parents meddle too much with the evaluations of coaches. Sometimes coaches get it wrong and sometimes they favor kids for biased reasons. Point is, if someone's kid is the victim of an erroneous evaluation and is downgraded to a lower level, he can still have a lot of fun. It is usually parents who make a big deal out of it, rather than just continue to support their kid and not overly put emphasis on decisions that are outside their purview.

If someone's kid wants to play a higher level and is selected to be there, then why not. In my example, it wasn't the kid who chose to be downgraded. So he made the most of it. The following year, that kid was bumped back up to the same competitive level where he had been. That doesn't make me an advocate for house leagues over competitive leagues. There are players suited for each of those environments and I don't have a problem with that.
 
Last edited:
Isaac25 said:
No offense but you sound like a parent of a house leaguer...Which is fine because house is great for a lot of kids but others are a better fit in a more advanced system. It's always best when kids play with/vs kids of similar skill sets and desire, competitiveness. Being the kid that dominates at a much lower level isn't fun or good for anybody. I see no value in a kid skating around a bunch of pylons all year and being a superstar.
Click to expand...

I agree.

My son played one game in the spring with a lower ranked team where he had some friends, they needed players for one game so he played. I was away in SF but according to my sister, he was dominant, was all over the place, scored 7 goals etc. Clearly was beneath his ability.

Right now he is only a middling to lower player at his club but he pushes himself to move up the ladder. As one of the if not the youngest Atom player at the club, I expect him to be on a lower team this year, A4/A5 but I would rather him be there on a good organization than great on a weak one.
 
Isaac25 said:
No offense but you sound like a parent of a house leaguer...Which is fine because house is great for a lot of kids but others are a better fit in a more advanced system. It's always best when kids play with/vs kids of similar skill sets and desire, competitiveness. Being the kid that dominates at a much lower level isn't fun or good for anybody. I see no value in a kid skating around a bunch of pylons all year and being a superstar.
Click to expand...

Hey Folks.
I'm new to the forum but not to the nepotism. I've been trying to change this for 5-6 years and everyone in our league admin hates me. GOOD I say. Now you know I mean business. It is not what the kid chooses or what level they are happy with, it is the level they are placed in at age 7...Select 7, because after that they own the ice and the Travel opportunity until they decide to quit or until the end of their career.
It is 1/3....1/3....1/3.
1/3 makes travel 1/3 wanted to make travel and 1/3 doesn't care where they play and are happy with house league, and they don't want to develop the intermediate player to get better because that player might threaten next years travel player and they may get knocked off the team.
None of this is a written or a spoke rule but just understood. My twin boys made it to the gold medal game 5 years in a row and that is not coincidence, but never make the first cut. The league said I believed my own bad advice and ideas, but I always asked people if they are good and it is a general consensus that they were more than good enough for the first cut or even an AP player, but once again, if he made travel players look bad at the tryouts he may have knocked someone off the team the next year.
Now in Peewee and Bantam the house players get so far behind the travel players now have a valid argument as to the fact those players are better.
The saddest part is at age 7 you can't ignore the other players because they could easily surpass those initial players picked if given the same training opportunities.
Volunteers run the system and enlist whoever they want. We need more structure and transparency in admin and everyone should be paid and new OMHA formed. In my opinion the old one doesn't work but that depends who you ask.
It is all "pigeon holed".
 
My son has been pigeon holed where he plays so even though I thought he was very good in the tryouts (and I am as hard on him as anyone), he ended up on the lowest rep team in his organization. In the end, it might work out ok even though they won't win much because they only have four D so he will get a ton of ice and will build great stamina. He was only on for 3 goals against in five intrasquad and exhibition games but still was placed lower than others. It is what it is.

Worst part though is he is on a team with only 11 players many of whose parents are cheap and don't want to travel this year. His furthest tournament might be a whopping 20km away, woohoo.
 
I was vocal at the parents' meeting that the fun part for the boys is going to each other's rooms in the hotel, and as my wife said, it is a three day play date. One said I only want to spend on hockey, not travel, and put the extra into development. I felt like saying, um your boy has been on the bottom team 3 of 4 years, no matter how much you spend on development, it won't make a difference but I bit my tongue. Last year we probably travelled too much but it was a memorable year.
 
.... tournies were the best part .... the worst was needed a new hockey jacket, etc each year
 
Minor hockey without away tournies would be almost pointless. The boys have so much fun wreaking havoc at hotels. It's funny that hotels now make you sign an anti mini stick waiver and hire lots of robo cops to chase kids around the hotel making sure they comply...
 
Back when I played minor hockey, away tournaments were practically unheard of. We played on Saturday mornings at the same 2-sheet rink. We didn't even travel within the city, let alone out of town. The only away tournament I ever went on was a weekend tourney in Detroit (because our team raised the most money in a skate-a-thon) and even then we didn't stay in a hotel. We were billeted with the families of the Detroit team we were playing against.
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
Back when I played minor hockey, away tournaments were practically unheard of. We played on Saturday mornings at the same 2-sheet rink. We didn't even travel within the city, let alone out of town. The only away tournament I ever went on was a weekend tourney in Detroit (because our team raised the most money in a skate-a-thon) and even then we didn't stay in a hotel. We were billeted with the families of the Detroit team we were playing against.
Click to expand...

Things were different in the fifties.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top