Quote:
Originally Posted by undercoverbrother
This is the most ridiculous idea around in my mind. "Elite" doesn't exist at that age, athletic development isn't linear.
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Agreed 100%. But part of the issue is these independent 'leagues' have sprung up and are taking kids from the Hockey Alberta stream. When you have Atom teams marketing themselves as AAA the kids (and parents) buy into it. I think this is also part of the reason sports schools have really taken off - it givens parents another avenue to send their kids when they don't make the traditional elite teams. When my kids played we had three very good goalies in our system, all the same age. Obviously at two goalies per team one of them was not going to be on the top team. As soon as they hit bantam they all tried out for quadrant. One made the AAA bantam team, the other two were cut and immediately transferred to schools rather than go back to community. All three stayed in those respective streams for the rest of minor hockey and were drafted to the WHL (only one stuck with his team). Point being parents see these as viable alternatives and won't hesitate to yank their kids if they think it will get them ahead. Like it or not Hockey Calgary probably felt like they needed to do this to remain competitive.