The Minor Hockey Thread

[Northendzone]

my sons' midget AA season has gotten off to a choppy and weird start. Tryouts started something like August 26. It is now October 15 and the boys have played two regular season games. The last played on Friday the 5th. They then had about 10 days off with a load of practices - including several 1.5 hr ice times and they play again wednesday, as they now have something like 6 games before the end of october.

Since he drives himself to practices, i feel like i have not seen him on the ice in a veruy long time.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

i am assuming that everyone has now completed their evaluations and are on teams.

what is your thought on the team your child is on - feeling good, expected, dissapointed?

My son made one of the two AA Pee Wee teams as a first year player in our association. His coach got fleeced in the draft and most of the experience (2nd year players who played AA Pee Wee as first years) went to the other team. As a result we are 1-4 and 2nd last in goals for in the league. On the bright side we are third in goals allowed. It is going to be a long 5 months. I just hope he can stay mentally strong and continue to compete.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Deegee

There is no such thing as Atom AA in Alberta either. There is an Atom AA classification for provincials (based on registered kids in a level of play), but during season play there is Tier/Div 1 and that's it.

Our association calls the two Tier 1 Atom teams AA. We had playoffs the last two years for in Atom for AA Atom Major.

[Deegee]

Let me clarify. There is no such thing as Atom AA in Alberta. You don't have larger centres owning draw zones for tryouts. You don't have MHAs signing permission for tryouts. That's the kind of stuff that happens at the AA level. You get the best of the best in a reduced amount of teams.

Saying you're playing AA in Atom just means you have a lot of kids registered at Atom play. You could be AA Major for provincials, but be a Tier 2 team (like one of Airdrie's teams last year who should have been in Tier 2). You could be Atom B for provincials, but play Tier 1 all year (like we did, with only 25 registered at Atom, one less and we would have been Atom C).

So no, there is no such thing as Atom AA in Alberta. That's a naming thing that reflects how many kids are registered at the Atom level of play for provincial classification. It has absolutely nothing to do with skill of a team or the kids on it.

[Northendzone]

over the weekend my son's midget aa team played a team from outside of Calgary, and they won rather handily. my son believed the team that lost was made up of half 15 yr olds, and then some 16 & 17 yr olds - compared to my sons team who are all 16/17.

over the course of about 5 games, this team is losing games by 7 or more goals per game and they are not scoring very often. out of curiosity I looked up the team and the season fees are around $3,500. would be a long season as a parent to constantly see your kid not even be on a team that has a chance for that kind of money.

I have to admit I was rather surprised to see a rural team that was so thin on talent as in my opinion they likely had one or two players that would have made a midget aa team in Calgary.

it will likely be a long season for this team.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Mccree

Pee Wee 3. Happy with the results but still just hate evaluations.

Yo, we might play you.

The boy is playing BV PeeWee 3 White.

Where is your boy.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

over the weekend my son's midget aa team played a team from outside of Calgary, and they won rather handily. my son believed the team that lost was made up of half 15 yr olds, and then some 16 & 17 yr olds - compared to my sons team who are all 16/17.

over the course of about 5 games, this team is losing games by 7 or more goals per game and they are not scoring very often. out of curiosity I looked up the team and the season fees are around $3,500. would be a long season as a parent to constantly see your kid not even be on a team that has a chance for that kind of money.

I have to admit I was rather surprised to see a rural team that was so thin on talent as in my opinion they likely had one or two players that would have made a midget aa team in Calgary.

it will likely be a long season for this team.

I initially thought 15 year olds were not eligible to play MAA but I think that is only a Hockey Calgary thing (maybe Edmonton too?) where there is a Minor Midget option for younger players.

here is the AA model that Alberta follows, you can find the draw areas for each team so maybe this particular team is just thin on older kids in these particular towns. The draw areas may be slightly different now, this is from 2014 I think and with the redrawing of MAAA last year I think some of the AA draw areas may have been adjusted.

http://cloud.rampinteractive.com/kit...ockeyModel.pdf

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Yo, we might play you.

The boy is playing BV PeeWee 3 White.

Where is your boy.

We are McKnight Mustangs PW3 orange, I think we played you already and you beat us 7-1

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Mccree

We are McKnight Mustangs PW3 orange, I think we played you already and you beat us 7-1

Oh yeah I was the score keeper for that game. Not sure it was a good representation of you guys.

2nd half of the game was close, it felt like you guys came out real slow and were a bit intimidated by our size.

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

I initially thought 15 year olds were not eligible to play MAA but I think that is only a Hockey Calgary thing (maybe Edmonton too?) where there is a Minor Midget option for younger players.

here is the AA model that Alberta follows, you can find the draw areas for each team so maybe this particular team is just thin on older kids in these particular towns. The draw areas may be slightly different now, this is from 2014 I think and with the redrawing of MAAA last year I think some of the AA draw areas may have been adjusted.

http://cloud.rampinteractive.com/kit...ockeyModel.pdf

I assumed that this team was likely thin on 15 yr olds - so they not form a minor midget team, and they were likely thin on 16/17 yr olds - so they needed the 15's to round out the team.

i'd further assume that the 15 yr olds on tbhis team, were likely not good enough to make their nearest minor midget team

[Nancy]

If the draw area for Foothills is still the same, then that is 1 team per 32,000 population. Compare that to one team per 125,000 in Calgary.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Oh yeah I was the score keeper for that game. Not sure it was a good representation of you guys.

2nd half of the game was close, it felt like you guys came out real slow and were a bit intimidated by our size.

You guys were huge. haha. That was our 3rd ice time as a team. We have been more competitive but still on the losing side. Some really close games since that massacre.

[Northendzone]

so how is everyone's season going so far.

i would say that my son's team has done better than i initially expected them to as right now they are in a battle for second place in their league and they won a tournament a few weekends ago - first time my son was on a team that was not competing for a B side final game at 8 am on a sunday morning

[Deegee]

Pretty rough season for our group. We're losing a ton.

We're playing in the 2007 Major division of the Hockey Super League this year, with a group of 2006's from Airdrie. There's a handful outside of Airdrie on the team, including my son.

The management of the team selected players of parents they feel would be good fits, and while the development has been good for my son and for many others, the group overall cannot compete with the high level of competition in the Super League.

I do not know if we'll be back based on the cost being higher than minor hockey. Pretty comparable cost to AA in the country (3K) and pretty comparable competition, but if my son were to play Tier 1 out of our local community the cost would be about half that and closer practices.

Our spring team is set and should be more competitive than in year's past. We've had great interest in our program. We're also running a B team this year for our 2007 age group. Our spring program is lower cost at $550.00.

Those interested in finding out more (I see some Peewee parents here) can PM me.

[habernac]

The boy looks pretty good this year after a tough start in evaluations. 2 goals, 2 assists last night. Their goaltending is the big question mark. If they keep playing good team defense, they should be able to win a few.

[undercoverbrother]

The boy is having a good season.

Team is just above .500 but the boy is playing well, driving the lines he is on. He has also been named Captain (which is a surprise at least to me).

[Strange Brew]

High school season starts this weekend, and son playing varsity in grade 9. A little anxious as there are some monster sized kids out there.

[habernac]

Another two goal game this weekend, my son is feeling pretty good about his play so far.

Also, if you're one of those teams who lines up to stretch facing the other team from the red line, I really hope the other team starts shooting pucks at you. We've had Springbank and Blackfoot do this in the past year. Bush league move.

[Mccree]

My son's team is not very good. They still seem to be having fun and that is good, but the overall results have been very poor.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Mccree

My son's team is not very good. They still seem to be having fun and that is good, but the overall results have been very poor.

I'm going to weigh in here, and Mccree I'm not singling you out in particular.

Can I ask you (as parents) what do you consider to be 'good results' or a 'successful' season. I'm seeing comments here about how many games have been won/lost, how many goals players score etc. What about things such as are the kids having fun? Do they want to come to the rink? Are their skills improving (not necessarily goals and assists, but are they skating better, making better passes, better puck and stick skills etc.

As both a parent and a (retired) coach in minor hockey it is easy to get caught up in how many game are won, how many goals are scored etc. As a HC I always told the parents that I did not measure success and results by our win/loss totals. That means squat in the big picture, it is how much the players are improving and their experience that matters most if we want to keep players in the game.

Keep in mind that even at the highest level of minor hockey (the AAA levels of midget and even more so bantam) - this is still considered developmental hockey where skills should be emphasized over stats/game results.

I enjoy this thread and how everyone perceives their season, but I do seem to see more comments on how the team is doing in the standings than how they are doing developmentally.