AAA Hockey — I call. Who is from what program accepted into WLC and TM — and please list the birth year —

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with dad coaches isn’t their lack of hockey experience. It’s their tendency to give preferential treatment to their kids and friends, both in team selection and ice time. This is rampant on the girls side. Whenever i see parent coaches i get an uneasy feeling. IMO it’s too risky.

This is exactly the same with paid coaches. The ones who pay those coaches for private lessons end up making the team and get more playing time.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t TM or WLC brag up their new recruits like any school program would . . . E.g., “We get students from NYC to Seattle.”

Partial because with all of the 24-25 rosters on the tier 2 program websites, it would become obvious that many of the new recruits were 2nd liners on their old AA teams and not true AAA talent.

Wow, what a rude thing to say, and based on the kids I know, not true at all.

Don't get me wrong, you can build a solid team by putting together the 4th and 5th best players of every AA team in the area plus a few first liners, since you get good average talent. But it's not a AAA level team, which is why TM and WLC play AA in legit tournaments like Quebec Peewee.

If you took every eligible player in the area at a birth year, ranked them, then equally split the top ones onto two equal teams (WLC and TM), you'd have pretty solid teams. But that never happens, so many of the best players stick on AA rosters because WLC and TM are not convenient and haven't historically had the best development models.

While the development model at TM and WLC is pretty bad, there is absolutely zero development at most AA teams in this area - at least in our experience. Too many Dad coaches or coaches who have no idea what they are doing. I have 2 players and between them we’ve hit AA, WLC and TM. I’d say it’s about equally bad at all.

I see a lot of complaints about dad coaches and I agree parents can be hit or miss but for most of the teams out there there just aren't that many good paid coaches to be found. I use St James as an example - every time we play them they have 1 or 2 coaches on the bench and they hit the exit as soon as the game ends. They are usually college kids who played ACHA, it's not like they have years of coaching experience or played D1 or pro. Our team's coach is a dad who played D1 and has been coaching 10 year+. I'd rather him than one of those "pro" coaches who play in C level beer league.

This. This. 100% this. It's insane how many people just see "professional coach" and don't realize it's someone who played on an ACHA D3 team with no tryouts and they have zero years of coaching experience. Just because you pay someone do do something doesn't mean they are good at it. If the best coach available is one of my son's teammate's parents, I'm fine with that. If they aren't doing a good job or are unfair, I'll talk to the organization and make them aware. But I've had much better experience around here with parent coaches than professional ones. Heck, Little Caesars has one of the best AAA programs in the country and they have a lot of parent coaches (granted, they are former NHLers).

The difference between a "professional coach" and a dad coach is that the professional coach is someone else's dad or isn't a dad yet and gets paid for the gig. But let's be real here, you don't need NHL or D1 or even DIII playing experience to coach mites, squirts and peewees at almost all levels of competition. There are plenty of people with that experience who suck at coaching. With those ages, the job is more child psychology than the Xs and Os. At a higher level yes, it would be great to have more coaches in this area who have higher level experience and are also good at coaching but this area just doesn't have a lot of those people like other areas up north do. Maybe that will change over time. But if a 20 something with ACHA experience is a good human being who knows how to communicate and motivate children then they will be a great coach for 95% of the kids in the age group playing in this area. If a dad coach has the same qualities and doesn't favor or seem to favor his kid, then they should be allowed to coach too.

This would be great if true, but if you look at the standings in CBHL the programs with more paid coaches tend to underperform those who use less paid coaches. Paid coaches are a waste of money unless it's Tier 1 and you are hiring the best available coaches.

[Anonymous]

lol WLC had a coach like that when my kid played for them. ACHA is not professional and they are unqualified to be coaching a AAA team. The guys mom would show up to all of the games, it was really weird. If I'm paying the costs of AAA hockey, there better be a highly qualified coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote: Nobody’s going to answer this.

I will. No one from the Caps Hockey program in my child’s age group got into WLC.

So stick that in your pipe and smoke it previous post.

Which age group? My kid was not interested but maybe of his teammates were.

Several kids from our CHA year made it, both Little Caps and Team Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol WLC had a coach like that when my kid played for them. ACHA is not professional and they are unqualified to be coaching a AAA team. The guys mom would show up to all of the games, it was really weird. If I'm paying the costs of AAA hockey, there better be a highly qualified coach.

Yep. This is exactly it. Sure, if the coach you are paying is an elite-level coach who knows how to teach kids, sure. But if I'm just paying for some 22 year old who has no passion or experience coaching, then I'll save my money. The cost of paid coach works out to be the same cost of 15-20 extra practices per year...I'd rather my son had that ice time instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol WLC had a coach like that when my kid played for them. ACHA is not professional and they are unqualified to be coaching a AAA team. The guys mom would show up to all of the games, it was really weird. If I'm paying the costs of AAA hockey, there better be a highly qualified coach.

At the AAA level I agree with you, especially with the older kids, but what percent of the kids that are playing are playing at that at that level? 5%? 10%? For the vast majority of kids playing, an ACHA experienced coach is fine. Trust me, a Lower A 9 year old doesn't need a D1 coach to become and better hockey player, they need coaches who care, run good practices and keep the kids engaged and excited about coming to the rink. If they continue to grow and develop in the game someone else down the line will be there to teach them the advance breakout progression and how to deal with a two-man forecheck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lol WLC had a coach like that when my kid played for them. ACHA is not professional and they are unqualified to be coaching a AAA team. The guys mom would show up to all of the games, it was really weird. If I'm paying the costs of AAA hockey, there better be a highly qualified coach.

At the AAA level I agree with you, especially with the older kids, but what percent of the kids that are playing are playing at that at that level? 5%? 10%? For the vast majority of kids playing, an ACHA experienced coach is fine. Trust me, a Lower A 9 year old doesn't need a D1 coach to become and better hockey player, they need coaches who care, run good practices and keep the kids engaged and excited about coming to the rink. If they continue to grow and develop in the game someone else down the line will be there to teach them the advance breakout progression and how to deal with a two-man forecheck.

But my big question is whether a Lower A 9 year old benefits from paying $1000 extra a season to to have an ACHA experienced rookie coach. You end up paying the same amount for an experienced Level 5 coach, a former pro, or a low level/inexperience ACHA player, so I'd rather get a better coach if I'm paying for it. Otherwise, get a high quality parent volunteer and save the team 10-15k.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone explain why AAA is over 6k for basic fees, not including team, jersey, and travel fees, when you still only get two practices a week on half ice/shared ice? I'd like to know why they can get away with charging double the price of Tier 2 AA, not providing highly qualified, experienced coaches, but practices are exactly the same as AA and, in some cases, worse than AA, since some AA clubs here offer full-ice practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why AAA is over 6k for basic fees, not including team, jersey, and travel fees, when you still only get two practices a week on half ice/shared ice? I'd like to know why they can get away with charging double the price of Tier 2 AA, not providing highly qualified, experienced coaches, but practices are exactly the same as AA and, in some cases, worse than AA, since some AA clubs here offer full-ice practices.

If costs a lot of money for the ink to print that extra A on everything. Seriously though, they probably have more games than a AA team. It's wasteful though, because no matter what anyone tells you youth sports should be developmental even at the AAA level and practices do this kids a lot more benefit than games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why AAA is over 6k for basic fees, not including team, jersey, and travel fees, when you still only get two practices a week on half ice/shared ice? I'd like to know why they can get away with charging double the price of Tier 2 AA, not providing highly qualified, experienced coaches, but practices are exactly the same as AA and, in some cases, worse than AA, since some AA clubs here offer full-ice practices.

Because they know parents are willing to pay it. It’s that simple. We are the suckers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why AAA is over 6k for basic fees, not including team, jersey, and travel fees, when you still only get two practices a week on half ice/shared ice? I'd like to know why they can get away with charging double the price of Tier 2 AA, not providing highly qualified, experienced coaches, but practices are exactly the same as AA and, in some cases, worse than AA, since some AA clubs here offer full-ice practices.

If costs a lot of money for the ink to print that extra A on everything. Seriously though, they probably have more games than a AA team. It's wasteful though, because no matter what anyone tells you youth sports should be developmental even at the AAA level and practices do this kids a lot more benefit than games.

They play the same nunber of games as AA and in some cases less than AA.

[Anonymous]

Several tier 2 teams in the DMV play in multiple leagues and regularly play 60+ games a season