DMV Girls Travel Hockey Clubs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wild that MedStar can’t field a decent girls program with all their AllHer bluster

The dmv has a better girls network than most metro areas. Having three levels of cbhl girls is great thing. But as far as national bound aa goes, there’s really only enough girls for two (maybe 3) teams that are deep enough to compete deep into the season. Stj is going to get all the girls from Va, and myha will get most of the girls from western moco and Frederick counties. tri city can attract girls from eastern moco, pg, Anne arundel, Howard co, etc, so they can be good as well. but beyond that, there’s no room for other clubs to field competitive nationally bound teams, Medstar included.

CHA doesn't need to be AA. They could enter teams into the Silver or Bronze divisions and I'd count that as a success. It would almost be better that way, since a lot of the AA girls programs don't have good fallback options for girls who get cut. It's not like up north where each org has a AA, A, and B team option - it's AA or bust with some of the teams.

This - They have to start somewhere and retain the girls entering LTP and RHL. Not going to build a program if you lose 10-12 girls every 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wild that MedStar can’t field a decent girls program with all their AllHer bluster

The dmv has a better girls network than most metro areas. Having three levels of cbhl girls is great thing. But as far as national bound aa goes, there’s really only enough girls for two (maybe 3) teams that are deep enough to compete deep into the season. Stj is going to get all the girls from Va, and myha will get most of the girls from western moco and Frederick counties. tri city can attract girls from eastern moco, pg, Anne arundel, Howard co, etc, so they can be good as well. but beyond that, there’s no room for other clubs to field competitive nationally bound teams, Medstar included.

CHA doesn't need to be AA. They could enter teams into the Silver or Bronze divisions and I'd count that as a success. It would almost be better that way, since a lot of the AA girls programs don't have good fallback options for girls who get cut. It's not like up north where each org has a AA, A, and B team option - it's AA or bust with some of the teams.

This - They have to start somewhere and retain the girls entering LTP and RHL. Not going to build a program if you lose 10-12 girls every 2 years.

My one worry with the CHA Girls program for next year is that they still list the cost for it as TBD - that has me worried that they don't know if it will be one or two practices a week, or some other schedule that is not as full as the coed teams. I hope that they do it right and make it a proper travel team and not a House Selects type of team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MYHA has two 12U and 14U girls teams at each age, so that probably helps if coming down to tryout.

Their 12U Blue team is a wagon…👀

Did they just do regular tryouts to pick the Blue and Gold 12U teams, top to Blue and next best to Gold? I've been at the rink and seen both teams a few times, and thought while Blue was definitely better there were a few Gold players who were much stronger than the weaker Blue players. I didn't know if maybe it was a major/minor split or some of the Gold players didn't want to do the coed schedule or something. Or maybe it was just that some players developed more between tryouts and the season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MYHA has two 12U and 14U girls teams at each age, so that probably helps if coming down to tryout.

Their 12U Blue team is a wagon…👀

Did they just do regular tryouts to pick the Blue and Gold 12U teams, top to Blue and next best to Gold? I've been at the rink and seen both teams a few times, and thought while Blue was definitely better there were a few Gold players who were much stronger than the weaker Blue players. I didn't know if maybe it was a major/minor split or some of the Gold players didn't want to do the coed schedule or something. Or maybe it was just that some players developed more between tryouts and the season.

Pure speculation from me because my daughter plays for one of the older MYHA teams and I don't know any of the 12U families, but here's what I have heard.

For the past few years there has been a lot of grumbling about why we aren't clearly the top girls program in the area since we are a bigger program, more players to choose from, etc. Last year St James had a team win Nationals. This year they have higher ranked teams than us at 10U, 14U, and 19U and we have the edge at 12U and 16U...but most of our families wonder why we aren't the top team in 5/5 age groups. Just a general sense of why they have been getting the edge on us the past few years.

I think they are throwing a lot of resources at their 2014 birth year which is strong in the hopes they can become one of the top teams nationally. As you might expect, they want this to go long-term so they picked their elite Blue team to have players who have been with the program longer and they expect to stick around for years to come. Don't blame em at all for that, but I think that could be why you see some weaker players on the Blue team compared to some better (but newer to MYHA) players on the Gold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MYHA has two 12U and 14U girls teams at each age, so that probably helps if coming down to tryout.

Their 12U Blue team is a wagon…👀

Did they just do regular tryouts to pick the Blue and Gold 12U teams, top to Blue and next best to Gold? I've been at the rink and seen both teams a few times, and thought while Blue was definitely better there were a few Gold players who were much stronger than the weaker Blue players. I didn't know if maybe it was a major/minor split or some of the Gold players didn't want to do the coed schedule or something. Or maybe it was just that some players developed more between tryouts and the season.

Pure speculation from me because my daughter plays for one of the older MYHA teams and I don't know any of the 12U families, but here's what I have heard.

For the past few years there has been a lot of grumbling about why we aren't clearly the top girls program in the area since we are a bigger program, more players to choose from, etc. Last year St James had a team win Nationals. This year they have higher ranked teams than us at 10U, 14U, and 19U and we have the edge at 12U and 16U...but most of our families wonder why we aren't the top team in 5/5 age groups. Just a general sense of why they have been getting the edge on us the past few years.

I think they are throwing a lot of resources at their 2014 birth year which is strong in the hopes they can become one of the top teams nationally. As you might expect, they want this to go long-term so they picked their elite Blue team to have players who have been with the program longer and they expect to stick around for years to come. Don't blame em at all for that, but I think that could be why you see some weaker players on the Blue team compared to some better (but newer to MYHA) players on the Gold.

Clueless about the 12U team but yah we hate when STJ beats us. Makes for a good local rivalry no matter the age group but want us to start winning more of the battles.

[Anonymous]

Hearing that STJ has left AGHF for this upcoming season, so I wonder if they will have fewer games (compared to MYHA, Potomac, Loudoun, etc)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearing that STJ has left AGHF for this upcoming season, so I wonder if they will have fewer games (compared to MYHA, Potomac, Loudoun, etc)?

They will not have any fewer. They will just schedule more games against better AA teams - many of the AGHF games ended up being farther drives to play teams that weren't all that great. This way they can pre-schedule games against other strong programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MYHA has two 12U and 14U girls teams at each age, so that probably helps if coming down to tryout.

Their 12U Blue team is a wagon…👀

Did they just do regular tryouts to pick the Blue and Gold 12U teams, top to Blue and next best to Gold? I've been at the rink and seen both teams a few times, and thought while Blue was definitely better there were a few Gold players who were much stronger than the weaker Blue players. I didn't know if maybe it was a major/minor split or some of the Gold players didn't want to do the coed schedule or something. Or maybe it was just that some players developed more between tryouts and the season.

They did do regular tryouts for the 12u girls teams last year. I believe if someone were to watch more than a few practices and saw games they would conclude that the girls are appropriately placed. Both teams had majors and minors, but the blue team was mostly 2014s. It is essentially a girls AAA team - they made playoffs in the CBHL UA co-ed division and in the AHF, and are on track to play co-ed AA this year (along with AAA girls tournaments). To address another poster’s comments, I don’t think MYHA is throwing extra resources at the blue team, but the families pay a bit more for, e.g., extra tournaments and the girls/families are focused on development similar to how AAA teams approach it. In terms of MYHA taking certain steps to keep the 12u girls long term, I’m not sure that’s a motivation as most of the girls will go to the Pride at 14u (or another girls’ AAA organization).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearing that STJ has left AGHF for this upcoming season, so I wonder if they will have fewer games (compared to MYHA, Potomac, Loudoun, etc)?

Aghf sucks. Tri city, stj, and myha drive up to New Jersey several times a year to play each other. No aghf is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Why on earth are we doing fall tryouts in March? Every other major program in the country holds their camps in May?

Is this a money grab?

[Anonymous]

Only 10U and 12U are trying out now. Everyone else is trying out in April. Tryout dates are essentially set by the association. Tier II can't tryout until after Tier I hockey tryouts occur. Tier I hockey tryouts don't happen until after Nationals are done. Everything is earlier this year because Nationals is taking place earlier (next wek).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why on earth are we doing fall tryouts in March? Every other major program in the country holds their camps in May?

Is this a money grab?

I like it because you don’t need to spend as much time and money on pretryout clinics. The kids can get their teams set for next year and take a break, do other sports, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MYHA has two 12U and 14U girls teams at each age, so that probably helps if coming down to tryout.

Their 12U Blue team is a wagon…👀

Did they just do regular tryouts to pick the Blue and Gold 12U teams, top to Blue and next best to Gold? I've been at the rink and seen both teams a few times, and thought while Blue was definitely better there were a few Gold players who were much stronger than the weaker Blue players. I didn't know if maybe it was a major/minor split or some of the Gold players didn't want to do the coed schedule or something. Or maybe it was just that some players developed more between tryouts and the season.

They did do regular tryouts for the 12u girls teams last year. I believe if someone were to watch more than a few practices and saw games they would conclude that the girls are appropriately placed. Both teams had majors and minors, but the blue team was mostly 2014s. It is essentially a girls AAA team - they made playoffs in the CBHL UA co-ed division and in the AHF, and are on track to play co-ed AA this year (along with AAA girls tournaments). To address another poster’s comments, I don’t think MYHA is throwing extra resources at the blue team, but the families pay a bit more for, e.g., extra tournaments and the girls/families are focused on development similar to how AAA teams approach it. In terms of MYHA taking certain steps to keep the 12u girls long term, I’m not sure that’s a motivation as most of the girls will go to the Pride at 14u (or another girls’ AAA organization).

Apparently there were a lot of complaints about 12U Blue taking "friends and family" instead of the best overall players at tryouts this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MYHA has two 12U and 14U girls teams at each age, so that probably helps if coming down to tryout.

Their 12U Blue team is a wagon…👀

Did they just do regular tryouts to pick the Blue and Gold 12U teams, top to Blue and next best to Gold? I've been at the rink and seen both teams a few times, and thought while Blue was definitely better there were a few Gold players who were much stronger than the weaker Blue players. I didn't know if maybe it was a major/minor split or some of the Gold players didn't want to do the coed schedule or something. Or maybe it was just that some players developed more between tryouts and the season.

They did do regular tryouts for the 12u girls teams last year. I believe if someone were to watch more than a few practices and saw games they would conclude that the girls are appropriately placed. Both teams had majors and minors, but the blue team was mostly 2014s. It is essentially a girls AAA team - they made playoffs in the CBHL UA co-ed division and in the AHF, and are on track to play co-ed AA this year (along with AAA girls tournaments). To address another poster’s comments, I don’t think MYHA is throwing extra resources at the blue team, but the families pay a bit more for, e.g., extra tournaments and the girls/families are focused on development similar to how AAA teams approach it. In terms of MYHA taking certain steps to keep the 12u girls long term, I’m not sure that’s a motivation as most of the girls will go to the Pride at 14u (or another girls’ AAA organization).

Apparently there were a lot of complaints about 12U Blue taking "friends and family" instead of the best overall players at tryouts this year.[/

Sounds like sour grapes. Decisions have to be made (with considerations like positions, etc) and the strongest team was selected. If they did indeed take friends and family who aren’t qualified for the team then I guess they won’t be as strong, which would be a very odd choice given the lofty goals of this team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MYHA has two 12U and 14U girls teams at each age, so that probably helps if coming down to tryout.

Their 12U Blue team is a wagon…👀

Did they just do regular tryouts to pick the Blue and Gold 12U teams, top to Blue and next best to Gold? I've been at the rink and seen both teams a few times, and thought while Blue was definitely better there were a few Gold players who were much stronger than the weaker Blue players. I didn't know if maybe it was a major/minor split or some of the Gold players didn't want to do the coed schedule or something. Or maybe it was just that some players developed more between tryouts and the season.

They did do regular tryouts for the 12u girls teams last year. I believe if someone were to watch more than a few practices and saw games they would conclude that the girls are appropriately placed. Both teams had majors and minors, but the blue team was mostly 2014s. It is essentially a girls AAA team - they made playoffs in the CBHL UA co-ed division and in the AHF, and are on track to play co-ed AA this year (along with AAA girls tournaments). To address another poster’s comments, I don’t think MYHA is throwing extra resources at the blue team, but the families pay a bit more for, e.g., extra tournaments and the girls/families are focused on development similar to how AAA teams approach it. In terms of MYHA taking certain steps to keep the 12u girls long term, I’m not sure that’s a motivation as most of the girls will go to the Pride at 14u (or another girls’ AAA organization).



Apparently there were a lot of complaints about 12U Blue taking "friends and family" instead of the best overall players at tryouts this year.[/

Sounds like sour grapes. Decisions have to be made (with considerations like positions, etc) and the strongest team was selected. If they did indeed take friends and family who aren’t qualified for the team then I guess they won’t be as strong, which would be a very odd choice given the lofty goals of this team.

My kids are both boys so I have no insight into the girls program, but I looked at the jersey numbers that made the two 12U Girls teams and skipped around during some of the LiveBarn for their tryouts. Some of the choices seemed....questionable. I don't know these players and only watched about 10-15 minutes but some of the players I thought would be cut from both teams ended up on Blue. No idea if this is the friends/family thing being discussed, but some super weird decisions.