Ice hockey experience

[Anonymous]

How much are Pride fees?

14s and 16s are 7,750. This includes some extras that you don't get in other programs. Uniforms, bags, gloves are all team owned, you don't pay for them, but you don't get to keep them and your name isn't on your jersey. This does not include a team fee for coach travel, but includes all tournament fees.

19s is 14,750 which seems like a lot, but actually ends up being a little cheaper because the team travels together, and the fee includes bus/air/hotel and a lot of the meals while on travel for the girls. And in addition to the stuff that the 14s/16s get, the 19s get duffles for travel, parkas, backpacks, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much are Pride fees?

14s and 16s are 7,750. This includes some extras that you don't get in other programs. Uniforms, bags, gloves are all team owned, you don't pay for them, but you don't get to keep them and your name isn't on your jersey. This does not include a team fee for coach travel, but includes all tournament fees.

19s is 14,750 which seems like a lot, but actually ends up being a little cheaper because the team travels together, and the fee includes bus/air/hotel and a lot of the meals while on travel for the girls. And in addition to the stuff that the 14s/16s get, the 19s get duffles for travel, parkas, backpacks, etc.

How many practices per week do they have?

[Anonymous]

14s and 16s generally have three practices a week. Weeks surrounding a tournament can be two depending on when folks are returning/leaving for the tournament, and generally one practice a week is full ice.

19s will have 3-4 practices a week depending on travel schedule, and generally at least two of those are full ice.

[Anonymous]

14s and 16s generally have three practices a week. Weeks surrounding a tournament can be two depending on when folks are returning/leaving for the tournament, and generally one practice a week is full ice.

19s will have 3-4 practices a week depending on travel schedule, and generally at least two of those are full ice.

[Anonymous]

Is it full ice practices or half ice for Pride?

[Anonymous]

19 usually have at least two full ice practices a week, 16 and 14 one. The other practices are full ice but shared, i.e. two Pride teams on the ice at the same time. They will mix some full ice drills with both teams and then have team time splitting the ice.

[Anonymous]

It would be amazing if they could find a central location for Pride, I feel like you'd end up with truly competitive AAA teams rather than teams that are probably equivalent to high-end Tier 2 teams. I feel like they miss out of so many talented players in our are who can't realistically get to Rockville. It ends up being more of a Team Maryland team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be amazing if they could find a central location for Pride, I feel like you'd end up with truly competitive AAA teams rather than teams that are probably equivalent to high-end Tier 2 teams. I feel like they miss out of so many talented players in our are who can't realistically get to Rockville. It ends up being more of a Team Maryland team.

It's amazing to me how willing some families are to deal with traffic for hockey. There are many kids that mine have played with over the years, co-ed and girls, who are driving to Philly for hockey. We're not that hardcore, but are still coming from VA. On the 19 team (which ended up the year ranked 21 for national bound teams which is not bad) the team was split about half and half MD/VA, and the VA folks were driving from as far as Bentonville/Skyline and Dumfries. Definitely not for the faint of hear. The further drivers tend to be from VA as I think there are more options for kids who live in Baltimore, they could go south or north to Philly/NJ. Believe the club has explored splitting practices between MD and VA in the past, but could not get the ice time to make it work. Most VA rinks are pretty fully subscribed at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be amazing if they could find a central location for Pride, I feel like you'd end up with truly competitive AAA teams rather than teams that are probably equivalent to high-end Tier 2 teams. I feel like they miss out of so many talented players in our are who can't realistically get to Rockville. It ends up being more of a Team Maryland team.

It's amazing to me how willing some families are to deal with traffic for hockey. There are many kids that mine have played with over the years, co-ed and girls, who are driving to Philly for hockey. We're not that hardcore, but are still coming from VA. On the 19 team (which ended up the year ranked 21 for national bound teams which is not bad) the team was split about half and half MD/VA, and the VA folks were driving from as far as Bentonville/Skyline and Dumfries. Definitely not for the faint of hear. The further drivers tend to be from VA as I think there are more options for kids who live in Baltimore, they could go south or north to Philly/NJ. Believe the club has explored splitting practices between MD and VA in the past, but could not get the ice time to make it work. Most VA rinks are pretty fully subscribed at this point.

Given the shortage of ice rinks in the DMV, I would recommend that kids choose a different sport. If you play hockey in a metropolitan area that has a lot of rinks, going to hockey practice is not a huge inconvenience. It is just a short drive.

So perhaps consider having your son/daughter play a field sport -- where practices are at normal times of day and there is more space.

(There is also a shortage of indoor pools in the DMV, relative to the population, and so I do not recommend swimming either.)

The players from areas with more/better facilities will usually be better than even a large metro area like the DMV, because we lack the facilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I would change things - specifically, I would avoid travel hockey and invest in other sports. My kid played several years of AAA hockey, and we're now strongly encouraging (borderline bribing) him to fall back to AA and high school hockey. One year of AAA hockey cost us over $40,000 - including 12 out-of-state tournaments, many that required getting on planes (including some spring/summer trips, which most kids on the team do), equipment, clinics, skills lessons, and some time with a group trainer. Beyond the financial sacrifice, it consumed significant family time and limited our vacations.

Just for fun, I went to the Wisconsin Badgers Men’s webpage to see where the players were from . . . That is they are from no name towns like Altoona Wisconsin to Stockholm Sweden and of course all over Canada: https://www.uscho.com/stats/roster/wisconsin/mens-hockey/

The men’s team is meh this year but women hockey are the champions: they hail from all over the North with one born in LA and one from Annapolis — https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/19433/univ.-of-wisconsin.

You play hockey for the love of the fastest sport in the world, not for college prospects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be amazing if they could find a central location for Pride, I feel like you'd end up with truly competitive AAA teams rather than teams that are probably equivalent to high-end Tier 2 teams. I feel like they miss out of so many talented players in our are who can't realistically get to Rockville. It ends up being more of a Team Maryland team.

It's amazing to me how willing some families are to deal with traffic for hockey. There are many kids that mine have played with over the years, co-ed and girls, who are driving to Philly for hockey. We're not that hardcore, but are still coming from VA. On the 19 team (which ended up the year ranked 21 for national bound teams which is not bad) the team was split about half and half MD/VA, and the VA folks were driving from as far as Bentonville/Skyline and Dumfries. Definitely not for the faint of hear. The further drivers tend to be from VA as I think there are more options for kids who live in Baltimore, they could go south or north to Philly/NJ. Believe the club has explored splitting practices between MD and VA in the past, but could not get the ice time to make it work. Most VA rinks are pretty fully subscribed at this point.

Given the shortage of ice rinks in the DMV, I would recommend that kids choose a different sport. If you play hockey in a metropolitan area that has a lot of rinks, going to hockey practice is not a huge inconvenience. It is just a short drive.

So perhaps consider having your son/daughter play a field sport -- where practices are at normal times of day and there is more space.

(There is also a shortage of indoor pools in the DMV, relative to the population, and so I do not recommend swimming either.)

The players from areas with more/better facilities will usually be better than even a large metro area like the DMV, because we lack the facilities.

This is the most idiotic thing I have ever read. Discouraging people from playing hockey or swimming in the DMV? You realize that two of the best swimmers of all time (Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps) came from the DMV area?

You might as well tell people not to let their kids to play football or baseball since the kids in the south will be better - as they can play outside year round. How about you just STFU and let kids pick sports they enjoy?

[Anonymous]

Even up north, there's no such things as "practices...at normal times of day." There's a shortage of ice time all over. In Duluth, MN, mites largely play outdoors because there just aren't enough indoor rinks. I grew up in a town with one indoor rink, the only one for nearly 60 miles in any direction. We lived and breathed hockey, but could never support a second indoor sheet because of operating costs. So we practiced and played games are weird times. This in a community that has sent people to NCAA division 1 teams (after going to juniors route).

Rinks are expensive to operate. Even places where hockey reigns supreme, there's never enough ice sheets.

[Anonymous]

By the way, two DMV kids ('04 birth year) recently transferred to top-level D1 schools. Not saying that local development got them to where they are (Conmy left after his first PeeWee season (11U), and Robertson left for his 15U season), but this area can produce some talent. And one local '04 kid who has played his entire "career" here in the DMV through juniors (Kareem El-Bashir), is heading to NCAA D1 hockey (Army) in the fall:

(F) Ryan Conmy committed to Boston College (54.3) Conmy was my top-rated forward in the portal, and he makes a ton of sense for a BC team that lost some key forwards to the NHL recently. Through two seasons at UNH, he has been a picture of consistency. He posted 31 points (14g-17a) as a freshman and 33 points (15g-18a) as a sophomore. Now he'll potentially have James Hagens as his center.

(D) Ben Robertson committed to Michigan (36.3) Robertson will play his final two seasons with the Wolverines after two years at Cornell. I had Robertson as one of the top-rated defensemen in the portal. He's undersized by NHL standards (5-foot-11), but that hasn't hindered NCAA players in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be amazing if they could find a central location for Pride, I feel like you'd end up with truly competitive AAA teams rather than teams that are probably equivalent to high-end Tier 2 teams. I feel like they miss out of so many talented players in our are who can't realistically get to Rockville. It ends up being more of a Team Maryland team.

It's amazing to me how willing some families are to deal with traffic for hockey. There are many kids that mine have played with over the years, co-ed and girls, who are driving to Philly for hockey. We're not that hardcore, but are still coming from VA. On the 19 team (which ended up the year ranked 21 for national bound teams which is not bad) the team was split about half and half MD/VA, and the VA folks were driving from as far as Bentonville/Skyline and Dumfries. Definitely not for the faint of hear. The further drivers tend to be from VA as I think there are more options for kids who live in Baltimore, they could go south or north to Philly/NJ. Believe the club has explored splitting practices between MD and VA in the past, but could not get the ice time to make it work. Most VA rinks are pretty fully subscribed at this point.

Given the shortage of ice rinks in the DMV, I would recommend that kids choose a different sport. If you play hockey in a metropolitan area that has a lot of rinks, going to hockey practice is not a huge inconvenience. It is just a short drive.

So perhaps consider having your son/daughter play a field sport -- where practices are at normal times of day and there is more space.

(There is also a shortage of indoor pools in the DMV, relative to the population, and so I do not recommend swimming either.)

The players from areas with more/better facilities will usually be better than even a large metro area like the DMV, because we lack the facilities.

This is the most idiotic thing I have ever read. Discouraging people from playing hockey or swimming in the DMV? You realize that two of the best swimmers of all time (Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps) came from the DMV area?

You might as well tell people not to let their kids to play football or baseball since the kids in the south will be better - as they can play outside year round. How about you just STFU and let kids pick sports they enjoy?

The most idiotic thing I see on here is parents believing it’s a worthwhile investment of their time and resources to play AAA hockey. Folks are driving over an hour each way for practices at odd hours, and getting on a plane for 10+ tournaments a year, for what? To (hopefully) start college at 20 and play on a D3 or ACHA club team?

Here is the data on who makes the NHL (spoiler, it’s not kids from the DMV):
https://www.hockey-reference.com/friv/birthplaces.cgi

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=87dea755c0034d5593d0258408d253dc

Let your kid play any other sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be amazing if they could find a central location for Pride, I feel like you'd end up with truly competitive AAA teams rather than teams that are probably equivalent to high-end Tier 2 teams. I feel like they miss out of so many talented players in our are who can't realistically get to Rockville. It ends up being more of a Team Maryland team.

It's amazing to me how willing some families are to deal with traffic for hockey. There are many kids that mine have played with over the years, co-ed and girls, who are driving to Philly for hockey. We're not that hardcore, but are still coming from VA. On the 19 team (which ended up the year ranked 21 for national bound teams which is not bad) the team was split about half and half MD/VA, and the VA folks were driving from as far as Bentonville/Skyline and Dumfries. Definitely not for the faint of hear. The further drivers tend to be from VA as I think there are more options for kids who live in Baltimore, they could go south or north to Philly/NJ. Believe the club has explored splitting practices between MD and VA in the past, but could not get the ice time to make it work. Most VA rinks are pretty fully subscribed at this point.

Given the shortage of ice rinks in the DMV, I would recommend that kids choose a different sport. If you play hockey in a metropolitan area that has a lot of rinks, going to hockey practice is not a huge inconvenience. It is just a short drive.

So perhaps consider having your son/daughter play a field sport -- where practices are at normal times of day and there is more space.

(There is also a shortage of indoor pools in the DMV, relative to the population, and so I do not recommend swimming either.)

The players from areas with more/better facilities will usually be better than even a large metro area like the DMV, because we lack the facilities.

This is the most idiotic thing I have ever read. Discouraging people from playing hockey or swimming in the DMV? You realize that two of the best swimmers of all time (Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps) came from the DMV area?

You might as well tell people not to let their kids to play football or baseball since the kids in the south will be better - as they can play outside year round. How about you just STFU and let kids pick sports they enjoy?

The most idiotic thing I see on here is parents believing it’s a worthwhile investment of their time and resources to play AAA hockey. Folks are driving over an hour each way for practices at odd hours, and getting on a plane for 10+ tournaments a year, for what? To (hopefully) start college at 20 and play on a D3 or ACHA club team?

Here is the data on who makes the NHL (spoiler, it’s not kids from the DMV):
https://www.hockey-reference.com/friv/birthplaces.cgi

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=87dea755c0034d5593d0258408d253dc

Let your kid play any other sport.

Who says that every kid who plays hockey wants to go into the NHL? My husband is in finance and we have the financial means to allow our son to play hockey, a sport he has enjoyed playing since he was 4 years old. He maintains straight A's while in a AAA program (that he very much enjoys). Would he like to play in college? Absolutely - and I believe he will. Does he want to play in the NHL? Nope. He wants to go into finance, like his father.

Assuming every kid who plays AAA wants to play in the NHL is dumb. Telling people (who can easily afford AAA hockey) to choose a different sport is also dumb. Horseback riding is expensive. Motorcross is expensive. Boating is expensive. Even travel baseball/football/lacrosse is expensive. I know as a parent, I am happy to pay for something that my child truly enjoys if I have the means. I will never tell him to 'pick another sport'. You sound like a miserable parent. Why are you even in this thread? Just to troll?

You are lucky this message board is anonymous so you can sound like an idiot without 'outing' yourself.