Anonymous wrote:At 14U

Good House/Selects player. In minor year. Still small but not afraid of contact. Looking for more than Selects but probably isn’t good/big enough to make the lowest team at one of the better rinks. Very good skater, fast, shot could use work. It’s clear that he’ll need more touches than House/Selects + private training can provide if he wants to make his home rink’s travel team in his 14U major year.

Have you tried emailing any of the programs? My kid plays at Reston. When he made the house to travel jump I emailed the travel director with a few questions and received quick, straight forward, and helpful responses. Perhaps reach out and ask some questions to clubs like:

How many players are signed up for tryouts?

In your experience how many players annually make a 14U team after playing House the previous year? A few, none, once in a while?

I assume all of the clubs have similar pages with contact info. This is Reston's
https://www.restonraiders.com/program/raiders-travel/20606

Good luck

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think at James is your best bet. Maybe ice dogs. Not Ashburn, cha, or reston. These are the top three clubs in Va.

The lowest level of travel, B/Wales, is about as easy to make no matter what the club. Probably easier at Reston and CHA because they have teams at every level so their B team is full of B level players. Same at MYHA or STJ. Ice Dogs 14U was Lower A last year, so probably better than the B teams mentioned.

Disagree with that. The B kids at clubs like Reston and MYHA are better than even the lower A kids at a club like Tri-City.

Strongly disagree. Players at clubs like Reston and MYHA and STJ are often true B players because if they were any better, they would be in AA or A. Tri City and other clubs often have better higher end players on those teams who could be playing AA or A elsewhere but offer a lower floor of players (some house selects players who are there to fill out rosters).

Well if you think that, why every year do kids who try out for both MYHA and tri-city, often get on a higher level team with tri-city. I know at least 6 kids who made MYHA B level at 12U and 14U, so went tri-city because they got LA or UA. Why would an A or AA caliber player ever be put on a tri-city B team? The tri-city A teams are often not that strong compared to other clubs.

Because Tri City (and other clubs) A teams are often averages - they have some AA skilled players, some A, some B, even some that might be better off in house. The team as a whole is A, but if the AA players don't show up they arent. So there is room for weaker players to make that team. Most MYHA A team players are A level - all the AA and B players play on the appropriate teams for their skill.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think at James is your best bet. Maybe ice dogs. Not Ashburn, cha, or reston. These are the top three clubs in Va.

The lowest level of travel, B/Wales, is about as easy to make no matter what the club. Probably easier at Reston and CHA because they have teams at every level so their B team is full of B level players. Same at MYHA or STJ. Ice Dogs 14U was Lower A last year, so probably better than the B teams mentioned.

Disagree with that. The B kids at clubs like Reston and MYHA are better than even the lower A kids at a club like Tri-City.

Strongly disagree. Players at clubs like Reston and MYHA and STJ are often true B players because if they were any better, they would be in AA or A. Tri City and other clubs often have better higher end players on those teams who could be playing AA or A elsewhere but offer a lower floor of players (some house selects players who are there to fill out rosters).

Well if you think that, why every year do kids who try out for both MYHA and tri-city, often get on a higher level team with tri-city. I know at least 6 kids who made MYHA B level at 12U and 14U, so went tri-city because they got LA or UA. Why would an A or AA caliber player ever be put on a tri-city B team? The tri-city A teams are often not that strong compared to other clubs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ice dogs are only doing 1 team per age group so I don’t think it will be that easy unless people will avoid it because of that

Son attended tryouts for the Ice Dogs, CHA, and TSJ. The Ice Dogs talent level for 12u was maybe at a selects level and the program is rebuilding from the two years without having CBHL teams. CHA and TSJ have three teams per age group, but overall significantly higher talent pools. Smaller programs like Fredrick, Potomac, and Tri-city have multiple teams per age group and do well developing players. I would look into those programs.

The CHA and STJ tryouts have AA and A players at those tryouts, which makes the talent level seem better. But none of those players will be playing B and the players on their B rosters are usually about the same as the kids you saw at Ice Dogs tryouts. At STJ and CHA when they split the groups after the first day, the sheet of ice with kids competing for B spots is a much slower pace than the top grouping of AA and A players.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think at James is your best bet. Maybe ice dogs. Not Ashburn, cha, or reston. These are the top three clubs in Va.

The lowest level of travel, B/Wales, is about as easy to make no matter what the club. Probably easier at Reston and CHA because they have teams at every level so their B team is full of B level players. Same at MYHA or STJ. Ice Dogs 14U was Lower A last year, so probably better than the B teams mentioned.

Disagree with that. The B kids at clubs like Reston and MYHA are better than even the lower A kids at a club like Tri-City.

Strongly disagree. Players at clubs like Reston and MYHA and STJ are often true B players because if they were any better, they would be in AA or A. Tri City and other clubs often have better higher end players on those teams who could be playing AA or A elsewhere but offer a lower floor of players (some house selects players who are there to fill out rosters).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think at James is your best bet. Maybe ice dogs. Not Ashburn, cha, or reston. These are the top three clubs in Va.

The lowest level of travel, B/Wales, is about as easy to make no matter what the club. Probably easier at Reston and CHA because they have teams at every level so their B team is full of B level players. Same at MYHA or STJ. Ice Dogs 14U was Lower A last year, so probably better than the B teams mentioned.

Maybe that would be true in general but my son is 14u and there are a lot of kids in that age group. Cha b level is better than st James lower a.

Not according to MyHockeyRankings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think at James is your best bet. Maybe ice dogs. Not Ashburn, cha, or reston. These are the top three clubs in Va.

The lowest level of travel, B/Wales, is about as easy to make no matter what the club. Probably easier at Reston and CHA because they have teams at every level so their B team is full of B level players. Same at MYHA or STJ. Ice Dogs 14U was Lower A last year, so probably better than the B teams mentioned.

How easy is it for a house player to make one of these 14U B teams? My impression from the MYHA 14U B team games I’ve seen, the kids look a lot better than the ones on my kids MYHA 14U house team.

Every year some of the best house kids move up and some of the worst travel kids go down. If your kid is an average house player, very little chance. If they are dominant house player, there is a chance.

Anonymous wrote:Ice dogs are only doing 1 team per age group so I don’t think it will be that easy unless people will avoid it because of that

Son attended tryouts for the Ice Dogs, CHA, and TSJ. The Ice Dogs talent level for 12u was maybe at a selects level and the program is rebuilding from the two years without having CBHL teams. CHA and TSJ have three teams per age group, but overall significantly higher talent pools. Smaller programs like Fredrick, Potomac, and Tri-city have multiple teams per age group and do well developing players. I would look into those programs.

I’d suggest looking through this site
https://myhockeyrankings.com/rank.php?y=2025&v=4346

And find organizations with lower rated B teams. Keep in mind the link I gave is last years 14u so some of those kids ages up while last years majors from 12u age up. So you can look to see if they were also weak in 12u last year. You can also browse through Maryland teams.

MYHA starts reducing the number of teams at the older ages and their teams tend to be among the top at every level. So, even if teams aren’t reduced yet at 14u, it makes sense to aim for another club so that your child has a longer term option. I have experience with TriCity and at least in terms of the Maryland teams, I think they typically have the most teams at the older ages and they likely would have an option for a B level player. But, if you are in Virginia I’m not sure it makes sense to travel up to Maryland.

Otherwise, MYHA has a good house program that has solid players.