The 2013 birth year Team Maryland team ranked #35 is comprised of the below. Largely a team made up of the best player (or two, or three) from the AA teams in the DMV area. TM uses Montgomery rinks as home rinks so it makes sense they have a higher player count. With a nice rink and an inside the beltway location STJ and WLC would have be able to pull together a team comparable in the next couple of years, IMO.

Club - # of players
Ashburn Xtreme - 1
Reston Raiders - 3
St. James - 2
Montgomery Ice Devils - 5
Navy Rams - 1
Tomorrow's Ice - 1
Loudoun Knights - 2
Tri-City Eagles - 1

Goalies 1 STJ, 1 Montgomery

Anonymous wrote:The TM 2014 team is top 100 in the country. The TM 2013 team is 35 overall. Seems like TM’s star is on the rise?

Having been through both of these programs with two kids I can tell you there is no significant difference. DMV area hockey is DMV area hockey and the rankings, if you put a lot of faith in that stuff, tell the same story. The average team rating for TM and WLC is almost identical. The only difference worth considering is the leagues they play in. I think back in 2021 TM joined the black bears league (avg team ranking 87.8) which is weaker than the AYHL (89.2) which WLC plays in. AYHL is a non-profit and is unlike black bear which is a corporation and needs to make money even if it means watering down the leagues by adding several teams that probably belong a tier below.

Good question- I meant 2012! But point taken about top kids leaving as they get older- hadn’t thought of that.

Anonymous wrote:The TM 2014 team is top 100 in the country. The TM 2013 team is 35 overall. Seems like TM’s star is on the rise?

The 2014 birthyear team was selected just weeks ago and has not even played a single game. How can they be ranked?

Anonymous wrote:The news is WLC are folding…

That would be very sad.

Anonymous wrote:The TM 2014 team is top 100 in the country. The TM 2013 team is 35 overall. Seems like TM’s star is on the rise?

The younger teams tend to do better in the national rankings. As the kids get older, the teams are not as competitive nationally. That's in part due to the fact that the best kids leave the area as they get older, and also there is more consolidation of teams/talent in other areas as the kids get older, so their teams get better.

The TM 2014 team is top 100 in the country. The TM 2013 team is 35 overall. Seems like TM’s star is on the rise?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Little Caps are no longer appearing on the STJ website

I think it's safe to say our dream of WLC in a well maintained rink in a central location is dead.

Moving to Ion was the worst thing that Club did. They were a much better organization when they played out of Medstar. Centrally located. Attracted families with resources for AAA hockey. If someone from the DMV has to drive 50 minutes to get to a crappy rink then the decision to go away or drive 2 hours for a better team and organization becomes a viable option. Moving to the St James was the right move for them. They should have done everything in their power to make that work. You cannot have a sustainable program in a sh*tty rink. Haymarket is crap and Ion is literally disintegrating. Any investor who would consider investing in Ion at this point must like trying to lose money.

From what I've heard many age groups have only had 20-30 kids out for tryouts. Sounds like people are mostly done with the WLC messiness.

It is between 30-40 per team. It also isn't about the numbers alone but the quality. If you have 100 kids tryout but only 10 are really good enough to crack a AAA roster does it matter if you have 25 or a 100 at tryouts?

The DC area simply does not have enough depth of talent at the AAA level, that goes for both T1 programs in our area, that you have up north. That is why putting the program in a place that is accessible to more people gives it the best chance of succeeding. By putting it out of reach of so many players you make your odds of fielding a competitive team even slimmer.

Anonymous wrote:The news is WLC are folding…

Seriously?!?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Little Caps are no longer appearing on the STJ website

I think it's safe to say our dream of WLC in a well maintained rink in a central location is dead.

Moving to Ion was the worst thing that Club did. They were a much better organization when they played out of Medstar. Centrally located. Attracted families with resources for AAA hockey. If someone from the DMV has to drive 50 minutes to get to a crappy rink then the decision to go away or drive 2 hours for a better team and organization becomes a viable option. Moving to the St James was the right move for them. They should have done everything in their power to make that work. You cannot have a sustainable program in a sh*tty rink. Haymarket is crap and Ion is literally disintegrating. Any investor who would consider investing in Ion at this point must like trying to lose money.

From what I've heard many age groups have only had 20-30 kids out for tryouts. Sounds like people are mostly done with the WLC messiness.

Its been 20 to 30 kids for years now.

That sounds like a program that should fold. You can't build a competitive AAA team when you have such few options when building a team.

WLC and TM don't help themselves by doing so much recruiting and signing kids to contracts even before tryouts begin; they miss a lot of talent that way because families know this and don't bother tryout out.

Team Maryland does not force a contract when signing up to register for tryouts. Little Caps does, and it is the strangest red flag I have ever seen.

That's a different issue. TM does sign kids to contracts well before tryouts, which IMO, limits their ultimate team talent to some degree.

The news is WLC are folding…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Little Caps are no longer appearing on the STJ website

I think it's safe to say our dream of WLC in a well maintained rink in a central location is dead.

Moving to Ion was the worst thing that Club did. They were a much better organization when they played out of Medstar. Centrally located. Attracted families with resources for AAA hockey. If someone from the DMV has to drive 50 minutes to get to a crappy rink then the decision to go away or drive 2 hours for a better team and organization becomes a viable option. Moving to the St James was the right move for them. They should have done everything in their power to make that work. You cannot have a sustainable program in a sh*tty rink. Haymarket is crap and Ion is literally disintegrating. Any investor who would consider investing in Ion at this point must like trying to lose money.

From what I've heard many age groups have only had 20-30 kids out for tryouts. Sounds like people are mostly done with the WLC messiness.

Its been 20 to 30 kids for years now.

That sounds like a program that should fold. You can't build a competitive AAA team when you have such few options when building a team.

WLC and TM don't help themselves by doing so much recruiting and signing kids to contracts even before tryouts begin; they miss a lot of talent that way because families know this and don't bother tryout out.

Team Maryland does not force a contract when signing up to register for tryouts. Little Caps does, and it is the strangest red flag I have ever seen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Little Caps are no longer appearing on the STJ website

I think it's safe to say our dream of WLC in a well maintained rink in a central location is dead.

Moving to Ion was the worst thing that Club did. They were a much better organization when they played out of Medstar. Centrally located. Attracted families with resources for AAA hockey. If someone from the DMV has to drive 50 minutes to get to a crappy rink then the decision to go away or drive 2 hours for a better team and organization becomes a viable option. Moving to the St James was the right move for them. They should have done everything in their power to make that work. You cannot have a sustainable program in a sh*tty rink. Haymarket is crap and Ion is literally disintegrating. Any investor who would consider investing in Ion at this point must like trying to lose money.

From what I've heard many age groups have only had 20-30 kids out for tryouts. Sounds like people are mostly done with the WLC messiness.

Its been 20 to 30 kids for years now.

That sounds like a program that should fold. You can't build a competitive AAA team when you have such few options when building a team.

WLC and TM don't help themselves by doing so much recruiting and signing kids to contracts even before tryouts begin; they miss a lot of talent that way because families know this and don't bother tryout out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh good, so 1 sheet of ice and a building the owners will continue to neglect. Great image for a Tier 1 program

From the figure skating rumor mill @ Ion. The owners are negotiating a sale to some sports group.

These rumors are flying around. It does not really add up though. Ion had so many financial problems and the people running the business ran up a lot of debt without even maintaining the place. Why would anyone want to sink more money into that? Hockey rinks don't make a lot of money. The operating costs are high. If they are not managed super efficiently and if there is not constant demand for ice, they will fail. Very little maintenance was being done at Ion. Things were constantly breaking down. The ice was a mess and they probably went super cheap on the freezing equipment. Every trip toward the uneven corner boards could be your last. The zam routinely sounded like it was about to die. The bathrooms were rarely functional. The locker rooms were falling apart. And even with cutting all the corners on maintenance and staff they still not only couldn't break even but ran up significant debts that led their own investors to sue them. That was when they had revenue from the Loudoun Knights as well. Just getting that place functioning at an acceptable level would take a significant investment and then you need the demand to cover costs of operation. Think about it, have you ever had trouble finding a parking spot at Ion? It is the easiest rink to park at in the whole area because they have a parking lot that expected a heck of a lot more paying customers then what they actually got. If you are playing there it is nice to always count on finding a spot near the front, if you are thinking about investing in the business or the business owner though there should be a million red flags at this place.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Little Caps are no longer appearing on the STJ website

I think it's safe to say our dream of WLC in a well maintained rink in a central location is dead.

Moving to Ion was the worst thing that Club did. They were a much better organization when they played out of Medstar. Centrally located. Attracted families with resources for AAA hockey. If someone from the DMV has to drive 50 minutes to get to a crappy rink then the decision to go away or drive 2 hours for a better team and organization becomes a viable option. Moving to the St James was the right move for them. They should have done everything in their power to make that work. You cannot have a sustainable program in a sh*tty rink. Haymarket is crap and Ion is literally disintegrating. Any investor who would consider investing in Ion at this point must like trying to lose money.

From what I've heard many age groups have only had 20-30 kids out for tryouts. Sounds like people are mostly done with the WLC messiness.

Its been 20 to 30 kids for years now.

That sounds like a program that should fold. You can't build a competitive AAA team when you have such few options when building a team.