HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

New league for 03/02 kids...

Isn't let's play hockey always saying kids should not play year round? Play other sports in the summer...
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http://www.letsplayhockey.com/todays-to ... ering.html
Let’s Play Hockey Premier League Highlights

Let’s Play Hockey is excited to announce the creation of the Let’s Play Hockey Premier League (LPHPL), featuring elite Minnesota boys' and girls' athletes born in 2002 and 2003, set to begin play in the summer of 2015.

LPHPL Season Highlights:

League runs July 11 through Sept 13
No games played the weekend of August 22-23 or Labor Day weekend
14 league games plus a playoff round
Boys' levels have 6 teams at each level - 2002 and 2003
Girls' levels have 4 teams at each level – 2002 and 2003
Games are high school format with three 17-minute periods with resurface between each period. Three refs/linesman for each game
Experienced coaches – all have played at the professional or Division I college level
Live stats and scoring will be kept on www.letsplayhockey.com
Games will be attended by NCAA, USHL, NAHL, CHL and top prep school scouts and/or coaches. Scouts and coaches will have access to athlete’s stats and info on a secure password protected website for recruiting
Hockey Future’s seminars – the league will be hosting multiple seminars to help the families learn more about navigating their athlete’s future in the game of hockey. Seminars will cover U.S. and Canadian Juniors, Family Advisors and Agents, NCAA clearing house/requirements and eligibility.
Exciting website will feature information including bio/stats/picture on each athlete
Let’s Play Hockey will report and have features and statistics on the league and participating athletes in selected issues of the paper

On the one hand, I like the concepts and the theory behind the league.

On the other hand, recruiting pointers for 5th graders like my 2003 skater! I can't put my head around that. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just that it seems unreal to consider for 11 year olds.

Lots of lip service, very little follow through on the subject (not playing year round that is).... especially where there is money to made....

I like the part about agents for 03's. : I think Lets play hockey is trying to keep up w/YHH.

As to the year-round bit, the idea that a player can skate 45-50 hours of practice and 30 games over 5 months, hang up the skates for 7 months, and be a top-level player is probably not grounded in reality. Figure skaters realize this as well.

MN Hockey likes to trumpet the fact that Gretzky would put his skates away in the spring and summer and play lacrosse. Very true, but Gretzky was also skating 6-10 hours a day in the winter. Not many kids are doing that anymore.

"Games will be attended by NCAA, USHL, NAHL, CHL and top prep school scouts and/or coaches. Scouts and coaches will have access to athlete’s stats and info on a secure password protected website for recruiting"

That right there just blew my mind. These are 6th and 7th graders, most of them pre-puberty.

old goalie85 wrote:I like the part about agents for 03's. : I think Lets play hockey is trying to keep up w/YHH.

The start of apex madness of mn hockey, mm -> yhh -> lph.

Might end up being a competetive league but most of their ideas seem pretty stupid for peewee kids. More power to them I guess but there are already 8000 summer hockey options for this age kid.

Reminds me of the old Showcase leagues with the 14 game league schedule as opposed to just entering 4-5 tourneys like most of the current AAA clubs do.

Yes LPH. Let's see that scouting list. I'd like to contact some folks about coming out to watch our mites and squirts.
As if you could lose more credibility.

Nevertoomuchhockey wrote:Yes LPH. Let's see that scouting list. I'd like to contact some folks about coming out to watch our mites and squirts.
As if you could lose more credibility.

You have to imagine the folks who could benefit from this league are those at private schools looking to bring in some players a year or two down the line.

As far as NCAA scouts? Not too sure on that but one never knows.

Those MN privates don't need another league. They are already buzzing to get the top student athletes enrolled before 9th grade. Showcasing instead of development seems the opposite of what any program would want for their future players. Every parent has to pick and choose where hockey dollars are best spent. But to sell any program, especially youth programs, on the premise of recruitment well.... It's unproven at best and a lie at worst.

Nevertoomuchhockey wrote:Those MN privates don't need another league. They are already buzzing to get the top student athletes enrolled before 9th grade. Showcasing instead of development seems the opposite of what any program would want for their future players. Every parent has to pick and choose where hockey dollars are best spent. But to sell any program, especially youth programs, on the premise of recruitment well.... It's unproven at best and a lie at worst.

Wouldn't you concede, however, that most of the players being asked to take part in this league are there because they are focused upon their development as well as playing games? I wouldn't consider this program for my daughter if it was going to get in the way of her daily / weekly / monthly development goals.

Here is the question the jg... Why WOULD you consider this for your daughter? What perceived benefit that she isn't getting from her other programs? Maybe instead of needing to be part of the LPH league the question is really what her home association and off season AAA or other training is lacking. Not a criticism; just a question.

And for the record, what's right for your child and family is your business. My experiences lead me to believe this is the kind of supplemental program that takes advantage of our over eager parenting and push for our kids' success, without offering anything other than what they should be getting already. What's the quote - champions are made in practice? Good coaches focus waaayy more on practices than games.

I'll weigh in on one last point -
Boys 6 teams for 02/ 6 for 03
Girls 4 teams 02/ 4 02
Figure 20 kids a team? That's 240 boys and 160 girls. There are 400 5th and 6th grade boy and girl "elite" players in the metro right now??? 400 kids? There is absolutely no way those numbers are even close to accurate. How many players of both sexes go D1 each year? So hundreds of elite kids just drop off in talent from 6th to 12th grade? And while they call this a premier league, it's not invite only. It's not tryout or eval based or even coach recommended. Kids only get better if they play against kids who are better. Your daughter could end up an all star on a terrible team, or never touch the puck at all.

My guess is the only hockey parents that will do this are ones that really believe their kid will get better playing hockey 12 months out of the year instead of the 9-10 months that has become the norm since checkbook hockey (AAA) invaded our state.

I am disappointed in LPH for "selling" it as a recruiting opportunity. I bet if you talked to ANY college scouts (i.e. assistant coaches) they would laugh at the notion that they will be sitting in the stands, in July, taking notes on 11 year olds. LPH hockey has been a great ambassador for youth hockey since I was in mites and I can't believe some of the great hockey people over there didn't strongly object to this idea.

Oh well. The good news is, we've reached it's peak, we can't add any more months to a calendar.. Hockey is officially a year around sport. The sad part is more and more parents who see and hear these stories will decide very early on to keep their kids out of this sport. The sport will not grow, the product may not get any better. As the numbers shrink, the people responsible for pushing more hockey on all of us will shrink as well. They will be shooting themselves in the foot and many won't survive. I certainly hope sooner than later, we see more parents pulling back, saying no, getting their kids back playing 2-3 sports. In my opinion, that is the best way to make this sport grow. We need numbers. And we can't get there in the direction we are heading.

Nevertoomuchhockey wrote:Here is the question the jg... Why WOULD you consider this for your daughter? What perceived benefit that she isn't getting from her other programs? Maybe instead of needing to be part of the LPH league the question is really what her home association and off season AAA or other training is lacking. Not a criticism; just a question.

And for the record, what's right for your child and family is your business. My experiences lead me to believe this is the kind of supplemental program that takes advantage of our over eager parenting and push for our kids' success, without offering anything other than what they should be getting already. What's the quote - champions are made in practice? Good coaches focus waaayy more on practices than games.

I'll weigh in on one last point -
Boys 6 teams for 02/ 6 for 03
Girls 4 teams 02/ 4 02
Figure 20 kids a team? That's 240 boys and 160 girls. There are 400 5th and 6th grade boy and girl "elite" players in the metro right now??? 400 kids? There is absolutely no way those numbers are even close to accurate. How many players of both sexes go D1 each year? So hundreds of elite kids just drop off in talent from 6th to 12th grade? And while they call this a premier league, it's not invite only. It's not tryout or eval based or even coach recommended. Kids only get better if they play against kids who are better. Your daughter could end up an all star on a terrible team, or never touch the puck at all.

Well, just speaking from my family's experiences, we're always looking for good competitive options for the player in the house. She's played in Showcase leagues (mentioned above), she's played in non-competitive 3 v 3 leagues.

Many of the end of season tournaments (Super Series, etc.) are four games and about $200. Per game this League costs about the same amount. To me it's down to choosing what to do. If she does this, then we say "no" to other things she's done in the past. I don't think this league harkens to the end of innocence with youth hockey, that's long gone with all youth sports. It's just another summer season option for interested parties.

90% of solid players that age are on a AAA team. As they get older some are additionally training at places like MAP, Velocity, etc. during the off season. These will end up being open level teams. The real tests are the off season tourneys. Will these teams enter tourneys? I could see forming a team or two and then trying to build schedules with some of the clubs but going alone will be difficult. Leaving a healthy AAA situation is rarely a good idea.

jg2112 wrote:

Nevertoomuchhockey wrote:Here is the question the jg... Why WOULD you consider this for your daughter? What perceived benefit that she isn't getting from her other programs? Maybe instead of needing to be part of the LPH league the question is really what her home association and off season AAA or other training is lacking. Not a criticism; just a question.

And for the record, what's right for your child and family is your business. My experiences lead me to believe this is the kind of supplemental program that takes advantage of our over eager parenting and push for our kids' success, without offering anything other than what they should be getting already. What's the quote - champions are made in practice? Good coaches focus waaayy more on practices than games.

I'll weigh in on one last point -
Boys 6 teams for 02/ 6 for 03
Girls 4 teams 02/ 4 02
Figure 20 kids a team? That's 240 boys and 160 girls. There are 400 5th and 6th grade boy and girl "elite" players in the metro right now??? 400 kids? There is absolutely no way those numbers are even close to accurate. How many players of both sexes go D1 each year? So hundreds of elite kids just drop off in talent from 6th to 12th grade? And while they call this a premier league, it's not invite only. It's not tryout or eval based or even coach recommended. Kids only get better if they play against kids who are better. Your daughter could end up an all star on a terrible team, or never touch the puck at all.

Well, just speaking from my family's experiences, we're always looking for good competitive options for the player in the house. She's played in Showcase leagues (mentioned above), she's played in non-competitive 3 v 3 leagues.

Many of the end of season tournaments (Super Series, etc.) are four games and about $200. Per game this League costs about the same amount. To me it's down to choosing what to do. If she does this, then we say "no" to other things she's done in the past. I don't think this league harkens to the end of innocence with youth hockey, that's long gone with all youth sports. It's just another summer season option for interested parties.

I guess I just don't see how this is a "good competitive option" when it's open to all (ok, only first 400.) At least at the weekend invite tourneys you know most of the 20 are going to be pretty talented. And if it's $50/game for Selects, isn't this ($700 divided by 14-17 games) nearly the same cost? I hope your daughter is on or pursuing a top AAA team. In a few years the showcase travel tourneys and in-state elite league will do more for your kid than anything LPH can offer. Good luck.

yesiplayedhockey wrote:My guess is the only hockey parents that will do this are ones that really believe their kid will get better playing hockey 12 months out of the year instead of the 9-10 months that has become the norm since checkbook hockey (AAA) invaded our state.

I am disappointed in LPH for "selling" it as a recruiting opportunity. I bet if you talked to ANY college scouts (i.e. assistant coaches) they would laugh at the notion that they will be sitting in the stands, in July, taking notes on 11 year olds. LPH hockey has been a great ambassador for youth hockey since I was in mites and I can't believe some of the great hockey people over there didn't strongly object to this idea.

Oh well. The good news is, we've reached it's peak, we can't add any more months to a calendar.. Hockey is officially a year around sport. The sad part is more and more parents who see and hear these stories will decide very early on to keep their kids out of this sport. The sport will not grow, the product may not get any better. As the numbers shrink, the people responsible for pushing more hockey on all of us will shrink as well. They will be shooting themselves in the foot and many won't survive. I certainly hope sooner than later, we see more parents pulling back, saying no, getting their kids back playing 2-3 sports. In my opinion, that is the best way to make this sport grow. We need numbers. And we can't get there in the direction we are heading.

I think we're already past the point of the sport growing in Minnesota. That happened a few years ago when AAA took hold. Now we have Tier 1 here also. If that grows, then even less will start playing the game. There isn't much of a place for families who don't want to play 9-10 months out of the year anymore. The numbers will decline and then eventually level off and stay about the same indefinitely.

Is this a league for established AAA teams?

Anyone called? LPH?

observer wrote:Is this a league for established AAA teams?

Anyone called? LPH?

It's not for AAA teams, though many of the players probably play AAA. The league has invited players to take part.

ANYONE can take part, for $695. $695 x 400 skaters = almost $300,000. Add in the vendor/picture/equipment/apparel/advertising/travel finders fee kick backs LPH will benefit from... These monetary figures probably make LPH the largest FOR PROFIT league in the country, definitely largest in-state.

Not even close according to a 2012 990 IRS form for Project Prep Olympic Development Program total revenue $561,347.00 and expenses of $ 413,095.00

net $148,262.00

What are people hearing, are a high % of the "elite" players participating?

InThePipes wrote:What are people hearing, are a high % of the "elite" players participating?

I know 3 families who are considering this. One a brand new skater last season and the other two definitely play from the far end of the bench.