sideways wrote:It can be difficult trying to make what you feel is the best choice for your kid. My experience says...take hockey out of the equation and try to figure out where he is going to be the happiest during the dawg days of April through October.
Also, its not only the dawg days for the kid. Which environment are you most comfortable as a parent?
Sideways- Good point! I would think the older the kids get the coaches will require them to make all the practices. My son is only a Mite. Our AAA coach has made it very clear the kids should play baseball. He asked that the kids attend all the practices the week before a tourney. Of course play in all the tourneys.
Since this is my sons first year playing AAA. I made sure to let him know that his summer schedule will be busy.
I'll bring this thread back up as it touches on Lakeville Hockey and its board and what transpired before this last season. Not surprisingly it didn't even take a year for things to come up again and once again a reactionary, knee jerk decision with no thought of how to correct the perceived issue other than to listen to the 10%.
insidethenhl.com says,
"They should be renaming the Fire the Lakeville Burnouts. Rumor has it that 98 Fire is mostly a Lakeville team, hand picked by the Lakeville Hockey Mafia."
What is going on?
I believe Tier 1 should be allowed in Minnesota but wasn't the 1993 Fire Hockey Club thrown out of the Wisconsin Tier 1 Championship partially because the team didn't include an appropriate percentage of Wisconsin players? What is the actual rule? Has it changed or who's bending on the requirement? Wisconsin Hockey? The MAHL? The Fire making their own rules?
Before we call the Fire arrogant, and stupid, again, what's the answer? Is the Fire Hockey Club now a Minnesota team? Still Wisconsin? What's the rule?
Well someone brought the thread back so I'll give an update on how it all turned out. The LS bantam A team posteed a plus .500 record while avoiding almost every team in the top 40 in the state. They did play 2 future rivals in Kennedy and Eastview. Team struggled down the stretch due to lack of second year leadership. Losing 5 ninth graders starts to hurt in february as the kids mature. The group that chose to play elsewhere were very successful. Three were members of the State Champion STA team. For those that went to the fire things worked out well until the Wisconsin state tournament. They played a very strong schedule against many of the top bantam teams in the state.
Some of the players given an opportunity to play A hockey thrived while others struggled mightily. I stand by my belief that putting a kid in over his head does more harm than good.
In the heat of the moment it seemed as though the sky was falling but in retrospect things were not as bad as I had feared. I'll still always wonder what might have been. Friendships between both parents and players were strained and those feelings have faded as well. I'm glad I'll never have to face the situation again, youth hockey is almost in the rear view mirror.
keepyourheadup wrote:At the risk of being ridiculed for asking this question I'll go for it....what should a player do when six of the best ten players in his association at the bantam level choose to bail for greener pastures. This is a player who would grade out in the top five or six, Yes he's from Lakeville south and the meltdown continues as another top player has bailed for the fire. It seems friends, loyalty, commitment, and most other virtues are being tossed aside in the name of "development". What ever happened to growing up playing with your buds and if you were good enough maybe you got a shot after high school. I've just witnessed the total destruction of a youth hockey team and I can't help but wonder why? I have no illusions of d1 and all the glory, I'm just trying to help my son understand the madness going on around him. By my count maybe 15 to 20 players a year end up moving on to division 1 hockey at some point, does it seem reasonable that a quarter of them are residing in Lakeville?
We live in a different world these days where there are more alternatives. It is a shame what is happening in Lakeville but I suspect it will continue to happen when you see the success that has come to some of those who have left.
[quote="keepyourheadup"]Well someone brought the thread back so I'll give an update on how it all turned out. The LS bantam A team posteed a plus .500 record while avoiding almost every team in the top 40 in the state. They did play 2 future rivals in Kennedy and Eastview. Team struggled down the stretch due to lack of second year leadership. Losing 5 ninth graders starts to hurt in february as the kids mature. The group that chose to play elsewhere were very successful. Three were members of the State Champion STA team. For those that went to the fire things worked out well until the Wisconsin state tournament. They played a very strong schedule against many of the top bantam teams in the state.
Some of the players given an opportunity to play A hockey thrived while others struggled mightily. I stand by my belief that putting a kid in over his head does more harm than good.
In the heat of the moment it seemed as though the sky was falling but in retrospect things were not as bad as I had feared. I'll still always wonder what might have been. Friendships between both parents and players were strained and those feelings have faded as well. I'm glad I'll never have to face the situation again, youth hockey is almost in the rear view mirror.[/quote]
Just a couple of points and another perspective:
The record was 24-14-3 and it could have been better - lots of close losses.
On a strictly numbers basis, according to mnhockeystats.com, that left us 33rd out of 99.
Sure, the schedule was adjusted some for the loss of those 6 players. I think that was smart. We avoided the top 20 – but we played top 40 teams.
I saw no one in over his head or “harmed” by the opportunity to play.
The coaching was great. Kids learned. Kids had fun.
From where I sit – the reasons 6 left Bantam South last year and 4 or 5 left Squirt North this year have virtually nothing to do with the other.
This stuff doesn’t just happen in Lakeville either.
There are more options these days.
Those who see their kids as the best are most likely to check out the options.
Those with the means and the flexibility are most likely to make a move.
The “success” of some of these players should surprise no one. As was noted earlier in this thread, they had a high likelihood of being successful had they stayed. Better players, more options, sometimes move to more successful (on the surface anyway) programs… Though, in the long run, it’ll be interesting to see how they all do, as there is no doubt they don’t all have the same prospects.
At the squirt level, it becomes an even more interesting move. I believe (like others on this board) that no one really knows what they have until these kids have all made it through puberty.
In any event, I don’t have to understand or agree with the choices people make in order to respect their right to make them.
skateguymn wrote:My association went through this situation 4 - 5 years ago at the peewee/bantam level. A group of last year PW's and bantams went to play for a AAA team during winter. They were not happy with the development opportunities being offered by the association at the time. Other circumstatnces involved as well but let's just leave it at that.
There were 2 distinct sides of the feud, those that stayed with the association and those that left, it turned into the Hatfields and McCoys.
Obviously, time has passed and the boys are now in high school level and some are gone/quit. That one year impacted the relationships between the boys and the families so terribly that the rift remains today.
After the boys came back to the association the following year, our Bantam and High School coaches had to deal with fights between the boys on and off the ice. The parents kept to themselves, sat in separate areas of the rink.
Do yourself a favor and remember that everything you say about other parents and families is taken to heart by your boys. Hostility that you hold for other parents will eventually get to your child. You will find that the boys will develop that same hatred for each other. They have to live with each other in nearly every sport and in class, not just in the stands for a couple hour a night/week.
This all happened in a community that has some fo the best public schools in the state (all of the boys were/are good students), mid to high income (not that that matters), generally speaking very quality people - 2 groups of parents started a feud that eventually impacted the kids ONLY oppotunity to enjoy a youth hockey experience. Both sides had good reason for doing what they did. No one was right, no one was wrong.
Based on actual events I can tell you without any question EVERYONE will lose in the long run.
My advise? Take the high road, do not let others actions get to you. DO NOT LET YOUR CHILD'S EXPERIENCE IN YOUTH HOCKEY BE STAINED BY OTHER FAMILIES DECISIONS. Hockey, Baseball, Football, Lacrosse....They are games. For kids. They are not meant to be barometers for how effective of a parent we are.
