I can appreciate both sides of the issue in all honesty. But I do know that the arguments that I am making are pretty universal. Some of it you could probably argue are coincidence since a guy who is on the board might have a kid who tries harder or is more committed to hockey than a non board member's kid. That bubble group is the issue and will be the first group to take off if/when they get a chance to do so. As far as writing a check with no oversite I am not so sure. If I am going to write a check for a kid to play hockey with Tier 1 Team X I am going to watch them. As will all of the check writers. I also know that if I see stuff going on with the team that makes no sense and if my kid is not getting a fair shot at it I will leave. For that reason alone I think that the people who manage Team X will have to be more open and even than an association who knows that 99% of the kids can't go anyplace so you don't really have to care about what they think.elliott70 wrote:I am not so naïve that I do not think there are kids making teams based on some 'political' move. And I am not so dumb that I know that the top players are making the A (AA) team. So the best of the B and the worst of the A can be exchanged. This ahs been true for all times and for all associations.
Is it crooked association board members or just some people's perception of it?
Having a AAA for profit organization will not change that AND could make it worse when a check can be written without some oversight from outside.
I know I am a little naive coming from a small town and small district, but I do know that I do not put up with anything and do look into ALL claims of shenanigans.
If any one here thinks there is corruption they should report it and report it again until it does get looked at (not until you get what you want).
As for the last part of it. Who do you report it to? The board? In most cases they are the issue if you listen to the parents involved. The district? They are the board members friends and are known to the association people so the parents assume that when Parent 1 calls the district and says that Association Z is pulling this crap and can you help us fix it the first call is to the board, who turns around and says that the parents involved are just a huge pain in the a$$. It gets dropped and written off as malcontent parents and then (it is assumed) that the kids of those who complained are done for. Lesson here is do what you can do and leave when you get the chance. An open Tier 1 and Tier 2 system would fix that since if Association Z is acting like that and using their association as their own little kingdom to promote their kids and their buddy's kids people would just leave Association Z. Then when you bump into me in the rink and ask me why my kid does not play for Z anymore and the answer that I give you runs consistent from parent to parent you avoid Z and Z either goes away or gets fixed.
I think that MN HOckey needs to change how it looks at hockey in the state. It needs to go from We need to have as many kids as possible playing to We need to help those kids who want to play hockey and who want to be the best that they can get to their goals. Playing hockey is not a right. It costs money, takes time and requires sacrifices from all involved. Right now we have a group of kids who want to try to find a way to have a chance to have a chance and are denying them that chance by saying you have to play for Association Z where they can't get a fair shot.
I had kids come up through the system and and do not have a kid who will be impacted by any of this. I suppose I should just sit back and shut up about it but that does not seem right either as I might have grand kids who play and I would hope that they do not run into some of the crap that we did with our kids.