Top 2001 AAA team

[HockeyDad41]

H41,

Did you really type "Is that good or should I not let my wife wear it"? I hope your wife makes her own decisions about what she wears. I suspect she probably makes decisions about what you wear.

If your wife wants to wear a hockey-theme jacket, necklace, or bracelet (even one that includes a charm in the form of a Silent, dead high horse) that identifies her as a "hockey mom," "Timmy's mom" or "#12's mom" that is her prerogative. As long as she and your sons are comfortable with her choices that's all that matters. My dad still wears shorts, black socks and wingtips when he mows the lawn. I'm comfortable with it as long as he stays in Florida.

Guys, your wife will accept any present her children give her and cherish it, even if it's the hunting rifle you've been eyeing for yourself. That doesn't mean she would buy it for herself.

Silent, my Canada patches were from my days living in Canada. For the record, there is nothing wrong with kids traveling for sports or other activities. Kids benefit from the experience.

I guess I should have said - "should I alert my wife" rather than what I did. Anyway, it was a very poor attempt at humor and I have been properly chastised.

[black sheep]

My argument isn't with the organizations, it with nutty parents. Parents who are concerned with ranking 8 year old boys.

I don't think anyone is concerned...???concerned no.

Rankings were created to create debate...who's the top team...who knows...and it doesn't even matter...but there is nothing wrong if people want to discuss it...thats why people are here...its interesting

IF this was about ranking 8-9 yr old BOYS...I'm right with you...no point whatsoever...

but this is about TEAMS...personally i like to hear about what teams are good so when we are at a rink and recognize a team name playing before or after its cause to watch a bit...relax and enjoy its supposed to be fun

On the nutty parent thing...it doesn't stop at this age...at a local tournament I stopped in at a bantam game this winter, two random out of town teams...a dad on one side of me was crabbing how lazy his kid was and that he was worthless...and the guy on the other side from the other town was beating on the glass shouting "move it" to his kid...i thought wow...it was really sad...they both had their team associations jackets on

[muckandgrind]

On the nutty parent thing...it doesn't stop at this age...at a local tournament I stopped in at a bantam game this winter, two random out of town teams...a dad on one side of me was crabbing how lazy his kid was and that he was worthless...and the guy on the other side from the other town was beating on the glass shouting "move it" to his kid...i thought wow...it was really sad...they both had their team associations jackets on

I never meant to imply that the "nutty-ness" COMPLETELY ceases once the kids hit PeeWees....you're correct, there are some parents who take the nutty-factor with them all the way through. I'm just saying that a large percentage of parents tone it down a bit after a couple of years.

[silentbutdeadly3139]

H41,

Did you really type "Is that good or should I not let my wife wear it"? I hope your wife makes her own decisions about what she wears. I suspect she probably makes decisions about what you wear.

If your wife wants to wear a hockey-theme jacket, necklace, or bracelet (even one that includes a charm in the form of a Silent, dead high horse) that identifies her as a "hockey mom," "Timmy's mom" or "#12's mom" that is her prerogative. As long as she and your sons are comfortable with her choices that's all that matters. My dad still wears shorts, black socks and wingtips when he mows the lawn. I'm comfortable with it as long as he stays in Florida.

Guys, your wife will accept any present her children give her and cherish it, even if it's the hunting rifle you've been eyeing for yourself. That doesn't mean she would buy it for herself.

Silent, my Canada patches were from my days living in Canada. For the record, there is nothing wrong with kids traveling for sports or other activities. Kids benefit from the experience.

Oh your from Canada, now i know why you don't like the jackets. Perhaps if it was plaid you wouldn't find the need to rip the people who wear them.

[muckandgrind]

Oh your from Canada, now i know why you don't like the jackets. Perhaps if it was plaid you wouldn't find the need to rip the people who wear them.

Just a tad sensitive about this topic of team wear, are we?

[MrBoDangles]

They have website standings for my sons FLAA football league and for his Gopher State traveling baseball at 9. Is hockey the new pioneer of no competition?

District 10 even pulled the Squirt scores off their site mid season.

What more of a competition/ranking could you have than a tournament with different size place trophies? Do some of you want to get rid of tournaments now too?

Competition makes you strive to get better

1st place ribbons for everyone...........

[muckandgrind]

They have website standings for my sons FLAA football league and for his Gopher State traveling baseball at 9. Is hockey the new pioneer of no competition?

District 10 even pulled the Squirt scores off their site mid season.

What more of a competition/ranking could you have than a tournament with different size place trophies? Do some of you want to get rid of tournaments now too?

Competition makes you strive to get better

1st place ribbons for everyone...........

I don't think anyone is suggesting that competition be removed or getting rid of tournaments. But be honest, who do you think cares more about the standings and rankings at that young of an age: players or parents?

My bet is that 8 year olds wouldn't even know where to look up the standings or rankings, and that 90% of the Internet traffic browsing those websites would be the parents. And if that's the case, who do the rankings/standing really serve?

Think I'm wrong about that?

[JSR]

Great.

I just bought one of those cute little pins that says "HockeyMom" and you can hang three little number charms from it.

Is that still good or should I not let my wife wear it?

Are the numbers hub cap size? Will it clash with the Blades tattoo or the MMachine hair dye job? If you need to add to the gift I found that you can buy face paint in bulk on ebay. Sorry for the sarcasm but all I said was that when I was 9 (1976) I would have thought my parents were dorks had they been into wearing team stuff with my name on it. Wear what ever you want, just make sure to take lots of pictures so when your kids look back on this time they will have something to laugh at you about.

Befor eyou get too high and mighty royals. Your kids will look back and laugh at how you looked and how you dressed no matter what you wear or how you look, that is just the way fo the world. What matters is what they remember about how you treated them and how you felt about them, if wearing those things is based on you showing them you love them and support and were loving toward them, then that is how they will remember that, if it was about tooting your own horn and trying to flaunt something then that is how it will also be remembered by them. As for remembering 1976, well I remember it too and like I said before, kids and parents (for better and for worse) were different back then compared to now a days.

P.S. My kids would think you were a dork forr using the word dork.

[JSR]

On the nutty parent thing...it doesn't stop at this age...at a local tournament I stopped in at a bantam game this winter, two random out of town teams...a dad on one side of me was crabbing how lazy his kid was and that he was worthless...and the guy on the other side from the other town was beating on the glass shouting "move it" to his kid...i thought wow...it was really sad...they both had their team associations jackets on

I never meant to imply that the "nutty-ness" COMPLETELY ceases once the kids hit PeeWees....you're correct, there are some parents who take the nutty-factor with them all the way through. I'm just saying that a large percentage of parents tone it down a bit after a couple of years.

Actually, the nuttiest, most over the top parents I have encountered are parents of AAA Midget players, so I don't think it's an "age" thing muck. I've never seen the atrocious behavior at any other level than what I've seen at Midget games. Not saying nutty parents aren't at every level, they are but my own personal experience has been that the Midget parents are the worst. The foul language, their unabashed yelling of profanities at the kids ont he ice and at the coaches on the bench. I've actually had to move where my family was sitting because of the parental behavior I've found at these midget games, I've never encountered that at any squirt games. The other "worst" expereince I've had has been at AAA Pee Wee games. Some really over the top ones at those games too. Maybe it's because we livei in Wisconsin and our system is a little different than Minnesotas and because we have year round AAA here, but also it could be because we have code of conducts for association play and for high school play for parents and if it's violated the kid can be punished but the AAA system does not seem to have that in my experience, or atleast it appears not to be enforced. On the otherside the calmest parents I've met are the mite parents overall, they tend not to have any expectations yet and they are still letting their kids be kids for the most part. Squirts is where things do seem to change, I think squirts just stick out because it is when things change but I don't know if I agree with the fact that things temper with the age groups, I think parents will temper if that is ttheir nature and won't if it's not, won't matter the age group

[JSR]

They have website standings for my sons FLAA football league and for his Gopher State traveling baseball at 9. Is hockey the new pioneer of no competition?

District 10 even pulled the Squirt scores off their site mid season.

What more of a competition/ranking could you have than a tournament with different size place trophies? Do some of you want to get rid of tournaments now too?

Competition makes you strive to get better

1st place ribbons for everyone...........

I don't think anyone is suggesting that competition be removed or getting rid of tournaments. But be honest, who do you think cares more about the standings and rankings at that young of an age: players or parents?

My bet is that 8 year olds wouldn't even know where to look up the standings or rankings, and that 90% of the Internet traffic browsing those websites would be the parents. And if that's the case, who do the rankings/standing really serve?

Think I'm wrong about that?

Yes and no. My son cares about the tournaments he's in and he likes to know if there is a trophy etc... and he wants to win it. On the otherhand he does not know nor does he care about how the other team is "ranked' he merely cares that he has to play against them. That said, don't you think SOME sort of system needs to be in place so that when a team is researching a tournament to play in they sign their team up for the appropriate level of play. I mean what purpose, for either team (or the tourney), does it serve if you put a team in the tourney that will either get blown out by double digits each game or on the flip side blow everyone out by double digits each game in a tournament and if you are from far away and looking for a fun "away" tourney for your team to go to, how can you know if it's approprate or not. I am not advocating ranking the teams to see "who is the best" or "is ny little johnnies team looking like a great team", but SOME sort of system to allow people to decipher appropriate levels of competition for their team should exist. Would you not agree with that?

[muckandgrind]

On the nutty parent thing...it doesn't stop at this age...at a local tournament I stopped in at a bantam game this winter, two random out of town teams...a dad on one side of me was crabbing how lazy his kid was and that he was worthless...and the guy on the other side from the other town was beating on the glass shouting "move it" to his kid...i thought wow...it was really sad...they both had their team associations jackets on

I never meant to imply that the "nutty-ness" COMPLETELY ceases once the kids hit PeeWees....you're correct, there are some parents who take the nutty-factor with them all the way through. I'm just saying that a large percentage of parents tone it down a bit after a couple of years.

Actually, the nuttiest, most over the top parents I have encountered are parents of AAA Midget players, so I don't think it's an "age" thing muck. I've never seen the atrocious behavior at any other level than what I've seen at Midget games. Not saying nutty parents aren't at every level, they are but my own personal experience has been that the Midget parents are the worst. The foul language, their unabashed yelling of profanities at the kids ont he ice and at the coaches on the bench. I've actually had to move where my family was sitting because of the parental behavior I've found at these midget games, I've never encountered that at any squirt games. The other "worst" expereince I've had has been at AAA Pee Wee games. Some really over the top ones at those games too. Maybe it's because we livei in Wisconsin and our system is a little different than Minnesotas and because we have year round AAA here, but also it could be because we have code of conducts for association play and for high school play for parents and if it's violated the kid can be punished but the AAA system does not seem to have that in my experience, or atleast it appears not to be enforced. On the otherside the calmest parents I've met are the mite parents overall, they tend not to have any expectations yet and they are still letting their kids be kids for the most part. Squirts is where things do seem to change, I think squirts just stick out because it is when things change but I don't know if I agree with the fact that things temper with the age groups, I think parents will temper if that is ttheir nature and won't if it's not, won't matter the age group

While I agree that Mite parents are the most calm....I disagree about Squirt parents as it pertains to MN Hockey. It's as this age where they get the first taste of "real" competition. (I put "real" in quotes, because the kids aren't checking yet). It's as this age where I see the most screwball parents, especially at the "A" level. Then, for most, as their child gets older the parents tend to calm down a bit. Sure, there will always be the nutjob parent in the crowd, but I think you see more nutjobs at the Squirt level than anywhere else.

It could be that Squirt parents tend to hang around the team more than the parents of older kids. You see all the dads lined up at the glass watching practice. By the time the kids are PeeWees most of the dads get tired of that and instead go run an errand or meet a couple of other dads up at the local sports bar for a couple of "pops" while the kids are at practice.

These are just my observations.

[JSR]

I never meant to imply that the "nutty-ness" COMPLETELY ceases once the kids hit PeeWees....you're correct, there are some parents who take the nutty-factor with them all the way through. I'm just saying that a large percentage of parents tone it down a bit after a couple of years.

Actually, the nuttiest, most over the top parents I have encountered are parents of AAA Midget players, so I don't think it's an "age" thing muck. I've never seen the atrocious behavior at any other level than what I've seen at Midget games. Not saying nutty parents aren't at every level, they are but my own personal experience has been that the Midget parents are the worst. The foul language, their unabashed yelling of profanities at the kids ont he ice and at the coaches on the bench. I've actually had to move where my family was sitting because of the parental behavior I've found at these midget games, I've never encountered that at any squirt games. The other "worst" expereince I've had has been at AAA Pee Wee games. Some really over the top ones at those games too. Maybe it's because we livei in Wisconsin and our system is a little different than Minnesotas and because we have year round AAA here, but also it could be because we have code of conducts for association play and for high school play for parents and if it's violated the kid can be punished but the AAA system does not seem to have that in my experience, or atleast it appears not to be enforced. On the otherside the calmest parents I've met are the mite parents overall, they tend not to have any expectations yet and they are still letting their kids be kids for the most part. Squirts is where things do seem to change, I think squirts just stick out because it is when things change but I don't know if I agree with the fact that things temper with the age groups, I think parents will temper if that is ttheir nature and won't if it's not, won't matter the age group

While I agree that Mite parents are the most calm....I disagree about Squirt parents as it pertains to MN Hockey. It's as this age where they get the first taste of "real" competition. (I put "real" in quotes, because the kids aren't checking yet). It's as this age where I see the most screwball parents, especially at the "A" level. Then, for most, as their child gets older the parents tend to calm down a bit. Sure, there will always be the nutjob parent in the crowd, but I think you see more nutjobs at the Squirt level than anywhere else.

These are just my observations.

You might be right and i might not see it as much because the "nut jobs" down here tend to take their kids to AAA year round Tier 1 hockey beginning at the squirt age. So mayeb they are just all over there and I don't see them as much because we play association hockey in the winter still and just do the AAA thing as a spring compliment. While I live in WI, I am a believer in the MN model of hockey and also, I jsut don't think a squirt age player needs eyar round AAA stuff to get better, plus they have more fun in associaiton hockey with their school mates. JMHO

[MrBoDangles]

They have website standings for my sons FLAA football league and for his Gopher State traveling baseball at 9. Is hockey the new pioneer of no competition?

District 10 even pulled the Squirt scores off their site mid season.

What more of a competition/ranking could you have than a tournament with different size place trophies? Do some of you want to get rid of tournaments now too?

Competition makes you strive to get better

1st place ribbons for everyone...........

I don't think anyone is suggesting that competition be removed or getting rid of tournaments. But be honest, who do you think cares more about the standings and rankings at that young of an age: players or parents?

My bet is that 8 year olds wouldn't even know where to look up the standings or rankings, and that 90% of the Internet traffic browsing those websites would be the parents (just like this site).

Think I'm wrong about that?

Yes.........

You should hear the kids from the top 2000 teams talk to each other....... They know where they're at.

Tournaments are even being scrapped at the national level from this way of thinking.

[muckandgrind]

They have website standings for my sons FLAA football league and for his Gopher State traveling baseball at 9. Is hockey the new pioneer of no competition?

District 10 even pulled the Squirt scores off their site mid season.

What more of a competition/ranking could you have than a tournament with different size place trophies? Do some of you want to get rid of tournaments now too?

Competition makes you strive to get better

1st place ribbons for everyone...........

I don't think anyone is suggesting that competition be removed or getting rid of tournaments. But be honest, who do you think cares more about the standings and rankings at that young of an age: players or parents?

My bet is that 8 year olds wouldn't even know where to look up the standings or rankings, and that 90% of the Internet traffic browsing those websites would be the parents (just like this site).

Think I'm wrong about that?

Yes.........

You should here the kids from the top 2000 teams talk to each other....... They know where they're at.

Tournaments are even being scrapped at the national level from this way of thinking.

First, there is a big difference between 8 and 10 year olds. I watch these 8 year olds come into the rink dragging their big bag on wheels (don't even get me started with those things) and I just know that they don't know who the "top" teams are and probably don't even care. They are there to have fun. It's the parents who gather around the tournament bracket looking at all the records and trying to figure out where the competition is. The 8 year olds are in the locker room throwing tape balls at each other. As they get older, sure - they become more aware of "who is who" and even more so as they get into their teen years.

I'm all for national tournaments for age 12 and up. The way I look at it, if baseball can have a national 12 year old champ (Little League World Series), then hockey can also have a PeeWee national champion. I'll still maintain that Squirts is too young, though.

[muckandgrind]

Yes and no. My son cares about the tournaments he's in and he likes to know if there is a trophy etc... and he wants to win it. On the otherhand he does not know nor does he care about how the other team is "ranked' he merely cares that he has to play against them. That said, don't you think SOME sort of system needs to be in place so that when a team is researching a tournament to play in they sign their team up for the appropriate level of play. I mean what purpose, for either team (or the tourney), does it serve if you put a team in the tourney that will either get blown out by double digits each game or on the flip side blow everyone out by double digits each game in a tournament and if you are from far away and looking for a fun "away" tourney for your team to go to, how can you know if it's approprate or not. I am not advocating ranking the teams to see "who is the best" or "is ny little johnnies team looking like a great team", but SOME sort of system to allow people to decipher appropriate levels of competition for their team should exist. Would you not agree with that?

I think it's pretty simple for a coach to know at what level his team should be competing at and which tournaments they should be registering for. All it takes is a scrimmage or two against a variance of teams to figure that out. Heck, most people have an idea after a couple of practices about the skill level of their players.

This is just my opinion. If dads want to rank teams made up of 8 year old, they can go right ahead. Just know that those "rankings" will change quite a bit in a few years assuming the rosters don't turnover.

[MrBoDangles]

I don't think anyone is suggesting that competition be removed or getting rid of tournaments. But be honest, who do you think cares more about the standings and rankings at that young of an age: players or parents?

My bet is that 8 year olds wouldn't even know where to look up the standings or rankings, and that 90% of the Internet traffic browsing those websites would be the parents (just like this site).

Think I'm wrong about that?

Yes.........

You should here the kids from the top 2000 teams talk to each other....... They know where they're at.

Tournaments are even being scrapped at the national level from this way of thinking.

First, there is a big difference between 8 and 10 year olds. I watch these 8 year olds come into the rink dragging their big bag on wheels (don't even get me started with those things) and I just know that they don't know who the "top" teams are and probably don't even care. They are there to have fun. It's the parents who gather around the tournament bracket looking at all the records and trying to figure out where the competition is. The 8 year olds are in the locker room throwing tape balls at each other. As they get older, sure - they become more aware of "who is who" and even more so as they get into their teen years.

I'm all for national tournaments for age 12 and up. The way I look at it, if baseball can have a national 12 year old champ (Little League World Series), then hockey can also have a PeeWee national champion. I'll still maintain that Squirts is too young, though.

Squirt game, tournament, national championship..... It's all the same thing, it's competition if the score is kept. I agree with not keeping score at the mite level, but at the Squirt level to have all out tournaments yet not have district scores or standings is

Other sports are way younger at the local and national level.

[muckandgrind]

Yes.........

You should here the kids from the top 2000 teams talk to each other....... They know where they're at.

Tournaments are even being scrapped at the national level from this way of thinking.

First, there is a big difference between 8 and 10 year olds. I watch these 8 year olds come into the rink dragging their big bag on wheels (don't even get me started with those things) and I just know that they don't know who the "top" teams are and probably don't even care. They are there to have fun. It's the parents who gather around the tournament bracket looking at all the records and trying to figure out where the competition is. The 8 year olds are in the locker room throwing tape balls at each other. As they get older, sure - they become more aware of "who is who" and even more so as they get into their teen years.

I'm all for national tournaments for age 12 and up. The way I look at it, if baseball can have a national 12 year old champ (Little League World Series), then hockey can also have a PeeWee national champion. I'll still maintain that Squirts is too young, though.

Squirt game, tournament, national championship..... It's all the same thing, it's competition if the score is kept. I agree with not keeping score at the mite level, but at the Squirt level to have all out tournaments yet not have district scores or standings is

Other sports are way younger at the local and national level.

What other team sport as a national champion for 8 year olds?

[MrBoDangles]

First, there is a big difference between 8 and 10 year olds. I watch these 8 year olds come into the rink dragging their big bag on wheels (don't even get me started with those things) and I just know that they don't know who the "top" teams are and probably don't even care. They are there to have fun. It's the parents who gather around the tournament bracket looking at all the records and trying to figure out where the competition is. The 8 year olds are in the locker room throwing tape balls at each other. As they get older, sure - they become more aware of "who is who" and even more so as they get into their teen years.

I'm all for national tournaments for age 12 and up. The way I look at it, if baseball can have a national 12 year old champ (Little League World Series), then hockey can also have a PeeWee national champion. I'll still maintain that Squirts is too young, though.

Squirt game, tournament, national championship..... It's all the same thing, it's competition if the score is kept. I agree with not keeping score at the mite level, but at the Squirt level to have all out tournaments yet not have district scores or standings is

Other sports are way younger at the local and national level.

What other team sport as a national champion for 8 year olds?

You said "national tournaments (TWELVE) and up."

[muckandgrind]

Other sports are way younger at the local and national level.

What other team sport as a national champion for 8 year olds?[/quote]
You said "national tournaments (TWELVE) and up."[/quote]

Yeah, and I'm OK with them. You said that other sports a "way younger" at the "national level" - I was just curious as to which ones? I may have misunderstood what you meant...

[JSR]

Yes and no. My son cares about the tournaments he's in and he likes to know if there is a trophy etc... and he wants to win it. On the otherhand he does not know nor does he care about how the other team is "ranked' he merely cares that he has to play against them. That said, don't you think SOME sort of system needs to be in place so that when a team is researching a tournament to play in they sign their team up for the appropriate level of play. I mean what purpose, for either team (or the tourney), does it serve if you put a team in the tourney that will either get blown out by double digits each game or on the flip side blow everyone out by double digits each game in a tournament and if you are from far away and looking for a fun "away" tourney for your team to go to, how can you know if it's approprate or not. I am not advocating ranking the teams to see "who is the best" or "is ny little johnnies team looking like a great team", but SOME sort of system to allow people to decipher appropriate levels of competition for their team should exist. Would you not agree with that?

I think it's pretty simple for a coach to know at what level his team should be competing at and which tournaments they should be registering for. All it takes is a scrimmage or two against a variance of teams to figure that out. Heck, most people have an idea after a couple of practices about the skill level of their players.

This is just my opinion. If dads want to rank teams made up of 8 year old, they can go right ahead. Just know that those "rankings" will change quite a bit in a few years assuming the rosters don't turnover.

I am our team manager and work very closely with the coaches. The coaches have a good idea of what the kids on the team can or can't do but honestly, outside of the teams in our area the coaches have no idea how good or not good the competition is in other part sof the state and these are well connected, dialed in, good coaches. Again, maybe it's different in Wisconsin where sometimes we have to travel a little further to get a good tourney etc.... But honestly, do you really think a coach in, I don't know, Brooklyn Park, is going to know how good a team from say, Willmar is, if they were contemplating going to a tourney in another part of the state. I know we're near Madison, WI and our coaches would have no way of knowing how good a team from say, Rice lake was without some sort of internet site where either scores or team rankings were posted, I mean how else would we be able to figure out if we should go to that tourney in Rice Lake or not?

[JSR]

Other sports are way younger at the local and national level.

What other team sport as a national champion for 8 year olds?

You said "national tournaments (TWELVE) and up."

Yeah, and I'm OK with them. You said that other sports a "way younger" at the "national level" - I was just curious as to which ones? I may have misunderstood what you meant...[/quote][/quote]

Not advocating, I'm with you that I think it's too young for stuff liek that, but the ones I know of that have national tourneys that begin at 8 years old include gymnastics, dance, figure skating, golf, basketball and I'm sure there are probably others.

[muckandgrind]

Yes and no. My son cares about the tournaments he's in and he likes to know if there is a trophy etc... and he wants to win it. On the otherhand he does not know nor does he care about how the other team is "ranked' he merely cares that he has to play against them. That said, don't you think SOME sort of system needs to be in place so that when a team is researching a tournament to play in they sign their team up for the appropriate level of play. I mean what purpose, for either team (or the tourney), does it serve if you put a team in the tourney that will either get blown out by double digits each game or on the flip side blow everyone out by double digits each game in a tournament and if you are from far away and looking for a fun "away" tourney for your team to go to, how can you know if it's approprate or not. I am not advocating ranking the teams to see "who is the best" or "is ny little johnnies team looking like a great team", but SOME sort of system to allow people to decipher appropriate levels of competition for their team should exist. Would you not agree with that?

I think it's pretty simple for a coach to know at what level his team should be competing at and which tournaments they should be registering for. All it takes is a scrimmage or two against a variance of teams to figure that out. Heck, most people have an idea after a couple of practices about the skill level of their players.

This is just my opinion. If dads want to rank teams made up of 8 year old, they can go right ahead. Just know that those "rankings" will change quite a bit in a few years assuming the rosters don't turnover.

I am our team manager and work very closely with the coaches. The coaches have a good idea of what the kids on the team can or can't do but honestly, outside of the teams in our area the coaches have no idea how good or not good the competition is in other part sof the state and these are well connected, dialed in, good coaches. Again, maybe it's different in Wisconsin where sometimes we have to travel a little further to get a good tourney etc.... But honestly, do you really think a coach in, I don't know, Brooklyn Park, is going to know how good a team from say, Willmar is, if they were contemplating going to a tourney in another part of the state. I know we're near Madison, WI and our coaches would have no way of knowing how good a team from say, Rice lake was without some sort of internet site where either scores or team rankings were posted, I mean how else would we be able to figure out if we should go to that tourney in Rice Lake or not?

Generally, when you register for a tournament you have no way of knowing who else has registered until the brackets are released a week or two before the first game.

In Minnesota, it's pretty easy to guess which tournaments will attract the top teams in the Winter. A tournament in Willmar generally doesn't attract the level of teams as one played in Edina.

[JSR]

I think it's pretty simple for a coach to know at what level his team should be competing at and which tournaments they should be registering for. All it takes is a scrimmage or two against a variance of teams to figure that out. Heck, most people have an idea after a couple of practices about the skill level of their players.

This is just my opinion. If dads want to rank teams made up of 8 year old, they can go right ahead. Just know that those "rankings" will change quite a bit in a few years assuming the rosters don't turnover.

I am our team manager and work very closely with the coaches. The coaches have a good idea of what the kids on the team can or can't do but honestly, outside of the teams in our area the coaches have no idea how good or not good the competition is in other part sof the state and these are well connected, dialed in, good coaches. Again, maybe it's different in Wisconsin where sometimes we have to travel a little further to get a good tourney etc.... But honestly, do you really think a coach in, I don't know, Brooklyn Park, is going to know how good a team from say, Willmar is, if they were contemplating going to a tourney in another part of the state. I know we're near Madison, WI and our coaches would have no way of knowing how good a team from say, Rice lake was without some sort of internet site where either scores or team rankings were posted, I mean how else would we be able to figure out if we should go to that tourney in Rice Lake or not?

Generally, when you register for a tournament you have no way of knowing who else has registered until the brackets are released a week or two before the first game.

In Minnesota, it's pretty easy to guess which tournaments will attract the top teams in the Winter. A tournament in Willmar generally doesn't attract the level of teams as one played in Edina.

Again this is probably where our states differ and it's tough to compare. I'm guessing that up there most clubs have the size and reputation where their abilities stay somewhat even from year to year. We don't have that down here. One year a certain squirt team can be awesome and the very next year the same clubs squirt team can be absolutely aweful and it is liek that for the majority fo associations in our state save maybe one or two. We have great difference in ability of certain age teams from year to year all over our state mainly because we don't have the numbers you see in places like say Edina or Eden Prairie or whatever. The "biggest" club I can think of in our entire state is probably Waukesha, they on average, probably would be able to field 4 to 5 squirt teams consistantly every year. You guys have assocations with 16+ squirt teams. Makes a big difference in consistancy. So that is why we need yearly scores of games or something posted down here because there is no consistancy amongst clubs. Usually you play a few early season games in your area then you hope some area teams will have played a tourney ro two or asome away game so you can start cross referencing scores so you can then find approriate teams for your team to play. It's a must here because of those reasons. I can see how/why it owuold be possible to be different in MN

[hockey_is_a_choice]

silentbutdeadly3139]

Oh your from Canada, now i know why you don't like the jackets. Perhaps if it was plaid you wouldn't find the need to rip the people who wear them.

Well, at least my Hudson Bay plaid jacket wasn't made in Asia, unlike your team or association jacket, eh.

[MrBoDangles]