Youth/Minor/Development Hockey

[siddious]

6 hours ago, Kevin said:

Your dog adopted a dog?  

I assumed it was a typo but this might be a good story 

[josh]

[Kevin]

https://youtu.be/BR1O12GNXGk

 

My guy…2nd year in a row for the teddy bear toss game.

[SaveByRichter35]

My 5 year old son's peewee deck hockey team won their championship yesterday.  Kid slept with his little trophy last night.  Its an insignificant league but he was so happy and so excited.  He keeps asking to watch the videos my wife and I took of him and his teammates being introduced prior to the game through a laser show in the dark and a fog machine.  I still hope he never wants to play ice hockey like Daddy because I will never be able to afford it lol.

[Albatrosss]

looks like my son's hockey career is over.  He's graduating high school this year and the travel hockey season is over. Feels very sad and a kind of empty feeling that there will be no more games to go to, tournaments to play, and have weekends occupied.  14 years of total dedication and now its over. Nothing but memories and bunch of jerseys and trophies left.  This sucks!

[Ozzy]

46 minutes ago, CCCP said:

looks like my son's hockey career is over.  He's graduating high school this year and the travel hockey season is over. Feels very sad and a kind of empty feeling that there will be no more games to go to, tournaments to play, and have weekends occupied.  14 years of total dedication and now its over. Nothing but memories and bunch of jerseys and trophies left.  This sucks!

 

College Hockey ??

[jsm7302]

2 hours ago, CCCP said:

looks like my son's hockey career is over.  He's graduating high school this year and the travel hockey season is over. Feels very sad and a kind of empty feeling that there will be no more games to go to, tournaments to play, and have weekends occupied.  14 years of total dedication and now its over. Nothing but memories and bunch of jerseys and trophies left.  This sucks!

Memories that you guys will cherish forever. The stories will flow at holidays and be cherished. Look at it as a ten year layoff until you get to do it again with your grandkids....(maybe). Cheers!

[Albatrosss]

1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

 

College Hockey ??

[Albatrosss]

28 minutes ago, jsm7302 said:

Memories that you guys will cherish forever. The stories will flow at holidays and be cherished. Look at it as a ten year layoff until you get to do it again with your grandkids....(maybe). Cheers!

[SaveByRichter35]

All roads lead to men's league.  

[SaveByRichter35]

Also, just think about all of the money you'll be saving now @CCCP!!

[Cash or Czech]

58 minutes ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

All roads lead to men's league.  

 

This right here. For the 99%, welcome to our game. Bring a 6-pack

[Albatrosss]

5 hours ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

Also, just think about all of the money you'll be saving now @CCCP!!

[Pete]

15 hours ago, SaveByRichter35 said:

Also, just think about all of the money you'll be saving now @CCCP!!

What savings? His kid has to quit hockey because those funds are going towards paying for college, don't let him fool you. 

[Pete]

Meanwhile... My life is over. Yesterday consisted of me leaving work early to take my kid to travel hockey tryouts, and then go directly to an hour and a half of soccer practice. 

 

He enjoyed Mites, and he was really good in the year end tournament. Most kids on the teams are older than him, but he put up something ridiculous like 28 points in four games. Travel will be a little bit different because they won't be any older kids, so we'll see how that goes. They also asked me to help out at practices so it's nice to get on the ice with him. 

 

But frankly I don't want him coming up in the USA Hockey program because it's too political, if he just grew up and went on to high school hockey and then men's league, I'd be fine with that lol. 

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by Pete

[Kevin]

19 hours ago, CCCP said:

looks like my son's hockey career is over.  He's graduating high school this year and the travel hockey season is over. Feels very sad and a kind of empty feeling that there will be no more games to go to, tournaments to play, and have weekends occupied.  14 years of total dedication and now its over. Nothing but memories and bunch of jerseys and trophies left.  This sucks!

It's definitely sad.  I feel for you.

 

My guy has one more year at 18u.  He also got a tryout with the Cedar Rapids Roughriders (USHL) in August.  That was his first tier 1 jr. invite.  He has a couple of different tier 2 options but he's still only a junior in high school so he'll be doing one more year at 18u (unless by some miracle he makes that Cedar Rapids team).

[Kevin]

23 minutes ago, Pete said:

Meanwhile... My life is over. Yesterday consisted of me leaving work early to take my kid to travel hockey tryouts, and then go directly to an hour and a half of soccer practice. 

 

He enjoyed Mites, and he was really good in the year end tournament. Most kids on the teams are older than him, but he put up something ridiculous like 28 points in four games. Travel will be a little bit different because they won't be any older kids, so we'll see how that goes. They also asked me to help out at practices so it's nice to get on the ice with him. 

 

But frankly I don't want him coming up in the USA Hockey program because it's too political, if he just grew up and went on to high school hockey and then men's league, I'd be fine with that lol. 

 

You say that now but will you say that if he shows that he's among the best at his age group?  Expectations grow with the talent.

[Pete]

8 minutes ago, Kevin said:

You say that now but will you say that if he shows that he's among the best at his age group?  Expectations grow with the talent.

From what I understand about hockey in New Jersey, it's not about talent as much as it is about how much money you have to pay for your kid to get on the team. 

 

And frankly the older you get the risk of injury increases, and I've seen kids around here who are never the same after their first concussion at 14 or 15. Straight A students flunking because they can't concentrate anymore, pulling out of sports completely because they experience no joy from playing, etc.

 

I'd rather my kid play something where individual performance holds much more weight, like tennis or golf. 

[Kevin]

3 minutes ago, Pete said:

From what I understand about hockey in New Jersey, it's not about talent as much as it is about how much money you have to pay for your kid to get on the team. 

 

And frankly the older you get the risk of injury increases, and I've seen kids around here who are never the same after their first concussion at 14 or 15. Straight A students flunking because they can't concentrate anymore, pulling out of sports completely because they experience no joy from playing, etc.

 

I'd rather my kid play something where individual performance holds much more weight, like tennis or golf. 

I don't think that's necessarily accurate.  If he's good enough, he'll be on a team.  NJ is a hotbed for youth hockey.  There are something like 18 AAA teams throughout the state currently at the 18u level.  I'd imagine the number is a little bit lower at the younger ages but not by much.  As far as the AA or lower levels, maybe there is some politics/finances that come into it like you'll only be on a certain team if you attend that coach's skills clinics but I can't really speak to that.  I have no money and my kid plays baseball in the spring/summer (didn't attend those clinics) and he was able to make every team he tried out for.  

 

As far as the injury thing, well that's a totally different topic.  USA Hockey has made some changes to eliminate the head contact stuff but it will still happen.  That has to be every parent/players own choice.  Injuries happen for sure.

 

I'm with you as far as the individual sports.  In fact, he should be trying as many sports as he wants at his age.  I think it'll be easy to figure out which one he likes the best after a couple of years.

[Morphinity 2.0]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

Meanwhile... My life is over. Yesterday consisted of me leaving work early to take my kid to travel hockey tryouts, and then go directly to an hour and a half of soccer practice. 

 

He enjoyed Mites, and he was really good in the year end tournament. Most kids on the teams are older than him, but he put up something ridiculous like 28 points in four games. Travel will be a little bit different because they won't be any older kids, so we'll see how that goes. They also asked me to help out at practices so it's nice to get on the ice with him. 

 

But frankly I don't want him coming up in the USA Hockey program because it's too political, if he just grew up and went on to high school hockey and then men's league, I'd be fine with that lol. 

 

Just curious, why'd you go with travel hockey?

[Pete]

27 minutes ago, Morphinity 2.0 said:

Just curious, why'd you go with travel hockey?

Locally, it's the next program after Mite Development, which is a house league (all the games at one rink, on small ice).

Edited March 24, 2023 by Pete

[Pete]

41 minutes ago, Kevin said:

I don't think that's necessarily accurate.  If he's good enough, he'll be on a team.  NJ is a hotbed for youth hockey.  There are something like 18 AAA teams throughout the state currently at the 18u level.  I'd imagine the number is a little bit lower at the younger ages but not by much.  As far as the AA or lower levels, maybe there is some politics/finances that come into it like you'll only be on a certain team if you attend that coach's skills clinics but I can't really speak to that.  I have no money and my kid plays baseball in the spring/summer (didn't attend those clinics) and he was able to make every team he tried out for.  

 

As far as the injury thing, well that's a totally different topic.  USA Hockey has made some changes to eliminate the head contact stuff but it will still happen.  That has to be every parent/players own choice.  Injuries happen for sure.

 

I'm with you as far as the individual sports.  In fact, he should be trying as many sports as he wants at his age.  I think it'll be easy to figure out which one he likes the best after a couple of years.

Thanks for the info. I'm going to see how far this goes before my bullshit meter goes off.

[Morphinity 2.0]

5 minutes ago, Pete said:

Locally, it's the next program after Mite Development, which is a house league (all the games at one rink, on small ice).

So there's no option for squirt house? or whatever the hell they call it now.

[Pete]

4 minutes ago, Morphinity 2.0 said:

So there's no option for squirt house? or whatever the hell they call it now.

Not by me. I'll send you the links. It goes straight from Mite Dev to Mite Travel.

 

It's also not the best run program. The emails comms are garbage and the web sites look like fuckin Geocities.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Pete

[jsm7302]

How much do you guys spend monthly/annually on youth hockey? Interested to see the cost variations and understand if fitting this in my budget is possible.