CHL can now play NCAA - change everything !

[jtechkid]

Having played AAA in the mid-atlantic region where travel/competition is the easiest ... it still sucks ass. Hotels every other weekend, constantly missing school and social events, etc.. Even the NY/NJ/PHI area is a pain in the ass. Long Island or Connecticut to DC (which would presumably be the extent of that division) can easily be a 7+ hour drive depending on the day. Outside of maybe 10 or so programs the quality of each club depending on age group swings pretty drastically from year to year as well.

There's really no good solution to American AAA/Tier 1 hockey. Even New England prep school -- probably the best combo of competition, access to ice and coaching, and a healthier school and social life balance -- still involves sending your kid away from home and paying a boatload of money to do so.

Until/unless hockey has the coverage to have a Minnesota high school system everywhere, there's always going to be some problems

i think last 5-8 years college and USA stopped caring about education , travel , expense in relation to kids hockey . I think from last year minny had more div 1 recruits , more nhl players than every state combined . I really feel bad for NE prep who has been best place for COMPLETE development of kids . No worries Canada numbers are falling faster than usa numbers in youth participation because of money and USA dramatically richer country .

 

[Appleyard]

Having played AAA in the mid-atlantic region where travel/competition is the easiest ... it still sucks ass. Hotels every other weekend, constantly missing school and social events, etc.. Even the NY/NJ/PHI area is a pain in the ass. Long Island or Connecticut to DC (which would presumably be the extent of that division) can easily be a 7+ hour drive depending on the day. Outside of maybe 10 or so programs the quality of each club depending on age group swings pretty drastically from year to year as well.

There's really no good solution to American AAA/Tier 1 hockey. Even New England prep school -- probably the best combo of competition, access to ice and coaching, and a healthier school and social life balance -- still involves sending your kid away from home and paying a boatload of money to do so.

Until/unless hockey has the coverage to have a Minnesota high school system everywhere, there's always going to be some problems

Yeh, there is not a great solution... but there are definitely better ways than how it is right now. The Ad Hoc scheduling of 90% of the top teams means that travel is madness and extremely costly.

Take for example the New Jersey Rockets schedule. Pretty representative of a top programme and they are ideally located in terms of travel. They spent the first two months of the season traipsing up to MA, RI and NH... then spent half of January away in Minnesota and Detroit!

And ofc having to play 5 games in 3 days at times to make trips to upstate New York and elsewhere worthwhile.

Now lets say for example (in the easiest 2 areas nationwide) you have:

New Jersey Rockets
Long Island Gulls
North Jersey Avalanche
Mid-Fairfield Jr Rangers
Yale Jr Bulldogs
Jersey Hitmen
Philadelphia Jr Flyers
Black Bear Academy
PAL Jr Islanders
South Kent

Seacoast Performance Academy
Mount St. Charles
Boston Jr Eagles
Neponset Valley River Rats
East Coast Militia
Cape Cod Whalers
Lovell Academy
Boston Hockey Academy

Now, these teams if played in "division" to start season would have a pretty similar schedule quality wise, while having a lot less travel and expenses, as well as consistency to schedule. Ofc a lot of politics at play, and still not perfect, and it is arbitrary towards the bottom which teams it would be...

but would be better than what is happening now.

Combine that with some version of the HPHL in Detroit-Chicago area?

And then have the Ohio, West Penn and Upstate NY teams play each other?

Might save money, time, create consistency and improve product.

BUT ofc will never happen.

Best can hope for is expansion of NEPACK and maybe a new HPHL.