jstewismybastardson
Lord Shitlord aka El cibernauta
at the non junior lower levels/ages here, we have the non Hockey Canada affiliated ( RENEGADE!!! - lol ) leagues locally ... I cant even keep track of them YPHL EPHL so many acronyms lol ... my son tells me about all the kids who leave/disappear from the association for these leagues after they get cut from the rep teamsDon't get me started on "Select Elite Super Snowflake" teams. We have a ton of them here and it seems a new one got stood up every time some doctor's kid doesn't make the last one. The Jackets are fixing that too. We used to have 5 different Youth hockey programs around the city and each one had house, A, AA, and Travel. Then some had a second Travel team. Then "Prep" squads. Pre/Post season "Elite Teams" blah blah blah.
The Jackets stepped in and took over house hockey. One organization from Mini Mite/Learn To Play to Bantam for house/rec hockey. The other five programs still exist, but can have one travel team per age group and that's it. AA teams are now part of the BlueJackets AAA program, and it's one team per age group in the whole city as well.
I cant really complain about them though ... its like a twisted up 2 tier health system ... the renegade leagues get the shitty rich kids out of the system when the roster spots are taken up by those of more modest means with better talent lol
they are in an advantageous position to improve thanks to daddy spending 5 times the registration price I do for extra ice time/training but they are pretty much the kids never to be heard from again lol