The 06 division in RI compared to MA and CT is very weak. Just looking at the 2 "elite" teams of the Saints and PHC there is maybe 2 kids between the 2 teams that I would consider to be good. Everyone else would be on a lower level team in MA or CT but because it is RI they get to be elite. Town,is well town we won't even go in to that.
Development is hot word around here. Parents feel like organizations are responsible for a kids development but I have felt kids and parents are responsible for development. Coaches in my mind are there to teach and manage the game and put the kids in situations that allow them to succeed. I suppose it all depends on what your definition of development is.
Forget the PHC taking over the state last year or the latest rumor about saints being bought out/merged.
One would think that you would look that the last peewee year as a pretty decent gauge to see orgs put money where mouth is and see if they really can develop players.
You know it’s the Q year, the year ‘before the hitting starts’, the age when kids start to fall into set positions and so on. Well look at what has happened to RI hockey at the ‘club’ level for this birth year thus far:
PHC EHF elite 4-5-1 with -23 GD last place in division
PHC South EHF Black 0-8-0 with -21 GD last place in division
RI Saints BHL American 6-9-1 with +2 GD. Had meltdown in E9 parity too early to tell in BHL where they will end up right now in 5th place
PHC East EHF White 2-7-1 with -22 GD last place in division
RI Saints Select BHL National 0-5-1 with -18 GD 3rd to last in division
Now the only bright spot is PHC North in EHF Silver who is 9-0-1 with +27 GD, yeah I know its silver
I’m not SORRY my kid got cut, I’m GLAD my kid got cut and we moved ovah da bordah.
Same here, just watch some of this flim flam on LiveBarn. It's like an episode of NFL Redzone over at PHC.
More than anything it clearly shows the flaw in parity with too many teams in a division yielding lopsided top and bottom. It's across the board at every age too.
Cut the divisions to 5-6 max(even within Elite) and make more divisions. If owners looked at the goal differentials they would be able to quell grumpy winners and losers. It's a bad look and completely fixable with a tighter parity. There are teams that clearly don't belong and aren't competitive. Teams that have dropped from Black and are mid pack White etc.. There are few so easily fixable problems out there, this is easier to fix than clubbin seals.