A lot of it must come back to so many kids making all these 'elite' teams as to why they think their kids are so good. There are too many teams.

Wow. I thought this guy was going to give us an answer to his statement. The only thing I could glean from this genius is that its the parents fault. And he is home sick. Where is home superstar?

Did you move here from Dallas? I will admit the Jr. Stars have a good program. But the Jr. Predators don't compete well on the national level. PA has a few teams and a couple are good programs. There are a couple of good CA programs too. Are you talking about NJ, is that a warm weather state now with global warming?

What do they do that is better? Because they have fewer teams does this lead to overall more parity in the competition. Are the costs so high in other locations that if your bender is going to play hockey daddy beats his dollar investment into his kid. (By the way, I am ok with that, I do it!!)

I think in New England, we probably have more ice per capita than his warm weather state. Just to be sure we are all talking the same, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois are not considered warm weather states to me!! So in New England we are going to have a larger number of parti****nts and not some, but the majority will not be "elite" which is a crap designation anyway.

The mom and dad coach influence is a cancer in New England. No doubt. But put into consideration that our annual team cost is somewhere between house costs of $1,500 a team and "elite" club team costs of $4,000 annually. That is soooooo inexpensive compared to other programs that I have had the opportunity to share information with.

Take the Pittsburgh Jr. Penguins program. I got chatting with a couple of Dads. So no, I don't have any price sheets to back it up. Only our conversation that I took at face value. Team costs for those athletes lucky enough to be chosen for the team $7,500. But folks that is just to be on the team and it does include a couple of tournaments. They are also REQUIRED to join the Jr. Penguins training program as well for $6,500 annually or they can't be on the team. So all in they are at $14,000. Squirts and PeeWees.

Lets stick with the Jr. Penguins program for a second and identify what they are doing that is a little different than New England Teams and also recognize that this program has a lot of top 10 teams. Their athletes are REQUIRED to do an extra day or so of on ice skills, and workouts in the gym. (I don't know the schedules. I chatted up a couple of Dads to learn this) Professional coaches, not Dads too.

So what are we doing wrong in New England.
1. Dad Coaches in New England is a function of cost savings and yes, ego. Get over it unless you are ready to pay 2x for your team than what you pay now.
2. Physical Training in New England at age 10 -14 is almost non-existent. Its an absolute crime to the development of any athlete in any sport. Find a youth trainer and pay them to train agility, speed, and flexibility in your athlete. If they are doing Olympic lifts with your 12 year old, fire them and find a new trainer. Agility, speed, and flexibility can all be trained at a young age safely and it should be. For nothing else than injury prevention at the very least, enhanced performance should always be the goal.
3. Parents; get out of the way of your coaches. You chose them at the tryouts. Change them at the end of the year if you need to. Stop complaining about them to your athlete and other parents because it becomes a cancer on the ice and in your athletes locker room and ultimately it hurts the team and your child's hockey development and attitude development. Your Athlete will never be good at something they don't enjoy spending time on. But if your hockey player wants to get better at hockey, spend the $$ and time to get them to extra skills and a training program.

Oh ya, and, original poster... go home! Or get involved and suggest solutions. You're a cry baby!

If you moved here from another state specifically for youth hockey that is kind of questionable. I feel like these days that is a bad reason to move somewhere. I am guessing you are also paying a lot more to live up here than wherever you came from. Hopefully your salary made up for it, but I can't see moving for children's sports.

This is a troll job- wake up.

what kind of fool posts something like this and then name calls and attacks the people who responded. God what a loser.

Nice short response! Nice job loser!