"One thing my mom used to tell me that made no sense at the time but that makes a lot of sense now that I’m older, is that “they†(corrupt/incompetent/bad people) don’t stop until they hit a wall. Meaning that if CAHA personnel and board members are more interested in money and power than in developing hockey players, or even if they’re simply incompetent, they’re not going to change, even if parents complain nonstop. Why? Because we’re all still paying into the system, i.e. they haven’t hit a wall. They may change a rule to appease a few people, or release a PR statement about listening to the parents blah blah blah, but I do think that once an incompetent or greedy group of people goes down the road of chasing money and power, it’s very hard if not impossible to turn them around without extremely major personnel changes.I’m wondering if one way to fix California club hockey is to reapportion the board membership so that a majority of seats on the board are held by individual clubs other than the big three. AND no club can have more than one member on the board. Also, the CAHA website should state in greater detail who these board members are, including what their specific relationship to hockey is, what club they are or have been associated with – whatever information is relevant to parents knowing what their biases might be. But it's absolutely essential to have extremely major personnel changes on the board. Nothing else will work. California hockey is broken, and the people who broke it should not be in charge."
We gave up on California club hockey. Not sure I could say it is only about money and power; perhaps it about imposing one's vision of hockey correctness, a kissing cousin of political correctness.
If one cannot influence the system, then one needs to seek out other alternatives if your son loves ice hockey.
There is another alternative to Prep School or accepting the dysfunctions of CAHA hockey and that is playing HS Division 1 as a 9th grader or Bantam major. It is a lot cheaper than AAA and a little less money than AA. It fits into a commitment to academics far better than either tier1 or 2 hockey. There is a lot less time wasted on freeways, which is import once homework increases and becomes critical to university admissions. Varsity level of play offers more, faster. and perhaps better competition than Flight 1 of BNAA. There are more games and more competitive games during a season. An unexpected bonus is our son had 7 real games on Labor Day weekend; we did not have to drive to N. California for a bad imitation of hockey that is the Jamboree and the varsity games are 17 minute periods, which means a lot more ice time. Last weekend there were 4 exhibition games. 11 games in two weekends! Another bonus is that practices are maybe the best in 8 years of playing hockey. Div 1 and Div 2 are attracting the best coaches in So. California.
This is an option that AA Bantam majors should consider and it might be a good fit and an alternative for even some AAA players who value academics over hockey. Just as nearly all roads lead to the "beer league" eventually, the most likely road leads to HS over club hockey for most but the most affluent and talented hockey players by Midget. Why not start a year early as a Bantam major?