Appreciate the well wishes. At least our kids will get a chance to face GSE1 this season. The point of playing AA was that it's California Hockey vs Socal Hockey, and this will be at last be an opportunity for us to engage in that for the 2nd and last time this season.
I agree 100% that the Flight system is dumb and defeats the entire point of CAHA, but I fear that CAHA considers it a success. I believe at this point they are probably planning a future meeting to "tune things" and figure out a way that they can reduce the number of Flight1 teams to 6 next season, so that GSE can just play the Ducks and the Kings and maybe Gulls or Saints. This is the organization that thinks this works great for AAA with 3 teams!
CAHA was put together because in the old days teams had to work out scheduling to play each other manager to manager. The rulebook for the most part makes sense, but once they got into the business of believing they could predict and improve overall competition, they lost their way. As the old saying goes, "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it", and it might surprise people to know that Flights were tried many years ago, and ultimately scrapped, or so I have been told.
I do know that the dates for the Flight2 playoffs were picked and put out to bid by the various rinks, so the clubs should have the information at least on the dates.
I don't harbor any ill will personally to the Ducks2 parents, or the Kings2 for that matter. There are some nice folks there, and I understand that they are often just doing what the club tells them is the thing to do on their path to their AAA destiny. There's just nothing in it for my son, to play kids who are 2 years younger and 1/2 his size and watch him sit in the box because he knocked one of em down going for a puck. No offense, your kids play very well for their age, and I truly enjoyed watching that little Kings2 goalie stand on his head, but you should not be playing our mostly '05 team in my opinion.
The practice of play-up to Peewee AA is a big part of this problem, and yet again the results speak for themselves. They should stop allowing this for teams, and return things to the way it was in the past when individual kids who have demonstrated they are far too advanced to play in their own age group could play up, but with those numbers highly limited per team. People would think twice if they faced the proposition that their underage kid would have to play on a team with all older kids and possibly be relagated to a limited role while other older, stronger, better kids played in front of them.
A lot more would want to stay together and play at Squirt, and if you are so incredibly good, then get started on your AAA travels early and scrimmage teams that want to scrimmage you. When my son was a 2nd year Squirt the play up thing was in full swing, and of those parents I knew whose kids did it, not one said it was a good decision by the end of the season. There are more than a few parents around who can tell you they thought it actually hurt their kids development, because they were forced to battle uphill all year and change the way they played to try and minimize the downside of facing older kids.
I want to belatedly congratulate OC2 and the ID's for beating the Flight1 Ducks2 during the season. You made the point we were never given the opportunity to make ourselves.
It would be a lot more interesting for everyone if the Flight1 9 & 10 teams were slotted into the Flight2 playoffs in my opinion, if for no other reason than to give you all an opportunity to play teams that you weren't provided by CAHA this season.
Here's hoping we can all enjoy the last few weeks of the 2017-18 season, and our kids come out healthy and ready for a break from the sport --- and an opportunity to do some other things at least for the spring! Half the '04's my kid played with last year have some sort of injury -- concussions, broken collarbones and wrists. Moving to full check is the main concern I have for next year, and really puts all this flight nonsense into perspective for me.
