What AA Bantam Teams for 2018-19?

[TopCornzzz]

Watched a period of the Saints2 vs OC game.....waste of time for both teams.  Saints2 won 10-0 and I heard shots were 45-5.  OC2 should be playing Bantam A period.  It is obvious that CHA has a different objective than trying to have parity in the league. I feel bad for the parents and kids on OC2.  Its going to be a long season....Great work by CAHA and their expert non biased evaluators. The smoke screen is heavy but everyone can see through it C$H$!!!  Keep ruining hockey in CA! 

[justanotherhockeydad]

Watched a period of the Saints2 vs OC game.....waste of time for both teams.  Saints2 won 10-0 and I heard shots were 45-5.  OC2 should be playing Bantam A period.  It is obvious that CHA has a different objective than trying to have parity in the league. I feel bad for the parents and kids on OC2.  Its going to be a long season....Great work by CAHA and their expert non biased evaluators. The smoke screen is heavy but everyone can see through it C$H$!!!  Keep ruining hockey in CA!

Yes, I agree it's going to be a long season for OC2 and I feel bad for the parents and kids...

Not sure why OC2 elected to stay in AA... OC2 would've been better served dropping to Bantam A.

Also, not sure how accurate the entire story is as I'm only hearing it from one side, but a Wave2 parent told me that they knew they're not a AA team (especially after losing to Bears1 by 20+) and his kid chose to leave Wave2 because they wanted to play AA hockey and did not want to drop to Bantam A. From my understanding, sounded like Wave2 was given the option to stay in Flight2 or drop? However, when a few players decided to leave, Wave2 ended up not having enough players to stay as a team. So regarding OC2 and Wave2,  I'm not sure if it's entirely CAHA's decision to make one team drop and the other stay... Perhaps parents/players had a lot of say in this situation?

[lcadad]

Wave2 suffered through some early season drubbings in scrimmages and at the Jamboree.   But as stated previously, they also had closed the gap on some teams.  That type of inconsistent result should be expected of any young inexperienced team, and Wave2 was an '05 team with a lot of players who had not played either for the coach or the team previously.  These types of teams are no longer acceptable to CAHA.  A team needs to be firing on most of its cylinders at the Jamboree or expect to find themselves either in Flight2 or facing pressure to drop.


Wave2 had some results that were encouraging, but as I've come to realize from personal experience, CAHA evaluation is a zero sum game.  If you win a game, that is helpful.  If you lose, they very much hold it against you, whether that loss comes in a 6-0 game, or a 4-3 game where you outshot your opponent.  The conclusion is, that you weren't supposed to win, and when you don't, that means that CAHA's expectations and pre-season rankings are vindicated, and it's irrelevant to them that a close game indicates you might be just as good as the team you lost to.    Once a team gets put on the relegation track, it's hard to get off of it.   The Reign were on that track, and it's pretty clear now, that they never should have been, but CAHA & SCAHA kept setting up opportunities for them to fail, until they nearly tied Bears2 in the pre-season. 

Perhaps Wave2 were considering dropping even prior to pressure from the league, but I believe their hand was forced, and I base that opinion on the fact that once you sign your LOI and contract, you can't just exit the team and go join another AA team without a release.   The only way you can get a "competitive" release is if you are going to play up a division or go down -- as far as an individual family is concerned.  So people "wanting to leave to play AA" couldn't have been the main reason for the team disbanding.  Clubs are within their rights to simply say no to a release for a player who wants to play for another team in the same division.  I can't say how often it happens that a club refuses to release a player so they can join the competition, but in general, the clubs don't want that happening, over concern that there'd be rampant club hopping if it was allowed.

[Time Flies]

It’s mind boggling that an organization such as the Ducks continues to have to post for openings on their AA teams. It’s a real statement that Caha and Scaha are running California hockey straight into the ground with their nonsensical creation of the flight system. It’s not too late for Caha to abandon the flight system this year. Make OC2, Empire and Gulls drop to A. That would leave 15 competitive teams in AA. It would also stop kids from leaving the state or going on Tahoe Hockey Academy next season. It’s ridiculous that Kings2 and Bears2 are considered above the top 5 flight2 teams when they are -11 and -12 after one weekend.

[Hockey05]

No real news here, if you have a player with talent that wants to keep playing seriously there aren't a lot of options after bantam.  For this reason so many have left, easily over thirty of the best 2003 players last year.  This includes numerous AAA players and many who never bothered with AAA. 

Recent 18U & 16U AAA teams are frequently coached by dad coaches with a son on the team.  Or there are kids of former pros which reduces the number of slots.  Often these same teams get players placed on the team through USA Hockey to make the team more competitive or from overseas.  That also makes it difficult for a local kid to gain entry or playing time. 

So if you have a serious bantam and you buy all in, you have to look to the predominant methods that will move your son forward.  This often means parting ways at a younger age than is necessary.  There are lists that will show percentages of which league back east or in juniors will move your player on to college.  One may have been previously posted here. 

USA Hockey will talk a big game about staying local and point to Austin Matthews.  But I seriously doubt that any one of of our kids are the next Austin Matthews.  I believe you have to pursue the eyeballs or more than likely your kid will be overlooked regardless of talent.   
I too very much question the legality of some of the things happening here.  The parents of players are speaking loudly and a heck of a lot of talent and money is headed elsewhere.  Sadly, I don't expect much to change.   

[Knuckle Puck]

Hockey05, your numbers sadly are way low.  Around 90 socal 2002s & 2003s have left the state to play for midget AAA, prep or academy programs.  NINETY!!  You won't see a complete list in Cal Rubber, but I guarantee my figure is correct.  That's more than the number of kids who stayed to play AAA for the JK and JD this season.  And Im not even counting the kids gone to Tahoe  (around 10), or any of the norcal kids who left. 

This is a CAHA epic fail.  Bad for California youth hockey.  Bad for many families. A few people tying to protect their little youth hockey fiefdoms have turned California tier hockey into an expensive and politicized joke that is inferior to dozens of out-of-state programs by every measure other than proximity. And the purposeful shrinking of AAA hasn't make Cal tier hockey any better; the few remaining midget AAA programs actually are LESS competitive nationally now then they were 5, 10 or even 15 years ago. The CJ ’01 Ducks are the only California team in five years to advance past pool play at nationals, and early results for this year's midgets are mediocre.

It is obvious to all but the CAHA geniuses that creating conditions that drive dozens of talented kids out of state every year can only result in a steadily worsening product.  The people responsible for this mess should be 5hitcanned, but that won’t happen because too many of the people in charge are selfish, dumb or both.
 
P.S. for those wondering, our SoCal 2002s/2003s have gone to places including Andover, Bishop’s College, Brooks, Couer D’Alene Academy, Choate, Culver, Cushing, Groton, Gunnery, Hoosac, NAHA, NAX, OHA, POE, Shattuck, Shawnigan Lake, Selects Academy, Taft,  Tilton, Winchendon, Belle Tire, CT Elite, Jr. Coyotes, Everett Jr. Silvertips, Honeybaked, Little Caesars, Team Illinois, Victory Honda.

[Strawman]

^^^^^ Bravo

[Nowhearthis]

Okay, a direct challenge out to CAHA.   Let us hear your case in the debate.

[Strawman]

Crickets.

[Nowhearthis]

Let's give them, any of them, a little more time....  they may be busy counting our money.

[JakesDad01]

Curious - has CAHA ever responded to any posting here before?

[lcadad]

Curious - has CAHA ever responded to any posting here before?

No, and I why would we expect them to?  They are an organization in deep contemplation of their collective navel.  That should include SCAHA and perhaps the NYHA -- there is substantial overlap of "leadership" at these organizations.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely _{-John Dalberg-Acton}

[Avcadet]

Wave2 suffered through some early season drubbings in scrimmages and at the Jamboree.   But as stated previously, they also had closed the gap on some teams.  That type of inconsistent result should be expected of any young inexperienced team, and Wave2 was an '05 team with a lot of players who had not played either for the coach or the team previously.  These types of teams are no longer acceptable to CAHA.  A team needs to be firing on most of its cylinders at the Jamboree or expect to find themselves either in Flight2 or facing pressure to drop.


Wave2 had some results that were encouraging, but as I've come to realize from personal experience, CAHA evaluation is a zero sum game.  If you win a game, that is helpful.  If you lose, they very much hold it against you, whether that loss comes in a 6-0 game, or a 4-3 game where you outshot your opponent.  The conclusion is, that you weren't supposed to win, and when you don't, that means that CAHA's expectations and pre-season rankings are vindicated, and it's irrelevant to them that a close game indicates you might be just as good as the team you lost to.    Once a team gets put on the relegation track, it's hard to get off of it.   The Reign were on that track, and it's pretty clear now, that they never should have been, but CAHA & SCAHA kept setting up opportunities for them to fail, until they nearly tied Bears2 in the pre-season. 

Perhaps Wave2 were considering dropping even prior to pressure from the league, but I believe their hand was forced, and I base that opinion on the fact that once you sign your LOI and contract, you can't just exit the team and go join another AA team without a release.   The only way you can get a "competitive" release is if you are going to play up a division or go down -- as far as an individual family is concerned.  So people "wanting to leave to play AA" couldn't have been the main reason for the team disbanding.  Clubs are within their rights to simply say no to a release for a player who wants to play for another team in the same division.  I can't say how often it happens that a club refuses to release a player so they can join the competition, but in general, the clubs don't want that happening, over concern that there'd be rampant club hopping if it was allowed.

Wave 2 never considered dropping down. 

[JakesDad01]

I didn't think that they had or would.  Was just wondering why it seemed that some posters were almost expecting them to respond.

[trans4761]

Congrats to WW in winning the Boston Prep Cup over the weekend.