I don't think kids are playing just to put in on their transcripts, because hockey costs too much money for kids to just be doing it for something to do. I think that 95% of the kids that play high school hockey play because they like its fun. The reason that there are not as many talented kids as say Soccer or Lacrosse is because you can't practice hockey in your backyard, I mean you can shoot on your goal but the only chance you get outside of your own practice slot is if you play open hockey and most kids ages 7-18 don't play open hockey because the slots are in the middle of the day at the kids are at school

That's the reason basketball, Baseball, lacrosse, Soccer teams always have a full team of kids who have the fundamentals down is because you can play those sports is because you can develop the fundamentals in your backyard, so the only kids who really get good at hockey are typical kids who live by a rink (Example HH, West Chester's always field full respectable teams) Ridley used to have a varsity 2 and O’Hara has 5 teams all of whom have kids who can play. All of these schools are near a rink so kids grow up playing.

There is too big of a gap between the good and the average players, but I don't see it getting fixed anytime soon

As for Jr. B. not being watered down, in the del-Val there are 5 Jr. B. teams as far as I know (Jr. Flyers, Little Flyers, Valley Forge, Tri State, Jr. Titans) None of these teams would even pose as a threat to the Jr. Flyers Midget AAA team, the only other club team in our area we can compare to the Jr. Flyers Midget team is the Little Flyers AJHL team and I STILL give the edge to the Jr. Flyers in that game. Jr. B is supposed to be above Midget but none of our 5! Jr. b teams could beat one of our midget teams. I am not even sure any of those Jr. B teams would beat La Salle or O’Hara.

Be careful. The Valley Forge Minutemen Jr. B would beat any high school team by five goals at least. They are 3 1/2 - 4 lines deep.

Remember also that their Midget major team is basically La Salle's high school team.

If the Minutemen played the Jr. Flyers 18U team, it would be a very good game. Having said that, the Jr. Flyers may not even get to nationals, because the Mercer Chiefs are very, very good as well. There are two great midget teams in this area this season - doesn't happen that often.

my point on jr b hockey wasnt to compare it to high school or midgets, just that it is cyclical like high school hockey. im not going to debate it, but when the ajhl first started it hurt jr b. now a few years later, the league as a whole has gotten alot better. which will happen with high school hockey.

for teams to be competetive at the varsity level, you have to start getting the players familiar with each other in 6th, 7th, 8th grade. pennsbury has done this and has been having success because of it. if you can get a core group of kids together, that have played together since middle school, and possibly on the same club team, you will have success at the varsity level. this way, even if you dont have the best talent in your district, you should have good chemistry, and familiarity with players, that can compensate against some teams that have more talent.

This may be an issue for a different thread but... I think you may see a decline in Jr. Registration next year?
For numerous reasons teenagers may opt to play TierII Club and High School because the schedules are more managable. Junior Hockey together with High School hockey is a big time commitment for the average kid in a 7day week. Sure the die hards will continue playing both but more and more kids seem to be enjoying the limelight of High School rather then the challenge of legitimate Junior/Club Hockey.

I can't say this is a definate but my gut feeling based on some conversations I had with a few players points in that direction.

Yes Mercer is very good but going into a 5 game series with Mercer

The flyers are 2-1-1 thus far

Mercer 3 Flyers 1

Flyers-5 Mercer- 0

Flyers 4 Mercer-4

Flyers 6 Mercer-4

Jr Flyers have also beaten Dallas Stars AAA, Honeybaked AAA and beat Ny bobcats from the AHJH, i give them a pretty good chance going into this weekend

The Jr. Flyers are very, very good, I agree. But I believe Mercer has beat them twice, lost once and tied once.

Mercer 5 - Jr. Flyers 3
Mercer 5 - Jr. Flyers 3
Jr. Flyers 5 - Mercer 0
Mercer 4 - Jr. Flyers 4

Mercer has not fared as well as the Flyers against the nation's top midget teams. It should be a great series.

Having played against both teams 4 times each..im going to have to say the better team is without a doubt Jr.Flyers...the have good depth plus there top line is virtually unstoppable right now..Morrone, Oneil, and Milstead. and they have a great defensemen in McGarry. The way Mercer plays..they have a great transition game. GOod passing team. But not good enough to beat Jr. Flyers

Part of the decline in talent is the fact that many HS eligible players are not playing HS hockey or have gone to play Prep hockey Elsewhere.

For one reason or another, all of theses kids are HS eligible but aren't playing local HS hockey:
Brian O'Neill
Matt DiGirolamo
Tim D'Orazio
Rocco Carzo
Mike Milana
Stephan Courage
Taylor Vit
Zach Vit
Colby Cohen
Brian Mountain
James Chamness
Eric Tangradi
Tyler Mattingly
John Grossi
Jimmy Sprinkle
Max Paluzinski
T.J Brennan
Ben Slagis
Tucker Emmons
Mike Koelzer

Add these players to the mix and skill level that you are looking for goes up signifacantly.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Matt Sacks,

Jimmy Sprinkle actually doesnt play anymore..he dropped out of school and is or was on probation and such.

HS hockey has def. gone downhill in the past few years. Mainly at the AAA level. I think since the last time Malvern won the the flyers cup was the last year the league was real competive but still down from years before that. Then you still had players like Campanelle, Stevens, Horn, Mucha. Lasalle had Wochele, Williams, Gatison. GA Oneil, Digiolamo, stampone. Carroll (whose not even around anymore) Manz, Piotrowicz, Tangradi, Silver, Aldinger. Ohara Cauley, Cross, melanchuk, klingensmith. Just to name some of the kids from the top teams and alot of them could still play HS. But when you put that list vs todays top players its not really comparable I dont think. And then if you compare those kids vs the old Carrolls Moccia, Ung, Teeces, the malverns, curran, campanelle, mcmullen, Wochtl, Lasalle Loftus and ferrick, GAs perez and fishbone. As the years go it seems like it keeps going down.

Personally I think the AA and A levels are basicly the same since all the teams have been pretty competive over the years (except for carroll when they were AA) with a few stars on each team but not a team a few lines full.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: chockey,

Were all saying the same thing in regards to high school hockey. There is no depth. There is not a single team that i can think of that has more then one really good scoring line. I still think the leagues are competitive but the level that some of the games are being played at is really dissapointing.

this topic is being blown out of proportion. they are saying the same thing in new jersey about hs hockey being down. its cyclical. the top players now would have been the top players 5 years ago. you can also say the same about the top teams now too.

this years lasalle team is hands down a better team then any of the malvern teams that won 4 straight cups. more talented on paper, no, but a better overall team, yes.

the aaa division has always been top heavy. malvern, lasalle, and ga were the only top teams with o'hara right up there too until it expanded. that first year saw all those teams, plus wood, carroll, holy ghost and judge being solid teams. that was really the only year when the division wasnt top heavy. the last 2 years its been the same as before. in the aaa flyers cup in 2004 wc east and downingtown competed. since then those schools have split. the aaa division has potential to rival the gordon conference in jersey. its not even close now, but if 6-7 programs really upgraded their programs by getting kids involved earlier, and brought the right players in, it could definitely happen.

I would agree that the level of play is down. I think there are several reasons for this:

1. The wrong focus at JV and MS levels. They are for development. That's skill development and THEN tactical development. Why do we need playoffs at either of these levels. I know the rinks have ice to sell, but then have end of season tournaments for teams. It also means no seniors on JV and no player movement restrictions, just like all other HS sports. The BIGGEST decline in HS hockey is in the skill level of the players.

2. Money. Face it the best players play both club and HS (or at least did for a number of years) It's becoming cost prohibitive for a lot of people to do that especially with the cost of high level club hockey, plus all the travel.

3. Too many teams. It's getting like summer baseball. Kids have six or seven teams they can pick from to try out for and/or play on. Are all the Junior B teams out there really developing players for Junior A? Years ago there were two teams at each level A & B. Midget A, Midget B etc. Now we have Midget Major AA, Midget Major A, Midget Major B, Midget Minor AA, etc. Up to six teams where there used to be two.

4. The overlap of seasons with club and HS. The elite areas of this country in terms of producing players play a split club season and HS plays in between -- no conflicts. Same amount of games, practices and ice sold, just doen differently so kids aren't running themselves ragged going from club to HS all week and weekend. Leagues, rinks and clubs need to work TOGETHER to fix the system so everyone can benefit and improve.

5. Defense. Everytime people talk about great players they want to talk about scorers. Nobody wants to talk about defensmen unless they have big offensive numbers. Well there have been a lot of excellent defenseman who've played and been key to their team's succes who've gone practically unoticed. We won a state championship and two Flyers Cups with teams that rarely scored more than 4 goals per game and many times it was less.

6. Did I say skill development? Skills like skating, passing, stickhandling are all in decline. Watch players when they're on the ice before practice, games. All they want to do is shoot and mostly it's slapshots. In a game the most slapshots a player might get is 3 or 4, but in warmups every kid wants to take 20. Developing skills takes practice time. The literature all says you should have 2-4 practices per game played. How many teams HS or otherwise can afford to do that? Or if they can afford it, can they get the ice time?

Sorry for the rant, but this topic kind of struck nerve with me.

the top players now would NOT have been the top players 5 years ago

I think that McGarry, Lundy and If O'Neil ws playing they would be the only ones close to the running

And i don't think this years La Salle team would beat any of the Malverns with the exception of 2005, i dont think they would beat last years O'hara team

sorry i have to disagree with you when it comes to lasalle. on paper you can say o'hara and malvern were more talented, i will definitely agree with that.

as a team, lasalle is better though.