League problem

[JohnHockey1798]

In my adult league they have allowed some kids from the age 13-17 to play on teams. The problem is that they are allowed to play in the lower leagues and can skate circles around some of the adult players. This is not fair to players that are playing for fun because all the teams that gets these kids want to win. This is why I feel we need a national governing body to prevent this problem. I think all leagues should fall under the rules even if they are not a member. Does anyone else have this problem in their league.

John

Toga!! Toga!!

[StartForward33]

i think its pretty funny. its kinda like me. but i cant do anything casue im 16

Looking For A 16U Team To Join.

[Werewolves9]

John, I run the hockey leagues at Extremes in Bridgewater, NJ and when I took over the program we had this problem. To fix it I have told all of the captains that all players must be over the age of 15 to play in the adult leagues. In addition to that rule I have 3 games to let each team know if the skill level of their players is right for that league. So basically as league director I have the authority to tell captains if a player can or cannot play in each league. This has worked now for about 3 years and our leagues are more competitive and teams are moving up the skill ladder faster. I hope this helps in some way.

[StartForward33]

Pretty nice way.

Looking For A 16U Team To Join.

[DblJ44]

Part of the problem is that the youngsters that are playing mens leagues and excelling....would be destroying the youth house league teams. What I've found is that the youngster are better off playing in the highest level leagues they can because there generally is more respect and comradery and the kids generally don't have a problem unless they run their mouths.

Im fat, bald, and slow.

[Brooklynite10]

true, most of them eventually run their mouths though until their taught a little lesson. The fun begins when daddy coaching or sitting in the stands gets involved. Most rinks don't have a big enough talent pool to keep the top young guys with their age group so the best solution is just let them play with big boys. It's up to their teamates to protect them and come to their aid if needed.

[NJRH]

IMO I think you're wrong about "Most of them eventually run their mouths". Some, yes - but they'll learn real fast to keep their mouths shut. (They're the same ones who think that thrash talking is part of the game.) Most, no. I can only judge from my own experiences with my son. The reason we first started considering the Adult Divisions was because the Youth Divisions were always played on weekends. What with all the AAU, TORHS, USAHIL and NARCh Regionals, then throw in local house tournaments, we ended up paying for a season where he only played in maybe 25% of the house league games due to tournament schedule conflicts. So, I approached the Hockey Director of our rink and asked him which Adult Division level he thought was appropriate for my son and he suggested the Advanced level. Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive since he was only 15 at the time and no other "kids" where playing in the Adult Leagues. However, the Hockey Director put my son on his team and after a few games my son developed the respect of his teammates to the point that if anyone on the other team ever started getting frustrated and going after my son, they'd step in real fast to protect him. The point I'm trying to make is, my son doesn't run his mouth, doesn't pull any hot-dog moves and isn't stupid enough to try and pull a Michigan, which could cost him his life. All in all, it's been a great experience for him and he's earned the respect of a lot of his opponents. He know's the ref's aren't going to cut him any slack and over compensate because he's younger. He's just got to play faster and smarter, which has only helped his game.

Steve Inge

[Brooklynite10]

Maybe "most" was a bit harsh, but a lot of kids do. Some kids are just trouble makers but i know the competitve nature of the game is responsible for it too.

That's great that your son got the opportunity to play at a high level at such an early age. That will pay dividends for the rest of his hockey years.

[cougarsrh]

Steve,

Agree with you on the trash talking being curbed at the upper level. Here's a problem we have seen at our rink:

16 year old runs mouth, adult who's had a crappy day at work
can't take it anymore and responds, and carries over outside of rink.
There is a definite legal issue here of an adult fighting a kid - not good, even though the kid deserves to be pounded.
The rink and anybody over 21 has to be aware of that issue in this era of legal crap.. I know DBLJJazz knows what I'm talking about on this one.


Rich " Big Cheese" Nardiello
Cougars Roller Hockey Club

[NJRH]

Oh yeah - I forgot the most important part; he has fun too. Only down side, which his mother thanks me for everyday? He learned how to cus like a truck driver. (No offense intended to hockey playing Truck Drivers.)

Steve Inge

[thebenchman]

well see its like this I have seen it go both ways. I had one of my old tournament team that played up in the mens league. We were placed in the division we were told would be a solid league. My instructions to the guys was if you open you mouth and get the hell beat out of you for your smart a$$ remarks, you deserve it. WE are playing up in THEIR world. So shut your mouth and if you are beating them FINISH the game out. Dont make them look stupid either. We had one game I know factually that we were beating them soundly and one of the player came in a tried to bowl over Dave, and he stood him up and the adult got leveled. Ill admit the man didnt know what happened. Later in the game the guy skated by the bench and took a tomahawk swing at my head. I was ticked to say the least. At the end or rather mercy, I told my assistant to take the guys to the locker room. I went by my self out on the floor, and well me and the youngin had a few words. The refs tried to stop me and all they could say was aw Sh** he's pissed. The Adult turtled an said I didnt do a thing. It works in the adults favor at time when they think they can scare the younger players. From then on there was never a problem.

Another game I was NOT involved in a BETTER player was playing a team and an opponent keep hacking the heck out of him. He was chopping the legs anything he could to try to make the better off his game. Now I do understand mental part of the game, there is a HUGE difference here. It turned out the older play got enough and turned around and with one hit on the younger players cage (who was actually BIGGER then the older player) he went down like a ton of bricks. The parents were there and went ballistic. They call the police and wanted to press charges to the older (over 21) player. the police came and instead of arresting the older player they arrested the parents for placing their child in danger. Hows that for a turn of events?

I made my parents sign a letter stating that they fully understood the ramifications on playing in an adult league.

Roy

Die hard hockey nut.

[NJRH]

One thing I did notice was that big kids really don't like losing to little kids. What I mean is, we had a 12U team that the local house league forced us to play up in the 15-17 division with and way to often things got out of hand when the 12's starting beating the 15-17's. I don't find the age differences to be that much of a problem with the 18U's playing in the Adult Divisions. The older guys just roll by the bench and ask the kids if they could just slow down a little.

Steve Inge

[DblJ44]

No one likes losing...especially to a bunch of kids...especially if you were involved in coaching that bunch of kids. But nothing is better then beating the guys who coached you. The kids playing in the mens leagues is a natural progression. The guys playing tournament level hockey progress way above the house level kids as anyone who skates three times as often should (at least this ratio is what we have at the Choice). Those Kids want and deserve to play somewhere...and the house level kids don't deserve to get beat by a kid who plays several times a week and could be competitive in a mens league. The house level kids don't get as many touches and don't develop the skills they will need to move into even a lower level mens league.

Im fat, bald, and slow.

[EndGame]

I play at a facility that has 16U and 10U leagues, plus three adult leagues; Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. You must be 17 to play in the adult leagues. I'm 35 and don't want to play against a bunch of kids for a variety of reasons, the first of which is that many of them aren't terribly mature.

It was pretty bad a few seasons ago when we had a team full of just-graduated high schoolers in the league. Our team was pretty weak and they walked all over us -- which is fine. However, they would be trash-talking while doing that. None of these kids had the size that we had on our team, so we started going after the body. The ugly moment began when they were beating us 8-1 and one of their guys started hot-dogging by picking the puck up on his stick and flinging it toward the net lacross-style. At that point, our captain told us to do whatever we felt to those kids. They started going down one by one.

I mention the above example because it's exactly what can happen when a punk of wet behind the ears punks start messing with adults. I've seen it over and over again in pickup, and when my team has scrimmaged a 16U travelling team. I imagine it would be a little different if it was one kid on a team of adults, but I wouldn't even want that.

[shockwave]

Our Adult league is ussually divided into several divisions. A Single A for beginners/intermediate players and a AA for Higher level players. Last season they added a AAA division moving some of the teams from AA that were smoking others up and letting 16U high school and/or travel teams play in that division. Still had "machismo" problems with a couple of the teams. Those that didnt like getting beat by the 17U travel team that joined, anyway.