Looking for 8U Competition in the Southeast

[Rocketman]

It looks like there's a bit of a downturn with tournament participation at the 8U level in the Southeast. I'm one of the coaches with the Charlotte (NC) Jr Checkers Inline 8U team, but so far this season none of the typical tourneys has had an 8U level. We have a moderately strong team this year, and are looking for opportunities to play either in tournaments or reciprocal informal games. Please contact me at [email protected] or reply to this post if there are any teams who would like to play the informal games, or if you have visibility into what tournaments you may be planning to attend later this season.

[JLambertUMSL]

It looks like there's a bit of a downturn with tournament participation at the 8U level in the Southeast. I'm one of the coaches with the Charlotte (NC) Jr Checkers Inline 8U team, but so far this season none of the typical tourneys has had an 8U level. We have a moderately strong team this year, and are looking for opportunities to play either in tournaments or reciprocal informal games. Please contact me at [email protected] or reply to this post if there are any teams who would like to play the informal games, or if you have visibility into what tournaments you may be planning to attend later this season.

8U is in a sad state here in St. Louis as well. If what I've heard is accurate, there will be only one competitive 8U team in the area.

[ECHOHockey]

We generally have an 8U division at our events. I will send you an e-mail with more specifics (teams, events, dates, etc.)

Thanks,
Jason

ECHO Hockey

[STEMM]

JLambert ? Are you sure about only having only one 8U team in St. Louis this year ? We had three last year playing regularly, and for NARCh, we had 4 ?

[JLambertUMSL]

JLambert ? Are you sure about only having only one 8U team in St. Louis this year ? We had three last year playing regularly, and for NARCh, we had 4 ?

There were two Cobras 8U teams, but the bulk of the returning Cobras are moving up to 10. I'm told there will only be one 8U Cobras team and that there may not be enough competition around here to do the usual local tournaments. Tryouts start tonight, so we'll see who shows up there. What other organizations will have 8U teams this year?

[STEMM]

Lambert - I figure the Blast will be able to pull together an 8U team, and the Cobras always seem to draw a lot of interest, maybe some more of the Dunne siblings are ready to suit up and help form that second Cobra team ? ...and I'm pretty sure I can throw together another Ginny Pig team for a couple of the tournaments, (the parents are still talking about that close game against Cobra black) ...In my opinnion I don't think a lot of 8U parents are ready to travel, but if organizations would tell parents that nationals are not required then maybe St. Louis can at least keep the 8U regional schedule full ???

[ianmackie]

We are slowly building the 8's out at Midwest Sport Hockey as well. The youth numbers are growing here, but very slowly.

[JLambertUMSL]

Lambert - I figure the Blast will be able to pull together an 8U team, and the Cobras always seem to draw a lot of interest, maybe some more of the Dunne siblings are ready to suit up and help form that second Cobra team ? ...and I'm pretty sure I can throw together another Ginny Pig team for a couple of the tournaments, (the parents are still talking about that close game against Cobra black) ...In my opinnion I don't think a lot of 8U parents are ready to travel, but if organizations would tell parents that nationals are not required then maybe St. Louis can at least keep the 8U regional schedule full ???

(I'm brand new to the world of youth inline hockey clubs, so pardon my lack of perspective/knowledge on the way things work in this realm...just wanted to make sure I threw that out there.)

There were five kids at Cobras 8U tryouts last night. 3 boys, 2 girls, 1 returning Cobra, 0 goalies.

I can only speak for one, but he's a committed, rapidly developing player (as long as he stays off the soccer field for a while...I might be biased against the sport because I frankly don't like soccer, but when he gets roped into the intense year-round schedule that's par for the course in the idiotic world of competitive youth soccer, it does his development as a skater no favors, but I digress severely...) who's in for as many tournaments as they want to put his team in. I have no idea about the other kids.

For 10U, there were 17 skaters and two goalies. I helped evaluate for 10U tryouts -- there is some amazing talent in that division.

Some of those 10U kids are still young enough to play 8U, so we'll see what happens.

[STEMM]

There were five kids at Cobras 8U tryouts last night. 3 boys, 2 girls, 1 returning Cobra, 0 goalies.

For 10U, there were 17 skaters and two goalies. I helped evaluate for 10U tryouts -- there is some amazing talent in that division.

The real shocker from your quote is "only 1 returning Cobra" Why ? They won TORHS last year, and took 3rd in the Platinum division at NARCh. Were most of the kids 99's ?
........I know a lot of last years 8U Blast kids were 99's ? So hopefully we don't see a negative trend as far as the 8U division goes.

The 10U's should be good again, my son has friends there and plays with a lot of those kids at State Wars, and the previous Christmas Cup, but I also heard they were missing "00" ???

[JLambertUMSL]

The real shocker from your quote is "only 1 returning Cobra" Why ? They won TORHS last year, and took 3rd in the Platinum division at NARCh. Were most of the kids 99's ?
........I know a lot of last years 8U Blast kids were 99's ? So hopefully we don't see a negative trend as far as the 8U division goes.

The 10U's should be good again, my son has friends there and plays with a lot of those kids at State Wars, and the previous Christmas Cup, but I also heard they were missing "00" ???

I'm pretty sure most of the returning 8s are playing 10. I don't know a thing about most of the kids. I do know who 00 is, though...that would be a major loss if he wasn't back.

[BobRobApex]

Dream Sports in Apex, NC just had their 8U tryouts in December and have been practicing for the last couple months. I don't have an 8U player but figure they're gearing up for tournaments over the next few months.

I'm looking forward to bringing my 10U team to Charlotte next month! I think these things run in cycles ... we have 3 10U teams at Dream Sports and lots of those kids came from our 2 8U teams from last year.

[JLambertUMSL]

Now that this thread is back up to the top I figured I'd update...

They ended up with eight skaters for the 8U Cobras. Not too bad.

It'll be a developmental type of season it looks like, but spring is still a few months away.

[STEMM]

They ended up with eight skaters for the 8U Cobras. Not too bad.

It'll be a developmental type of season it looks like, but spring is still a few months away.

Yea, I saw the Cobra team, they didn't do too bad. If some of those kids end up like their big brothers or big sisters, they should be a force in the future.....The Blast will have a team, I think they had 7 skaters in tryouts.....And I'm thinking I can pull together a team full of good house players to form City Heat, or maybe Bulldogs since thats the logo on their jerseys....If we have 3 teams for the STL regionals we should be Okay.

[intu1tive]

Rocketman,
I help coach the 10U TOUR Scorpions out of Florida. I know our 8U squad is having difficulty finding teams to play as well. I could put you in touch with their coach and you two could go from there. Let me know what you think.

Thanks and good luck,
Eric Smith
10U TOUR Scorpions

[ECHOHockey]

Registration has been strong for our April 24-26 event in Snellville, GA. Generally we have a solid 8U division at this venue.