The problem is you have associations/teams/parents coming at this from two opposite directions - the "Sandbaggers" (for want of a better term) who register below their real level to increase their chances of success, and the "Status Seekers" who register above their real level so they can say their team/daughter is AA or A. The result is divisions that end up being meaningless.
The best way to start dealing with this mess is to acknowledge that girls' hockey is like every other sport - the number of truly elite players is less than the number of good players which is less than the number of average players. As mentioned by others, if they started by restricting the number of AA teams (through some type of application process or objective criteria)and made associations fill in teams from whatever their top level is, the levels would soon sort them selves out.
Are there challenges to this - absolutely. With 2 (or 3) years per age group it is difficult to compare teams from year to year, and free movement also means team composition can change dramatically from year to year. So any type of reform will require leadership on the OW's part - and associations might even get upset with them instead of with each other.
Are they up to it? History says no, and they won't even try. But I'd love to be proven wrong.
This message has been edited by Redbeard99 on Nov 14, 2011 12:45 PM
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