There has been a lot of complaining this season about refs, then some about coaches, then some about website maintenance, some on coaching and others I know I have left out.

Everyone needs to remember something that gets lost here. Some people want NHL level coaches, refs, rinks or whatever else. You must remember that there aren't NHL level players. Some players are good, some players are horrible...we can all agree on that. When you look at surrounding conditions that will and actually should match the level of play. This happens all the time in all sports. I mean, people play in intramural sports at their colleges but then want professional refs doing there games. It doesnt' match up. People want near perfect ice conditions when NO one step on that ice surface plays near perfect hockey. If safety becomes an issue the games don't get played. People are smart enough to stop that from happening. Some come on here and complain about coaching. Look at the Illinois D2 team. They had a very good season...no coach. The fact of the matter is that at this level some guys want to work really hard and some don't. This happens on every team. Even the schools with two teams have players on their top team that don't work as hard as they should.

The attitudes, the drive, the heart to play, the facilities and pretty much everything else matches up.

If people listened to the kind of complaining that goes on within message boards like this I would say club hockey is lucky to be even around. Refs sometimes still get underpaid for the b.s. they have to put up with. Coaches clearly don't get recognized for their volunteer efforts. Players don't realized that only some of them care as much as they do. Many others will work hard but they know where they are.

I guess some perspective would be nice.

Maybe club hockey was better before the ACHA when it was just a bunch of guys trying to be on a competitive team for one last time while having some fun.

Nice email that pretty much hits the mark. I would say thought that what I see is most players and coaches view it as competitive hockey and therefore really do care about effort and winning.

You mentioned ref's at least 4 times in your post. (Are you one?) I went back and skimmed through about 200 of the most recent posts. From what I read you mentioned ref's as being a problem 3 more times than those posts? I didn't remember people on this board complaining about the officiating much at all. From my review that is accurate. There may be an anecdotal reference to the officiating but I gaurantee you that there are some coaches in this league that complain about it 10 times a period! So that point is lost on me.

You mentioned coaching. Once again coaching is seldom mentioned except under the thread that asks for opinions on coach of the year. Imagine someone expressing opinions about coaching there.

Rink conditions were brought up one time as an FYI. No where on this board have I repeatedly read anyone posting concerns about the conditions that they are playing in so I'm not getting your point there either. I do think its appropriate to discuss the major problems in this area. But I don't find anyone whining about rink conditions.

The only recent mention about website maintenance was related to a real need to understand what the actual tournament schedule is/was. There was some legitimate confusion there and the request seemed reasonable.

You come across as extremely thin skinned. Perhaps you volunteer a lot of your time to this organization and get sick of only "hearing" the negative. I know that can be a real issue with those that do most of the work. But you must be careful about painting a picture that doesn't exist. Most of the posts on the forum are for the reasons it was intended. Good natured ribbing between competitors and exploring opportunities to improve things. Just my .02.

Wow whoever wrote the last post on this thread must work for my school newspaper, there was obviously no investigation done before writing. Whoever wrote the post to start this thread was absolutely right, I have read practically every thread since about october and there is a lot of complaining done on here. In regards to complaining about coaches, I remember one thread that went on for day people complaining about a Silver coach. The refs have also been talked about on many occasions and I know because I have complained about them at times, which may not be the correct thing to do, but hey it happens in all level of sports. Rink conditions is a rare one but once it is hit the discussion on it goes on for awhile. Website maintnance is also rare but his point is the guys all volunteer so shut up or help. Just have fun playing hockey and goodluck to all teams this weekend! And to Iowa and Missouri State next weekend!

Amen.

College club hockey MUST be about fun. Get your education, continue to play, and be part of a team...what a great experience.

The rinks being used are the same rinks the players have played in since they were Mites. Other than some minor deterioration, what has changed? Except for the Johns Street rink in Bensenville, I have not been in a rink yet that has not been more than adequate.

What, specifically , is the rift with the refereeing? I have been to a number of games and as there are varying degrees of player ability and coaching ability...there are varying degrees of refereeing. Only once did I see a game where a referee and the linesmen were out of their league.

The ACHA is the best thing to come to club hockey...is it perfect? No, but it is better than the old days. They do need to refine the ranking system a little.