In London,does anyone have any idea how many kids make the AAA after being with the AA team. Their must be some turnover but where do the new ones come from AA or FC kids that only show up for the AAA tryouts?

I understand a Major Peewee player made AAA from the FC LMHA team. How did he get by all of the AA kids from the previous year? Doesn't that say something about the lack of development in AA system if a kid who never played AA or AAA comes out for the 1st time and takes a spot?

You are talking about the Jr. Knights, so who knows what happened.

A player who was cut from forest city(west) last year made the AAA team this year.

By and large, players who make the jump later are kids that have grown a huge amount and the coach takes a chance hoping that he can correct the skating inadequacies that have resulted from staying in FC too long. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You can't teach size and it is often worth the bubble kid spot to go for the big kid. Most turnovers come from AA.

AA kids can be surpassed by A players at young ages.

A kids can go to AAA as well (as long as dad is opening the door on the bench).

No A hockey in London, must be some other organization you are talking about.

There is not much difference betwwen AAA and AA. Just who you know.

I'm sure you meant to say that there isn't much difference between players 13,14,15 on AAA and players 1,2,3 on AA. Other than those, there is a massive difference.

Obviously it was posted by someone that has never played AAA.

Just somebody else trying to stir the pot.

there has been a few discussions about not allowing players to jump from FC to AAA - forcing a year of AA first.

And they were shot down, for obvious reasons.

seems to me someone from this organization feels desperate to continuosly put this team in any discussion board possible.very sad.you guys would not last in our league for a season, maybe finish at the bottom, then cry and go home.

What team? No year mentioned.

98

The London Forest City league has better competition than the Alliance AA league. That's why so many FC players develop intead of AAs.

Even with 2 AA teams, they both finish 1st and 2nd at almost every age group. There is almost no competition.

all AA does is fund the rest of the program - 2 teams is a cash grab... It's all about Minor Midget AAA - 3-20 minutes periods, their own dressing room etc... I heard the North London 95's won a AA tourney this year and beat 3-4 teams from the AA Alliance loop... - is that true - what a joke...

London Forest City teams win AA tournaments all the time, but those are usually very low end AA tournaments.

It's not London's fault that other centers can't ice competitive AA teams.

Also, it's major midget who plays 3-20s (just like all the other teams in the league). They do have their own dressing room, but that should be viewed as a positive thing for those kids.

99...BLUB ...BLUB

It is also because London hasn't been forced to ice 2 AAA team like all of the other zones in the Alliance with their population base.

And which zones in the Alliance are fielding 2 "AAA" teams?

"Even with 2 AA teams, they (London) both finish 1st and 2nd at almost every age group. There is almost no competition."

Not being from the Alliance Hockey Association or the London area, I am curious, what is the secret to London’s incredible hockey success? Is it better coaching, superior kids, or simply the fact that you have only one AAA team with a relatively large population base?

London with a population base of almost 400,000 ices 1 AAA team. . Some centres have less than 100.000 to draw from( Sarnia,Chatham,Brantford,HP). The population of Kitchener,Waterloo and Cambridge together is close to Londons and they ice 3 AAA teams. London should and could easily have 2 AAA teams.

Population isn't the means of comparison, its registration. In this regard, London is about the same as Elgin-Middlesex. Perhaps they should both have 2 "AAA" teams, or perhaps Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge should field 1 team.

With the lack of AAA success in the tri city area they would be better off fielding 1 AAA team.
That way you could have a more competative team and be able to be closer to the top of the league.

The main reason London is successful is because they have so much ice. London has 25+ sheets of ice....

I don't think that's the reason ,some teams have to go out side of London to get ice!,Everybody still has to fight for ice especially if you want to develop top players properly .We may have what people think is an abundance of rinks but up until about 3-5 years ago we had more requests for ice time than ice that was avaiable, and some of the older arenas operating right now should have been torn down or replaced years ago.

<<<

"Even with 2 AA teams, they (London) both finish 1st and 2nd at almost every age group. There is almost no competition."

So what is the answer, why does London do so well?

a) Better coaching / development
b) Naturally talented kids
c) More ice available
d) One AAA team with a very large population base?
e) ???

$1200 vs $450 for FC. I'm sure you get more....AAA want..a bees... AA parents are losers...spend the money for the dream

" Doesn't that say something about the lack of development in AA system if a kid who never played AA or AAA comes out for the 1st time and takes a spot?"

Says even more about a lack of development in AAA too doesn't it? An A player going into AAA team?

There are a lot of kids in AA London that would be playing AAA in other cities. There are only so many spots with only 1 AAA team.

I personally think it is great that a kid can come out of FC and make the AAA team -- it shows that the system works and AAA is for the best. However the odds are that a kid stands a better chance coming out of AA only from the perspective of greater ice time and generally better competition.

Regarding the difference in the costs between FC and Jr. Knights. I think if you look at the amount of ice time that "most" FC programs get you guys actually pay more per ice time that the Jr. Knights.

Oh yes my kid plays AA and he is quite happy there and so are most of the people on his team -- I don't think there are too many AAA wantabees there.

Well there's nothing wrong with a team of 'AA talent'
kids being happy playing 'AA', is there?
Usually, 'AAA' wannabes have some 'AAA' talent!

Try some sentence structure and maybe we could understand what you are trying to get at here.

Well there's nothing wrong with a team of 'AA talent'
kids being happy playing 'AA', is there? ---????

"Oh yes my kid plays AA and he is quite happy there and so are most of the people on his team"

Yes, I’m sure he is, playing with several AAA caliber players, ensuring that London wins all... but what about the other teams who field "real" AA teams? Is this really fair?

When is the Alliance going to force London to field 2 AAA? Or are they afraid London will get mad and leave, just like they did when the OMHA tried to address this problem.

How do you force someone to field a team?

you force them by telling them to field 2 teams or 0 teams, your choice.

And what do you tell Elgin-Middlesex, who have a similiar number of registrations? Forget population, the number of kids registered is what counts.

Let's just keep changing things until you win. Then it's all fair and just right?

5;40 Zero London teams = Zero AAA Alliance

In summary... if you don't let London have their advantage, they will walk and there will be no AAA Alliance.

Screw the Alliance. Join london and em to make a team to play combo KIT WAT CAM and SUNC WIND, and Hamilton and add top 4 from G and a couple from ETA and then you have a league. Play fewer games and all on weekends. Much higher practice to game ratio. every game would be quality.

So if the other 11 teams in Alliance didn't play London they would ease to exist. I think not. London has always thought that it should be there way or no way. 2 teams, honouring F-1 agreements, player residency, if it is not in London's favour it needs to be changed.

Problem is that most of Alliance are really AA at best. League needs to get smaller, not bigger. Combine some of the other centres to make teams that will be more competetive. To dilute London only gives you a better chance of winning the Alliance. And....so what. Think bigger. OHF bigger.

So by your logic, we should combine all the teams in the Alliance into one "super" AAA team just so we can win the OHF?

How does that improve hockey for most Alliance centre kids?

It sounds like you are from London.

Oh, so you're concerned about the number of A's on your kid's jacket. How does making London have two teams help your kid's 'development'. I didn't say get rid of hockey for the kids, I said have a fewer number of truly AAA teams. Sounds like your kid is a bubble player who wouldn't make a combo team

The Alliance is no different than the GTHL or the OMHA. The GTHL has AA teams calling themselves AAA too. So does the OMHA. Would anyone really call St. Kitts a AAA centre with the teams they field? The Alliance has Chatham. Maybe what the Alliance should do in each age divsion is if a team finishes dead last one year, then they become relegated to the AA seeded league next year and the top AA team gets bumped up to AAA the next year. That way if London is as good as they claim to be, them in a couple of years they would have 3 AAA teams and Chatham and Hamilton would be gone to AA. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Not bad. As long as London still gets to choose top 17, then next 17 and so on. Must stay competetive on the larger scale.

11:12 - Fewer AAA teams means less kids will be playing AAA hockey. Unless you are suggesting that we add a third AA team to London, or a second AA team to other Alliance centres, less kids will be playing Rep hockey overall.

The idea of teams moving up/down based on previous years performance may work but I suspect will lead to other problems.

The simplest solution is for the Alliance to put rules in place that will force any and all centers (Yes - London) to field multiple AAA teams if their registration levels exceed specific limits.

The point is....it isn't really AAA hockey. Make as many AA teams as you want, get as many kids playing as you want, but to truly compete with the big boys of AAA, you must amalgamate.

to 11:03.so, your saying because a kid plays AAA, he is developing?reality is only about 20 players in each age group in alliance are legitment elite players. usually, 5 or six are high draft choices.rest of that 20 group, play c,d,,b .many in alliance, at some point or another, end up in juvenile.so, only those who are elite are actually getting better,and most level off.

Based on the OHL draft records, the GTHL, OMHA and Alliance have similar develpment success.

Actually, since the OMHA develops much of the GTHL talent, the OMHA is the strongest of the 3 and the GTHL is the weakest.

Recruiting an all-star team is hardly development.

OMHA players had another successful OHL draft day. A total of eleven OMHA players were drafted in the first two rounds. In total, OMHA players made up thirty-one percent of all the players that were drafted.

The following is a breakdown of where the 300 players were selected from at the 2007 OHL Priority Selection:

93 - OMHA
54 - GTHL
52 - USA
47 - Alliance
26 - Ottawa District
12 - NOHA
9 - Junior
5 - Hockey North
2 - High School

There you have it....

Even when the GTHL recruit's talent, they can only get a handful more players drafted than the "crappy" Alliance.

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Is it true that London AA96 is talking about picking one team first instead of a draft? Would this be because it is an OHF year?

no

B.W. new Major Bantam AA coach . YIKES !

what does bw have to do with this thread and who is that anyway?

Teiring the 2 AA teams only makes sense in a couple of divisions where we have the depth. The stronger team can participate in AAA tournaments and maybe next season be entered into the Pavilion loop as a 2nd LJK AAA team.

AAA96 won their league and AA96 teams were first and second. This would be a good group to tier if any.

X

Why doesn't London just enter 2 AAA teams in the 96 age group?

Why don't you get your kid some personal training so he can make the AAA team?

sounds like the 96 D dad jealous again....he's been a real problem...kid sucks

Because I'm not from London.

London doesn't have enough good player's for 2 96AAA teams.

London has enough players for 3 Aliance aaa teams

lol

london doesn't have enough depth for 2 AAA teams at 96

maybe 3 AA teams would be a better solution

London would be 1,2 in AAA if they picked 2 teams through a draft. This is what they do in AA. Instead of 1 really good AA team they make 2 competitive ones.

11;20. Who are you talking about?