Be warned parents with children approaching Jr. A. Mario Cicchilo is the head coach of the OHL Niagara IceDogs, but he also makes his way to watching games during the season and in the summer time he puts together skates, promising a free agent tryout and giving you the impression that there is a spot on the OHL team for your son who he "really likes and since he is the head coach, he has a good feeling we're going to sign him." But you must bring your son to his development camp and pay, somewhat exhorbitantly, or to join his team at the "Chowder Cup" in the summer. While it may be valuable to be coached by an OHL head coach and the Head coach of the U17 team, and to you it may be worth the money, be well aware that his promises are devoid of any substance. He just wants your money. It may seem like he gives everyone a fair chance, but OHL free agent invites should not cost any money. Just be fairly warned, if you are undrafted and generating free agent interest in the OHL after playing Midget or Jr. A, you may be better off going somewhere else than this back room deal maker's Niagara IceDogs.

You have to be joking? Let me understand this correctly, it's okay to pay $5,500 to play midget (Nats), but it's not okay to pay for an OHL coach to watch your kid play in a tournament like the Chowder Cup? And, if he's good he gets to compete with the big boys at an OHL camp. Sounds good to me!

Why pay to play in the chowder cup? That in of itself should tell you something. To the original poster thanks for the heads up.

99.250.89.198 Sounds like you and your boy were promised something and it didn't pan out. Perhaps you mis-understood, cause your slander here couldn't be further from the truth. You don't have to do ANYTHING! If you want to play in the conditioning league...pay the 4 bills and play. If not...don't. If you want to go to the Chowder...go! If not...don't.
I suspect your son is a 92, since your posting here and not on the OHL forum, so the only advice I can offer is, keep working hard and things will work out.

In law, defamation (also called calumny, libel, slander, and vilification) is the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government or nation a negative image. Slander refers to a malicious, false, and defamatory statement or report, while libel refers to any other form of communication such as written words or images. Most jurisdictions allow legal actions, civil and/or criminal, to deter various kinds of defamation and retaliate against groundless criticism. Related to defamation is public disclosure of private facts which arises where one person reveals information which is not of public concern, and the release of which would offend a reasonable person.[1] "Unlike libel, truth is not a defence for invasion of privacy."[2]

So dont try to divert the mans truth by incorrectly
labelling it slander . If thats what happened its not
slander.

Please read my post again, before you cut and paste legal info.

"cause your slander here couldn't be further from the truth."
Plain enough for me . Please provide your proof that his /her statment couldnt be farther than the truth.

My proof is I know that not to be true and if the poster is stupid enough to "pay" for a free agent tryout...than that's his/her problem. Were now in October and this just came out! Come on...why would you EVER believe anything posted on here? And if you know anything about the OHL...how many free agent 92's are there this year? NONE! They drafted 14 92's this past may and somehow you think they still need to offer a FA tryout to a 92 when they have 91's in their system that will be vieing for those spots.
Use some common sense man! It's obvious the poster is bitter about his/her boy not getting a tryout...after not being drafted and they tought if they hung around his conditioning league and travelled to the Chow Cup, Mario would owe them something.
So, until you hear something from the OHL...yeah...it's slander to me and anyone who knows him.

...how many free agent 92's are there this year? NONE! They drafted 14 92's this past may and somehow you think they still need to offer a FA tryout to a 92
A They drafted 15 per team.
B The player in question wasnt drafted I gather but was
led to believe by the coach of the possibility of
getting a shot by participating . For money of course.

Do I believe a coach can lead some on, you bet,
you dont ,then you dont know much about coaches either.

Wow...your really outta touch. The Icedogs drafted 14 players this year. Because there are 15 rounds, does not mean you have 15 players are drafted per team each year. Trades from previous years often involve future picks, thus the 14 picks.
Second...obviously he wasn't drafted, thus the FA tryout. I guess all the scouts missed him. Sounds like your attempting to stick up for them, so you should ask them...what did you think your chances were of making that team over Hamilton, Rover and Visetin? These were there first three picks and each position on the ice ice covered by those three...(forward, D-man and goal), so what was this family thinking? Undrafted 92 who thought they were going to make an OHL team because they spoke to the coach. HUH!!!

Get your facts straight mr. lawyer guy.

My facts are straight for they were all free agents until they were signed after the draft . Do you know
when the poster was conned before or after the signings?
Regardless why would a player disbelieve a coach's
approach?. Yes it pays to do due diligence ,but its easy
money to take advantage of the eager.
Yes the poster was led down the garden path but none
of his posting qualifies as slander as you charged.

thought that 92's could not be FA until the end of this
season, so who was he screwed over, I think the player
is one that was draft very high by this team and though
he was going to make it an now didn't and has no where else
to go, so he is blaming the OHL coach

..."since he is the head coach, he has a good feeling we're going to sign him."....

First of all, I don't believe for one second an OHL coach will waste his time greasing a parent of an undrafted 92 kid.... maybe grease a potential 1993 high draft choice for the 2009 OHL draft makes more sense (happens all the time).
But let's assume the coach did stoop this low, well, you as a parent of an undrafted 1992 kid are truly out of touch and beyond gullible if you believed that kinda crap. I can maybe believe him offering a POTENTIAL invite to the next training camp as a walk-on but to truly believe this "good feeling we're going to sign him" stuff - laughable and embarrassing on YOUR part.

I think there's more to this story that you're not telling for obvious reasons.

A 1992 born player undrafted is "NOT PERMITTED" to attend any OHL Rookie or try out camp whatsoever, that 1992 player is still 100% eligible for the 2008/09 Draft, so whom ever is rambling on here is not a 1992 unless he was drafted by the Niagara tea this past draft and not given a spot etc etc etc.... Why would you care and get so uptight, all of hockey is a crap shoot and about who you know and who you grease, so bottom line is , move and accept life is not fair and minot or pro hockey is no exception