The MWEHL is the greatest youth league in hockey. It has been taking giant steps to even being greater. For example, adding the Chicago Chill (fury) and Mission a few years back. It took another big climb last year when it added LA Jr Kings, Dallas Stars, etc. Last year was very successful! But this year is going a bit overboard. Boston Advantage, Team Comcast (NJ), Buffalo Regals, Philly Jr Flyers, and Columbus Blue Jackets. It is taking it way to far. I understand if they had the same teams as last year and moved that to u16 this year and keeping moving it down to Bantam Major the followingyear and Bantam Minor the next and so on. But, it is getting out of hand.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

Sounds expensive to play

My only concern is whether or not this will add to more time off school for these players. It's out of control in my opinion. Our midget player missed over 2 weeks of school for hockey this season--fortunately we as parents have flexible schedules for work. Do you working parents really want to use your hard-earned vacation days if you don't want to make your player a responsibility of another parent for these tournaments and showcases.

Any other opinions on this??? Coaches and parents alike, what are your thoughts on this? Have any parents flat out refused to pull your player? If so, what were the ramifications?

Mission, TI, CYA, Fury for Pewee to Midget

Team Fees,Gear,Showcases,other tourneys,Travel,Auto or Air

$10,0000 to $13,000 Annualy per child ? Why, and do you really
get the best kids or the wealthiest ? It should get even worse
next season. Lots of Hockey familes starting to hurt.

your fees include all showcases and tournys

The league is quite aware of school being missed and cost for travel involved. That's why there are only 3 out or four out of town trips which are for showcases, three showcases here in Chicago. They try and schedule all the showcases on holiday weekends and Christmas break so the players won't have to miss that much school. Also the league has contracts with great rates and comped rooms for coaches with Marriott Hotels. If you schedule correctly, you won't miss more than 5-7 days of school and costs could be kept to about 10000 depending where you play.

There are as good or if not even better Teams or Coaches at the local levels of Central States or even Elite NIHL that these kids can play at and learn.
To send a child at PeeWee or earlier to these programs in my opinion is complete craziness to say nothing of the rediculous fees!!

Just an opinion

Dog Man

"There are as good if not better teams at Central State or NIHL Elite Level"

Congratulations! You, sir, have won Idiot of the Day award for your naive post. There is not one IL AA mm team that would beat an IL AAA mm team. There is not one IL AA MM team that would beat an IL AAA MM team. Below that, there could be 0-2 teams at each level, but everyone knows they're crap. Keep the dreamstoking going. If a top AAA team recruited your kid, you would jump at the opportunity in an instant. And you know it. Too bad you don't know because your kid isn't wanted by AAA teams. Instead, you have resorted to jealousy hiding behind a keyboard.

what if a family can't afford the $10k, is there help available financially?

yes some aaa program do offer financial aid for families that qualify

5-7 dsys missed of school? For the MWEHL? What about the 4-6 tournaments the coach has us in? If we're good, what about districts and maybe even nationals? Sounds more like 10 - 15 days missed of school.

Just like the AA teams in IL don't need Central states , plenty of good AA teams around here . The AAA teams in IL and MI don't need this , it is all driven by egos . There are plenty of quality hockey players in IL and MI to field a great AAA league . The league has done a great job of moving players on to the next level . If it is not broke , why fix it ? This only benefits the teams in markets with no competition . If I am a team from California of course this sounds great . They already travel 5 times a year to play teams from the mid west . Now we just transferred some of the cos of a kid from Cali playing hockey , on to Mid west families

This is just a prelude to the HPC next year anyways. If this becomes the lead-in to a National tournament based on play-offs. This would be great National qualifier system is not working well.

Is there someplace we can go to read up on how league play is structured? (My kid is young, I didn't really pay attention to how the schedule worked for the Midgets this year) I am in CA. . . just wondering if there is really that much play outside of your home region, or if each Region will play mostly against itself?

Obviously I don't know how the league will work, anyone have more info?

Ahai fingers in on this, and rink owner / league Board of Directors, looking to force more people to pay more cash....what a joke.

Just say "no", keep your talented kid local, play for the Bluehawks, Warriors, Knights, Jaquars, Flames, Wildkits, and speak up and tell our board to keep it simple, stay in a local league like NIHL or NWHL, keep the fees down, and let the kids play. Take a trip to Edina to for a get away tournamnet to meet some other folks with good hockey playing kids.

Tell the rink owning league and team presidents around Chicago to take a hike and find a different business other than raking cash from kids who want to play a great sport.

This is a great expansion for the league and it makes the league the self contained universe that it needs to be. 20 best possible teams in the Midget Minors and 25 best teams at the Midget Majors level.

Addition of the East Coast teams and showcases provides kids with the opportunity to play in front of many East coast colleges. Last year TI went to an East coast tournament voluntarily because it was a good opportunity to expose the players. This year they will just do in as a showcase.

There will NOT be any showcases in CA, but there will probably be a showcase in CO with additional exposure to CO colleges. Overall, it will be a BALANCED schedule with each team playing each other twice. Cross division play will be in the format of a showcase.

There is no downside to this expansion. If money is the issue, eliminate some of the tournaments that are probably worthless anyway until the team reaches the playoff rounds. This season every game should be worth playing.

I heard 4 showcases away, and 4 showcases local. 2 div. plays each. 48 total games for MM.
No play-offs. So, it is all about exposure and that is good. Making the showcases around day-offs would be even better. Trying to think positive..

ridiculous for any level other than midgets.

it is only for Midgets all other divisions are as they were last season

MI guest is a genious....except your from MI.jk

it's not "your" - correct spelling is you're

This is a great expansion for the league and it makes the league the self contained universe that it needs to be. 20 best possible teams in the Midget Minors and 25 best teams at the Midget Majors level.

SINCE FAR MORE TOP PLAYERS ARE MIDGET MINOR AGE BEFORE MOVING TO JUNIORS, WOULDN'T IT MAKE MORE SENSE TO HAVE FEWER MIDGET MAJOR TEAMS INSTEAD OF MORE? PERHAPS 25 MINORS and 20 MAJORS.


Addition of the East Coast teams and showcases provides kids with the opportunity to play in front of many East coast colleges. Last year TI went to an East coast tournament voluntarily because it was a good opportunity to expose the players. This year they will just do in as a showcase.

EXCELLENT IDEA WITH THE MANY COLLEGE PROGRAMS IN THE EAST!

There will NOT be any showcases in CA, but there will probably be a showcase in CO with additional exposure to CO colleges. Overall, it will be a BALANCED schedule with each team playing each other twice. Cross division play will be in the format of a showcase.

WHY SEND ALL THOSE TEAMS TO CO, WHEN THERE ARE ONLY TWO PROGRAMS THERE? BETTER TO PAY THE DU AND CC COACHES TO ONE OF THE OTHER SHOWCASES. ALSO MAY CONSIDER SHOWCASES PRIMARILY ON AUGUST/SEPTEMBER (BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS) AND MARCH/APRIL. TIMES WHEN THE COLLEGE COACHES/SCOUTS HAVE MORE TIME TO EVALUATE PROSPECTS.

There is no downside to this expansion. If money is the issue, eliminate some of the tournaments that are probably worthless anyway until the team reaches the playoff rounds. This season every game should be worth playing.

PLAYOFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT AT THIS LEVEL DUE TO THE KIDS LEARNING TO PLAY UNDER INCREASED PRESSURE TO WIN, WHICH IS CRITICAL AT THE NEXT LEVEL.

(SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS, BUT WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO HIGHLIGHT, WANTED TO DIFFERENTIATE WHAT THE ORIGINAL POSTER SAID FROM MY COMMENTS)

Can anyone out there give me the straight answer. If my son plays AAA hockey as a "99 next fall, what will it cost me, all in?

I hear so many different numbers...from %5,000.00 to $14,000.00...

All in...Travelling with just one parent, what will it cost to play? There is no way that there could be such a disparity in the numbers...Anything over $10,000.00 just seems way to high...Anything in the $5,000.00 range seems way too low...AA with a couple of local tourneys cost about $4,000.00 last year...How much more is AAA, and why is it so much more?

It would be great if the only responses were from parents whose kids have played AAA.

If you're worried about the cost of AAA hockey, than don't do it.

The fees are all likely in the low to mid $4Ks. Other charges will add $500-1,000 onto that. Some clubs include the tournament fees in their main cost, if the team your son makes does not, expect another $500-700. So paid to the club, estimate $4,750-$5,500 plus 2 weekends in Detroit and 1-4 out of town tournaments depending on the team. You will be required to stay at league/tournament hotels so estimate $100/night for each trip. Your bar bill is your own to estimate. (Oh, and expect Junior to hit you up for some logo-wear from the proshop when he makes the team.)

I have a child who plays AAA . Fees were 6000.00 roughly , but then you add the weekends out of town . I think we went to Detroit 3 times and Cleveland once . You need to figure at least 600 per weekend , and that is on the low end to include travel , hotel ,and food . So that adds 2400 to the total to put you at 8400.00 roughly. You have to consider in town tourny's too , since most people go out between games instead of driving home . Oh yeah , I think we also went to St Louis once , so now add another 600 . I would say that anyone who says 10G's or so is pretty much on . Is it worth it ? I ask myself that every month , but my son loves his team and his coach , so I guess it is .

Last season, our experience directly reflected the same costs as referenced by the above poster. However, in four years, this was the least expensive season. No Toronto, only one extra Detroit tournament, no extra practice ice, a few equipment pieces used from the previous season, and only two additional overnights that were within driving distance. We've easily paid closer to $11K-$12K on other teams.

Honestly if your son is a 99 theres is no reason to play AAA unless you have money to throw away. Play on a good AA team. When it comes to midgets only about 5-6 of these 99 AAA players will be on MIdget AAA teams .

If you have ton s of money and your family loves the hockey road trips, playing in a league where most teams understand the game much much better at the early age's, then yes AAA at the 99 level is a good thing.

If you want Max Devolpment you are much better off playing him down. Reasoning: Don't let anybody argue that it isnt good for a player to score goals, carry the puck up the ice and become confindent, its great but most CANT do it at AAA. Many AAA parents at the younger age's miss the boat on this subject. They get all caught up in the AAA lifestyle. The high end practices, better teams, leagues, etc. The one thing they don't understand until it is to late is that if your son is one of the less talented AAA players he would be much better off being a stud AA player. Down the road the stud AA players do find room on AAA teams, it seems that those kids who played on the third line for 3 years of AAA at the young age's believe or not are passed up and cut by these AA players. You must make sure by Midgets he a solid player, background means nothing, ice preformance does.

Lets see 1999 makes a child 10 or turning 11
Only parents with very little Hockey background
whould do something like that $$$$$ (average player 90lbs)

Bantam Major is a good first year for AAA
Midget Minor,it starts to get good. mixed birth years
Means tough for some first year kids to play.

Thats why kids play so young,so the parents could say
there kids played AAA. Not for all , but most.

The better AAA teams play a couple more tournaments
then the average AAA teams.

You wait until bantam major and few kids will make the jump,they can't catch up to the pace and dedication level

wrong.

Think he's right. At the 91, 92, 93 and 94 levels the Chicago AAA bantam major teams had very very few AA players new to AAA. Not saying it can't happen. But recent history shows it doesn't happen very much. A parent is taking a big risk waiting that long.

3 chicago kids who are 88s were still in aa at the Bantam Majors. New to AAA as first year mm. Forfar- Signed Michigan st Seidel-Signed Minnisota Duluth Maday just finished freshman year at Notre Dame and was 3rd leading scorer on #1 ranked team. Look it up.

None of these guys make this happen without AS coaching them for consecutive years on skills and other things needed to go with AS to the Chill.

You are an idiot. AS rode that train of talent to the end. How'd they do with SD (irish know it all dad), the last 88 Huskie as their captain? PU. When they were playing AA Bantams, those kids were better than all the Chill players, and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lines of CYA Mission and TI. He moved them to the Chill because they were the only AAA Club that accepted HIS offer as a package. Don't rewrite history. AS's biggest concern in IL hockey is AS.

regardless of circumstances or motive, it happened.

If your bender is a top liner on a good AA team or good HS Varsity team NTG Loy Fenwick etc. He can make the jump to AAA at or after Bantams. It's been done. Those that did it were total studs on their AA or HS team. For the rest of us with mere mortals for players it's easier to crack a AAA roster younger. I wise man said you never know what you have until your player reaches puberty. I agree with that. Today's superstar can easily become tomorrows post pubescent has been. Everybody catches up eventually. Go to an EHK or other showcase to watch and try to pick out a stud. It's hard, they ALL look the same for the most part. Good Luck in making the right decision for your player and family. Godspeed

"Everybody catches up eventually" ????? really? You're dreaming.