OK, I'm going to put the question out there---

Are the selections predetermined in this district or in other districts? How does one explain:
1. girls bragging about being selected before the tryouts start?
2. the daughters of team managers and coaches disproportionately selected and

3. selection of some of the weakest players at the tryouts.

Does anybody oversee the process to assure that it's based on merit??

District selection is about as political as figure skating. There is no doubt that players are pre picked and spots divided up among the dominant organizations...For a "nobody" to get picked they really need to be a super standout and hope that not all the spots have been given away.

Just as I thought. What makes it really outrageous is the talk they have with the parents before the tryouts telling them that the USA hockey officials are doing the selections blindly. We couldn't iamgine why there were a few girls fooling around, skipping the skating drills and mouthing off at the instructors. Now we understand, since they were the selectees! I guess if that's the type of player Mid-Am wants to send to nationals, good luck to them.

Chillout,

I was at the midam tryout. What age group are you specifically refering to?? If I was guessing, based upon your previous comments, are you refering to the 1993 birth year selections?

Yes, that's the one I watched. Am I off the mark or did that really happen???

Chillout,

Just let me make a few comments about what I saw. The best skater/player that I saw at the 93 age level was picked as an at-large nominee. That said, I know there is going to be varied opinions about skill levels of players and who should be ranked 1 through 4. Still, there is little doubt that the at-large nominee was in the top 2 for sure.

There is a player that was chosen that I know is the daughter of a coach and I would say that she also was defintely in the top 3 players at that age level. Heck, I believe she won the skills competition at her age level at the National tournament in Philly. Generally, sons and daughters of coaches have an advantage over most others simply because they are given valuable insight at a very early age on how to play the game and our able to gain skill through practice drills that are overseen by their father. Hence, it is not surprising for sons and daughters of coaches(especially good ones) and former players to excel over others who may play the game.

Additionally, there was a player who wore hockey pants that looked like the color of little caesars who was also very impressive. I don't know her name or whether she was one of the players chosen. If she was selected, then you probably have a situation that the 3 top offensive players were indeed chosen, but ranked differently then maybe you would have ranked them. As for Defense and Goalie, I will not comment on that. Honestly, I did not watch them very closely.

In any event, based upon the names that I see at the 93 birth year level, I don't think that some of the worst players were chosen as you indicated in your previous comment.

Good luck to the at-large nominee. I hope she is chosen to play at the camp in Rochester.

With respect to offense, the top two players were girls who play outside the district. Based upon how all the offense players played that WEEKEND, these were head and heels above the rest. One is an alternate and one didn't get chosen.

My comments regarding the quality of the players and their conenctions did not refer to the offense players.

Does anybody know who sits on the nationals selection committees? Whether there is any set process for selection? Is it pretty much up to the local organizations to decide who they want to send?

Let me give you a rundown of the stuff that went on in another district's district and national camp tryouts:

There were tryouts for 91&92's, 93&94's, and 95 and younger. The showing for each group was low and the total number of players attending was in the 70's.

A week later the selection list is posted with 80 participants selected for the camp and 16 "alternates". Amazingly all seven of the girls that tried out from one organization were in the 16 "alternates"!

I find it unbelievable that a district would have the indecency to send the message to one of their own teams that they would rather find girls that had not tried out to fill the roster than allow someone from a member team in thier organization to participate. Not only is this sending a cruel message to all the girls in that organization that they are all "second class", but it also is dispariging for the coaches, parents, and management.