Last year Indy reduced from 3 to 2 organizations and this resulted in too many teams and lots of variability in teams. This year Indy went to "1 organization," appointed a board, had early tryouts and it appeared that at least some of Indy's problems had been fixed. Indy has new problems now:

1. a new organization, Fishers Youth Hockey association forming and fielding buckeye teams;

2. Indy is now a large organization which means that many of its third, fourth and even fifth picked teams will have to play at a higher level than they are capable of because they have second year players;

3. Lacking organizations to choose from, players have chosen teams by coaches rather than level in some cases. Coaches have also chosen teams by player rather than by best talent;

4. although there is a board, there is basically no oversight;

5. Indy will keep adding teams as long as there are kids who want to play travel hockey.

With that said, here's what to expect:

1. Mites-thank goodness only one team rather than a split of the small level of talent!! However, the reason for one team is that there were not enough players for two. Predictions: mites will fit comfortably in their buceye bracket.

2. Squirts-lots of politics here resulting in 1997 players being taken for top level Central States team. Indy has picked gold (second team) and silver (third team) and is now talking about a fourth team (bronze). The 3 lowest teams will play in Buckeye. It is likely that the silver team will have to play AA so there will be two AA teams.

3. PeeWee-lots of shake up here and coach picking. Expect both gold and silver teams to play as AA. Both should fit into the bracket well. Expect weak bronze team that will likely find itself out of the competition in the A bracket. There is now talk about forming a fourth Buckeye team for this level (this will make 6 peewee teams for Indy.)

4. Bantam-still some politics here. Expect a gold team to compete in the AA division. Expect the silver team to be at the bottom of the AA division (required to play AA due to number of second year players). Bronze team is a mix of B players and A/AA players who did not want to play for the silver coach. Bronze is likely to play in the A bracket.

Nutty,

thank you for the insights!! how do you see the two PeeWee AA teams, is the gold a much better team than silver, or will they be about equal?

which programs did these teams draw from, Blast, Racers, etc?

Was it better before the merger? You're right there are a lot of teams and Fishers fielding All-Star teams this year, possibly full travel next may cause some problems too. Coach picking was a problem this year, do you think it's because they don't know the coaches or didn't think enough of them as coaches?

From what I know, the gold and silver teams will be competitive with each other. The gold has a core group and coach from last years Arctic Blast A team that fared pretty well. This team has 1995 players and 1994 players so size could be an issue. The silver team is coached by last year's B coach but has picked up players from all over who do not want to play on the gold team. The team includes some kids who have played AAA in the past. Who will be better? I guess coaching and playing time could decide it.

As far as coaches, it seems like there wasn't a lot of time and the board wanted to try for non-dad coaches. This alleviated the problem of dads keeping their own weak kids but created the problem of having coaches that nobody knew and who may be more interested in hockey than in kids. Too early to tell but at least some of these coaches should be better than what Indy has had in the past.

quote:

Originally posted by hockeynutty:
From what I know, the gold and silver teams will be competitive with each other. The gold has a core group and coach from last years Arctic Blast A team that fared pretty well. This team has 1995 players and 1994 players so size could be an issue. The silver team is coached by last year's B coach but has picked up players from all over who do not want to play on the gold team. The team includes some kids who have played AAA in the past. Who will be better? I guess coaching and playing time could decide it.

As far as coaches, it seems like there wasn't a lot of time and the board wanted to try for non-dad coaches. This alleviated the problem of dads keeping their own weak kids but created the problem of having coaches that nobody knew and who may be more interested in hockey than in kids. Too early to tell but at least some of these coaches should be better than what Indy has had in the past.

Thanks for the posts hockeynutty. This whole coaching thing is a very touchy subject this year. Also all the Indianapolis PeeWee teams, including the Central States teams, have Dad's as the head coach, so I guess the board decided Dad coached teams were ok. This is also a very touchy subject for me because my son has played for both the 'Gold' and 'Silver' PeeWee coaches. I know my son would be happy playing for either of these coaches this season, but his preference was to play for the Gold team.

The core of the Indy 'Gold' team are Arctic Blast players from last year's 94 team and the core of the Indy 'Silver' team is a combo of 94 players from the Indy Checkers 'A' and 'B' teams. Some politics may have played into who tried out for who and I think there was some misinformation about the coaches as well that developed into 'coach picking'.

I believe the appearance of Coaches picking teams by player rather than talent is somewhat misleading. A player's individual talent is only one part of their ability equation. Ability to excel in a team environment is just as important as one's individual ability. Those coaches that appeared to bypass more talented players might be recognizing the 'team chemistry' ability that other players might possess.

The talent levels on both the Indy 'Gold' and "Silver' are pretty much equal so who ends up as the top team will probably come down to who has the best team chemistry with the talent that they have. Although the 2006-2007 season has begun somewhat inau****iously, with these tryouts, I'm expecting a great season of hockey this Fall with two very good 'Gold' and 'Silver' teams.

I don't know why this crazy program won't let me say in-ausp-iciously, like its a dirty word.

The 94 and 95 CSDHL coaches are dad's who were former players and have kids of those birthyears. 94's are a pretty strong team and should be one of the favorites to make Nationals from Mid AM. 95's struggled last year in a very good CS league of 16 teams. You're right Gold, Silver both have good players, Bronze have pretty good 95's as well. The website says they are forming a Bronze-2 team. Will that be B-level or A?

quote:

Originally posted by melrose:
The 94 and 95 CSDHL coaches are dad's who were former players and have kids of those birthyears. 94's are a pretty strong team and should be one of the favorites to make Nationals from Mid AM. 95's struggled last year in a very good CS league of 16 teams. You're right Gold, Silver both have good players, Bronze have pretty good 95's as well. The website says they are forming a Bronze-2 team. Will that be B-level or A?

I would think the Bronze-2 team, if it forms, will play at the B-level.