Is this system broken or is everyone so good now that we only need travel teams?

The problem should not be fixed by USA hockey. Having USA hockey tell someone that they must play house and subsidize the travel teams is not the answer. Having USA hockey, or any organization, limit the number of travel organizations limits choices for all the participants and will slow the overall growth of hockey in the south. If someone wants to pay for their kid to travel and get creamed by the Michigan teams, then they should not be told by USA hockey that they cannot.

HockeyCat.com wants to thank Steve at Puck Update www.PuckUpdate.com for helping recruit more writers for the HockeyCat.com Blog.

“Travel” hockey is everybody else. The fact that “travel” hockey is everyone else means EVERYONE is good enough to play “travel” hockey. Down here in the South people treat “travel” hockey like the NHL, like these kids are on their way up – at 8, 9, 10 yrs old. Windsuits? Hockey Bags? huh? You EARN that stuff when you make your high school team you don’t buy it.

The latest and greatest in hockey technology is the composite stick. I can speak from personal experience that they can help a C level player like me have a slightly harder shot. Of course, I still switch back to the old shaft and blade model in a chippy game. I don’t have the budget to replace sticks like the pros.

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USA Hockey and Hockey Canada are hurting the long term good of the game by not introducing checking until Peewee. A group of 9 and 10 year olds are about the same size. When that 11 year old boy, becomes a 13 year old teenager there is usually a big difference in size – 50 to 100 pounds in some cases. If my first contact experience came against someone who outweighed me by 50 pounds and was 6 inches taller than me, I am man enough to admit that I would have taken up something else.

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The facts are that these unnecessary Travel teams are wasting ice time, cost too much money and ultimately serve no one. There is only one solution that will work and I hope USA Hockey has the guts to do it:

CREATE TWO SANCTIONED USA HOCKEY GROUPS – HOUSE and NATIONAL TRAVEL

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I agree with your sentiments about keeping the off-lay dirty stuff out of the game. If penalties were called there would be a decrease in them. Not calling them in youth games is like encouraging them to do it.
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