Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to learn so much about the youth side of the game. Being able to talk to hockey directors, coaches, parents, and industry leaders all over the world has been really, really cool. Getting a wide range of perspectives from a wide range of places has been enlightening to say the least.
And one thing has become painfully clear – Tier One hockey is out of control.
Now before I elaborate, I want to say that I am a product of Tier One hockey. I played for the Chicago Young Americans and Team Illinois growing up, have coached at the Tier One level, and believe there is a place for it with the right circumstances and regulations. There are a lot of good coaches and people involved at the level who I have a lot of respect for.
But what we’re seeing today as a whole is a disservice to hockey families in the US and Canada and it’s going to lead to less and less people choosing our game in the future.
Please check out the chart below. It’s Tier One teams in Chicago’s game count and number of hotel trips as of January 5th. The source is https://myhockeyrankings.com/.
If that doesn’t make you shake your head, you’re living on a different planet than I’m on. A little over the halfway point of the season and there’s teams of eight-year-olds that have already played close to 50 games and traveled with hotel stays 5 times. Teams of 10-year-olds that have played close to 60 games and traveled with hotel stays 6 times. The median for these teams at bantam and younger are below that…but certainly not by much.
And these numbers, they’re not just specific to Chicago. It’s this crazy in plenty of other places too.
Honestly, what are we doing?
I put a tweet out a few months ago asking my followers if they could play Tier One hockey at the midget level (outside of Minnesota), all in, for less than $20,000 per year. The answer was a resounding NO.
But holy hell, looking at that chart there have to be a lot of families that can’t play Tier One hockey in Chicago at age groups below midget for less than $20,000 per year. When you think about what they’re paying for a full season tuition to the organization, travel, off ice, private coaching, spring and summer hockey (which let’s not kid ourselves most families feel pressure to do), and other correlated costs I don’t see a world where most families are paying less than that.
I keep beating the community model drum for a reason. Not only are costs WAY down, but the pressure is down for families to not feel like they HAVE TO spend all this money or their kid will get left behind. That pressure is real. And it’s also backwards.
Here’s a post I sent out the other day, for all the parents out there:
People at the highest levels of hockey think that narrowing the talent pyramid at such a young age is insane. Honestly, they think it’s laughable. They know it’s not good for the game nor is it worth “the investment.”
At the end of the day, the most important attribute of 99% of elite players is a LOVE FOR THE GAME. Starting Tier One at such young ages will eventually suck the love of the game out of a lot of families. And if you have a kid that isn’t in love with the game, or parents that aren’t in love with the game – the chances of the kid being an elite hockey player WHEN IT ACTUALLY MATTERS IN YOUR LATER TEEN YEARS go down the drain.
Guys, we have Mite AAA hockey here in Chicago and plenty of other places. “Elite” level hockey for six-and seven-year-olds. We’re narrowing the talent pyramid for kids taking spelling tests in their second and third grade classes. In what world (other than the reality we’re unfortunately living in) does that make any sense? I can’t find any data on game count or travel for our Tier One mites, but honestly, for my sanity’s sake, I don’t think I want to.
I have three daughters. They are seven, five, and three years old. There is NO WAY I could afford to pay if all three of my kids wanted to play Tier One hockey. And I’ve gotten notes from numerous other families saying their kid wants to play the at highest level of hockey they can, and are good enough, but they don’t have the means to do so.
That’s really freaking sad.
The Tier One clubs won’t give up AAA mites. I’ve talked to many of them and asked them to. They’ll continue to do it for various reasons if you ask them. None of which I agree with.
So instead, next is to educate. Check out my Twitter post above. Do some research on athlete development. Talk to people who understand Long Term Athlete Development. Send that info to people on the fence feeling pressure to professionalize their kid but don’t want to.
Everyone has a different path to high level hockey. The number of “A’s” at young ages doesn’t matter. The coach, the environment, and the passion that is built within a kid and their family does.
The longer we can keep kids in the community model, the better. Is there a time when it’s good to narrow the pyramid, yes. And that answer is different for the different areas around North America. Are there also different ways to narrow the pyramid that could work in different areas of North America, yes. Minnesota is very different than Chicago. Michigan is very different than Boston. Toronto is very different than Western Canada.
But as a whole, the more we professionalize and create this pressure cooker both physically, emotionally, and financially for our kids and our families at younger and younger ages, the more we are going to lose people from this great game that has given so many of us our lives.
I have a lot of friends that are hockey directors and coaches at the Tier One level. A lot of them do a really good job within the confines they operate in. They’re good people.
But the system is broken. We need to be better.
And the people who know better, need to do better.
