Guest1 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 28, 2023 11:34 am
This may not be a popular opinion but it is fact. I am not singling out any player, team or organization with this post.
Many years ago a city had 3 rep teams....A, AA, AAA. There was not 3 tiers of AA, 6 single A, friggen BB teams.... Blue, White, Fuchsia etc....If a player was not good enough for AAA...he went down to AA...or A. If he still did not have the skill he played House League and maybe joined a select team. Those were the days that rep teams were the best of the best. If a kid wanted to be part of that exclusive group they had to work their ass off to get there....Period! Now with the millennial mentality that every kid has to get a medal or has the right to play rep the whole world...not just the hockey has gone to shit! So stop crying about a kids mental health...its called life. Adversity and challenges actually teaches the children to set goals, do better, work harder to achieve their goals.
Nowadays anyone's kid can get on a team if the parents either pay enough money, stir up enough shit or play politics with the organization. Hell they even create new teams just to appease the parents so the kid can wear the logo on the chest.
So we are left with what we have now...entitled parents with more money than brains, lazy entitled kids with no work ethic or realistic expectations and organizations that will do anything to get these parents to pay thousands of dollars a year to make their program look better.
The sad fact is that the entire Hockey system is broken. It is diluted. Every young hockey players dream is to make it to the NHL, and the dream is such a small percentage of reality that simple statistics would prove that only a small handful of the best even have a shot at cracking any type of draft. If your kid isn't a "Lights Out Stud", top 3-5 player on a AAA team that is ranked in the top 10 teams, by the time he is 14 years old then it is likely he will age out...NO scholarship to a NCAA school, NO OHL, definitely NO NHL. So you might as well enjoy it for what it is...a game we all love, played by our kids.
NRP players are not taking spots away from local kids. If local players want to crack a AAA squad then they have to EARN IT! They have to put in the work to ensure that some import doesn't take the spot they want. You shouldn't be automatically given a spot on an elite AAA team because of your postal code. If there is a spot available on a team and it comes down to an import and a local player of equal skill level, you better believe the local kid will get that spot 9 times out of 10.
NRP players are often players who are among the best on their local team. They move from their home centre for better training, coaching and to play with players of better skill, because their own city has diluted their system so much that their own so called "AAA" team is made up of players who at best would be a AA. Grandfathering NRP players is the right thing to do. Having their own local city centre hold them hostage is wrong. Making them play for a team that will hold it against them for leaving in the first place and cannot offer the elite program that they left in the first place to join is ridiculous. Want to talk about kids mental health...what kind of anxiety and toxic environment will that produce when you force that kid into a dressing room that he left for whatever reasons he had. That is a tough situation for some adults to handle, let alone 12, 13, 14 year olds. It might even be enough for them to mentally check out of the game all together.
I have seen so many kids thrive under their new teams, they have made lifelong friendships and developed skills both on and off the ice that they had been missing from their own home centre teams. They have a goal and are working their asses off to achieve that goal....these kids are the 1%. I have equally seen kids plateau and not develop to their projected skill level, where after this years tryout season will most likely be shipped off back to their own city making room for a local player who has enough drive to TAKE that spot!
This is the hard truth....Success is not given...it's earned. This is the message I have delivered to my own son. Not once since he decided to lace up the skates have I manufactured his path to the level he is playing now. I do not play in team/organizational politics, I am not wealthy and cannot afford to send him to every single cash grab development thing that is out there. I only ever encourage his goals, applaud his successes and remind him that his failures are learning opportunities. That only he can make his dreams happen and that he has to continue to take it upon himself to do the things necessary to succeed. This is not just a message to help him succeed in hockey....THIS IS A LIFE SKILL! Something that can translate to life after hockey in his Career, family, friendships. Something all parents should be doing, instead of just buying their kid opportunities.
These elite players, my son included, have earned spots because of their hard work and dedication to their team, the sport and themselves. These are the ones that are the next generation of professionals we all watch on TV. The professionals our grandkids will see as heroes and gods...fueling them to be like that one day.
Whether you like or hate a kid personally doesn't give you the right to use your own inadequacies to sabotage their goals. Don't ever stand on your soapbox and tear down any of these passionate and dedicated players for doing what your own kid cannot. You shouldn't even utter you "BB" kids rights as a local player in the same breath as some of these (not all) NRP players.