Excerpt from a perceptive parent:"Seriously though what if all the OHA parents decided not to sign the contract until they had it in writing where their kid is going to play. Join the other parents that hold out paying until Kerr guarantees the spot behind closed doors.
Watch all the parents file into private meeting with Alan Kerr at the end of the season to "secure" their spot. It's like a damn breadline.
The best negotiators get the gig. Funny thing is you have to ask what you are fighting for. Alan's team is no quad. Better to go to POE. They will absolutely dominate OHA from top to bottom in two years.
Kerr and his cronies are getting their due payback for all the team rigging "BS" going on at OHA. My message to POE is don't let the success go to your head. Don't destroy a good program. Slow and steady wins the race and stay principled and you will be on top for a long time while the owners of OHA will continue to run around with their heads squarely up their ......"
24 comments:
This is actually really great advice. The best advice is not to sign up for OHA at all.
wonder how many unsuspecting families they will get to sign up to pay the big bucks at OHA next season. I heard many are not returning next year and last year half the damn school left as in over 40 kids.
I was considering OHA not for next season but for 2010 school year. This blog has given me a lot to think about. Can anyone provide feedback on the Edge in Calgary?
the Edge is a good school. The hockey is good and arguably better than OHA although I would say at this point the programs are on par. It is clear that the Edge has a brighter future as a program. I don't know there politics and cannot speak to whether or not they are worse than OHA.
OHA is dominating the Edge. OHA is a better hockey school than Edge
Edge is a middle of the road program. OHA is lower than Edge. No real reason to play at either one. They are bottom feeders.
what hockey schools are good? We are Americans. This site shot our aspirations for sending our son to OHA. Now we are starting from scratch. We have some cash flow and we can relocate. Are any of the prep schools in the US good? I liked OHA concept because they are on the ice all year. We would like something with lots of ice time and games but not the types of problems I am reading about here.
My son attends the okanagan hockey academy. He has improved alot and enjoys the program. It is a shame that a few disgruntled parents are giving this program a bad name. My son's billets are great, he is on the ice everyday, dryland everyday and does well in school. He had been invited to Junior A main camps. Everyone must remember that it is an individual developement program in a team atmosphere.
a few? 43 kids left last year and that is roughly half the school. As for the individual player focus with such terrible records throughout the program as a team all they have left to do is to spin the value of the individual.
Congrats on your kid getting camp invites. That is rare at OHA unless they are streamlined to the Port Alberni money grab.
Those guys wouldn't get off their tails to help any of the players even when they had some good players. Now they have very few quality players at OHA.
This is one of the worst way you could spend your money if you want to develop your player. Most programs are better and a lot less expensive. OHA had a good program a few years ago, but today its crap. There are more than a FEW people who got the shaft from OHA. It a good thing the word is out on them to prospective people who would get slammed by them. They have had more than a FEW problems to say the least.
43 kids left the program you say? If you actually look at the numbers, every kid that was eligible to return is back in their program. With the exception of two kids. One who clearly had no interest in being a hockey player and his brother who was one of the laziest goalies i've ever seen and was unfortunately on my son's team.
everyone knows that Jr A teams in the BCHL accept everyone and their uncle to their spring camps. Good luck making main camps off of inferior OHA training.
BCHL Spring camp is just a money maker. Everyone knows that. The last few guys that are advancing out of the OHA program are players that were there a few years ago. Virtually none of the players who joined them in the last 2 years have advanced anywhere outside the OHA "system" which continues on to simply take your money. What a joke paying 40K to play for the Sting Jr. B who is in last freakin place. Not 1 single player has advanced to any of the top Junior teams in the USA including James Kerr who was cut from a USHL team tryout. Oh yeah I stand corrected, the ones that left their program have advanced. LOL
why would James Kerr tryout a USHL team if he has a full ride at Princeton all locked up? Didn't he make the Kelowna Rocket roster but turned it town to take the college route?
James Kerr went to Rockets camp but never made the team. That was just talk put forth primarily by Alan. That was way back. James is a good kid that works very hard. Unfortunately, he has an old man that is a lying crook. He also is an academic guy. I really respect that. I know for fact he tried out at the same time for a USHL team and didn't make the team. If he didn't make a USHL team how would he legitamately make the Rockets? That doesn't make sense. Based on that being true I guess the USHL is better than the WHL! Think about it. LOL (That was sarcasm)
The Kerr boy does have a full ride scholarship to Princeton, does he not? He is a top player.
Nobody gets a full ride at any Ivy school. You still have to pay to play at Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, etc. I understand he is attending Princeton by way of the OHA media machine. I haven't seen it anywhere else. James is a good player who is strong academically. Not a great player, a good player.
Princeton is ivy league. Don't believe ivy league schools give full ride scholarships. Agree he works very hard, but so do all players in bchl, otherwise they wouldn't be there. He's fourth line on vernon vipers in bchl.
I don't think this blog should turn on the kid at all. He does have a ride with financial assistance to Princeton. Your all right, Ivy league schools don't give full rides, he was given the best they could give. The USHL and WHL are two different styles of plays. James fits the prototype for the Western League. He is a bull of a player that will work harder then anyone. That's not what they want in the USHL. I've been a close friend of his for quite a few years now and he did make the rockets team. He has way more brains then to sign with them, it would have been a complete waste of his academic ability.
I seriously do not think even Alan Kerr would fabricate a lie about the Rockets. I do believe James made it. He is a very good player and one of the hardest workers you'll ever see in the game. He is a top student so kudos to him for going the academic route. Hockey only lasts so long and then you have to rely on education and brains.
He really doesn't make any difference whether he made the Rockets or not does it. He didn't want to go that route anyway. If he didn't perform well in making a USHL team then how well will he do at Princeton? Every year more and more NCAA players come out of the USHL "style" play rather than the WHL. I agree the WHL is a great league and advance a lot of players to the pros, yet many haven't been able to make it at the NCAA level. It is in fact a different game and also requires a well functioning brain.
I think he'll be fine at Princeton. I watched the Eastern Conference Championships this last weekend and they have a steady mix of blue collar guys to go with the extremely talented ones. Guys like him will always find a place to go because there will always be a team looking for a grinder. Anyone that doesn't think there's a need for a grind line in the NCAA hasn't watched many games.
Warning coming into the summer months in Penticton for all prospective players to be recruited by the academy. Alan will take you out to lunch and tell you your player will play Junior hockey and then onto Division 1. Also be prepared for him to commit to them a place on his team. Have your tape recorder with you so you can sue his ass later. He does this to everyone and doesn't deliver. Don't trust these guys. You will end up holding the bag. Run for your lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He took you out to lunch?
Man that must have been embarassing for him.
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