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| 16u Tier II Hockey |
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| 2008-09 Season |
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| Welcome to the 4th (and most definitely FINAL) edition of CalMidgetMinor.com, the website dedicated exclusively to covering California's Midget 16AA hockey league. Since the Editors and Staff at CMM.com have entered their golden years and look forward to nothing better than sitting on their collective asses watching sunsets and puffing soon to be non-contriband Cuban cigars, the 2008-09 season coverage will be far less ambitious and thus less comprehensive than the past three seasons. With that stirring preamble in mind, we will still do our very best to be a league resource for fans of Cal 16AA action. |
| Summer Shock by Majordomo de CMM.com (posted Jun 20th) - Where do I begin? With the passing of the 2007-08 season, our family's nine year journey through the backstreets of SCAHA and CAHA hockey supposedly came to an end. One kid is off to college and the other looking upon new interests and horizons. We began dismantling the infra-structure that made up our life in travel hockey. I transferred the ownership and responsibility for our local club's and ice rink's websites to the next generation of hockey webmasters. I packed away (sealed in boxes with duct tape) dozens of game and practice uniforms, warm up jackets, equipment, old rosters and tournament notes. Thoughts of Thanksgiving Dinner at home with the family all together for the first time in the 21st Century danced through my wife's head. Tailgating while attending college and pro football games on crisp autumn weekends waltzed through mine. Whoo-hooo!! One of the victims of dismantling the websites was the archives representing three years of CalMidgetMinor.com history (I would have had to pay a $12.95 per month hosting service to keep the archives alive - not happening, time to move on). Good-bye Monkeyboy, good-bye Peeping Tom, R.I.P Gekko Esquire and Skunkworks. Thanks to Kenny Blankenship for writing our obituary on SoCal-Hockey.com. Thanks for the memories….. Then, my kid announces that he wants to play his second season of 16AA hockey. My wife cancelled the 20-pound free range bird from Whole Foods and I recinded the deposit on San Diego Chargers season seats. Then came the call asking if I'd consider managing the hockey team. The sound of duct tape being ripped off the storage boxes exploded through the CMM.com Think Tank as alarms began blarring. "We're back in business, Boys! Get outta the rack!" In for a penny, in for a pound – and what the hell, even a cut-down version of CMM.com might hold some value. So here we sit in the middle of June in the midst of summer shock. Stay tuned….. |
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| Rink Directory (posted 6/28) - The CMM.com staff has been working on building a comprehensive CAHA ice rink directory for several years. The project started as a simple list of rink addresses and phone numbers, then got expanded for driving directions and a brief facility review including a grade ranging from A+ to F. Now we've taken the final step to a full blown comprehensive directory. We've attempted to record our observations from nine years of making weekly pilgrimages to the ice palaces around Southern California. Some of our pictures may be up to three years old, but we've attempted to be as current as possible. Hope you enjoy it and perhaps make use of it during the season. |
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| Seventeen is Most Definitely a Crowd (posted 9/15) - Today is reportedly the deadline for teams to officially declare if they want to move into or out of the Midget AA 16u division. We have nothing official yet, but indications (I.e. top rated hear-say, as well as grade-A-choice innuendo) are that the Channel Islands Riptide will drop to 16A. It is a mild surprise in that the team has been very competitive in many games, but they apparently don't have enough rostered players. It appears the final roll call of teams will include 14 from SoCal and 3 from NorCal, meaning a whole bunch of CAHA weekend games. Don't be surprised if they end up having to use the Friday night slots on some, if not all of the CAHA weekends. Last year there were only thirteen 16AA teams and only Lakewood had to use a Friday night for three games. We're unsure if the four CAHA Weekend venues this year will have enough ice for what averages out to be 17 games on Saturday and 17 games on Sunday. Another thing, we have no mathmatician on staff, but we don't see how they're going to fit in that 17th team - it'll be a scheduler's nightmare. They really need one more team to throw in the towel and even this thing out at an even sweet 16. Incidentally, CAHA says, "the scheduling of these games is very complicated and the whole season must be laid out before the first schedule is done. This takes some time and you can expect to see schedules for the first weekend sometime around Mid-October." We'll see if the Riptide rumors become fact. If so, the Selects Bantam AAA team could be very busy filling in those new BYE weeks. (Sept 17th Update) - Prolonged discussions took place throughout the night between the CMM.com Think Tank membership and a visiting scholar named Crazyoldgoalie. In the end, COG's simple table overcame the Think Tank's elaborate color coded matrix to prove that a 17-team, four CAHA weekend could work. We stand humbly aside with head bloodied and bowed. |
| CAHA I |
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| California Midget Minor |
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| CAHA II |
| CAHA III |
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| PLAYOFF BOUND! Congratulations to the CAHA State Championship Teams: 1. Los Angeles Jr Kings 2. Anaheim Jr Ducks 3. California Wave 4. Beach City Lightning 92 |
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| Final |
| CAHA IV |
| Heat Getting Burned?
by the CMM.com Editorial Staff (posted 1/22) - A CAHA Insider confirmed reports today that the 16AA Regular Season champion California Heat might not have an automatic berth into the USA Hockey Pacific District championships as the host team. As a result, they may have to play its way into that event via the State playoffs, starting with the CAHA play-down in Valencia next month. Confirmation came later in the day from CAHA in the form of an email from the Tier Commissioner listing the teams participating in the play-down. The Heat was the number one seed. USA Hockey awarded the 2009 Pacific District Tier II 16u and 18u championships, which begin on March 7th, to Valencia Ice Station. Because host Club bear so much responsibility and cost for putting on the event, USA Hockey awards their teams in those respective age divisions an automatic berth into the tournament. Everybody all season assumed that the Heat, a joint venture between the Valencia Express and West Valley Wolves for Tier hockey, would receive the host berth since they are the only 16AA team to play its home games at Ice Station. However, the problem seemingly comes from the fact that while the host bid was awarded to the Valencia Express, the Heat is registered for USA Hockey under West Valley Wolves. This apparently is only a problem for the 16AA team, as the Heat 18AA is registered as Express. Heat officials are attempting to negotiate this situation with CAHA, stand-by. If the Heat play, the 9th place Orange County Hockey Club gets bumped from replacement eighth seed to out of the post-season. Easy come, easy go. 1/23 Update: CAHA announced late last night that the Heat will get their BYE in the State tournament and the auto-berth in the Districts. The Jr Ducks are the #1 seed and OCHC can keep its ball gown as they're going to the big dance. |
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| CAHA Playdown Recap by the CMM.com Editorial Staff (posted 2/09) - Congratulations to the Jr Kings, Jr Ducks, Wave and Lightning92s for making the State Final Four. With all due respect to BCL92 who just played and won the games they were handed, we stand by our Playdown Preview proclamation that the current format SUCKS! To have one of the elimination games being #7 vs #8, with the winner having only to beat #6 and #8 to advance is just stupid. It is obviously not CAHA's goal to have our best teams compete in the Pacfic District championships with a shot at the National title. They totally devalued outstanding performance in the CAHA weekends for the sake of evening the post season playing field. Why? What possible benefit was served? Just two years ago, only five teams made the State playoff. The additional three teams should just be happy to be there - if they want to advance, they should have to beat the top teams to make it. Cinderella is well and good if you're looking for TV ratings, but the top teams deserved a better fate this weekend. CAHA Playdown Preview by the CMM.com Editorial Staff (posted 2/04) – Santonio Holmes went to Disneyland and the Steeler fans held their parade across the frozen tundra of industrial Pennsylvania. Click here to read the entire text of the CAHA Playdown Preview..... |
| Saturday, February 7th OCHC - 2 v Jr Ducks - 5 BCL92 - 2 v Wave - 5 Stars Bk - 1 v Gulls - 1 Jets - 1 v Jr Kings - 4 Stars Bk - 3 v Jr Ducks - 1 Jets - 4 v Wave - 5 OCHC - 3 v Gulls - 3 BCL92 - 1 v Jr Kings - 3 |
| Sunday, February 1st Jr Kings - 5 v Wave -1 Gulls - 0 v Jr Ducks - 5 OCHC - 3 v Stars Bk - 2 BCL92 - 4 v Jets - 2 Stars Bk - 0 v Wave - 1 BCL92 - 3 v OCHC - 1 |
| CAHA Playdown Results |
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| Frozen 4 |
| California |
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| '09 Playoffs -Riverside- |
| BCL92 - 2 v Ducks - 10 Sun (0900) - Kings v Wave Sun (1700) - Championship Jr Kings - 2 v Jr Ducks - 0 |
| Congratulations Jr Kings - State Champions!! |