WarriorofTime
Registered User
- Jul 3, 2010
- 30,058
- 18,591
Not at all uncommon for the Chicago Mission here as well, particularly for the 15 year old team. The Slaggerts (Graham, Landon, Carter... all 3 played for USNDTP and Notre Dame) father is an Asst. Coach at Notre Dame, so the family is from South Bend, and all played for the Mission before heading to the USNDTP. They must have commuted nearly 1.5-2 hours both ways unless they had a second place they'd stay during hockey season or something, dunno.So, similar to the US, but AAA is "Tier 1" and AA and below is Tier 2. But here, clubs have to apply for "tier 1 status". In NJ, there are probably about 12 tier 1 teams and they don't have restrictions on where kids can play. I know of at least 2 kids who live on Staten Island (for those unfamiliar that little piece of land in between Brooklyn and NJ that is not Manhattan) that play on a team in Connecticut. Drive to practice is anywhere from an hour and a half to 3 hours due to traffic.
Jordan and Nick Schmaltz grew up near Madison (mom worked for UW), and both also played for the Mission. That's closer to 2.5-3 hours both ways. Feel like there's no way they didn't have somewhere else they were staying then.
I suppose worth it for guys like that who clearly have pro hockey futures. The 'ordinary' kids are gonna be Chicago-based generally but still a decent commute for kids from all over the suburbs to get into the city. Limited other options even aside from playing for the "best" though. There's Team Illinois in Woodridge that Cole Caufield played for and whatever the Young Americans are called now where Alex Galchenyuk played.
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