High School Hockey Tournaments From Planning to Execution with Flyers Cup President Eric Tye

High School Hockey Championships and Organization

Speaker 1 0:06

Well , hello , everybody , got an interesting guest today . Eric Tai is the president of the Flyers Cup , which is the Pennsylvania the Eastern side of Pennsylvania's high school championship tournament , and we dove in today about really how that's organized , how it's a short process in terms of the games being played compared to the season long process of putting it together . So we wanted to bring someone on that really is involved in the administrative side of creating something large like a high school championship tournament . So that's why we find Eric and the other thing too is that we dive into kind of just how high school hockey is organized in Pennsylvania and whether you're in Pennsylvania or not , it's just a great discussion about how high school hockey is very different from club hockey and we compare and contrast and everything and talk about that . So really great episode again with Eric Tai here today . Also , we're in the season here , we're starting , we're moving , you're moving . So , whether you're in sports or business , if you're looking to get your team a little bit more well rounded , you're looking to turn individuals into a team . It's exactly what I do at Game 7 Group . So check our website out , game7groupcom , or just send me an email at team at ourkidsplayhockeycom , and we can look at your team , we can discuss some options and see how we can move your team forward . Same professional team building that I do , from the pros all the way down to the mites , I've done in business and everywhere else . So if you're looking to improve your team for this season , whether it's business or sports head over to game7groupcom . But without any further ado , let's jump into the episode of our kids play hockey with Eric Tai . Hello hockey friends and families around the world , and welcome to another edition of our kids play hockey . Today's going to be a little bit of a special episode . We're talking kind of tournaments today and we thought if we're going to talk tournaments or we're going to talk big championships and everything that comes along with that , let's bring someone in who has some experience and maybe a really high or a great level with that . So we want to introduce you today to Eric Tai , who's the president of the Flyers Cup committee . For all those listening outside of Pennsylvania or Philadelphia , don't worry , this will totally apply to you today . This is just someone we have locally because we're in the Philadelphia area At least I am , mike , I know you , probably people in your area too , but this will be the 45th year of the Flyers Cup tournament and it is the tournament for high school teams in Eastern Pennsylvania and the winners of several of the divisions play the Penguins Cup champion on the other side of the state , which might as well be another state that's how we look at it here to become the state champion . But when you look at it , there's five separate brackets for the Flyers Cup triple A , double A A , girls , and then a New Jersey and Delaware division , and games are played throughout the Delaware Valley . If you live in the area , you know about it . If you don't , from a high school level or a school level . This is the premier tournament , if you will , it's the premier league , if you will . And , eric , we're really excited to have you today to just kind of dive into what goes into A being a president or something like this and then how you help advance hockey forward through a platform like this . And I'm also excited to dive in there because I'm sure that you know we're going to paint this thing for as awesome as it is , because it is a well-established kind of Eastern PA thing . But I'm sure that you get so much , I would say , information from people about how it should be done how they want it to be done , all the changes that should be made . So I want to look at it from both angles . But first off , just thank you so much for coming on the show today . We're happy to have you .

Speaker 2 3:22

Oh , thanks for having me . Glad to be here .

Speaker 1 3:24

Yeah , we're glad to have you . So why don't we start with the basics , of just how you got involved with the Flyers Cup and how you ended up ascending to the rank of president ?

Speaker 2 3:32

I have no idea . I was in a wrong spot at the right time . I've been a I was a high school coach for 15 or so years , so I was involved with the Flyers Cup a little bit . And then five years ago there was a change at the Flyers Cup committee and people thought I would be a good person to be president . So I'm president , and by title only you know it's not a one man show . I have a whole group of people behind me who helped doing everything behind the scenes , so it's not a one person operation by any stretch of the imagination . I just have the title and I'm the one who has to answer the question to know that stuff .

Speaker 1 4:19

That's why you're here on the show today , now and again . You know , just to kind of continue to paint the picture . If anyone has ever been to a Philadelphia Flyers game , the Flyers Cup trophies are really proudly displayed right on the promenade there you really can't go around the arena without seeing all of the trophies , all of the champions . You know they have the high school jerseys there . So this really is a mainstay in Eastern Pennsylvania and again , every state has their own version . I know Northern Jersey has the same thing up at the Prudential Center . It's a really cool thing . So why don't you tell us about the Flyers Cup in general again , five divisions , how that's divided up and how proud you are of how it's expanded over the years ?

Speaker 2 4:57

Yeah , the growth has been phenomenal . So just , I guess we'll start from scratch . Like you said , there's five divisions . You have Pennsylvania Boys , aaa , aa and single A , and then the Girls Bracket and then we have a separate bracket from New Jersey and Delaware On the Pennsylvania side . The AAA division consists of all open enrollment schools the prep schools , the Catholic schools , the private schools and all that . So if you have open enrollment you're automatically in the AAA bracket and then AA and single A are divided by . We go by the PA , pi AA .

High School Hockey and Girls' Growth

Speaker 2 5:45

First of all , hockey is not a PI AA sport but we incorporate all the rules to make it as much as a high school you know thing as possible . So our break is 615 male students between grades nine and 11 . If you're 616 or higher up to you know 1200 , then you go into the AA bracket . 614 or 615 and lower , you go into the single A bracket . That's important for parents and kids who don't know the process , because you take high school hockey , which works that way on the enrollment numbers compared to club hockey . Right , in club hockey everyone sees AAA , aa and single A and they think all the best teams are AAA , the middle team , you know . The AA teams are tier two teams and the A teams are . Couldn't be further from the truth . Like the last few years , the A bracket winner in a Flyers Cup would probably beat most of the AA and AAA teams . It's not based on talent or skill level , it's strictly based on the enrollment numbers of the male students in the school . So we get questions about that all the time . So , and then the girls , the girls are up and coming . Man , the girls bracket is up and coming . We're seeing a huge boost in it and a lot of the schools started like maybe you know two high schools , neighboring high schools . If they each had five or six girls a couple years ago , they just combined to make one team and now those two schools have enough in each school to have their own teams and that's it's coming . Our hope was to have a girl state championship this year , but we're waiting on the West . The West just started girls hockey a year or two ago , so it's not an easy process . So maybe within the next two years we'll have our first ever . You know , selfishly , I want to . I want the first girl state championship to be in 2026 , right , because 2024 to state championships are our side of the state this year in March . You know I don't want the first one to be next year out in Pittsburgh . I want the first girl championships to be here in our area .

Speaker 1 8:07

Now is that ? Is that based on on just just did you run the area , or is that a an East Coast , west Coast Pennsylvania rival ?

Speaker 2 8:15

I just , that's your bragging rights , hey we have the first one here the fly you know the East side of the state gets the first girls . But who knows . And then you have the Jersey Delaware bracket , which is a little confusing as well , because people see Jersey and they think it's the whole state of Jersey and it's not North , north , north and Central Jersey have their own , their own thing , and so this is pretty much Southern Jersey and and Delaware have their own bracket , because that's just pretty much recent as well . It's been 47 or 10 years that that been its own bracket because before they would play in the PA , you know AAA , double layer , single A . And then one year one of the Jersey teams won but we couldn't send a Jersey team to play for the Pennsylvania state championship , so we had to send the runner up . That's pretty much the scope of it . This will be this year's a semi , semi important one . Right , 45 is a is a pretty good number .

Speaker 1 9:13

Yeah , as you said , 45 years and nothing to scoff about . There's a lot of areas that you know . What's funny too is that you know for people that don't know the geography of the area and , mike , this is probably true for you up in Connecticut as well it's very hard to explain to people how South Jersey is very much Philadelphia , but Western Pennsylvania is another state in which we don't get along . It's sometimes even more Ohio . But yeah , it's just fun the geographical kind of mindsets that we have here . And I love that you talked about the girls and that they're growing . It's never easy to start something like that and the fact that you're taking the steps forward to do it . And again , a lot of people might not realize that Eastern Pennsylvania is a kind of becoming a hotspot for girls hockey . You know , with the junior Flyers have an amazing program and it's very quickly .

Speaker 2 10:01

There's one person , there's one name everyone should be keeping her eye on , from Downingtown West , ava Thomas . She just made the US national team last year . She had 10 goals in one game in the Flyers Cup last year . She is . She's as legit as they come , and I think up until last year she was playing on the boys team as well and was one of their top three best players in the boys side . So no-transcript . Yeah , that's the like you said . The junior flyers and all those girls programs are taken off .

Speaker 1 10:34

No , it's coming .

High School vs. Club Hockey Differences

Speaker 1 10:36

Here's another question I want to ask you . You brought up the interesting thing about AAA , aa and , as you said , in high school hockey it's a very , very different standard , right , and I can imagine you get a lot of questions about that when people come . And this is based on enrollment , is not based on talent , and you're right . I've seen years where the single A could beat on , take on a double A , and it's just not based on that . So my next question , which would be what are the major differences that you see from the club model to the high school model ? Because , again , it's not . A lot of the kids are the same , but you know you get kids who just play school hockey . They don't . You know it's extracurricular , it's not ? They're not trying to make the full time club commitment to travel every single weekend for six months , right ? What are the differences that you see there ?

Speaker 2 11:19

Well , the biggest thing is , like I'm a club coach now I can go anywhere and get kids to come play on my for my club team . When you play for your high school team , you don't have that luxury . You get the kids that are in your boundaries and you're in your school district boundaries Unless , of course , you're a triple A team and you can take kids from anywhere you know . But that's the main thing . It's it's you're restricted by the boundaries in high school hockey and it's a cycle . I've been involved in high school hockey for 30 years and it's a cycle . You'll have teams that go on a six year run where they have the players in their boundaries and after that six years is up , they'll be on the downside for six years until it comes back and you just have to ride it out . You have to take the good times and enjoy them and you have to push through the bad times and just know that it'll get better at some point .

Speaker 3 12:20

Yeah , no , I'm just going to say I mean just based off of other regions and other states . I mean it's it's one of those things where you know if the town has a good youth program or there's a lot of interaction between you know that high school district and you have a rink in your town . It's a huge difference , right . But I think I also think it's strategically a great idea when you split these private and Catholic schools up out of the public school division . You know , only because they are by definition like all star teams , right . I mean they basically they'd be playing against teams with a lot of kids from that district . You know , I think it's just . I think I've never seen it . I know , in Connecticut I coached Connecticut High School Hockey for I don't know what it was eight , nine , 10 years and I always thought it was . And I coached a private school team and I always thought it was crazy that we played the public school teams for any kind of championship . I just never thought it was fair or never thought it was strategically beneficial for the private school . Like you know , you don't want to lose to the public school team where you just recruited all you know their four best players . So I think it's just . You know , it's just one of those things where I think having a split up is probably a great idea only , especially when you get towards the end of this . You know , this championship season where it's just levels of playing field , I guess , for lack of a better term , Right , and Lee , you know you're an affiliate , you see it with PIAA football , right ?

Speaker 2 13:38

Yeah , the public schools are complaining out the wazoo because St Joe's prep and I'm a hop are winning the football , right , you know ? And they can go into someone's public school and say they're , you're the best football player . Come , come play on our , come play , come play , come to our school , come play for us , come to our school , come play for us . And it's , it's a . Some people think it's a fair advantage and some people think it's unfair . I , I stay in the middle , I just listen to everyone .

Speaker 3 14:09

You have to be neutral I mean I'm lucky I don't have to be neutral because I don't coach for anybody , but I think it's . But I just think it's one of those things where if you're a school that's able to go in and take other schools best players , then you shouldn't , that school shouldn't have to compete against you for those . But when , and you'll see it all , every sport right , I mean I think hockey , you know , I think that's honestly , I think that's where hockey in particular and it sounds like in the in the Philly , pittsburgh , you know , pennsylvania area is the same as a lot of other places where you know school administrators and people that see these programs they almost diminish it If you don't run a true high school program but baseball , lacrosse , soccer and it's all like okay , one practice a week , you know you just play games . You play . You know administrators don't take those teams seriously . It's very hard for them to say hey , budgetarily , like why should we spend all this money on a program that really 90% of these kids are getting ? You know they're hockey outside of our district and or , you know , for other means in sort , like you know you don't . That's why you don't see club football teams and club baseball teams in season and I think , I think it does us all at the service in the hockey community , especially on these coasts because you see it the most , where you know kids can do both and and they have these options to , you know , kind of pick the better program over the other on a regular basis . And if I'm an administrator school which I have been , you know I'm like , well , they don't really need us . I mean , they don't they . You know we don't need to spend our resources on these kids because most of them on a Saturday night are choosing to go play , you know , in a different tournament or on a travel team . So it just , it just . The hockey would do itself a lot of favors by becoming more like hockey split season split season is fine I mean , I think it's , you know . But I just think it'd be if you ran your hockey , if you ran your high school programs like a high school team . That means practice every day in season games , you know , after Thanksgiving to March . That's fine . But if schools want to have teams , then this is only my opinion , by the way . Schools want to have teams , then run it like a team . If not , then don't have the team . Let these kids go play club and then build a club division for the kids that normally , like lead said , you know the kids that just come out and it's a PE class basically .

Speaker 2 16:28

Because I just think it's just so much stress down here we have the flyers cup . We get to pick the teams and go in a tournament from from four or five different leagues . Right , we have the , the central Penn League , which is out in in the Hershey area . We have the inner county league which is down in like Chester County , delaware County area . We have suburban league , which is up here in Bucks County , in Montgomery County . South Jersey has their own league over there . And then did there's a league here called the APAC , the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference , and no schools do pretty much operate the way you were just saying , mike . They're fully funded , as far as I believe , like the Lissals , the Holy Ghost , the St Joe's , the Malverns , they're considered legit varsity sports in their schools . Those teams practice more than once a week and and that's why that's why they they stay . Now it's a little bit of an unfair advantage when it comes to flyers cup time because those guys are doing it and then you have to put the other open enrollment schools then there with them , like the father judges and the Cardinal Harris , they don't practice once , but they're still an open enrollment school . There's no happy answer for anyone and you know we just we have the rules , we stick to them .

Speaker 1 17:54

It's a good point you bring up , eric , that you know , because a lot of the frustration I hear with people in the flyers cup , I think it's it's wrongly pointed that , oh , they have an unfair advantage . Well , or did they create themselves an advantage , like ? Those are two very different things and it's like you can't expect the flyers cup committee , in my opinion , to tell a school how to run their sports . That's not , that's not , in my opinion , that's not your job , right , like , oh , yeah , your job is to organize the tournament . So you know . It brings me an interesting point here , which is and Mike , you're alluding to this too this question I always have of identity and Eric , you alluded to it earlier where you know , it's not uncommon for kids to jump from club team to club team . I'm not saying that that families and children don't take pride with playing for a certain club team , but I think that when things go bad , it's very easy to say well , who else is out there ? You know , I want to go someplace else . And you said , with a school it's kind of like you play or you don't . You know , and I remember playing in my high school and it was like it was a different feeling . It's like , no , I'm playing for the school here , I'm not so much playing for just me . Right , I mean , I'm , this is my school I go .

Speaker 2 19:02

it means something to me , something to walk in the hallways of school tonight after you play a hockey game and you know you have 100 or 500 of your classmates there watching . You know you walk around proud as a peacock the next day right in the home and that's that's . That's where high school hockey has to separate itself from club hockey . Right and and it's getting there

Importance of School Sports in Hockey

Speaker 2 19:27

now . Yeah , the bad , the bad side about this is that because most of these schools aren't school sports , varsity sports , the kids come , the fans come and they act like there's no proper way for me to say this , but they act like animals . Yeah , they act like because they know they can get away with it because there's no repercussions coming back right because not a school sport , and that's that's the biggest fight that high school league there have nowadays .

Speaker 1 20:00

No , I can tell you this and I might go paint the picture for you , and this is this is many , many years ago now , but I remember used to play at a local rank called the stadium , which is a municipal rank in Habertown , and not only would it be full on game night , but there would be a cop at the top of every section back then . Yeah , still still is , just because these crowds go nuts . But here's the thing . Here's the thing . There's some . Look , hopefully they behave themselves within a reason where the police don't need to do anything , but you don't never see that for a club game . So it's a totally different vibe and , like you said , like when I was playing back in the late 90s you know hockey was , was , I'll just say it was a little bit of a rougher , tougher sport at that time and just in terms of physicality , yeah , you're right , man , walking through the hallways in my jersey . It meant something to me , like you know , and people knew you're hockey player . So I'm saying I would never walk through the hallways in my club jersey , whether tier one or two , it doesn't matter . So I've always been interested in the pride that comes along with playing for your school and , mike , the reason I brought this up and I want your thoughts on this , mike is that something that I don't want to say ? We lose it in club hockey . I don't think that's fair because I think , again , you can have pride , but it's a little . It's very different in club hockey , right like that . That is an aspect of club hockey . That high school or elementary or middle school hockey , I think , has an advantage of your playing for your school . You do not have a choice on the selection process . They have to be from the district . I'm speaking , obviously , the double , a kind of a divisions right now . But I think that that's I wish that would exist a little bit more in club hockey sometimes , because I think it's an important part of the growth aspect of hockey of using it as a vehicle for the future . I think that you know you represent something larger than yourself here .

Speaker 3 21:43

Yeah , I mean , well , my listen , this is gonna be a whole another couple of series , but I think it's . I think I think at the end of the day , you know you're . If you're in a community that has a facility , you need a rank right . Everybody has fields , everybody has gyms , everybody has soccer fields . You need a . You need a if you have a facility and you have an athletic community . You have a community that wants to stand behind kids playing sports and you can do it in a way where , from cradle to grave , you can build a model , just like football . There's not a kid in my town that doesn't play soccer not one . Not even the bad kid like the kids that are can't even walk , you know , running around like they're just stumbling out there . They can't kick a ball , they can play soccer . When you create that environment in isarchy , then you'll have change . When you create an environment where everyone can play and this is the whole mission of the NHL and a lot of the local teams right when you create an environment and a culture that everyone can play and now you build that into your community by the time these kids get to high school and you have a model that allows it to work , then you can be football and basketball . And I think you know and I hear all about . You know it's money , it's money . It's not money , it's how you develop your resources , it's what you , it's how you think outside the box , like to me , if I had a problem with money , I would go to my other local high school team and say , hey , can we split the cost of this rank ? Like , why do I have to have all the ice ? I don't even use all the ice , I'm not even a good coach . I can't even get the kids over the blue line anyway . So how do I , how do I , you know , how can I create resources that help us ? And I think you know and not to get off topic , but what you're , what this , what , what the Flyers Cup is doing , and what you know . What these kind of organizations do is allow , at least at the end of the year , the , the , the , the best , to be noticed , right , and then the cream of the crop , to come and have something to play for , like club teams . You know , if you're not a national bound club team , you're really not playing for anything anyway . So at least at the high school level these kids get to know at the end of the year they're competing for something . You could build culture around that . But there's certainly a disconnect in the hockey world because most other sports , their club , the pinnacle of their club development is the high school . It becomes the state championship football team Cause they're , they're in my , in my experience they're all connected all the way down to the bottom . Like you don't , you don't even know . See a soccer club in town not connected with the high school soccer team . Like all the kids kind of stay within the system and hockey , the hockey club in town might be feeding 15 different schools . Right , like it's not . It's not you know , it's not a focused and developed program . And I think that's where you know . That's where the disconnect from an administrator point of view of I'm in a high school and I'm like , well , what the hell are we doing here ? We're trying to just start a team with most of our kids that don't even you know , they don't even play hockey until they get to high school and say , hey , you know what I'd like to play hockey , now , you know , and then we're asking the kids that do play hockey at the club level , the serious players , to kind of stick around and support that . So I do think that culturally , hockey's got a long way to go only because there isn't a lot of , you know , funneling of kids from the start to the finish . Now the one and I'm sure Pennsylvania has the same thing the high school programs that are the most successful probably have a really vibrant , connected youth program , like the Minnesota model , right when that town is developing the talent that ends up at the high school . You know , I don't think we see that in a lot of other communities .

Speaker 1 25:21

Eric , feel free to grab thoughts on that , yeah .

Speaker 2 25:24

Well , I think the key thing you said there is looking at it from the Flyers Cup and the tournament we put on . Mike , you just said at Minnesota . You see that Minnesota high school tournament , you see the highlights on the ESPN and that's our goal , that's my goal as a Flyers Cup president . I want that for Philadelphia area . Are we anywhere near that ? No , but we're much closer to it now than we were five years ago . I agree with that and that's the thing , like that's my goal . I'd love , I would love , to be able to put final games , if it was possible , down in the Wells Fargo Center and have that place be full sold out to watch the high school championship game late in the day in Minnesota . And we're , like I said , we're years away from that , but it's the . You know , that's the ultimate goal .

High School Hockey Tournament and Challenges

Speaker 2 26:24

I mean our numbers , our numbers in terms of the tournament and attendance minus the two COVID years , have gone up and up , like so , for instance , this past year we were able to hold , because of the way it worked out , we had the double A final and the triple A final on the same night . First game started like six o'clock , second game started at eight thirty and we had about fifteen hundred for each game , which was a parking nightmare getting people out of the building nightmare . But we had that and then , on top of that , two years ago maybe three years ago we started live streaming that the Flyers Cup has their own YouTube channel . So we partnered with SFBN and they've broadcasted every game in the tournament for free on our YouTube channel . Two years ago we had over 60,000 views for the tournament . This past year , 80,000 views when the finals were going on . Last year we had to sell out . The buildings were sold out . Like the buildings couldn't hold any more people , so we were told everyone don't come . If you don't have a ticket , don't come . So we were able to . I have the ability to see how many people were watching and in some cases it was up to 2,500 people watching live because they couldn't get into the building .

Speaker 1 28:01

So that's a big part of it too Huge yeah , and just to give context to everyone , when we talk about Minnesota I mean it's another level . I mean , look , they're number one in terms of the 50 states and how high school hockey is looked at there . And Eric's right , we go to that tournament in my camp multiple years now and there's 15 to 20,000 people in the Excel Energy Center for each game and we're talking the semifinal and the finals for multiple divisions . It is an event in that state . So , eric , I'm gonna say you said everyone looks to them of . Well , that's where we wanna be , and I think you're right . I think the Flyers Cup has made huge advancements towards that . Just keeping in mind too , that's like the diamond on the top of the mountain in terms of high school hockey . They just do it differently out there but , like you're saying , it's growing too . There's an interest in it . I think there's a little nostalgia when it comes to school sports and , like you said , the PIAA you know the it was just Pennsylvania and there's Inter-Schoolastic Athletic Association . They're not involved , right , it's an interesting . That's another interesting thing to dive into , if we can about . You know the nature that it's a different governing body almost for this . I'm glad you follow the same kind of guidelines , but that's always been an interesting thing to me as well .

Speaker 2 29:20

Yeah , it's , you know . It pretty much goes back to what Mike was saying . If the schools can't control everything that goes on , have their own facility you know the insurance you're always hearing insurances and money then they don't want no parts of it . I believe me , I talk to all high school coaches all the time . It's part of my job . You know they follow the PIAA where they're in . They have a good connection with their school idea or school principle and on game days they'll call the athletic director and say , hey , we're all . Mike is in school . And if the athletic director says , oh no , someone wasn't in school today , then they don't let him play that night .

Speaker 1 30:01

Right , which is how it should be , which is the way it should be .

Speaker 2 30:04

That's the thing that gets me is parents . If a coach says , oh , you're not playing because you're failing two classes , and the parents say , well , we don't follow school rules , how come you can't play ? You understand what I'm saying . I'm trying to be nice about it , but you got the school club hockey team trying to do the right thing by the school so they can gain some support from the school . Maybe get their teams games announced in the building in the school the day of the game and whatnot . And then you got a parent thinks their kid's a superstar and he had a tough couple of days . He's just gonna stay home today and rest up for the game tonight . Well , no , get your ass in school and then go play in the game and be like the football player .

Speaker 1 30:51

We talk about the life lessons of hockey on this show a lot and I will tell you , and you guys tell me if you've heard different . But I have never heard the story of the great high school athlete that won the big game but failed out of school and then succeeded Like . I've never heard that story . Right , man , we made the right choice keeping you out of school because you learned a lot about how the truth is . You learn more by not playing in the game and that accountability , exactly . Yeah , I just think the whole everyone gets cheated when that happens , not just the player in question , it's the whole team , the coaching staff , everyone gets cheated . If a rule is broken , you allow that kid to play , depending on your rules , obviously . But yeah , like I said , I've never heard the story of the high school athlete that went on to become a superstar because he missed school , and that story never ends . Well , you know it's an outlier . I wanted to ask you this too and again answer this however you want . I'm not trying to dig deep here too much , but in your position , you probably get a lot of complaints and a lot of controversy , and a lot of this is how it should be done , why you know what you should do . You know what you should try . I just know from being in a role like this that that's what happens , so it's just like a two-part question . I wanna start with kind of the negative of like , what are the complaints that you get all the time ? That if you can tell those people this is why it's done this way , you know what is that . But I also wanna know you probably get compliments too , but in the way media has done , the negativity is what seeps out and we always talk about the controversial . So I wanna end the episode on that too the positives . But let's start with the negative . What is the thing that everybody wants you to do that you hear every time you walk out of the house that there's a reason you don't do it .

Speaker 2 32:39

Well , there's a couple here . We've got a lot more apps .

Speaker 1 32:42

So just go ahead and I'm just kidding Whatever you want .

Speaker 2 32:46

So , like I said , it's broken down into . We'll just use the Pennsylvania boys triple A , double A , single A . You know , in the next couple of weeks we'll get a list of all the Flyers Cup eligible teams . First of all , and I think the most important thing that everyone has to understand , is for your team to be eligible for Flyers Cup you need to be a pure team . Pure means every single player on your team goes to that high school . That's number one . So if you have two neighboring schools and they combine a team , they're not pure , they're not getting them Flyers Cup . So we'll get the list of teams and we'll see how many are at each level . for the PA boys and it's usually right around 10 or 12 for triple A and if that's the case , we'll put eight teams into the Flyers Cup . For double A , it's right around 20 or 21 usually , and we'll put 16 teams into the Flyers Cup . Single A could be the same as double A Sometimes . If we feel like teams 15 and 16 are just gonna be sacrificial lambs or it's not gonna be one , we put 14 teams in . We have the right we have to put eight in , but that's all that we have . We don't have to end so obviously , like the NCAA does . The last couple of years we've started a selection show that airs a week and a half and four to tournament starts on our YouTube channel and we announce all the teams in the brackets and we get thousands of viewers watching it . So that's on Sunday night , usually around seven or eight o'clock , and it's a guarantee .

The Flyers Cup

Speaker 2 34:24

I put my phone on silence . I turned my phone off on Sunday night because I don't want to hear from anyone and I'll turn my phone back on at seven o'clock Monday morning and the first messages will always be if you put 16 teams in , we'll be from the 17th team saying how come they got in and we didn't have it . So that's the number one and I have to answer the questions . I have nothing to do . I have a committee of guys who watch the games . All year , like those start . High school hockey starts November 1st here . From November 1st to the middle of February they'll be watching games everywhere and they'll start plotting out . I just announced teams that are in , you know , and I , if I have questions . I asked the guys hey , how come this team's in ? I have the answers . I need to have the answers for when the phone calls come , or the text messages and the emails . So that's the person playing . The second one is always a big one is you know there's rules . You know kids have to play in X amount of games to be eligible not only for the league playoffs but for the Flyers come . And this goes back to the travel thing . So let's say a team plays 16 , 16 league scheduled games in their league and you know they have travel guys and their games are on Friday nights . They have travel guys going to tournaments and they're missing this game and this game and this game . You always have the coach who says , oh , how come this kid's eligible to play ? He only played in nine games . That's a pain in the ass . Transfer players , players you transfer . We follow the PI double A rules . If someone transfers after the 10th grade year , they have to sit a year out of post season play . The Flyers Cup is considered your own post season play .

Speaker 1 36:15

Right .

Speaker 2 36:16

Parents always ask well , he got to play all year , he got to play in our league playoffs , and now you're not letting them play in the Flyers ? Well , that's decided in December , so they know well in advance . But that's another argument . They think that they can just transfer schools to get on a better team and be able to play , and you can't do that either . So they're the biggest negatives and they consume so much of our time , because I'm not the only one that handles it , but we're usually prepared for all that stuff when we try to get ahead of it . Like I said , tournament starts March 4th , you know , and the Flyers Cup committee . We've already started , like we've already started , our planning . I actually have a Zoom call with all our guys on bad planning . We have it on Thursday night in the Eagles play , but we'll get done before it gets off .

Speaker 1 37:09

Yeah , plan around the Eagles and how that is .

Speaker 2 37:11

And you know , we got the planning process Like it takes six months to plan three weeks . I like to . I love to call it controlled chaos , because that's what it is . You get to the Flyers . Cup tournament you get to the Flyers Cup tournament , it's single elimination . You lose your season's over . So you can have the best team having a bad day and they lose their season's over . It's and that's what everyone everyone loves to see the upsets , by the way . They love to see the upsets . Now . The good stuff is we've been added more teams in each bracket every year , which is good , which means more teams are trying to get pure and play for . As a high school player , your first goal should be to win your league and win your league championship and all that stuff . And then the Flyers Cup is totally separate . That's what you're going for . The good stuff is via social media , and all our social media handles are saying here's my cheap plug at the Flyers Cup . Our social media has done wonders for the Flyers Cup , got us more exposure , got us more views , people interested , and it's free . It costs us nothing to do it right , it's free . We've also gone to online tickets , where people have to buy their tickets in advance to go to a game . So with that , we can see behind the scenes how many tickets have been sold for each game well before that game . So we can let whatever building is hosting a game we can give them that . Hey , you're expecting 600 . You're expecting boom . Hey , this game has 1100 . It's that's to be sold out . We have to stop selling tickets . That's been a huge a plus for us . We've made it a goal to start giving back to the community . You know , like this , first of all , this tournament doesn't happen . It's called the Flyers Cup for a reason . It doesn't happen without the Flyers Like . They have our full support and the Flyers alumni help us and we helped them . Last year we bought a . The Flyers Cup purchased a bicycle for a special needs , special needs child and we presented it in the Wells Fargo with the Flyers alumni and we gave that bike . So we you know that couple of thousand dollars we're giving back . This past year we have partnered up with Philadelphia Blind Hockey , which is this will be year two for Philadelphia Blind Hockey and you should probably get her on here for one of your episodes too , because that's an awesome story what she's doing , kelsey . So last year we had four teams who would show up at eight o'clock on a Sunday morning in West Philly and the teams would send like five or six or players and they'd go out and work with the Blind Hockey players , teaching them how to skate , all that stuff . And most humbling I was there every time just about and seeing the faces on the high school kids , the players , being able to do that was one of the most humbling experiences of my entire life and I get to see it . And we're expanding our role with Philadelphia Blind Hockey . This year , nine high school teams from all different areas of the Philadelphia region will be going to Hatfield Ice on Thursday night and it's the Blind Awareness Month is October , so this is the end of it . So it'll be . Each team will be sending like eight or nine skaters in a goalie dividing the ice into three sections , going across ice , and there'll be three , three on three games going on at the same time . However , all the high school players playing in those three on three games will be wearing goggles that make them visually impaired . So that's going to be an awesome event and just getting back , getting the high school kids back into the community , seeing all this stuff that's going on .

High School Hockey Challenges and Rewards

Speaker 2 41:30

And then , of course , it all builds up to March . Well , february , whatever that Sunday is for the selection show , that's when it really starts for us . And then , once the tournament starts , it's three weeks of controlled chaos . We're on a hockey rink every night . We're on a phone with each other . I hate who's winning this game whereas the next round is going to be played . And it's cool , it's fun . We get stressed out like in March because we're doing so much stuff , but the planning of it from now until March is over , it's fun and we get to go out and we don't have to . We just go watch hockey games high school hockey games from now until the middle of February . That's fun for me . It's fun for me because , if I go up this way , I coach a club team . I have 18 guys and they're probably on six different high school teams , so when those two teams are playing each other , damn right . I'm going because I'm going to beat the hell out of each other .

Speaker 1 42:35

That's part of the competition . I'll tell you a few things . Love that you're the Blind Hockey Association because , again , any experience you can give a young student on gratitude and being fortunate or seeing it through a different perspective , or experiencing something through a different perspective that's life experience . I just don't think we do that enough in youth sports . I remember being in college , my college team , we had to go read to kids and that was humbling , just going there and experiencing something like that . I love to hear that that's something you're getting involved in . The other thing too is that you're sharing here about the macro and again , most people have a hard time seeing the macro view of things . It's always the micro and where I matter where my kid is at . But you're saying you spend more time planning for this event than the event actually lasts , which I think says a lot . And then the other thing too is this I understand with high school , especially if you've got a senior and you don't make the flyers cup , it's like why didn't we make it ? This is last year high school . Well , when you look at something like the flyers cup or you look at any tournament like that , the macro is look , we're trying to grow hockey in the area , and it's very hard to see sometimes that decisions have to be made , whether you think they're fair or not , and maybe sometimes they aren't . The point is that anytime you want change , anytime you want growth , there is a tectonic plate kind of aspect , the volcanic aspect to it , and it would control the chaos . Right , you said it . So I just I think that one of the things I want to say is that you know and I try and approach a lot of situations like this whether you think something is unfair or not , try and take a step back and look at the macro view of how much it's not like you just wake up in February and go all right , these are the teams in the flyers cup .

Speaker 2 44:19

I mean , you know it's not how it works . We're trying to give these high school kids their best experience they can have during the flyers cup . Look in my eyes put everyone in , but we can't have teams playing back to back to back night . You physically can't do it . We're constricted by a timeline , we're constricted by building availability and you know we have to play 50 , 60 , 70 games in three weeks . It's just , it's not . It's not possible or we would but right , no .

Speaker 1 45:02

And again , unless you want the tournament to go for six months after the like .

Speaker 2 45:06

I think that's . Another important thing is with us . Following the PIAA guidelines sort of , we'll have the the PA State Championships on to 23rd of March and , if I'm almost 100% sure , that's the same day of the PIAA basketball and wrestling and all that stuff championships , because that ends the winter season , right , right . So usually on the 24th these kids have to start playing lacrosse and baseball . Right , and we don't want we don't want a club high school coach going to the school sponsor lacrosse or baseball coach saying , hey , I need this guy for two more weeks in my season because we're still going on and he has to lacrosse or baseball . We don't want that .

Speaker 1 46:00

No , well then you know what happens then is . Then you get the parents from the lacrosse teams go hey , whoa , whoa , whoa , whoa .

Speaker 3 46:05

Yeah , so just wait a minute .

Speaker 1 46:07

Wait a minute . Yeah , so there's a rhyme to the reason every year , and it's not everything we do , we do for a reason .

Speaker 2 46:15

Whether people see the reasons or want to accept the reasons or want to believe the reasons . We do everything for a reason .

Speaker 1 46:23

Right , mike , I want to throw it to you just to close out any other questions that you might have .

Speaker 3 46:28

No , I mean no questions really , just just the comment that you know I , I love coaching high school hockey . I think the kids that play high school hockey for a lot of reasons , the least of which sometimes is the level of play they love playing and I think the opportunity for them to play on a , you know , an NHL rink in front of their friends and family and peers and wearing their school colors , I think it's great . So what you're doing is , you know , I'm sure you do get a lot of heat and and you know , coming from that , from that area of my life as well , I mean you just you just keep reflecting on all the good kids that you come in contact with and give the opportunity to , and I think you know , if it's not for people like you and these things don't exist , these kids don't get these opportunities and it's a great chance for them to , you know , end , especially seniors right , and their high school playing days . This is probably going to be the most people that are going to play in front of their lives anyway and most experience are going to have . I mean , make it a great one and enjoy that moment and for those players that go on and move on with hockey . It doesn't diminish them at all , just uplifts everyone . So I think it's great and congratulations on uh recent success and getting through COVID and yeah that was a struggle and visionary goals you have , for you know where you want to bring the program . I think is great .

Speaker 2 47:52

Yeah , can I just tell a quick story here ?

Speaker 1 47:54

Yeah , please Like this past year .

Speaker 2 47:56

Every year when we do the selection show , we , um some years we have the coaches of who the number one seeds are on the on the show or not . This past year we're able to line up a zoom call of players who played in the Flyers Cup in their time . So the panel consists of Colby Cohen , nhl broadcaster player , eric Tangradie , sam Lipkin , if anyone doesn't , are you up in Connecticut , mike ? Did you say yeah ? So you know who Sam , you know who Sam Lipkin is right I don't think so , but maybe I have to look at my notes . How far are you from putting it back ?

Speaker 3 48:36

Oh yeah , close . Okay yeah , we're about an hour , but same thing .

Speaker 2 48:40

So Sam Lipkin played at LaSalle High School four years ago , then played on the World Juniors this past year and got the assist on the game win and goal in the national championship this year . Awesome , yeah , awesome . We had Colby Cohen , who played in the age I don't know , but then he was a broadcaster out in Chicago and filled off here Eric Tangradie who played for the Penguins . Those two guys played in the Flyers Cup back in the 80s , played against each other and are telling great stories .

Speaker 1 49:10

Yeah , it continues to grow . And again , the sport continues to evolve in this area , and again , the molten lava aspect of that takes time , takes time sometimes to develop , and again , 45 years is nothing to scoff at by kind of coming off the heels of those Flyers championships in the mid-70s . And then the high school league began . You know , eric , I'll tell you this , my kids , my daughters in first grade , my sons in fourth grade , tonight , as we're recording this , their first elementary school practice , so I'll be sure to have you on in seven to eight years to complain about how their high school team Haverford High School yeah , Haverford Elementary .

Speaker 2 49:47

You know , John Povey , you know Mr John Povey .

Speaker 1 49:48

I know him well . I actually played with him . I was a senior when he was a freshman .

Speaker 2 49:53

So so One of my good buddies .

Speaker 1 49:55

Yeah , he is a . We should have him on the show because he's an outstanding human being , just in the game Again .

Speaker 2 50:02

there's not enough time in a day to have Jabberjoll's Povey on any kind of level .

Speaker 1 50:10

He's a good man . He's a good man . So , Eric Ty , this has been a great conversation and I appreciate you giving us some perspective and what it takes to run something like the Flyers Cup and just kind of how decisions are made , and you know how you view things , Because I don't think again , especially for the purposes of our show , these are the conversations that need to be happening , that are not happening . There's just a lot of assumption of how things are done , how things are chosen , and I love the perspective that this is a season-long process to put them together . For three weeks you have aspirations to grow this beyond probably what anybody understands or thinks and , at the end of the day , it's for the kids right To try and give these kids a great experience at high school and understanding that . You know academics are important and that rules need to be followed and that a lot of this comes down to just building it the way it's supposed to be built , and I just want to applaud you on that because I think it's fantastic .

Speaker 2 50:59

Yeah , I think one of the biggest mistakes I do is , like you just said , kids or hockey players and I try to correct myself all the time they're student athletes 100% . Whether the school recognizes them , doesn't recognize them , they're still student athletes , and both of those words are very important . They need to be a student first and then they need to be an athlete Right and by far .

Speaker 1 51:24

if you want the best growth experience for your kids , they have to have a clear understanding of that , because there's no way you're gonna survive college hockey if you don't have a grip on that number one , much less things they come after . So , Eric Tite , I want to thank you again for being on today . This is a fantastic episode .

Speaker 2 51:39

Thank you , it was a pleasure Nice meeting you guys and talking to you . Lee , if you're in the area and you ever want to come watch some stuff , get my email , maybe I'll give you a free ticket . Oh , we'll talk , buddy , I think you're gonna see me more than you think , yeah who is that guy ?

Speaker 1 51:53

It's that guy that interviewed . No , no , he put him in the lower sections . No , but that's gonna do it for this edition of our kids play hockey . Remember , all the episodes can be found at ourkidsplayhockeycom and , as he said on the show , eric at the Flyers Cup , go check them out . If anything , just give a little scroll through their newsfeed on Instagram or X , as we talked about , just to see how they're doing it , to see how it's going .

Speaker 2 52:13

I'll say Twitter , would you Jesus ?

Speaker 1 52:15

The Twitter X X , twitter , x , twitter . That sounds actually better now that I think about it . It's gonna be a long time before nobody calls that Twitter . So anyway , everybody , have a wonderful week . We'll see you next time on our Kids Play Hockey . We hope you enjoyed this edition of our kids play hockey . Make sure to like and subscribe right now if you found value or ever you're listening , whether it's a podcast network , a social media network or our website , ourkidsplayhockeycom . Also , make sure to check out our children's book when Hockey Stops at whenhockeystopscom . It's a book that helps children deal with adversity in the game and in life . We're very proud of it . But thanks so much for listening to this edition of our kids play hockey and we'll see you on the next episode .