Episode 59: Dartmouth Asst. Coach Jason Tapp - “I’ve Crossed Kids Off Because of Their Parents”

·1 hr 33 min·5 clips

Jason Tapp says he has “literally crossed kids off the list” after seeing parents parade referees.

The show starts in familiar territory: banter, chirps, and a bit of sponsor-energy nonsense. The hosts riff on the intro, BJD, and that absurd diamond-crusted triple-A necklace like they are all hanging around after practice. It is messy in the good way. That looseness gives the real conversation room to land instead of getting in the way. A guest joins the mix and the talk turns toward what hockey parents should actually be looking for. Nobody pretends the choice is simple. They ask how to tell whether a coach, a program, or a locker room is worth trusting. A big part of the discussion lands on development culture. The hosts and guest talk about whether kids are enjoying the rink, getting better, and feeling some ownership in the process. That ownership matters. They also get into who to ask if you want the truth about a program. The answer is not a glossy brochure. It is the people who have lived it, especially players who have actually skated for that coach. From there the conversation widens into tryout season thinking. Parents looking at elite prospects and hockey databases are warned that constant team hopping can be a red flag. They compare tier one and tier two without turning it into a sermon. The point is more practical than that. If a kid is in a good situation, stay in it. If a program has a real track record of moving players through junior programs and on to college, that is worth paying attention to. They keep circling back to family culture inside the room and what it feels like when a team is actually fun to be around. By the end, the show is still itself: teasing, blunt, and a little recursive, but the advice is clear enough to take home. It wraps with gratitude for the audience and the sense that the whole thing only works because people keep listening and showing up.

As heard by us

A blunt, useful map for parents trying to read hockey programs without the noise.

Episode 59 makes a practical case for thinking harder about coaches, programs, and development paths before buying into the noise. The advice is grounded: ask better questions, talk to people who have played for the coach, watch the locker-room culture, and notice when staying…

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Why you'd press play

If you want straight hockey-parent talk on tryouts and development programs, this one keeps it unfiltered.

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