New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

[giwan]

Found that in the New England area, a group is creating a Juniors League specifically for Women. Now this has been a fairly proven way for men to get on to a college as few really make it directly from high school. Anyone know more about this? Thoughts about it?

[brookyone]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

Found that in the New England area, a group is creating a Juniors League specifically for Women. Now this has been a fairly proven way for men to get on to a college as few really make it directly from high school. Anyone know more about this? Thoughts about it?

Prefer that players advance to college directly from high school or prep personally.

[LG4]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

Can't see it being successful because for the guys it works as the difference in a 20 vs a 18 year old freshman is pretty clear because they mature later then females and its to the college's advantage to hold them back. The males are also able to find good quality competition to improve before starting college.This female junior league will play who ? u19 exists aleady. The d1 caliber players are in college. Don't see the numbers there. Are there that many parents willing to dish out the money for what end?

[Hux]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

Found that in the New England area, a group is creating a Juniors League specifically for Women. Now this has been a fairly proven way for men to get on to a college as few really make it directly from high school. Anyone know more about this? Thoughts about it?

The term "juniors" is a misnomer on the women' side, carried over from the tendency of Canadians to refer to the PWHL Intermediate (U20) teams as Junior teams. There is already a women's "junior" league, the JWHL, which is U19 and has been in existence since 2007. Both are full season leagues, but unlike the boys side, the teams are not made up of principally post-grads.

The JWHL consists of several club teams and several sports academies that play full season schedules. (roughly 65-80 games depending on team)

In New England there are presently two new ventures trying to get of the ground as "junior" leagues, mimicking the showcase type schedule that the JWHL currently uses. However, unlike the JWHL, which includes teams from Boston to Vancouver, these leagues and programs are New England based and will draw primarily from New England.

The problem with that model is there are not enough high end players to draw from as the majority are playing Prep, or are at NAHA or the Boston Shamrocks. Whereas NAHA and the Shamrocks are equipped to house and school their players, apparently none of the new teams have that option.

One of the leagues was to slated to hold their tryouts this weekend, but has cancelled them.

[HockeyEast33]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

The term "juniors" is a misnomer on the women' side, carried over from the tendency of Canadians to refer to the PWHL Intermediate (U20) teams as Junior teams. There is already a women's "junior" league, the JWHL, which is U19 and has been in existence since 2007. Both are full season leagues, but unlike the boys side, the teams are not made up of principally post-grads.

The JWHL consists of several club teams and several sports academies that play full season schedules. (roughly 65-80 games depending on team)

In New England there are presently two new ventures trying to get of the ground as "junior" leagues, mimicking the showcase type schedule that the JWHL currently uses. However, unlike the JWHL, which includes teams from Boston to Vancouver, these leagues and programs are New England based and will draw primarily from New England.

The problem with that model is there are not enough high end players to draw from as the majority are playing Prep, or are at NAHA or the Boston Shamrocks. Whereas NAHA and the Shamrocks are equipped to house and school their players, apparently none of the new teams have that option.

One of the leagues was to slated to hold their tryouts this weekend, but has cancelled them.

Aside from being a bit of an ad for the JWHL (), this is an excellent summary of the status on the girls side. These new programs aren't really Juniors programs, they are youth programs for high school aged girls. On the boys side in the Boston/NE area, there are literally dozens of programs calling themselves Tier 1, AAA, Juniors, etc. Many (or even most) of them are either formed by a disenchanted parent group from some program or as a money grabs by folks who have a name coach and can use that to attract players (of which there is a seemingly endless supply on the boys side). It has been pointed to as one of the reasons that Boston/NE produces so few NHL quality players given the large number of youth players - the competition is so diluted that the really good players never are able to fully develop. Compare that to Chicago for instance, where there are really only 2 or 3 top level youth programs from which boys procced to Juniors, and you can see why it doesn't work that well.

On the girls side, we are now starting to see a similar evolution. Assabet Valley pretty much has ruled New England for the last 20 or more years (the Polar Bears, Wizards, or Stars occasionally field a better team at a specific age group). Assabet, Polar Bears, etc. serve the prep school players that aspire to college level play and the system has worked and continues to work pretty well (just look at this and last year's Assabet, Wizards, Spitfires, and Breakers college commitment lists for evidence). The JWHL came along and really services a different demographic - typically kids who aspire to college hockey, don't go to prep school (for whatever reason) or are post-grads (public or private) or are from out of New England/US and need a place to play to get college level exposure. Between these two models, pretty much all of the interested kids have a potential path to college. The new junior league startup attempts really fall into the catrgories of the boys youth programs - some are formed by disgruntled folks (parents/coaches) who don't like the current system (or it hasn't served their purpose well) and are trying to break the Assabet/club team hold or money grabs based on the name recognition of certain coaches. Unlike the boys side, while there are a growing number of women's players, there is nowhere near the supply necessary to sustain all these leagues. So, I agree with Hux that they will almost certainly fail as did many attempts before them.... soemday perhaps, but not yet.

I don't necessarily agree with LG4 though. D1 schools are increasingly starting to direct players to post-grad years and/or red-shirting, so there is growing interest in having players arrive as first year players when they are older/bigger/stronger. But either the prep school/club team or the JWHL provides that path as well so there is no need for anotehr junior league to realize that.

[Eeyore]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

I don't necessarily agree with LG4 though. D1 schools are increasingly starting to direct players to post-grad years and/or red-shirting, so there is growing interest in having players arrive as first year players when they are older/bigger/stronger. But either the prep school/club team or the JWHL provides that path as well so there is no need for anotehr junior league to realize that.

One of the interesting things at the Frozen Four this year was looking at the rosters and seeing how much younger, not in terms of class year but chronologically, Minnesota was than any of the other teams there.

[HockeyEast33]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

One of the interesting things at the Frozen Four this year was looking at the rosters and seeing how much younger, not in terms of class year but chronologically, Minnesota was than any of the other teams there.

Yes - MN is an exception to my comment. But they get the best of the best players - kids that regardless of their age are ready for primetime and aren't willing to spend a year developing further (and don't need to).

[Call It]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

I agree with the number of girls to support this many leagues. One thing that might happen is that the new league is 33% of the cost of the JWHL, free markets might have a say in this debate. The MN T-Breds were very good prior to the economic recession and since have been sub-par.

LG4, "Are there that many parents willing to dish out the money for what end?" I think there was, however now in MN the parents see that little Jane can make it to college hockey with out spending thousands. We have a great system in that Fall that supports/ compliments our HS league. Probably similar to Assabet/ Polar Bears.

[OnMAA]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

One of the interesting things at the Frozen Four this year was looking at the rosters and seeing how much younger, not in terms of class year but chronologically, Minnesota was than any of the other teams there.

My guess is that that tends to be cyclical, and not a trend of just one specific team. A few years ago, Cornell was the team with the young group at the FF. They made it to the final that year. In the subsequent years, they never got as far, even though on paper they had a more senior squad, including all the key player from that Final.

[Eeyore]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

My guess is that that tends to be cyclical, and not a trend of just one specific team. A few years ago, Cornell was the team with the young group at the FF. They made it to the final that year. In the subsequent years, they never got as far, even though on paper they had a more senior squad, including all the key player from that Final.

Again, this isn't about class year; Minnesota is just younger than the other teams and I don't think it's a one year thing. It wasn't just that the Gophers had only four seniors; it's that the seniors on the team were younger than the seniors on the other teams, often by as much as two years.

[futurestar]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

In Massachusetts there might be a demand for this kind of program because of the few high school hockey programs. Your alternatives are Prep ($$$$), Assabet (tough to break into) and the existing hockey programs like NAHA, NSA and Shamrocks ($$ to $$$). I recently spoke to one of the organizers of one of these new teams and he was very enthusiastic about his program. He's actually looking for out of state talent and is also looking for billet families, just like the boy's junior program. It might take a while but the demand could be there.

[OnMAA]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

Again, this isn't about class year; Minnesota is just younger than the other teams and I don't think it's a one year thing. It wasn't just that the Gophers had only four seniors; it's that the seniors on the team were younger than the seniors on the other teams, often by as much as two years.

Again, convinced that is not just a Minnesota thing. For example two of the key players in the final, Terry from Minnesota and Rattray, are from the same YOB and same graduating class in Ontario. They came into the NCAA at age 18, like most do. The ones that are typically a year older are the players from Quebec. That is driven by their grade 11/Highschool ending, followed by 2 years of CEGEP. The other players that are older are those that go the prep route and do a PG year. (Not all that go to Prep do this, but some do). This year Clarkson was older on average than Minnesota for two reasons....1 - They had a large senior class, 2 - They carry several Quebec players, who on average go to the NCAA a year later than their counterparts from the rest of Canada. Minnesota has on occasion in the past recruited players that do a PG year, or are a year older. Prime example was the twins.

[brookyone]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

Again, convinced that is not just a Minnesota thing. For example two of the key players in the final, Terry from Minnesota and Rattray, are from the same YOB and same graduating class in Ontario. They came into the NCAA at age 18, like most do. The ones that are typically a year older are the players from Quebec. That is driven by their grade 11/Highschool ending, followed by 2 years of CEGEP. The other players that are older are those that go the prep route and do a PG year. (Not all that go to Prep do this, but some do). This year Clarkson was older on average than Minnesota for two reasons....1 - They had a large senior class, 2 - They carry several Quebec players, who on average go to the NCAA a year later than their counterparts from the rest of Canada. Minnesota has on occasion in the past recruited players that do a PG year, or are a year older. Prime example was the twins.

The twins played a PG season? At Shattuck? I was unaware of that. Thought they started their freshman season at 19 years of age in 2008.

[OnMAA]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

The twins played a PG season? At Shattuck? I was unaware of that. Thought they started their freshman season at 19 years of age in 2008.

Minnesota has on occasion in the past recruited players that do a PG year, or are a year older. Prime example was the twins.

Don't know if the Twins played a PG year or not, but they were a year older than most of their counterparts from Ontario entering college that year.

[OnMAA]

Re: New Women Juniors Program. Will it work?

Interestingly, back prior to 2003, Ontario used to have grade 13 and players from Ontario and Quebec heading to college were 19. When the grade 13 concept was eliminated, the Ontario recruits heading to college were a year younger, lining up with the rest of Canada, other than Quebec. That age change also led to a drastic change the of club team landscape at the Midget AA and Intermediate AA levels in Ontario. At around the same time the age groupings in Canada were changed as well. It took about 5 to 6 years for that change to work its way through the system.