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USA Hockey National Championships

Re: USA Hockey National Championships

HockeyEast33 said:
Missed this in the flurry of posts.

1. Really no difference - fact is that they are dedicated to the high/prep school during the season (even if they practice/play on Sundays with their club team, which isn't the norm). And it is not just a game conflict rule - it is a practice/game conflict rule. During high school season, high/prep first in MA.

2. None of the following clubs play through the high/prep school season at the Tier 1 level - Assabet Valley (although I see the U16 Tier 1 team played a few games in Feb this year - that's new), Wizards, Charles River, Spitfires, Breakers. These are the more prominent teams in MA (Eagles and Islanders aren't here because I'm not as familiar with them). Unless they have qualified for Nationals why would they (except for prepping for the Christmas recruiting tournament)? Sure - send me your kid's club schedule (I'd be interested who she played for). I'm 2-3 years out.

3. Whatever on this one - re-read your statement and see if it doesn't sound bitter for whatever reason.
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1. Big difference. You CANNOT play on a club team and a HS team during the hockey season in Minnesota (or Vermont).
2. I just randomly went to the first team you listed and went to the Wizards website and looked at calendar. Practices and games during the Prep season.
3. I'm not bitter about sending my kids to prep school. Great experience.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

agfire said:
Apparently you have to be from MN orMass to be on this list. ... But snubbing girls from the "outside" should be expected
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The author did admit to mostly just seeing the semifinals and finals, so those players who made the finals would be more likely to get noticed. Not a snub -- hard to judge what you didn't see.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

ARM said:
The author did admit to mostly just seeing the semifinals and finals, so those players who made the finals would be more likely to get noticed. Not a snub -- hard to judge what you didn't see.
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Not a fair assessment. If you have to be in the finals to make a list like this, then Kendal Coyne should not be an All American based on that criteria. My point is, if you are going to limit it to just 3 or 4 teams, do not make the list. It is most definitely a snub.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

agfire said:
Not a fair assessment. If you have to be in the finals to make a list like this, then Kendal Coyne should not be an All American based on that criteria. My point is, if you are going to limit it to just 3 or 4 teams, do not make the list. It is most definitely a snub.
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I disagree with the notion that the world would be a better place if the reporter had decided not to publish his thoughts because he only watched the semifinals and championship.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

I like the fact that Maize took the time to check out girls playing hockey and write about it. Nit-picking about perceived snubs and not being fair misses the point that coverage like this is a good thing.
 
Leather helmet said:
I disagree with the notion that the world would be a better place if the reporter had decided not to publish his thoughts because he only watched the semifinals and championship.
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Publish your thoughts but don't single out girls when I think there were girls that did not make his list because their teams weren't in the finals. In fact, I think there were a number of girls that were actually better than some on the list. Just my opinion, which doesn't count for much lol
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

PuckRush said:
1. Big difference. You CANNOT play on a club team and a HS team during the hockey season in Minnesota (or Vermont).
2. I just randomly went to the first team you listed and went to the Wizards website and looked at calendar. Practices and games during the Prep season.
3. I'm not bitter about sending my kids to prep school. Great experience.
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1. If you're registered on a club team during the high school season that isn't playing (except for Christmas), who the heck cares? Talk about splitting hairs...NOT a big difference.

2. I checked the schedule of the Wizards website on Girls U19 Major 1 and U16 Major 1, which are their Tier 1 USA Hockey teams. They stop playing at Thanksgiving (which is when high/prep school season starts), play the Christmas tournament, had an intrasquad game on 2/21, with real practices starting again on 3/12. Most prep/high school teams are done playing their regular season by 2/21 and these kids likely played in the 2/21 game. The kids still playing in the playoffs used to be exempted from this game and their season is over by 3/12. So - just as I said.

I think you're confusing the Wizards Junior team with their USA Hockey teams. The Junior team is a full time team that plays in a girls junior league. These girls don't play on their high school teams. More like the Shamrocks and other JWHL teams.

3. Done.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

HockeyEast33 said:
1. If you're registered on a club team during the high school season that isn't playing (except for Christmas), who the heck cares? Talk about splitting hairs...NOT a big difference.

2. I checked the schedule of the Wizards website on Girls U19 Major 1 and U16 Major 1, which are their Tier 1 USA Hockey teams. They stop playing at Thanksgiving (which is when high/prep school season starts), play the Christmas tournament, had an intrasquad game on 2/21, with real practices starting again on 3/12. Most prep/high school teams are done playing their regular season by 2/21 and these kids likely played in the 2/21 game. The kids still playing in the playoffs used to be exempted from this game and their season is over by 3/12. So - just as I said.

I think you're confusing the Wizards Junior team with their USA Hockey teams. The Junior team is a full time team that plays in a girls junior league. These girls don't play on their high school teams. More like the Shamrocks and other JWHL teams.

3. Done.
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You are debating an argument I'm not having.

1. Minnesota model is best and it's shown to work. Players play for their high schools in the winter and don't feel compelled to leave, although some do. They generally do not participate in the USA Hockey BS. They generally play off-season, culminating in the NAHA Labor Day Tourney.... then they are done. You are arguing that the Official Club season should be in winter and that it doesn't matter. I'm arguing that this leads to a National Tournament During the School Year Where Kids Lose a Week of School!!!! Get it? If you think there should be a National Tournament where kids lose a week of school, then just say it. I'm offering an alternative where the Official Club season and National Tournament is in the summer when there is no school. In other words, the Minnesota model (and I don't live there).

2. I believe I said that my daughter (and my daughters before her) were playing Club hockey in every month of the high school hockey season. That is 100% true, and I guess it's true for the Wizards too, except for January. In our case, we had January practice.

The larger point is, hockey is the ONLY club sport that doesn't take a break during the High School season. It encourages the following bad practices:

A. High school players leave their high schools and go to prep so they can be closer to Club teams, or they just go to hockey high schools. Eastern MA kids (like yours) don't have that problem, but the rest of the New England and New York does. This doesn't help hockey grow.

B. Players who don't have high school hockey, leave as well. There is no chance for high school hockey to start in those states because players just leave.

C. Too much hockey. Hockey literally doesn't take any months off except maybe June. Don't forget the Club tryouts and the Player Development Camp tryouts, which happen in April and May.

D. Players miss school. I've noted that is my main objection and Nationals is just one example.

E. Hockey costs too much. Let's begin with ice and equipment, then burden them with Club fees, excessive travel costs, and prep or hockey high school costs.

F. The fall and spring (especially) coaches of other sports pull their hair out when they learn their players have to miss practices and games to play MORE hockey.

Almost none of this happens in Minnesota.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

agfire said:
Publish your thoughts but don't single out girls when I think there were girls that did not make his list because their teams weren't in the finals. In fact, I think there were a number of girls that were actually better than some on the list. Just my opinion, which doesn't count for much lol
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Well, to follow your logic to its conclusion, any report of the Boston Marathon would have to leave out the names of the winners, because there are a number of Olympic-class marathoners who skipped the race.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

PuckRush said:
B. Players who don't have high school hockey, leave as well. There is no chance for high school hockey to start in those states because players just leave.
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This is absolutely true, and is probably the most important point.
Back in the early 70’s girls hockey was flourishing in the community I lived in MN. But it died a few years later. Why? Because too many girls went to play with the boys. And if losing the girls was bad enough, they also lost coaches. Guess who the fathers of the best girls were? That’s right, many of the coaches and also the people that started and ran the league. Without them, the league faltered, and could not continue. It wasn’t until the MSHSL started girls hockey in HS that it got going again.

It is the parents of the best kids who will teach others how to run a league, and how to teach the kids to play hockey. If their kids go elsewhere, you will never have successful local hockey.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

BCAlum said:
PuckRush said:
My daughters have played for multiple club teams at U16 and U19 level. They have never had a practice or tournament from when HS season started until the end of the HS season except for the week between Christmas and New Years. Ever.
Not saying what other teams have done, just commenting what I have seen first hand over 6 years of U16 and U19 club hockey in Massachusetts.
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OK. I decided that I must be crazy. So I went to the Polar Bear's website (my HS daughter does not play for Polar Bears). I'm feeling less crazy because here is the Polar Bear U16 Tier 1 schedule during the high school season. I notice that the other CT teams are on this schedule as well.

Sun, Dec 6 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM @ Brewster Lady Bulldogs Game Hartford, Trinity College
Sun, Dec 27 01:15 PM - 02:15 PM U16 Tier 1 (U16-AA) Practice Northford
Sun, Dec 27 02:30 PM - 03:50 PM @ KPHA Game Northford
Mon, Dec 28 07:00 AM - 08:00 AM @ Reston Game Northford
Mon, Dec 28 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM @ Hamilton Hawks, ON Game Northford
Tue, Dec 29 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM @ Wyoming Seminary Game Northford
Tue, Dec 29 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM @ Gilmour Academy Game Northford
Wed, Dec 30 TBD @ Gilmour Academy Game Northford
Wed, Dec 30 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM @ Ct Northern Lights Game Northford
Sun, Jan 10 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM @ CT Stars CHC League game Hartford, Trinity College
Sun, Jan 17 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM U16 Tier 1 (U16-AA) Practice Hartford, Trinity College
Sun, Jan 31 08:30 AM - 09:50 AM @ Mid Fairfield CT Stars 16U CHC League Game Wallingford, Choate
Sun, Feb 14 10:30 AM - 12:15 PM U16 Tier 1 (U16-AA) Practice Hartford, Trinity College
Sun, Feb 21 11:50 AM - 12:50 PM @ Southern Stars State Tournament The Rinks at Shelton
Sun, Feb 21 04:35 PM - 05:35 PM @ Southern Stars State Tournament The Rinks at Shelton
Sun, Feb 28 10:35 AM - 11:35 AM @ Mid-Fairfield State Tournament The Rinks at Shelton
Sun, Feb 28 03:20 PM - 04:20 PM @ Mid-Fairfield State Tournament The Rinks at Shelton
Sun, Mar 6 01:40 PM - 03:00 PM U16 Tier 1 (U16-AA) Practice Newington Rink
Sun, Mar 13 10:30 AM - 12:20 PM U16 Tier 1 (U16-AA) Practice Hartford, Trinity College
Click to expand...
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

Feeling much better about myself, I visited the U16 Assabet Red Major schedule.... practices and games every Sunday in February (during the High School season).

Can I stop now?
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

agfire said:
It is most definitely a snub.
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Your time would have been better spent talking about some players who were omitted. I'm not sure what you expect the author to do -- make a list of players he didn't see that stood out? That sounds kind of nonsensical. Your opinion is that it would be better to not cover the event at all. Yes, you're entitled to an opinion, and the author of the article is entitled to one as well, even if you don't like it.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

PuckRush said:
Now that I know I'm not crazy, I got motivated looked at the state champion Buffalo Bison's U16 schedule. 45+ games and practices during the high school season. They went to Blaine by the way.

Here is the link, I can't copy the schedule: http://www.bisonhockey.net/event/show_month_list/477980
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Out of the 16 girls on the roster, 7 do not play high school hockey, due to lack of a high school team, or the local high school league is in the developing stages and is more for fun. The local high school league is a mixture of tier 1 players, tier 2 players and girls who have limited hockey exposure. For these girls the best hockey they can play in the Western New York Area without leaving or paying for Prep School is at the Bisons whose regular season play is in the Lower Lakes Female Hockey League, Ontario, Canada with a mixture of U.S. Tournaments, with regular skills and practice sessions.
 
Re: USA Hockey National Championships

More reasons to move Club hockey to summer. So kids can play other sports in Fall and Spring!

Read this article: http://changingthegameproject.com/the-perils-of-single-sport-participation/

If you don't go to the link, here are some excerpts:

Pete Carroll, former USC and now Seattle Seahawks Football coach, says here “The first questions I’ll ask about a kid are, ‘What other sports does he play? What does he do? What are his positions? Is he a big hitter in baseball? Is he a pitcher? Does he play hoops?’ All of those things are important to me. I hate that kids don’t play three sports in high school. I think that they should play year-round and get every bit of it that they can through that experience. I really, really don’t favor kids having to specialize in one sport. Even [at USC], I want to be the biggest proponent for two-sport athletes on the college level. I want guys that are so special athletically, and so competitive, that they can compete in more than one sport.”

Dom Starsia, University of Virginia men’s lacrosse: “My trick question to young campers is always, ‘How do you learn the concepts of team offense in lacrosse or team defense in lacrosse in the off-season, when you’re not playing with your team?’ The answer is by playing basketball, by playing hockey and by playing soccer and those other team games, because many of those principles are exactly the same. Probably 95 percent [of our players] are multi-sport athletes. It’s always a bit strange to me if somebody is not playing other sports in high school.”

Steve Nash, who got his first basketball at age 13 and credits his soccer background for making him a great basketball player, a similar story to the 100 professional athletes interviewed in Ethan Skolnick and Dr. Andrea Korn’s Raising Your Game .
 
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