Rye Classic
-
- January
- 15
The Rye-Rye Town/Harrison was everything you could want from a high school hockey game. Non-stop action, great individual plays, intense rivalry, amazing individual comeback, large crowd evenly split between both sides. And both teams had the lead three times, only to see their opponent fight back to tie.
In the end, RTH’s first line of Brett Novick (4-2), Cody McKinney (3-1) and Adam Urban (0-4) scored seven goals against a team that hadn’t let up more than four all season, including Novick’s OT winner with nine seconds left, to give the Titans a 7-6 win. Like most of the goals, the winner was a group effort by the trio from Blind Brook, who have been playing together for three years. Urban kept the puck in the offensive zone and McKinney took the initial shot, then Novick, the senior captain, crashed the net and banged home the rebound. “Here’s my story”:http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/SPORTS02/801150392/1110
McKinney was laying face-first on the ice 10 minutes into the game after being checked hard into the boards and banging his knee. The locker rooms at Playland are up a flight of stairs, and because McKinney basically had to hop up and down the stairs on one leg, he would leave the locker room early before the next two periods in order to get down to the ice in time. But he stayed in the game—he said later that he wasn’t going to miss his last Rye game no matter what—and he scored three goals in the second period.
Unlike RTH, Rye had very balanced scoring (sophomore Paul Mundinger had two goals and five others had one). The Garnets’ six-game unbeaten streak, which included that shocking tie against Suffern, is over. Now they must regroup for Mamaroneck on Wednesday.
While RTH was full of confidence going into League 1 for the first time, I’ll admit that I was unsure how they would do, especially after they finished fourth in League 2 last season. But they have a dependable veteran in goal (senior Sean McKinney), two strong defensive pairings and obviously one of the top forward lines in Section 1. Some of the Titans even read the blog. What’s not to like? Oh yeah, they are now alone in third place, a half-game ahead of Pelham, which has to be the most pleasant surprise of the season so far.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 1:16 am by Harold Gutmann. 
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it was a great game, and yes harold we read the blog. both teams played great down to the last second and congrats to all of rye town on a tremendous effort
a real rivalry is mamaroneck-scarsdale
Congrats to the Titans for pulling out this one. They did it in much the same fashion that North did last year. I don’t think the RTH first line or Keegan left the ice for more than 30 seconds in OT. An unusual style game for Rye, who usually plays it a little tighter defensively. Maybe it was the “rivalry” nature of the game that resulted in the wide open nature of the play and a little bit too much chasing in the defensive zone. Hopefully the Garnets revert to their strong defensive form for tomorrow’s match with high octane Mamaroneck. 4 of the last 6 Rye games have been OT thrillers. The fans are getting their money’s worth, but that kind of pressure has to be exhausting for the goalie.
Suffern vs. WP friday!!! I was just looking at the WP schedule and noticed they have played 5 teams that you can say are decent, stepinac, fordham, iona, rye and RTH. they are 3-2 against these teams, and 12-0 vs. teams that can barely skate. So to say that they are going to be in the section finals is quite a stretch at this point. Most teams can look good against sleepy hollow or byram hills.
Its happening. Mergers are starting to make there mark. Its a nice win for RTH but lets face facts. The combining of schools is creating an unfair advantage. The idea was for the mergers to be short term to give the merged teams a chance to start up a team. Looks like thats not happening and it is becoming unfair to the single free standing schools. I heard that the merged schools even have 7th and 8th grade teams together, which just proves its for the long term. Nice win for RTH I was disappointed for our Rye team and it was a fun game to watch
O stop it…lol. Don’t start with mergers now because of the game. Almost the entire team is Blind Brook anyway. They don’t have combined teams at 7th and 8th grade. Sounds like sour grapes.
Oh boy.. are you kidding “Mergers”?
nice win for that team. it seems like they are the success story of the year, finishing 4th place in League 2 last year, coming to Legaue 1 this year, and now being a #3 in League 1. Kudos to those guys. The depth after the Senior class concerns me though. Seniors Novick, McKinney and McKinney the goalie are carrying this team. When they leave after this year, I have concerns about them remaining League 1 competitive. With the exception of Urban, who’s a Junior, there is a huge dropoff in points for the rest of the team. But I guess this year is this year, and worry about next year next year.
Congrats RTH.
I really hope that The Titans can keep the momentum going and take out Suffern next week. I think that would be awesome and very possible if they play like they did last night.
about Suffern-ain’t it.
it looks like Rye Town’s first line and goalie can compete with anybody in Section 1. RTH relies too heavily on the first line, Suffern has more depth and will probably wear them down.
‘very possible if they play like they did last night’???
give up 6 goals and you will most certainly lose to suffern, handily
and if your 1 line is all you have, then youre done, because each one of sufferns top 2 lines are better than your 1 line
Why does hockey not follow any criteria for divisions? There is no set number for Div I and Div II. If they had some cut-offs and schools merged they would move up with those numbers just like any other sport. There are weak A and AA schools in other sports who have to play with teams there own size so why not hockey.
Oh that’s right. Suffern’s first 2 lines are in the Hall of Fame in Toronto already. Silly of us to forget that.
Why don’t we just cancel the whole season and annoint them already. After all all the other teams “can’t skate”, all the other games are “meaningless”.
I sure hope those NY Saints fella’s don’t wear themselves out playing all those extra games during the HS season and ruin your plans for the post season party and parade.
Actually, they hung in with Suffern the last game (clearly they lost) but played the second and third lines almost the entire time. They were also without Urban. Their other two lines are pretty good as well. That said. No way do they beat Suffern next week. That’s just silly. The seniors usually do carry the team. Kudos to a team that is just working hard and trying to prove themselves every night.
They do have this. But it only matters for the state tournaments. It is up to the individual sections to detrmine D1 & D2 for their schools.
In Section 1, they take the largest 15 enrollments and call them D1 and the smallest 15 and call them D2. If schools are merged, they go by the combined enrollment of all schools in the merger. What this means is that as enrollments change from year to year (or schools merge in between seasons), who is in what division can fluctuate, especially for schools who rank between 14-17 in the section. Yorktown comes to mind as one that has bounced back and forth over the last few years because of this. In other sections they have a hard number and if you are above it you are D1, below it you are D2.
In Section 9, up until about 8 years or so ago, there were only 2 teams, MW & O’Neill, so MW went D1 with O’Neil going D2 every year and they were declared automatic section champs. Once Newburgh & Burke formed teams, they now had 4 and they all went D2 so there would be a playoff system. In the last few years, the population in Monroe has surged and now that school is in the league size-wise of North Rockland & New Rochelle. This coincided with them getting really good at hockey and once they won the D2 states last year (and were the runner-ups in ‘06), they started catching a lot of flack and realized it was time for a change. So they went D1 and are back to being declared automatic section champs while the other three will battle it out for the D2 section championship. An interesting side note to that is that Newburgh, which is just as big if not bigger than MW is staying in D2, so Section 9 is really just splitting them up by strentgh of team rather than school size.
My question I guess is if it is good for hockey why not for other sports also. I guess it is not that hockey is wrong for strength of programs maybe the other sports are wrong. Also what about the top DII teams that never move up when they are definitlely strong enough.
ETB is heading up state to play two games this weekend how do you think they’ll do?
Depends if their playing Williamsville North or the Plattsburg School for the Blind.
You think a Clarkstown North/South merger will ever happen in hockey? They already have one Clarkstown team for skiing, gymnastics, swimming and I think another sport. I know there are enough skaters on both Varsity teams right now to field separate teams. But lets say one year only 10 kids show up to North tryouts and 8 kids show up to South tryouts. I’m guessing that would be the only reason for combining. I htink if you combine Clarkstown schools, you have less of an enrollment that MW, North Rockland and a couple others in the Section. Thoughts?
and North and South are pretty much on the same level of talent now anyway…
plays section V’s 4-8-1 victor and 4-5-1 Bishop kearnsey
both dII
Even the teams with losing records are better then most down here, so going up to play pretty much anybody is good. I think it’s crazy when people put down teams that go play upstate just because their not playing postdam or ithica.
Hockey Numbers: I think the difference is that in a school of a given size you have a large (relative) pool of #’s to select from to get say 12 basketball players or 40 football players or 20 baseball players. The student population #’s give you a field to pick from.
What makes hockey different is that you either play or you don’t; not too many kids decide in 9th or 10th grade to go out for the hockey team; but that happens in football all the time. They have been playing at some level for several years before high school with the commitment ($ and time) from the family unit to allow that. And in hockey the difference between the L1/L2 level teams and the L3/L4 level teams is usually a very small number of players that have higher level travel club experience.
So strength in a HS program is for the must part dumb luck based on where you live and where the school district lines are drawn. Which makes all the arrogance from certain commentators all the more ridiculous (see “go to the tapes” mature comment above). Yes, good coaching is better than bad coaching and an established youth feeder system can help. But move the district lines around (or lose a few kids to prep/catholic/private school) and overnight everything changes. All factors which are independent of school size.
2 things would need to happen together to merge CN and CS (just like any other merger btw). Declining hockey players at the schools involved and increasing budget pressures for the district(s).
Good luck to ETB this weekend. Good, young, fast team. Very exciting to watch.
well said EotR
good luck to ETB upstate and against WP!
East of the River: That sounds like the most logical thing I have heard regarding this issue. The key point you make is football may get a kid to come out for the first time when he is in HS but this really cant happen in hockey. Interesting thoughts, thx.
this might be a tough question to answer but, what % of kids that play HS, DON NOT play travel? I will tell you that every kid on suffern plays travel hockey, are there kids on other teams that don’t?
West of the river…I too will root for ETB against White Plains. Not because of the usual, “well articulated” reasons stated on the blog, but because I always root for underdogs, in any sport at any level. Comes from years of being a Met fan I guess
Hockey #’s. I wouldn’t say it can’t happen, but it is very rare to see. The x factor in hockey is the money. Hard sport to wander down to the gym or playground and play pickup. Most of these kids are skating around in $1000 + worth of equipment.
Thought for Harold – a piece on the economics involved in playing hockey and getting to a high school team could be an interesting topic for the paper….
obvioulsy that was supposed to be DO NOT..
postman. You’re right tough one to get without going team by team survey. Also need some distinctions.
a) Played travel at youth level (mites to bantams)
b) What tier level (1, 2, 3)
c) Playing travel at above bantam level (midgets, juniors)
d) Playing midgets as split season or full season.
The devil is in the details here if you want to link to team quality. The word “Travel” gets thrown out a lot here, but unless you know the team / level it doesn’t mean too much.
Just a thouht about a previous post concerning JJ harassment
of a Rye player
http://wcbstv.com/local/n.word.race.2.629929.html
In USA hockey it is a game misconduct for a player
I would say travel at any level from at least squirts on, and still playing now. I really don’t care if a kid played on the pee wee C team, but as long as you are playing at least midget or bantam A now, i would consider that playing travel. There have been a lot of kids who played pee wee AAA and sit on the bench a lot now. On the contrary Chris Wynne of suffern was a B player almost his whole life, and we saw how he aged.
Iona / Stepinac III
The Battle for Bragging Rights
last time coach tossed (since recinded)
players scrapped – statement made by Stepinac
Thoughts? Predictions?
is reagan playing? that makes a big difference..
Having just seen Suffern’s much, much vaunted first line and RTH’s first line this past Friday and Monday, I think RTH’s looked more impressive. Suffern’s first line were not even the most impressive players on the ice on Friday. But hey, if Suffern wants to keep on believing their own press and go around underestimating everyone else, that’s their problem. Congrats to both Rye and RTH for playing with a lot of heart and hustle.
Another thing to watch for at SOR, the quick whistle for Natoli and a comparatively much slower one for the opposing goalie.
Got to give credit to the Suffern hockey machine and community support. Those babies playing hockey were precious.
Know what that is. Suffern’s record in their last 34 games. Must be doing something right.
Tell me if I am wrong but if a suffern person were to write that about another team, we would get the “suffern parents are the worst”, “they are so arrogent”, “get over yourselves” “suffern is overrated” etc..
Having seen about 20 different teams in the 34 game unbeaten streak I think you have know idea what you are talking about there “Suffern v RTH” and suffern, you are not wrong. I like it though, fun to be at the top with everyone gunning for you..
“East of the River” – you’re right. A lot of it is based on dumb luck and where the hockey players that have been playing travel since the Mite/Squirt age live. For example, Suffern and East Ramapo school districts border each other. They’re literally right there. But if you live one block over in the East Ramapo district, you’re in a district that doesn’t have a hockey team. But if you live one block the other way in the Suffern school district, you’re playing for a state powerhouse. Dumb luck. What if you’re a decent playing who lives in the East Ramapo, and you’ve been playing travel since the Mites age, when you get to high school, what do you do? Transfer to the Suffern district? Go to Prep school?
No one bangs the drum for their individual players the way Suffern does. Every time one of them scores a goal, his name appears on this blog. They are so busy admiring themselves they don’t leave room for anyone else to give them credit. No matter what the topic, Suffern makes it about them. Everyone knows what their record is without having to be reminded of it on every topic. Every team has standout players. There are plenty who are as good as Suffern’s first line. They and their parents are just not on this blog endlessly reminding everyone of it. Didn’t your mother ever tell you no one likes a braggart? That’s why people love to see Suffern get their comeuppance.
The Suffern record stands for itself. Hockey is one of those sports where it is very, very hard to remain unbeaten, no matter how good you are. The collegiate national champions often have a bunch of losses. You never see an unblemished record late in the regular season in college hockey. For Suffern to play the tough (from a public school perspective) schedule they do and keep the unbeaten streak alive is most impressive. That being said, there are a group of teams in Section 1 that on any given day have the talent to end that streak. I believe that Suffern would win or tie at least 8 games of a 10 game series with every League 1 and top league 2 team this year (maybe Mamo’s odds are a bit better-say 7). But, Suffern is beatable. I just hasen’t happened yet. And that is something to be proud of.
I wouldn’t say living in suffern instead of east ramapo is dumb luck. That one block difference means the world if you care even a little about your kids education or quality of life.
I think there are very few people that really brag about “Suffern’s vaunted first line.” Suffern generally plays a defensive style game and scores enough to win.
Man, I got to a meeting for an hour and we’re back talking about Suffern again ???? “Suffer’n succotash” !! Gonna have to ask Harold again to give you guys your own blog..
Maybe dumb luck isn’t the right term, but I think everyone get’s the point.
And in answer to EoftR you’re right…... the short answer is you don’t get to play high school hockey in front of your girlfriend. If your good enough and have the money you can keep playing midgets; but it gets pretty competitive. A lot of hockey careers end at 14. Plenty of schools without hockey programs… on both sides of the river
It was an RTH guy bringing up Suffern.
East of the river, you have to admit it did go a while with very little suffern talk, and it might not have happened if “Suffern v RTH” didn’t bring it up. You have to admire the passion suffern has, it is impossible to bring up something negative about them and not get bombarded with responses. As a suffern guy I like that.
It seems the suffern fans get a bad rap here just be cause they have a good team. Go to the lax blog and it’s all john Jay and yorktown bragging, I am sure all the other blogs are similar as well. It is just natural to discuss the top programs as they are the most known. I believe that is also part of the reason why they are the best.People know and talk about the program and a tradition is built. The kids in suffern want to play , while the kids in east ramapo don’t know hockey even exists. They are the same distance from the rink and most of the east ramapo district can certainly afford to play as well.Maybe instead of knocking the suffern fans we should be praising our teams and hope to establish something similar.
i dont understand why suffern says they have an unbeaten record of 34 games, when they did lose in shoot outs to canton and ithaca. regardless what nys wants to count it as it is still a lost. its a great impressive record that no other team has but u have been beaten, it just doesnt count as a lost. its also pathetic when u bash on other teams, bc no one wasted their time bashing on u when u “tied”, not lost to canton who is terrible this year. massena destroyed canton 8-1. hope you dont play massena
WOW!!! Now that’s a nice person, you don’t belong on here being so nice. Again the topic of $ comes into the mix. I know I just wrote a big check, that’s the deal though, you can’t keep score, write the check and enjoy the time because unless you plan on watching your son in 10 years on some mens leauge this will all be over before you know it.
Mahopac vs Scarsdale
I SAW ETB AT SOR SUNDAY I THINK THEY WILL GO FAR IN THE PLAYOFFS THEY ALMOST KNOCKED OFF Mamaroneck LAST YEAR
THEY HAVE A GOOD CHANCE TO GO FAR
GOOD LUCK UPSTATE
Tomorrow night at Playland its Mamaroneck vs. Rye. These 2 schools have been playing each other for over 60 years at the same rink! What a great atmosphere it’s going to be at the historic Playland. BE THERE!!!!
tired of hearing…; that is the rule, you can’t blame suffern for that. A tie is a tie, if you don’t like the rule do something to change it. And to say that canton isn’t a good team is just ignorant. Just because they aren’t the team they used to be doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be one of the best teams around here. As it was stated before even some of the worst teams upstate would be quite good down here.
ETB/ almost knocked of mamaroneck last year? The score was 5-2. What? Mamo kicked a field goal as time ran out.
be there?
mamaroneck cant even get their own fans to show up at HOME against suffern, and theyre gonna go to playland to watch rye?
To Mergers,
I used to feel the same way thinking that the mergers were unfair, but if you take a closer look, you will see that most of the merged schools are so small that the teams have to combine in order to equal the enrollment of the other schools. For instance, all the students in those Rye schools in RTH add up to only 1,300 kids. That is more than 1,000 less than New Rochelle’s 2,400, and about 700 less than North Rockland. That being said, kudos to the hockey programs Pelham and Rye. They must have great youth programs as they manage to field competetive teams while being the only two schools with an enrollment of less than 600 students.
Settle down ETB, you played absolutely nobody this year… I mean nobody. You lost to Pawling. Almost beating Mamk? You lost by 3. A loss is a loss.
As for Mamk fans, I guess there are none. Mamk has the best team the school has had in 4 years and nobody as far as student body cares. Mostly just parents.
By the way suffern, when you lost in the states, was it a shootout, or an OT loss?
Suffern fans should stop worrying about their record, and worry about beating lilliputions like Rye. Rye has been very mediocre all season, and was able to tie them. Gives hope to Rye Town that they will give them a game too.
Whoever wins league 1 will have a easier time in sectionals. The #1 seed will play the 4 or 5 seed which will be either North or Mahopac. The #2 seed has to play either White Plains or Rye Town most likely in the semi-finals. The Mamk Rye game looms large as it would seem that they have the best shot to beat Mamk. Mamk handled Rye Town the first time very easily.
Just like knights said etb was not close to knocking off mamk last year 5-2 is not almost beating a team also ive heard about this no fan mamk business they have such a good team hard to believe only their mommies an daddies cme I guess the kids are to busy going to parties and stuff on their Saturdays
TD NIGHTS-to answer your question Suffern lost via shootout, after 4 scoreless OT periods
ETB settle down from what!!???
Show us the out of line posts. All we, and others are saying is that we are young (core is mainly sophmores) good, and on the way up. We understand that as a league 3 team we are not playing the elite, nor are we saying we would beat them if we did. We are moving up through the leagues and I would bet in 2 years we will be among the elite, and beat some of them. So you know what, give us a little time, and by all means give us a game, you may not want to in a year or so. As far as Mammo in the playoffs: we do feel it was an accomplishment for a team with a core of 7 freshman last year from league 5 to give mammaroneck a bit of a challenge in the playoffs. We can only play who is in front of us and we are 8-1, and yes we did loose to Pauling after outshooting them 42-16. Unfortunately that happens with young goaltending. Give us a little time and keep checking in.
predictions? i predict 4-0 suffern
first off great game to Rye and RTH last night i’ve never played in a better game in my varsity career. Secondly Kudos to the Rye players for not getting scrapy and playing dirty as the game got tighter which seems to be a common theme in high school hockey. Finally, Suffern RTH is going to be a hell of a game any predictions?
I play for white plains and we are going to run suffern on friday night! Suffern won’t have over 20 shots
but theyll have a 50% shooting percentage
Anyone got predictions for Mamo Vs. Rye tomorrow. It’s sure to be a good one.
Suffern vs WP should be a good game. I think i could go either way, but Natoli is known for keeping suffern in any game. Both teams have depth though. should be fun
Suffern will beat WP, maybe not by a lot, but they will beat them.
Mamaroneck has been scoring a lot, and if Rye lets up 7 to Rye Town, I would think that Mamk can match that. Rye will have to keep the score low to have a shot, they will not beat Mamk in a high scoring game. Mamaroneck 4, Rye 1 is my guess. Not a real big game for Rye, much bigger for Mamk who is trying to win the league title. Rye is playing with house money, and if they get an early lead, they can make life miserable for the Tigers. Does Rye have a shot to catch Pelham to get the #1 seed in D2?
Rye lost to Jay while in the midst of their early season woes before beating them last week. So, unless the Garnets run the table (including Mamo and Suffern and Pelham) and Pelham falters against against Rye Town and Jay, Pelham gets #1 seed in D2. What is more important for Rye is winning a few of these tough matches down the stretch to get ready for playoffs and secure the #2 seed over Jay and home ice for a likely semi with the Indians. Its looking more and more like the Pelham/Yorktown winner will face the Rye/Jay winner for the Section title and right to host the State regional match.
SUFFERN VS WHITE PLAINS FRIDAY BABY. NATOLI VS CAMBERARI. were rolling deep, it should be an awesome game to watch. Buckle up suffern your in for a heck of a ride.
Natoli just signed to go to prep school. He leaves Thursday.
Was that a joke regarding natoli leaving suffern to go to prep school?
So what? congrats to Natoli but are we supposed to be relieved buddy. Come on, just tell suffern to bring there best game. We dont want any excuses when they get there first loss.
For those of you saying ETB has not proved anything I think giving Mamk a game with 7 freshman starting and a first year varsity coach I would call that an accomplishment.Mamk didn’t take the lead till 4 minutes to go in the game so I do believe that is an accomplishment And for all of you who keep trashing ETB talk to us next year when they are more experienced. And I believe they can pull off a first round victory in the playoffs.
“Mamk has the best team the school has had in 4 years and nobody as far as student body cares.”
field hockey team? 2004 state champs? 2005 runner up? plenty of people came to those games.
maybe the mamk fans have a life unlike everyone who lives in Suffern
ETB should be good. They might have the best sophomore class in the section. Lots of successful AAA kids and other travel players. Anyone who follows local hockey is aware of that talent. I’d say that they should be in league 1 within 2 years. Anything less would be underacheiving.
Far cry from the old Eastchester hockey teams of old.
step up 3 – 0 in 3rd period with 8min left
scarsdale 6…mahopac 2
iona’s tier 1, 3rd and 4th line haven’t seen the ice
step wins 3 – 0
WHITE PLAINS IS TRASHY
ETB is playing Bishop Kearney/East Irondequoit and they are a big Division 1 team. Don’t go by that NYS High School Hockey Ranking Site. They have D1 and 2 mixed all over. Victor is a D2 team. I heard they are going to the Dinasaur BBQ before the Victor game so we will see what happens on the ice.
I know I missed the beat on this one but Suffern and Rye went into 2 OT’s, and I thought there was only 1 OT. I remember awhile ago the Pac vs. JJ game only went to 1 OT. Is there a set rule or whats the deal? Doesn’t seem fair.
Someone wrote that its a game misconduct for making unruly remarks to another player on the ice under US Hockey rules. I am pretty sure it wasn’t between the players but the parents, and NY High School hocky plays under the United Hockey Rules (or something like that). Still messed up but you can’t blame the kid what his parents do.
I guess Reagan played. He was very good in net tonight making a bunch of great saves. Goals by Miano & Datino.
Stepinac 3-0 over Iona Prep
Just so everyone on this blog knows, the trash being talked by white plains on this blog is NOT players. Should be a great game.
Rye vs Suff was 1 5 Min O/T last friday night. Only Double O/T Rye played was in a tournament, which then went to a shootout.
Reagan “steals” another one? Big win for Step
Stop with AAAAAAAAAAAAA ratings of players. How do you determine what the difference is between a A and AA player is at youth hockey? Or how do you tell the difference between a AA and a AAA player? Is there some sort of skill test? A written test? Or do people just put labels on their kids?
Regarding the trip for ETB its a strong move for that program. Its a neccessary move to make the next step. Many teams above ETB in League 2 and 1 do not yet travel. Its a good move. They should sweep as the two teams they are playing are the weaker ones in that section but thats fine as they will get some confidence and experience heading toward February. This team will take out a team above them in the playoffs no doubt.
Well actually there is a skill test.. whey you tryout for the team. I know people are going to say it is BS, but except for a few exceptions, kids on the fence, or just plain politics it is pretty accurate. Of course there could be arguments that can go on forever on specific kids or the organization they play for but again it is a pretty good indication of how good the kid is. I have never seen a AAA player falling down all over the ice or not being able to make a pass.
Regarding Step: It looks like the much maligned ‘05 and ‘06 Stepinac JV has reached their potential. A strong team. Beat Iona in both games that Step’s #1 goalie played.
Regarding ETB: They will likely play either Mt. Pleasant or Scarsdale in the opening round of Sectionals. They could easily win that round. Then it becomes a more difficult task against Suffern or Mamo in the Quarters. That alone should be enough incentive to move up leagues next year for a better seed.
Is it just me, or do the ETB shills sound eerily similar to those for the old Stepinac JV? We could see the same results for the Eagles next season as being posted now by the Crusaders.
The test? tryouts? Who says the team is AAA AA A to begin with? the coach? The organization? who determines that?
“How do you determine what the difference is between a A and AA player is at youth hockey?”
The one who’s parents are willing to pay the most money is AA, LOL. No brainer.
LOL… funny but for the record there is no difference in price from A to AAA, and it is for travel hockey not HS.
figurine, i am going to assume that you are new to hockey.. B, A, AA, AAA are different levels of travel hockey. At the start of every travel season there is a tryout. The coaches field as many teams as they can and then determine based on the skills of the players wheather they will be B,A, AA, AAA. Sometimes they get it wrong and make their top team (best players) AAA or AA and end up losing every game. In hindsight they maybe should have been an A or whatever. In general a AAA team would destroy an A, AA, or B team.
postman,
I was being sarcastic. I think basically anyone can say I am a AAA player. It means nothing. Unless you have made a national team, or have been marked or recognized as such. Having coaches and team managers who are almost always parents declare that their travel team and players are AAA level players so they can brag about it later is crazy. Many players can play against or with so called AAA players but very few are AAA players. I assume a AAA player would eventually pan out to a D1 or at least a D3 college player? Well if thats the case there have been many AAA players from around here for the last ten years or so and very few that panned out. Unless now these same people are going to say that no, AAA does not equate with D3 or D1 but AAAAA does?
The ETB are legit AAA players. This is probably a better sophomore class than what Suffern or Mamo have at that year. They might lack the depth of those two perennial powers but in 2 years they should be their in league 1.
To Fruit Fly:
From a Rye fan: Seriously cheers to you for your
positive and classy comment about recent Rye game which you guys won. Good luck with rest of season
Figurine..
AAA players in this area are not automatic D1 or D3 college bound. That is incredibly hard to achieve. For the best AAA players in this region look for the Westchester Express, NJ Avalanche and LI Royals in most years. Most players for these teams will be impact high school players, can usually play good college club hockey, but only the best of these teams even have a crack at D1 o D3 schools.
I don’t agree with that. Unless you are on a AAA team you can’t say your a AAA player. And there aren’t many kids around here that play on AAA teams. I am not saying it means you are the next sidney crosby but to make a AAA team is not easy. We can go on forever about how there are a lot more teams around now then years ago, but it is what it is. The best players around play at that level. Yes there are politics involved etc..I also don’t think that they declare themselves AAA just to brag. Do you know what would happen if they played the junior flyers AAA team, they would lose 15-0!! Now if a kid plays AAA as a bantam or peewee, that really doesn’t mean much in the long run as a lot of growing goes on in the next few years, it is a hell of a start though. But I would bet if you look at any NHL player they played AAA at some point in the youth. And that does not mean that if you play AAA you are going to the NHL, mens league is probably much more likely. And i honeslty think that many who put down this league are parents of kids that didn’t make it.
BTW that old Stepinac JV seems to be doing pretty good this year…(I’m presuming that they’ve contributed to this years surprising varsity success.)
What happens now? Step beat IONA twice in 2 weeks 7 goals to 2 with a shutout win? IONA Needs to come down period. But then Step can bet Farrel or WP and are inconsistant… they seem to win games that they have to win.. interesting…..food for thought..
Here’s a shot at it:
Suffern
Mamo
Step
WP
Pelham
Iona
RTH
RCDS
Rye
ETB
Why should Iona be ranked under WP when they beat them??
The same reason Iona is ahead of RCDS when Iona lost to RCDS. 1 non league game does not make a season.
Please realize tha tier 1 AAA is the highest level of hockey in the area. That being said not any organization can not put a AAA team into the league. there are a limited # of organizations that can be called tier 1 and you must apply for that status. Any org can register at the tier 2 level. That being said most upper end AA and even some A teams have = ability to the AAA teams and regularly play against them in non league play. The main difference from AAA to AA is the elite AAA teams are much better but that is only about 3 teams or so per age group.
Alphabet.. you have that all over.. SUNY Oswego could beat a bunch of D1 teams. So are there A or AA teams that could beat a weak AAA team, of course. Even take WP this year, same kind of thing. I still think it’s crazy to knock AAA teams, it does mean something.
Dear Correction,
The JJ player actually spent much of the game saying racist comments to the Rye player – grounds for a game misconduct if heard by the ref.
The JJ parent and brother then continued this after the game by verbally abusing the mother and sister – two very tiny but lovely women.
Has the JJ AD done anything about this? Does he even know what his “star” player and his family are up to? Does the Rye AD know what happened and has he contacted the JJ AD?
If Rye meets JJ in the playoffs I would expect that Rye has an additional emotional incentive after all this crude nonsense.
theres one nationally ranked travel team in the westchester area and thats the westchester vipers midget 16u team. there currently ranked 12th in the nation
I was just checking out D3 schools and found John Carter who is from fox lane, playing for Trinity college. Just curious, it shows him as a sophmore, when did he graduate from HS? for those whos kids would like to play in college here is a good website.
http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec/sponsorship?sortOrder=3&division=3&sport=MIH
Very very few players make the jump to college D1 or D3 as “true freshman”. Those extra years playing postgrad in Juniors are what it takes to get to the collegiate level.
Most freshman on D1 rosters are 20 or 21.
As to the discussion on travel levels, the better question to ask is what Tier the team is. Tier 1 equates to AAA and this is pretty universal across the country. But after that it gets tricky. There are tons of “A” teams out there. Some are Tier 2, some are Tier 3, some even Tier 4 in other states. Point is there are wide variations across AA, A, B and C programs. Each state or region will define somewhat differently; but at the end of the day the Tier designation helps you sort it out.
yes, exacly the reason for my question
so here is the chshl scenario (please correct if wrong)...
the “a” division’s 4-team playoff scenario was actually already determined this past weekend…friday, st. edmund eliminated itself from miraculously making the playoffs when they lost to farrell 7-4…saturday, chaminade eliminated itself from miraculously making it when they lost to iona 9-3 (eliminations are based on the fact that our 3 locals and farrell have already won their season series against both st. edmund and chaminade just in case of tie-break scenarios)
iona-stepinac-farrell-fordham…just a matter of seeding
to make things simple for now, if iona wins or ties friday night in coney island against farrell (iona’s last league game), they clinch 1st
if they lose (not impossible being the way they’ve been playing lately), the seeding can get very complicated…there is definitely the potential of a 2-way and possibly a 3-way tie for 1st
stepinac has 3 games (all league) remaining…2 of those are against st. edmund and chaminade next week…assuming they win those games, their last league game of the year against fordham on february 1st at playland will be obviously be important in terms of seeding
fordham has 8 games remaining (4 league)...its almost impossible that fordham wins out those 4 games (2 against farrell, 1 against stepinac), but if that happens, it will only make things even more complicated
in terms of season series info
-stepinac 2, iona 1
-farrell 2, stepinac 1
-iona 1, farrell 0 (and 1 tie)
-stepinac 2, fordham 0 (and 1 tie)
-iona 3, fordham 0
-fordham 1, farrell 0
each series is a 3-game series except the stepinac-fordham series (4-game)
the beginning of the season looked like iona was going to run the table, farrell was going to be strong, stepinac a little bit behind and fordham on on the chaminade-st. edmund level…fortunately for us, this year’s playoff of the chshl’s top division is going to be great
-iona, the obvious favorite, has proven itself with blowout wins, hard-worked/calm wins in controlling fashion, close (and maybe unexpected) losses and a meaty schedule
-fordham showed what happens when you graduate 3/4 of a championship team, but got hot at the right time and is coming off 5 wins in a row (including over mahopac, clarkstown north and farrell)
-stepinac did show signs of some strength earlier in the season, but has easily made its statement by beating iona 2-1 in their series and by winning 5 of its last 6 (including the 2 iona wins and a win against farrell)
can’t wait…
When dealing with this area there are only a handful of high quality AAA youth programs. LI Gulls, LI Royals, Westchester Express, NJ Avalanche. These teams make frequent trips to regionals and nationals. If you have been on one of these teams as a bantam or midget you probably translate into a very good high school player.
Interestingly the 2 best local high school teams, Suffern and Mamaroneck, do not have players who have gone through these youth programs (I may have missed 1 or 2 players who did). They are mostly built on real good A and AA youth players. Of course a lot of development and growing occurs in the high school years, so the lack of AAA youth career does not mean you cannot compete with these players in HS.
You can see examples where some former AAA players actually transform programs from medicority into league 1 success. Clarkstown North being a recent example of a program that benefited greatly from just a handful of high level players. Now that they are gone, the team is obviously not the same….ETB also looks poised to take advantage of a group of kids who have had youth hockey success. The question is can the program build off these kids and keep it going when they graduate…can they transform the program into a Pelham, Suffern or Mamaroneck?
For that you need a great coach who is also a program builder.
The A, AA, AAA system is good for showing a base line talent level. However, the politics, travel and economics are a real issue with these leagues and teams. I dont think that playing a triple A level is an indicator of talent. Parents always hear that a player in HS is a top AAA player and then they are horrible trying to compete at that HS level.
Unless you are Sid the kid in the making, instead of putting your eggs in the very small basket of a post high school hockey career, it makes more sense to get your hockey fix by enjoying your high school hockey while studying hard and getting good grades and a college and post grad degree so you can make a good living, pay for your own kids’ youth hockey and move to a town where you can rub shoulders with the Rangers as your neighbors.
Hey postman…..was that somekind of a compliment for WP hidden in there? Interesting…..lol lol
“Alphabet.. you have that all over.. SUNY Oswego could beat a bunch of D1 teams. So are there A or AA teams that could beat a weak AAA team, of course. Even take WP this year, same kind of thing. I still think it’s crazy to knock AAA teams, it does mean something.”
While I will agree with the cost and politics part, the rest of your statement is wrong. Are there some A and AA players who might be better then AAA, probably yes. But as a whole AAA players are the best in the area. And who are these players you always hear about. I would bet there aren’t more then a handful of players in section 1 that play AAA, and nobody would argue that they are some of the best players in the section. So where are all of these AAA players that are on their 3rd line in HS. Don’t get me wrong, there are a bunch of organizationis where politics and BS goes on, but in general these are the best players. You must be one of the parents whos kid didn’t make the team. You don’t know what you are talking about. I would also say that MOST AAA 18U teams would dominate most HS hockey teams in this area.
QUESTION..Well, yes and no..don’t think anybody would disagree that they should be a leauge 1 team. Thats the point everybody has been trying to get through to the WP people, they are not a bad team, just play against bad teams.
Travel Team: correctomundo all around.
huh?: Huh? While there are always one offs of kids that shouldn’t really be on a particular team, for the most part if a kids is a legitimate first or second line player on a team like the Gulls, Royals, Avalanche, Express of Mid-Fairfield, then that kids is more than likely going to be a very competitive HS player. Of course some of them peak out or burn out early. Always a risk.
Maybe when you “hear” about little junior someone is exaggerating. Avalanche has 5-6 teams at every level, so don’t confuse “Johnny plays for the Avalanche” with “Johnny is on the Tier 1, Banatam Major, Avalanche team”. Can be very different animals.
And yes, economics can most certainly cause individual kids who might have the talent to play Tier 1, but chose not too, and they play on a Tier 2 or even Tier 3 team. Can be money and time commitments btw. Most of these teams play 70+, 80+ games and have very heavy and wide ranging travel schedules. One of these teams can easily cost $15-20k a year with all the travel costs factored in.
No reason you can’t do both “Might Be Easier Just to Get Good Grades”. Also playing a sport in college along with good grades goes a long way on a resume.
Well thank you….I guess! (Please don’t get back into that league issue again….they never won it…let them win it first before they move up. The way it’s suppose to go! That’s the problem with team’s moving up, down and not according to winning, losing, strengths.)
Not concerned with those who are doing both, just those who don’t see the correlation between spending a lot of time on the road for travel hockey and less than stellar grades.
Connor played on Westchester Express and Fine, Glaser, and Hagan all played on the New Roc Patriots.
Suffern has 5 players who currently play Juniors.
“LOL… funny but for the record there is no difference in price from A to AAA, and it is for travel hockey not HS.”
You telling me you can travel and spend a weekend in D.C. as cheaply as you can play a game in Brewster on Saturday and a game in the Ice Hutch on Sunday? Whad ya think I’m stupid? LOL. And for the record, there was a difference in price between A, AA and AAA when my kids played travel. That may depend on the organization and how much practice time they get, etc.
Avalanche:Miano(Stepinac),Katsuta(Rye)
LI Gulls:Hagen(ETB),Mcnamara(ETB)
Express:Urban(RTH),Mcardale(Iona)
Yes and while all 6 players mentioned are good high school players I would hardly call them dominant in their respective leagues.
Sure you can be on a AAA team without the real AAA skill. Especially at the younger level there are a lot of programs that will take just “good” players.
However, the Avs, Gulls, Royals, Express if you’ve made their bantam or midget Tier I teams its likely you are a real good player and will impact an area high school team.
Not dominant…sure thats because hockey is very much a team sport. However, they have greatly raised the level of play on those teams..Stepinac is now challenging Iona for the CHSL title, RTH went from a middle league 2 team too league 1, and ETB could win league 3 after being a very mediocre league 4/5 team for years (the old Eastchester team).
CNorth declined after they lost their 4 special players.
However, the Sufferns, Mamo’s and Pelhams persist because they have programs not star based systems..Of course they get their share of great players but a Suffern can survive the loss of the Daniel twins, and be even better the next year!
Flory and Duffy played for Express
And where did anyone say they WERE dominant. The reading comprehension on here is really bad!!! Were you serious with that comment or just trying to start trouble?
I have seen Hagen play. I know he isnt the entire team, but he can dominate.
that is Hagen from ETB
The comment was made that the AAA players at these higher level organizations are the best high school players. Then 16AAA posted the names of 6 players playing at that level, I have no idea why that was posted, and I pointed out that while they may indeed play at AAA level they are not the best in their league let alone their team. They are good players but none of them are their team MVP let alone the league. The ETB player may be but the others no. So there are high school players not playing high level AAA hockey who are just as good or better than those playing AAA hockey. Thats all. The thought that if only the AAA travel kids on high school teams are the best players is not true in all cases. Sorry if I offended you on that. It was just my opinion
Reading comp
I say what I see is that teams based with travel all stars and maybe a few of those best players type kids rarely do well in playoffs. It looks like the total team based teams do better. Maybe the stronger travel players feel the need to try to carry the full load and try to do too much?
I couldn’t agree more with “To Reading Comp?”. The deeper you go into the section, the better the well rounded schools do. I think alot of this because the teams that make it into the final two rounds of the sectionals can usually shut down 1 or 2 key players. Although I don’t necasarrily agree that the travel players try to do to much, I do notice that everyone on the team looks to them, which adds alot of pressure. Also I sometimes see less devotion and heart, simply because when there season ends, they have 3 more months of travel, and than spring and summer leagues. Of course this doesn’t apply to every travel player but I do see it.
This site ranks midget major 18UAA teams nationally.
Mid Fairfield
Freeport Arrows
Mariners
Hudson Valley
Vipers
Suffolk PAL
LI Edge
All local teams ranked in this order.
How could you say that Hagan (ETB) is not dominant in league 3… currently he has 20 goals and 13 assists and is ranked #10 is scoring in section 1 even after playing almost half as many games as mammro or suffern
hes in league 3, playing against…league 3
to Slacrosse:
I have great respect for rye’s program i’ve played in the rivalry for four years now and i’m going to miss it tremendously next year
ETB clearly has a stellar Sophomore class. But it looks like their team is solye that Sophomore class. The question is, can they build this program after this class graduates
Suffern only has 4 players on juniors
Right,
League 3 is well…league 3 and not league 2 or 1 theres a big difference
Any update for the Mamaroneck-Rye game?
Last year Etb held Mammo to 2-2 going into the third until goaltending let up and 3 goals were scored late. ETB will go very far this year and in the coming years. Don’t be supprised if they move up to league 2 and win that and move to league 1
“whos the fifth?
Suffern only has 4 players on juniors”
Probably referring to Salt, who is on the “Taxi Squad” by choice.
I believe the dominant trio of the 80’s all played for the Chenango Chiefs…..Lou Venturino,Joe Delasho and Phil Mellea…..they all left the area to play junior hockey….and all three played in the minors….Venturino could finish, Delasho was a pure setup guy and Mellea was the hitter and the enforcer…....those boys could play
Hagen is not the whole team for whoever says that he can take control of the game when he wants but he not the whole team. And what because the kid plays in League 3 means his goals dont count i think if ETB played as many games as mamk or iona he would have just as many goals.The biggest problem for ETB right now is that they will not have Hagen or Brian McNamara against WP with those 2 players they it would be a close game.
http://www.atlantichockey.org/
This is the USA Hockey local AAA website. Please learn about hockey people. The local tier III and II stuff is a waste of your money. One of my 3 hockey kids has been doing tier I for 5 years. There are tier I teams that dont belong. The keys are clinics for skills, pressure for focus, and conditioning for speed. Very fast skating and agility make for a good tier I player. Thats takes teaching and intense, expensive practice. Many tier I kids have no social life for their entire adolescence. You people have no idea of the sacrifice and dedication required to be tier I. And Please! there are 12 tier I teams in the area!