High school hockey preview, print edition
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- December
- 1
I can’t wait to start another high school hockey season. What, it started two weeks ago? Um, well then…
But seriously, we had to wait until the fall sports were finished before we could run the preview in the newspapers (you can thank Rye football for being so dominant). But now it’s here. Unfortunately all the stories were written last Wednesday, but all the information is still valid.
The feature stories were on how Michael Mamone’s selfless move shows how Pelham was doing whatever it takes to win, Mamaroneck’s midnight practice shows that being the favorite won’t affect its work ethic, Clarkstown North’s Chris McIndoe hopes to complete the circle from state playoffs to one win and back, and Tyler Perrelle hopes to return Mahopac to glory. There’s also the always misunderstood 20 players to watch. These are not the 20 best players in the area (although many are), but 20 “players to watch” for one reason or another, with a mix of positions, schools, and most importantly, geographic areas (five players from Rockland, Southern Westchester, Central Westchester, and Northern Westchester/Putnam).
I’m just getting back from Thanksgiving and still trying to digest (pun intended) the video game-like numbers put up by area players this past weekend. I’ll have something later today with my thoughts on what’s transpired, and also a look ahead to this week. In the meantime, thanks for providing me with a few hours of reading material.
This entry was posted
on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 12:02 pm by Harold Gutmann. 
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Looking at the NYSPHSAA website, they state that for two class sports (Ice Hockey, the cut-off numbers are 0-799 for Class B and 800 and up for Class A. While there are different cutoff number for specific sports mentioned – there are no exceptions listed for hockey. This would mean that there are 20 Div 1 programs and 13 Div 2 programs. John Jay, Brewster and Fox Lane would all be Div 1 schools.
Has there been some exception made for hockey or does the entire state ignore the NYSPHSAA classification guidelines which are so strongly enforced for football. If there is an excception for hockey – how is it officially acknowledged and where?
Re: DI-DII,
This is from Section 1 chairman John Orlando:
What is being discussed is the cutoff number for D 1 and D 2 which to date is only a discussion with many opinions. The State Chairman has been taking proposals since last spring. They will be discussed at the March meeting and brought to the table at the Fall meeting.
For now it is up to each section to determine how they divide and that will remain until voted on and approved by the State hockey committee and then that will be sent to the NYSPHSAA for approval.
If all that happens it can only take place no earlier then 2009-10.
can we get some reporter reflections about this past weekends games?
Harold- On that point- what is the DI/DII makeup? Your newspaper article states the split is 16 DI/13 DII. I thought last year’s 15/15 split was changed to 16/13 when two DII teams Tappan Zee and Nyack merged and went to DI. But, your newspaper article also mentions Scarsdale (DI last year) as a DII team. Did another DII team from last year move up to DI this year?
Also, I can only find the “players to watch” for my local area. I subscribe to the Southern Westchester version of the JN and saw Rye’s Benincasa, Mamo’s Hagen and Glaser, RTH’s Urban and RCDS’ Gary. I assume Mamone gets a slot for Central Westchester, McIndoe for Rockland and Perelle for Northern Westchester/Putman. Who were the rest?
I applaud the above choices. Lots of appreciaition for defense. Less emphasis on points. Good for you.
Hey Harold,
How about we wait till after the season before doing a league 3 and 4 preview.
fanotgame-
Here’s a link to the online version of the “Players to Watch” that has all 20 of them in it: http://www.lohud.com/article/20081201/SPORTS02/812010364/1110
Scarsdale is definitely D1 this year, so that must have been an error in Harold’s story. Last year there were 15 in each and TZ & Nyack (Two D2 schools) merged to make one D1-sized team. So the loss of them in D2 dropped that down to 13 and the gain of the new team in D1 brought that up to 16.
Also, for “Harold – Please clarify Div1 vs. Div2” if they were to draw the line at 800 students, we would have 25 D1 teams and 4 D2 teams in Section 1. Rye, Pelham, Byram Hills, & Pearl River are the only ones under 800 enrollment (They are all actually under 700). The next smallest would be the combined enrollment of Pawling & Dover which is 823. Across the state, if they wanted to draw the line at a round number, but right near the middle to cut the state in half, it would most likely end up being at 1000. This would have half the state above the line and half below (give or take a few teams). As for section 1, a line drawn at 1000 would give us 19 D1 teams (With Ossining being the smallest at 1001 students) and 10 D2 teams (With Fox Lane being the largest at 999 students). With a hard line drawn, you can expect temas right around the line (Like these two as well as Greeley, KPV, & John Jay which are all within 35 students of the line if its drawn at 1000) to flip flop from year to year between D1 & D2.
Thanks for the info LoHud.
League 3 preview- New Ro, Ossining, Pawling and Somers/NS will have some good battles.
League 4 preview- Sleepy Hollow/Irvington should be up with the aformentioned League 3 leaders.
In reading some posts about the issues with the Pelham player and his coach, and some statements about the kid possibly not playing again this year, it reminded me of a rule that one of my son’s travel coaches had. I think it should be a required policy of all teams. The coach made it a point to meet with all the players and their parents before the season started. In that meeting, he explained his 24 hour rule. The rule is that if something happens at a game or a practice which causes a parent or a player or a coach to have an emotional issue, the issue will not be discussed, and no further decisions will be made until 24 hours have gone by. The reasons for this are obvious. People (players, parents and coaches) often make poor decisions in the heat of the moment. They often regret what they say and things can quickly escalate and get out of control. This is especially true of young players. We encourage them to play with emotion, be tough, be into it. They are emotional and filled with testosterone and adrenaline. They don’t have the maturity that adults have. And let’s face it, in the heat of the moment, adults also make poor choices. A coach has every right to bench a player who is disrespecting him. But before any further decisions are made, I hope coaches refuse to engage the player or the player’s parents for 24 hours and everyone will make a better decision.
Pelham coach definately has a 24 hour rule. Always had and tells the parents at the meeting at the start of the season.
Just read the 20 top players to watch. That would be a great ESG team.
Outstanding young men with tons of talent.
Great job, great selections.
Who chooses the key players? Is it the coaches?
Pelhams’s Duffy has quit the team and they will be better off without him.
Even with a 24 hour rule, or a 24 day rule this kid would still be off the team.
Duffy a good player and Pelham’s is not better off without him . He’s a young man give him a break . The coach is a smart guy .Everything will be o.k. at Pelham.
they dont need his distractions they have been ongoing for years. pelham will be better without him…
duffy is not too good of a player… why do you think he switches travel teams so much… cause they dont want him
C’mon guys. Stop it. Lots of kids switch travel teams for lots of reasons. He had an altercation with a HS coach. Maybe the school team thing doesn’t work for him. Lets not demean the kids’ character. He is a solid hockey player who represented us on the Empire team. From what little contact I have had with him, he seems like a decent kid. Certainly not worthy of the blog treatment he is getting.
The kid #15 had a real good thing going on in Pelham. I believe due to the fact that it is a small school and the coach always wants his defense men as soon as he can get them took the kid as an 8th grader. The kid played on a really good varsity team as a freshman soph and junior. I knew he quit with a similar situation the year they went to the state finals. I guess the coach forgave and forgot and took the kid back in the junior year and when they played my sons team the kid was logging major minutes. He was lucky to get such a chance with a good team too bad they see it differently. You don`t realize it until its gone I guess.
mamone is so overrated. he cant even skate
We`ll take #2 on our team anytime
Mike Mamone’s value goes beyond his pure skill. He blocks more shots with his body than anyone and goes all out every game. He is a leader and a good player.
I hope # 15 works things out with his coach. Some kids let their emotions get the best of them sometimes. I would bet that deep down he doesn’t mean to disrespect his coach. It’s so easy to judge kids on an anonymous blog. Is an anonymous blogger really in a position to judge anyone anyway? The answer to that is no. Bloggers don’t even have to worry about things like knowing the facts before they decide to trash a kid. btw, I’ll also take # 2 on my team. he did some things in the game that most people don’t notice.
did aiden mchugh go back to ossining? did dorgan go back also?
I liked the kid too. He played a grinding all out game against us
I know Aidan is at prep school but i’m not sure whats going on with Dorgan.
Is it true that Dorgan has given up High School Hockey for a Junior C team. What a mistake! This is his year. A year that he will always remenber. Believe me, playing Junior c is like playing on a good Midget Major team. Actually, I bet you that the Clarkstown team or the Mariners would beat that Applecore Junior C team.
What a waste! He should talk to Connor, Eck, Novick, Datino, King, Latino, McCabe, Douglas, Keagan from last years senior squads. They all played Junior C’s when they were sophomores in High School. I quarantee you that NONE the the players mentioned above would of traded their senior year of High school Hockey to play Junior C’s. What a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My son played travel with Duffy. He’s a good kid and a good hockey player. What happened?
I was fine with people talking about Mikes antics Saturday night. I mean I said things about him which now I feel miserable about and I apologize for that. What makes me feel sick is what everyone is adding on about his past and his career. He is a 17 year old kid, and I would appreciate if everyone stopped talking about him like he is an NHL superstar. He is a high school senior playing in section 1.
that was worded poorly.
I joined in on the bashing of Mike Duffy, which I feel terrible about. At the time I felt it was alright for people to discuss and criticize his actions on Saturday night. After seeing how this discussion has evolved and turned malicous and violent I now regret joining in. I hope that everyone takes the situation for what it is, a high school senior who lost his cool, not an NHL player. People are attacking his skill, his overall character and his entire hockey career. I know many of these people are either Pelham kids or people related to Pelham hockey, and I hope we can remember the good things he has done for this program, albeit the mishaps and issues that have arisen. Anyone who actually knows Mike knows that he is a well rounded and good-natured kid.
Agree he should not get trashed at this point. His parents should be held for this situation and they did this and created this nobody else.Lets drop it
white plains vs. rye on Wednesday night… predictions
Rye 4 WP 2
sec1fan,
although you are a pelham fan I respect the objective prediction
Why did Duffy quit?
Two good games at the Hutch Tonight you got Pelham-JJ at 6:30 where you might see Witz get his 300th win and we can see Pelham’s whatever it takes come in to play, then at 8:30 theres NewRo-Scarsdale where you have two feature players in Olivero and Prunesti and this can be an indicator in how NewRo will be in L3 and how Scarsdale will be in L2
I think New Rochelle is primed to take the next step. Prunesti is a talent and the team has looked real strong in practice. Should be a good test tonight for New Rochelle and a long time coming for the program. The Pelham player did not care for the line he was playing on is the talk. Look for Oliveri and Prunesti to duel it out tonight
I m excited
new rochellle- How is Freddie M looking?
solid solid. The team will perform tonight I feel good about tonight. Its the start of a big year for New Ro! Let the games begin! Game ON!
Regarding Duffy don’t know the kid but there is no “I” in TEAM no matter his ability. Hockey is a game won by moving the puck and playing a smart team system.
There are plenty of kids rotting on the Witz bench that can and will step into his spot.
Pelham is a small town where Hockey is the most important sport. The youth program is its backbone. They go out of their way to foster kids in the Youth program who will eventually play for Witz. Even at the expense of the program
as they will work with less talent at the hopes of building the HS roster. I do not know of any coach who needs to be questioned by any player mid game.There is too much going on! The time and place for Duffy to voice his displeasure would be after the game of later in the week in a one on one with Witz. Other than that Pelham is a deep team and will be in the mix with or without Duffy. Knowing Witz he will make the right decision every time, a total pro at what he is doing. That said he is also a nice guy and if he can make sense of keeping him he will make that work too.
Good piece in the NY Times today about the growth of club sports on college campuses. Given some of the discussion about ACHA hockey thought this might be of interest to some here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/sports/02club.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all
I agree that the blog should limit criticism of kids. I’m sure the Pelham coach has it way under control. 300 wins do not come by accident.
On the other hand I see reason to sometimes criticize coaches (NOT Witz in this instance) and the way they run programs. Afterall they are paid decent money, $7,000 per season by some estimates (pensionable if they are teachers), to run hockey programs that cost up to $50,000 if you include ice time, busing, uniforms, official fees, security, etc.
This is taxpayer money and I’m all for spending if it is for a well run program. Of course this is not always defined by wins, losses and championships, but their are a few clunker programs out there.
Ecacst, TRUE POST. I was at the game cheering against Pelham and watched what went on. It was a disgrace and I felt horrible for the kids and coach of that team. No reason for that type of display in front of the huge crowd. You cant always get what you want or have things your way, that was one of the first things I learned in nursery school. By high school, one should have that lesson down pat.
Enough
Alright, everyone’s had 24 hours to criticize a 17-year-old, is it out of everyone’s system now? While an anonymous format makes it easy to type away and not think about repurcussions, these words can hurt, and like Sect1fan said this isn’t the NHL, where players get paid to deal with criticism.
Also, I spoke with coach Witz last night. He had gotten wind of the discussion on the blog and respectfully asks and appeals to everyone to please refrain from commenting on or about this. It is painful to everyone involved especially to the student athletes who compete and put their heart and soul into this sport. He feels that it serves no purpose to disparage anyone. While he realizes it is a public and open forum he would hope people could see that the continuation of the discussion is just counterproductive, negative, and hurtful.
Thanks Harold. I agree. I only made one point and it didn’t disparage anyone. It was simply a suggestion to give everyone a cooling off period so things don’t get worse. It wasn’t at all directed at this coach or this kid. I respect the coach and fully expect that he will make a thoughtful decision. And someone from Pelham already commented that Coach Witz has such a 24 hour rule. Maybe the negative bloggers should also wait 24 hours before saying anything.
Makes sense. That’s why Witz is a class act. Even though there certainly was a major issue between coach and player the coach is still concerned about the athlete.
“He should talk to Connor, Eck, Novick, Datino, King, Latino, McCabe, Douglas, Keagan.” What to know 1 big difference for Dorgan, he plays for ossining, a league 3 team, and us teams in the lower leagues dont the coverage and huge crowds that league 1 and the CHSHL get. The ossining coach isn’t letting him play. If he was smart he would do what the irvington coach is doing and let his star players play, even if they miss 5 or 6 games. BTW, if anybody watched the lions-titans game on thanksgiving, if you saw the part were the crew showed pictures of their family, there was a picture of him from one of our patriot games.
Duffy’s absence has sparked some hard feelings. I hope that Pelham can keep it together. Pelham is falling apart.
Dont think so. Are you on the team?
Coaches requiring team discipline have these issues periodically. I know of several instances where players who could make real contributions on all league One teams have been unable to work under a particular coaches rules and have decided not to play for the HS team. The remaining kids on the team are sad to see a friend and good player go, but usually the coach is right and the team gets over it and moves on. It is a team sport after all.
That was not me. Imposter
oh, I was hoping that was the case.
Thanks for clarification Sect1 fan. There is no chance anything is wrong in Pelham due to Saturdays events except of course that the team is 0-1 right now.
What happened on the bench Sat night? I was at the game. All I saw was the kid yelling at Eddie and then Eddie went over to talk to him. The I forgot all about it until I read about it here.
Harold, I read all of the stories that you linked to except the one about Mahopac because that link also pointed to the McIndoe story. Can you fix it?
“He should talk to Connor, Eck, Novick, Datino, King, Latino, McCabe, Douglas, Keagan.”
Yea, but all these kids fathers thought they are going to play hockey at some D1 School – so they all traveled and spent hours and hours practicing to make it to D1 – and after they realized they where not going anywhere with hockey then they came back to the Titans to have a fun senior year. They enjoyed playing the game and that is what counts. And I don’t recall anyone making a big name coming from a Junior “C” team. These kids where good, but not great.
all of these kids did what they did for seperate reasons they didnt play junior c because they thought that it was going to bring them to a d1 scholarship. it was just the right fit at the time. and if im not mistaken atleast half of them are still playing. king’s the leading scorer on BC’s club team eck was the starting QB for hamilton and is playing club. latino’s playing D1 lax and Douglass is playing D3 hockey as an 18 year old. and these kids were some of the top players around so maybe they werent amazing but they were better then good
So who’s going to tonights game North vs Blindbrook? Good luck North it’s not like they need it but I just want to metion it. Is anybody going to the Rye Mamoroneck?
Pelham could use all the players they can get that are good.
Im sorry to hear about no.15 beating Fox lane 5-4 isn’t that good. They need to beat Foxlane 9-4. I don’t think they can be better off without him than with him. leauge 1 is the powerleauge you need all the good players you can get.