New leagues are official
-
- April
- 29
The hockey ADs met at BOCES today and made it official — hockey will be using the new conferences, without any changes. Here they are again:
Conference I (8 teams): Yorktown, Lakeland/Panas, Carmel, Mahopac, Kennedy/Putnam Valley, Pawling/Dover, Brewster, Ossining
Conference II (7 teams): White Plains, Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Sleepy Hollow/Irvington, Pelham, E/T/B
Conference III (8 teams): Greeley, Fox Lane, John Jay, Somers/North Salem, Byram Hills, Rye Town/Harrison, Rye, Mount Pleasant
Conference IV (6 teams): Clarkstown North, Clarkstown South, Nyack/Tappan Zee, North Rockland, Pearl River, Suffern
Somers and North Salem are actually in different conferences, but the team was put with Somers since it had more representation on the team.
Before today’s meeting, the coaches voted 100 percent against the new alignment. The ADs met today to decide whether to ask the athletic counsel — which actually has the power to change things — to leave hockey alone. But the ADs voted “a lot to a little,” in the words of chairman John Orlando, not to pass it along.
“They said all the arguments were good and academically sound — competition, safety, travel,” Orlando said. “They said, ‘We can pass it but it’s not going to pass (the athletic counsel). We’ve been told that for a fact.’ They felt it was like beating a dead horse.”
Apparently the counsel, which consists of superintendents and principals, was worried it would open up a Pandora’s box, since every other sport would then ask for exemptions.
Here’s what’s next: The conferences will meet on May 4 to determine whether teams in each league will play each other once or twice (round-robin). I would be shocked if the ADs vote to only play once, since having only five league games on a 20-game schedule would defeat the supposed purpose of realigning in the first place.
During the meeting they will also determine crossover scheduling. If it’s anything like girls lacrosse (which I’m currently covering), the teams in each league will be seeded, with the top teams from each league playing each other (for example, Suffern-Mamaroneck-Mahopac-Rye) and on down the line.
Next, a seeding committee will determine how postseason seeding will work for all sports next year. There will not be a hockey-only system. Again, in girls lacrosse seeding is only done by league record and assigned crossovers (yes, a team in an easier league could have a better record and will be seeded above a better team from a harder league).
Some more notes — as of now, the 29 Section 1 teams will all stay the same for next year. No new programs or mergers. Also, the Division I sectional champion will host Section 6 (Buffalo area), while the Division II champion will host Section 2 (Albany area).
Also, the Division I and Division II alignment will stay the same as last year. Same 16 teams in Division I and 13 teams in Division II. There is a state meeting later this week, and there’s a proposal to have uniformity across the state — any programs over 1,000 in Division I, under 1,000 in Division II. But even if this is passed, it won’t take affect until the 2010-11 season. The numbers will change before then, but programs that could be affected include Somers/North Salem (1,049), Yorktown (1,029), Greeley (1,021) and Ossining (1,001), who would all move from DII to DI.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 9:42 pm by Harold Gutmann. 
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This is not surprising. Here is how I see the leagues playing out:
League One:
L/P
Pac
Brewster
Ossining
Pawling
Yorktown
Carmel
KPV
This league will have some pretty even games among the top 4 or 5 teams, depending on whether Delaverne will play for Pawling due to his Brewster jrs commitment. Pac and L/P should have some memorable battles.
League Two:
Mamo
WP
New Ro
Pelham
Scarsdale
SHI
ETB
This is the most competitive league, but hardly a “power league” without Suffern, Rye and this coming season L/P. Mamo should win it as WP has a goalie question, New Ro has questions at D, Pelham is rebuilding, Scarsdale has a short bench and Gluck is playing jrs at Brewster, SHI lost its goalie and top Dman and ETB lost a slew of talented players to prep/jrs.
League Three:
Rye
SNS
RTH
Byram Hills
PWBV
Jay
Fox Lane
Greeley
Rye wins this one, with or without the return of the prep goalie. The games between the Garnets and SNS will be good ones. Rye vs. RTH always a battle, regardless of the relative talent btween the teams. The bottom of this league will have a hard time with the top two teams in this league.
League Four:
Suffern
North
South
North Roc
Pearl River
NTZ
Suffern by a landslide. This defensively minded team will rack up the goals while keeping the goals against to a minimum this coming season. The Mountie parents will be happy becuase the coach will be able to play lines 3 and 4 regularly in the league matches. Fortunately for Suffern, they have at most 10 league games, which gives them 10 non league games to beef up the schedule with.
The DII playoff seeding should not be all that hard to figure out with Leagues I and III housing 11 of the 13 DII teams.
The more interesting question is whether the teams within a league must play twice. For leagues I and III, that means 14 league games and only 6 non league games. If that plays out, for example, does Rye use one of the 6 non league games to play traditional DII rival Pelham, or becuase the Pelicans are rebuilding, does the Rye coach use that slot either upstate or vs. a Mamo, Suffern, WP or L/P? Any way you cut it, there will be less Section One vs. CHSHL matches.
Let’s hope that only 1 league game is required against your league opponents.
Suffern fans will be bored and eventually the players too playing the other Rockland teams 10 times a year. This program which never loses players to private schools could see that change in years to come. Don Bosco Prep is one mile from Suffern and offers a top flite New Jersey private school schedule.
If teams like NTZ and Pearl River have to fill 10 non-league slots, while their traditional competition, the Carmels, KPV and Greelyd, have fewer non-league slots to offer because they play in a bigger league.
Southern Westchester teams Rye and RTH will now become regulars on the Friday or Sunday night Brewster schedule. Hopefully they won’t be to overloaded with the 10 pm start games. Will they have games left to play there more geographically close rivals along the Sound Shore?
These are not great conference set-ups, but will definitely be made worse by requiring 2 games.
We hear the same thing every year about Pelham rebuilding and every year they come back with a quality team. Pelham will be there as always when the dust clears. Some of these teams will be over there heads though
It’s amazing! How can we have such idiots making these decisons. Hockey will die in our area. Eventually, all the higher end players will not play at the High School level. They will play Juniors some where. I’m disgusted!!!!!!!
Next season, you will see One Blow Out After Another! For instance:
Mamo: Good Team
WP: Good Team
New Ro: Weak Team
Pelham: ReBuilding
Scarsdale: Depends on Gluck…But not strong at all
SHI: OK but not that strong
ETB: Weak
A weak section 1 gets weaker every day.High end talent are leaving in big numbers to play juniors, prep and regular travel teams.ETB and Scarsdale are perfect examples.Only a hand full of teams will be good but most teams will be like watching Bantam B. hockey. Sad but true.
Conference 1 – i see Lakeland Panas and Mahopac battling it out for #1. the other teams are’t even close to these two.
Conference 2 – clearly the most stacked conference of the 4. i see Mamo #1, White Plains #2, Pelham #3. the other teams can finish anywhere, but there is no real weak team in this league.
Conference 3 – Rye will win this Conference easily; there is a huge dropoff after Rye
Conference 4 – like conference 3, Suffern will win this one easily. I see North and South, which both return decent Senior-class talent battling it out for #2 in this league.
The key to who finishes second in the Rockland league is goaltending. I don’t know who is in goal for Suffern, but this should only matter to Suffern when they play out of the league.
After that, North returns an expierienced travel goalie to go along with a respectable senior forward line and the best defensemen in the county besides the Suffern senior. They should finish second.
Pearl River has a very good sophomore goalie distinguishing this team a bit. They also have some skating talent returning. They are my upset pick for third place.
After that South and North Rockland return some good skaters but will a goalie step up?
NTZ lost senior size and speed from last year. By the end of last year there roster numbers looked low also. More needs to be done there to keep skaters in the program.
Rye will wipe the floor in Conference this year.
Conference 3*
These leagues make no sense. League 2 will be the only league with any good games. The other leagues will be completely dominated by one team, for example Suffern and Rye will go undefeated in their leagues winning every game about 10-0. It makes no sense it will take all the competition out of the regular season. It looks like we will have to wait until the playoffs to see good games in section 1. And by the way does anyone know how playoffs and seedings will work?
so not including all the players leaving to play juniors, who will be the top, eh, 5 or so players in the section at forward, defense and goalie?
Whoever thought of this system is crazy. It’s not even geography based correctly. Why doesn’t Mt. Pleasant play Ossining? And how did Suffern get stuck with the worst teams in the section? This is going to be a disaster. The bottom teams in each league have no chance at winning anything next year.
I understand the Athletic Counsel, citing consistency across all sports, wants hockey to adopt these new Conferences. So, we have to work with them. But, I disagree with Harold regarding the number of times each team should be required to schedule a conference opponent.
Anyone with any knowledge of the Section One teams knows there will be some real mismatches within the conferences as currently comprised. Do you think the Horace Greeley coach wants to play Rye two times? Or the NTZ coach wants to play Suffern two times? Once is enough for many of these new conference matchups, especially now that the regular season limit on games has been reduced to 20. The Athletic Counsel and ADs need to give the coaches some operating room in which to put together a schedule of mostly competitve games.
To respond to the concern about managing travel costs, instead of scheduling a second game with each conference opponent, require the teams to schedule 6 crossover games with teams from immediately adjacent conferences. In the case of Rye (the team I follow), games with Conference Two opponents will actually require less travel than a second game in conference. And away games with Conference One opponents are played at the same Brewster rink that serves as home for almost all of Rye’s Conference Three opponents. I think SHI (which plays home games at SOR), would also reduce travel by scheduling Conference Four opponents.
If, after the first season under the new alignment, the play within conference is closer than expected and warrants a second game among conference opponents, make the change to two games within conference for the second season. But, don’t just start with a two games in conference mandate when you know (i) there are likely to be a lot of blowouts and (ii) the maximum games limit has been reduced.
Like Fanotgame, I agree that the biggest decision left over for the hockey ADs is whether teams should play everyone in the league once or twice.
To clear one thing up from fanotgame’s last comment, my opinion is not that they SHOULD play twice. In fact, I think they should play once, which frees teams up to play more games against teams at their own level. However, my opinion is that they WILL end up playing twice.
First of all, I’ve been told that the four league will be forced to make the same decision — it doesn’t make any sense for the Rockland league to play once, and everyone else plays twice, and now Rockland teams have to pick up 15 games while every other team has only six openings on the schedule.
So what decision will all four leagues make? If there’s one thing that the ADs have shown throughout the entire process, it’s that they will take the easiest way out. In this case, the easiest way is to play a round-robin, because now there’s fewer crossover games to worry about.
These ADs don’t seem to care about blowouts. Remember, they chose to keep football the way it is, and no sport has more blowouts than football. They also don’t even seem to care about travel, or else they would have moved Rye and RT/H, and even SH/I.
What they do care about is showing the superintendents and principals that they are onboard with this new system, and whether it’s good for the sport or not, it doesn’t make any sense to overhaul the leagues, and then just use it for 5 games out of 20.
To everyone out there who is concerned — about players leaving for private schools, teams afraid to join the section and be thrown into mismatches, dangerous situations on the ice next year — definitely get in touch with your ADs immediately.
Harold, when you say it is your sense that all 4 conferences will have the same rule (play once or twice) regarding conference play, does that apply to boys ice hockey only, or does it have to be the same rule for all 4 conferences for all sports?
If we are talking about a rule for conference play for boys ice hockey only, I bet almost all coaches would opt for the play once rule. You can always play a second game in conference if both coaches want to schedule it. That second game just would not be mandatory. Mamo and WP can play twice. Same with Pelham and Mamo if both coaches agreed. My guess is the ADs would be OK with it, as long as they felt it was within the spirit of what the Athletic Counsel is trying to achieve for all sports. That primary goal for the Athletic Counsel is saving travel money. So, the crossover games with adjacent conferences (where it is often cheaper than in confernce play) could be cited by the ADs, as necessary.
If Girls Lacrosse was the first sport to move over to geographic conferences this spring, than it does not look good, since the girls lax teams are playing there league rivals twice.
I’d hope the AD’s from the hockey schools have more sense and head the advice of the hockey coaches.
And I’d agree that football provides the most lopsided regular season contests of all the sports, but it still gets the only exception from the new conference play.
Do you really think that Mamaroneck, Rye, Pelham and Suffern worry about expenses. Are you telling me that these teams are not going on to play their games upstate NY any longer?.
Give me a break… I wonder what those trips cost? AND I DOUBT THE AD’S are cancelling these games. But they will be cancelling games between Pelham and Rye because Playland and the Ice Hutch cost too much money. But a bus for 3 days, 12-14 rooms for two nights, meals for 20 kids for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Is OK….Well that makes ALOT OF SENSE! Do this twice a season and you have a nice bill. Are these trips being cancelled…...NO WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. The AD’s are full of it. They all should be fired! PERIOD….END of story! WAy to RUIN a good thing!
fanotgame,
My sense is that each sport will make its own decision. Hockey is unique because there’s only enough teams for one league per conference, while a sport like basketball could have four leagues in a conference.
Also, one thing is clear — it doesn’t matter what the coaches want. The coaches voted unanimously against the new leagues, and you can see how much that mattered.
A lot of worrying over nothing.
Here is what is going to happen, you can take it to the Bank. The vote will be to play a single game format. Everyone will play everyone in their own league only once. Its only 6 games out of their schedule and the coaches will have to come up with the other 14 on their own.
This will not destroy hockey, the games will be closer than a lot of people think, their will be no more injuries than normal. This conference business is a good thing, not a bad one, no more talk about how many goals someone would score in one league opposed to another. I couldn’t be more excited to see how the games play out next year. The only downside is the reduction in games which effects every sport.
At our school, the buses for the conference games will be covered by the school’s athletic budget. The money for expenses for the upstate trips is not provided by the school budget and has to be raised.
But, don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the new system either.
Trips are only 1 night stays.
The biggest problem with this season will be seedings for playoffs
The new conferences will not increase blowouts
The league or conference championships meant nothing to the better teams anyway they have always been more concerned with playoffs sectionals regionals and getting to the final four
Mamaroneck will not miss a beat
Suffern will be the weakest they have been in a while
Rye will be strong
Pelham will be rebuilding they lost a lot
ETB will be weaker losing a lot
LakelandPanas will be strong
AD s will duck and cover and give in to the superintendants and administrators who know very little about how far hockey has come and what great happenings there were the last few seasons
Section 1 will not lose players especially to the private schools as their systems are probably worse
just some observations and predictions
To Bunch of BS,
Don’t think you’re right about fund raising. My son has friends on teams that take trips upstate and they don’t have fund raisers. Schools picking it up. And you can take that to the Bank!
You go ask Chaps how much he raised last year for Multiple Trips? And see if the school picked up the tab for the buses? Don’t think so!
Pelham raises no money, it’s all paid for by the kids and their parents. The district pays for the coach salary, busses for games in the section, officials and jerseys. Ice for games and for practices, DJ at the games, and upstate trips are all paid for by the parents.
highschool..
Suffern will not be the worse they have ever been in a while. with 2 seniors..one all state defensemen…6 juniors..1 all leage forward..1 all county defensemen..1 second liner from last year..5 sophmores..1 which played a whole lot as a freshman..
I know for a fact (I wrote the check!) that parents in Pelham pay for the trips, you moron (Bunch of BS). Don’t make statements when you have no facts.
THese are the kids that are playing high school and Jr’s Two Belger boys from LP if they are not there big losses. Mastracola from Pac, I do not think the Pac coach will make him miss any games if he does they are in trouble. Pecse from Irvington. Delevergne from PAwling and Gluck from Scarsdale and I think there is one more kid Clarke maybe. These kids all are talented hockey players and should play on a competitive league high school is for fun
Does anyone have any thoughts about the Spring hockey programs going on? At WSA there are about 6 or 7 teams playing (some teams are high school teams like the Mt. Pleasant Icecats and ETB. In the Witz league, there are 14 teams playing in 2 divisions with a mix of HS teams (Rye, Pelham, etc.) and travel teams (Mariners, Predators???).
Can anyone offer some isight as to whom these teams are?
Somers is on the Mahopac border…Ossining is 1/2 hour away.
Good going guys. US A DAMN MAP!!!
To spring has sprung,
I know that Mt Pleasant, ETB, and Ossining play at WSA in a spring league with an independant team and a team called the Renegades (which I think is supposed to be LP players). The Mariners 18u team is a AAA tournament team in the spring, I dont know about the Predators.
The Predators are a Midget Minor group from Long Island. Mostly Ice Cat (LI Gulls Tier II afiliate) players. Rye played their two 8th grade goalies and a lot of other 8th graders and beat them 5 to 4. Spring hockey just for fun. Allows the modified kids to get a sense of what it might be like next HS season. The seasoned HS players just help out the younger kids. Totally different level of play from Mariners Spring team which travels in the Spring/Summer to PA, NJ and MA for tourneys vs. Tier I teams.
Harold, if it is a “hockey only” decision, maybe the ADs from the hockey schools(who lost the conference vote when all ADs [hockey and non hockey voted])will give their hockey coaches the flexibility they need on scheduling. They can say they have adopted the new geographical conference system, but allowed for competitive scheduling thru crossover games in adjacent conferences with no more travel time than if they played a second game in conference.
With no more power league, all that really matters is the DI and DII rankings and JN power rankings.
Here is how I see it for next season assuming the ETB guys and Pelham D men are off to prep/juniors, the guys at Brewster jrs do play HS hockey and Rix plays in goal for Rye:
DI: Mamo, Suffern, WP, L/P, Pac, New Ro, Scarsdale, SHI, ETB, North, South, RTH, North Roc, PWBV, Carmel, NTZ (with Mamo and Suffern having a shot at state rankings)
DII: Rye, SNS, Pelham, Brewster, Ossining, Pawling, Yorktown, BH, Jay, FL, PR, Greeley, KPV (with Rye having a shot at state rankings)
Pre season Journal News top 10: Mamo, Iona, Rye, Suffern, WP, L/P, Fordham, Pac, SNS, New Ro (on the bubble RCDS, Pelham, Scarsdale)
Brewster Jr’s—Can you play both HS and Jr’s? Does Brewster allow it?
A couple of locals (Cambria, Molinaro, Urban amd Murphy) played both HS and Jr B last season. Unlike some of the Jr A programs that actually prohibit HS play, I don’t think the Jr B prpgrams have such a prohibition. But, since the Jr. B programs will have mandatory midweek practices and long weekend roadtrips starting on Friday during the HS season, it is up to the HS coach as to whether he will accept limited appearances from his Jr B players. That works for some HS coaches (ETB, Iona), but not for others (Suffern, Pelham, Rye, Ossining).
Anyone know how the ADS voted today. I would assume they voted to make each team play its league members twice but theres still hope for them allowing just one game between each league team
New Leagues
It seems as if the financial problem could have been resolved by eliminating school buses and having kids go to games with parents or other adults. I’m sure they could have amended insurance policies to absolve schools from any liability. With savings from all the practices and games it would have far outweighed the current savings from eliminating 4 games and some out of town trips. It would also have given the kids a lot more time to do homework rather than turning a 1-2/4 practice into a 3-4 hour trip of dropping kids at school, etc.
good article in today’s paper about Rockland kids going to the catholics (Bosco, BC, PC, St. Joe’s, etc.) in Jersey for the competition.
http://www.lohud.com/article/20090505/SPORTS06/905050385
For the Rockland kids who go to Jersey schools for hockey, and I hate to say this, the coaching and program organization is just much better than what is offered locally.
A kid or family who has gotten used to well coached and very organized youth hockey programs is more attracted to the private schools programs, even with the realization that any type of hockey scholarship is not likely. The Nyack, TZ, Pearl River, South and now North eighth graders are more and more looking at St. Joes and DBP.
For now, only Suffern offers the good coaching and program that keeps the hockey kid home. Although North Rockland is starting to step up their program also.
A quick look at the Section 1 BOCES website shows that Clarkstown North has already scheduled 4 games against “NON-REGION OPPONENT” on 12/11, 12/12 and 1/15 & 1/16.
Bottom line is this decision was moronic. It was supposed to save money, in the end it will not save a dime. A 6 game league schedule? Why even bother? Do u really think suffern will be excited to win the rockland league? What a joke! The regular season will mean nothing, tournaments and playoffs will be the fun part of the season. To seperate suffern from all of the best teams was just dumb.
To Mamo, I think the conference alignment will save time and money for the sports whose matches are played on or near the HS campus. It doesn’t really work that way for hockey, where “home” rinks can be far from a HS campus. But, for consistency across all sports, the powers it be decided to make the conferences applicable to all sports. Hopefully, the hockey coaches get the flexibility they need to schedule some non conference games with more level competition. That way, those top teams can still go upstate and not at the expense of games among Suffern, Mamo, Pelham and Rye.
I agree conference championships should not be a primary focus for the better teams, now that the power league is disbursed among the four conferences. Rye and Suffern are heavy favorites in their respective conferences. If last season’s DI quarter is any indication of next season’s play, Pac and L/P should have a good battle within theirs. If WP finds a goalie, Mamo and WP will battle in League Two. But, it will be the upstate tourneys and out of conference matchups that most fans will look forward to.
And the playoffs, as always, will be the most important. I wouldn’t worry too much about seedings. The best team should win, regardless of where they are seeded.
I look forward to a season where no one can say “yeah, but the kid couldn’t even skate/score/play in league one”. I think the new conferences are a good idea and as a previous poster said will work out pretty well once everyone gets used to it.
Personally I think you should play a home and home for the conf schedule. This frees up 6 to 10 non conf games to do with what each program sees fit.
And I think the conferences will have meaning. Let’s face it the vast majority of programs have zero shot of winning the section and playing for a state title. So this seems to level off the playing field a bit and should make the overall experience more meaningful for the majority of the student athletes
Harold (or LoHud or Mr. Orlando or anyone who was at the meeting last night): An update on the next set of decisions reached would be appreciated however.
To Conference One, if they play twice within conference, it hurts the stronger teams in the larger conferences. Suffern and Rye are the two old power league teams that seem to have a lot of uncompetitive match possibilities in their respective conferences. Under a “twice in conference mandate”, 10 non conference matches might be enough for Suffern to get upstate a few times and still schedule Mamo, WP, Pelham, ect, but if Rye is limited to 6 non conference games, they have to choose between upstate matches and games vs traditional rivals Mamo, Pelham, Suffern ect. By just realigning the teams in the four new conferences, you have assured some of the old League Three and Four teams get a regular season shot at the old power league teams. Do they really need that chance twice in a season? I mean, last year maybe Pawling and Brewster fans were thinking they should get a regular season shot at a team like Rye that struggled to maintain a winning record in the power league. Then, in the playoffs, Rye won 7-1 and 9-0 against those two teams. Should Rye have played those teams twice during the regular season? Maybe once, but twice??
To fanotgame: I understand your viewpoint. And if I was a coach of a power team with a legitimate shot at a getting to States then I might even agree. However, there are 4, maybe 5 teams in any given year that have that shot. For the other 25 or so teams the arguement is not relevant.
And so, as the AD’s look at it for what it is – a high school sport, with the educational goals that brings of being on a team, playing a sport, representing your school, competing against other schools in your community and area etc which viewpoint should be given more weight?
There is no right answer of course…....just interesting questions.
Conference One, I wonder how many times a weaker team really wants to play a considerably stronger team during the now shortened regular season? Play them once and the weaker team might catch the stronger team taking it lightly and get a close match or even a win. If they get blown out it is only one game. Play them that second time after a close game and watch out. That kind of payback can get ugly on the scoreboard. And if the first one is a blowout, the weaker team is already behind the eight ball before the second game starts.
Sorry, Conference One, I wasn’t there, but I don’t think the meeting actually happened yet. I think Harold may have had the date wrong in his original post.
While I’m typing, though, I’ll throw in my two cents. I don’t like that they messed with it. We had a good thing going that’s been working for a long time now. It keeps the games competitive and makes the kids on the weaker teams feel more like they have something to play for. Yes, most teams in the section have no shot at the final four of the section (much less the state tourney) even before practice begins in November, but they still have something to play for in the league 4 title and competitive games against similarly skilled teams. It allowed teams like Carmel or Nyack to win a few games every year. That is now all gone as a team like NTZ, Carmel, HG, PR, etc. will seemingly never have a shot at a league title after being thrown in with the bigger dogs. That being said, it is what it is, and we have to deal with it (at bare minimum for the 09-10 season), so let’s not look back and gripe, let’s look forward and try to make the best of it.
First, I don’t think more than one game against each league opponent is necessary. It would be one thing if they were 5-team leagues, but some have 8 teams, meaning you only have six non-league games to schedule. If you make the schedules with one game against each conference opponent, then give everybody a few crossover games that would count as part of their league record (as crossover games usually do), it will solve a couple of problems. First, it will avoid having Suffern, Rye, Pelham, Mamk, etc. decide between upstate and each other when scheduling their out of conference games because they would have league-mandated crossover games against each other. If they schedule five crossover games for the Rockland schools, four for the Conference 2 schools and three for each of the Conference 1 & 3 schools, everybody has 10 “league” games on their schedule and can schedule up to 10 more non-league games. If a school wants to save money, don’t schedule more than your league-mandated 10. If not, it still allows teams like CS, WP, NTZ, Mamk, etc. to host their annual tournaments and still allows teams like Mamk, Pelham, Suffern, Rye, etc. to go upstate.
The other thing it will do is help with playoff seeding. It is tough to look at non-league games to determine seeding and if you go with a strict home-and-home with no crossovers for the league schedule, you can’t weigh Suffern, WP, Mamk, Mahopac, etc. against each other. If you have only one game against each conference opponent and cross-overs, you can measure teams in terms of each other (and make head-to-head tiebreakers a little easier).
As far as the shuffling of the leagues goes, it will always hurt the top handful of teams, but if their going to do it, this is probably the best year for it. After all the parity we saw last year, and so many big guns graduating (coupled with the rumors of prep school defections), I would expect more parity this coming year. Yes, Suffern & Rye will likely run away with their divisions, but keep in mind that the leagues change year after year anyway. If you look at the history section of http://www.section1hockey.com (plug for my website), while the past seasons standings are not yet up there, past year’s all-league teams are which gives you a look at who was in what league. You only need to go back a few years to find things like Clarkstown South, Fox Lane, or NewRo in League 1…Greely, Pearl River, & Byram Hills in league 2…or Mahopac in League 3, etc. The only difference between then and now is we are forcing this to happen now while we were just letting things shake out then, and if a team wasn’t competitive where they were, we could move them. While I think there will be some unbalanced games this year, I think it’ll wind up more competitive than people think.
How anyone with a brain can think this new league structure is beyond me. Let’s not forget, the guys who know best (the coaches) voted 100 percent in favor of the power league structure.
LoHud – You make a good point on using crossovers to create an even number of “league games” for purposes of seeding come playoff time. That would be a workable solution and would bridge the gap on a 1x vs 2x conf schedule question. My worry on 1x was that Conf 4 would only have 5 league games which seems too few. But counting crossovers as league games for sectional purposes would put everyone on an even footing again and free up say 8-10 games (depending on how many crossovers) for each school do with as benefits their program.
If the meeting did not take place last night (May 4) as Harold had indicated then I can log off and go back to work
And a public thank you for all the hard work on the Section 1 website. It really became a great resource last season. I hope you continue to have the time and desire to keep that going this coming season.
As for Mamo: I think there are at least a few intelligent people on here today actually discussing this. So consider that an answer to your “question” from this brain.
Agree Conference One. Thank you very much Lohud for your efforts with the website. I particularly enjoyed looking back at the “history” section.
You know what kills me, and LOHUD you are our MVP we would be lost without you, but I expect more out of you on this one…..A lot of people act is if we had such a fabulous system before…..Have you seen what has gone on the past 3 years?? We have had teams in league 1 that belong in league 4, we have teams in league 4 that are demolishing teams in league 1, 2, and 3. AND SUFFERN, MAMO, RYE, and PELHAM you guys who I consider year in and year out the top teams until some other teams can show more consistency….Why are you complaining? You will see, Contrary to what people believe, the vote will be to play a one game roung robin, so guess what?? You won’t have to waste 6 of your games playing teams that were as weak as RTH and JJ and Pac this past year. So, I ask all of you who are worried about the new conferences…How much worse can they possibly be than what we have endured the last few seasons???
To all you avid section 1 hockey fans the only thing that is settled right now is the make up of the four conferences.All four conferences will meet on May 28 to decide on a single or double round. Each conference will decide on either single or double but my feeling is that they will all be consistant. Some if not all have already decided but it will be finalized on the 28th when scheduling and crossovers will be worked on. I am sure that the teams that go upstate have already been scheduling.
If you want to make sure that the great web site we have continues please become a sponsor.Lohud is doing a great job so let’s keep him going.
predictions,
you are really gonna say that the power leagues have been bad? give me a break, of course a few teams are going to be in the wrong league because you never know who the surprise teams will be, but overall the power league system was great as it created very competitive games among teams of similar skill levels, it was a great system and it is a shame it is gone.
Has anyone from the the meetings actually disclosed hoe much money the schools will be saving . I assume the only savings is the buses to away games. one way to save funds is to have the buses take the players to game aand then leave. players can go home with parents or get lift. That is what usually happens anyway. the bus coming home after games is usually only about 20% filled.The drivers woudl not be waiting around two to three hours and that would save alot of money. Ads are not businessman or people that think out of box. I for one would love to know how much each schools projected savings is.
Predictions-
Having teams with bad records does not necessarily mean they are bad teams. You bring up the point of JJ, RTH, & Pac. For starters, Pac was 6-7-1 in the power league with league wins over WP, Pelham, & Rye…hardly anything to sneeze at. In the case of JJ & RTH, I ask you this: Who would have replaced them in league 1? League 1 has had 8 teams in it for quite some time, and much like the arguments that go around about who was snubbed on the all-county teams (You can’t say this guy should be there without telling me who he should be replacing), you can’t say one team should be out without offering a suggestion of who should be there instead. When you have a real strong top half of the division, you are going to have some bad records at the bottom. When you have teams like Mamk & Suffern at the top winning pretty much every local game every season (aside from when they face each other), you are tagging everyone in league 1 with four league losses from the get-go. Sprinkle in splits with other teams at the bottom and a sweep or two from the teams in the middle, and the teams at the bottom of the division are always going to have only one or two wins by the end of the year.
This past year, if you pulled RTH & JJ out of league 1, they would have been replaced with CN & maybe ETB or North Rockland or Scarsdale. All quality teams, but CN’s league record probably would have looked similar to Pac’s if they were in League 1 and any of the other three I mentioned, as good as they were, would have had a record similar to RTH after playing their league games against the creme de la creme of section 1.
You will always have teams that maybe were in the wrong league, but predicting before the season starts how a team is going to come together is not always an exact science. For the most part, teams are in the right league year over year. In the case of the 08-09 season, it wasn’t a factor of the teams being in the wrong leagues that saw league 4 teams beating league 1 & 2 teams (or giving them close games), it was the fact that there was so much parity in the section. Beyond the top 4 or 5 teams, and the bottom 2 or 3, everyone was on a level playing field. That’s not a bad thing.
Thanks LoHud – i agree with the parity statement. If you put aside the top 4 teams in the Section (i’ll say Mamaroneck, Suffern, Rye & Pelham) as well as the bottom 2 teams in the Section, there is a very leveled playing field. For example, League 4’s Lakeland/Panas beating League 1’s RTH in the playoffs, League 4’s Sleepy Hollow/Irvington tying White Plains, etc.
From the middle of League 1 through the middle of League 4 , I truly believe any team can beat any team on any given day (note: in some years, there is an anomoly, like this year’s Clarkstown North in League 2 that may not lose to any team in their own league or lower leagues, but in most years, my previous sentence would apply).
Why do you think that Rye is going to be strong next year? Still have no scorers, lost top defensemen and their goalie. Will win there share of games in their conference because it’s a weak conference, but still can’t beat W.Plains, Suffern and Pelham!
You think Rye wil have a hard time beating Pelham. Have you seen who they lost or who they may lose to prep school. They will be alot worse than Rye.
Rye?,
Rye returns the 1st/2nd best offense in the section (Mamaroneck very close).
Still has a solid defense.
And next year’s goalie will be top 5 in the section.
They will beat all three of the teams you listed.
Hey Rye, you didn’t answer my question…...They couldn’t score last year nad I doubt if they will score next year. Only way is because they are going to play teams that aren’t that good. AGAIN!!!!!!! who do they have?
YEAH!!!!!! Inquiring minds want to know? WHO DO THEY HAVE??? LOL
speaking of goaltenders, who will be the best 10 in the section next year (excluding the ones playing juniors)?
so far i think glaviano (carmel), fatone (pac), riley (o-town), chiapparino (L/P), and maybe lacey (SH/I), but after that i have no idea who else
Rye?,
Top 5 Returning scorers on each team mentioned above (Player and points last year) all played in league 1
Rye: Mundinger-47, Katsuta-39, Rosenfield-26, Rogers-15 and Holmes-13
Pelham: Reilly-16, Perrorazio-3, Alpert-3, Fininzio-2 and Camardella-2
White Plains: Broderick-42, Lindh-34, Variano-31, Mcgee-28, Klimchuck-15
Suffern: Jaeger-35, Nicholson-13, Norwin-12, Baker-6 and Redgate-5
So Rye and White Plains are similar in offense, along with Mamaroneck but Rye has strong goaltending yet again next year while White Plains does not currently have a goalie.
These are subject to change because of possible kids not playing High School hockey because of juniors, but as of now this is how I would rank them:
1. Gluck, Scardale (Depends if he can play because of Brewster Junior B)
2. Delavergne, Pawling (Plays on same juniors team as Gluck, same situation)
3. Glaviano, Carmel
4. Rix, Rye
5. Riley, Ossining
6. Fatone, Mahopac
7. Chiapparino, Lakeland/Panas
Thats all I can say because those are the only players I have seen.
It is interesting that those who question Rye’s capabilities focus on the scoring. I can understand questioning the goaltending because you have not seen the prep goalie yet (you will soon enough) or the defense due to the loss of 2 senior dmen (there are able replacements). But, the Rye offense has the potential to be a lot like Mamo’s last year. 3 solid lines. The Garnets have the #1 and #4 returning scorers from last year’s power league. And those guys didn’t rack up the points on an easy schedule. For example, the two Rye forwards scored more goals (4) against Mamo-the best team in the Section (maybe the state) than the entire Pelham team (2) and the entire Suffern team (3) and the Pelicans and Mounties had a bunch of all state, all section, all county and all league players. I think the Garnets will score plenty, even against the top teams. Lets hope the schedule allows for a bunch of those games.
Why don’t little Rogers or Mundinger go prep?
RTH had one off year and everybody has proclaimed them dead… They have had winning seasons almost every year.
I think how each AD voted should be put onto the website. I would like to see how the hockey school ADs voted. That should be of public record. Harold could you post that pleas.
Marc glaviano will be the best goalie in the section
Spring hockey is a joke around here. The leauge that takes place at the ice-hutch/ hommocks is the best one. Although is doesnt mean much it has the most talent. While the WSA leauge is a joke with teams ETB, Ossining, Mt.Pleasant, L/P (Rengades) which is not a L/P team at all. The leauge consits of blow-outs mostly due to the Lakeland/Panas team which consists of all local young talent including Dan Broderick fomr W/P, Pechie brothers from SHI and a couple other kids mixed in from Lakeland,Iona prep, somers , New Ro, and others.
All in all if you looking for strong spring hockey, the local highschool leauges are not the place to be looking.
Why would L/P put a mixed team in the WSA league.This is a spring hockey league mostly for 8TH AND 9TH graders to get a feel for High School hockey. There are a few better players mixed in but very few.L/P (OR WHO EVER THEY ARE) is wasting their time in this league.If this is about winning then tell the Rengades to give us all a break.If your happy beating bantam B&C players Then congratulations and don’t forget to skate around the rink with your arms held high when you win the championship.PATHETIC !!!
The Ice Hutch/Hommocks Spring league is pretty good for kids who will be trying out for varsity next year and for current varsity players to help out those newcomers. Might help build some familiarity among linemates, also. It has the Mamo, Pelham, Rye and Scarsdale HS teams, plus two teams from Long Island (Stars and Predators). The Stars and Predators have no HS affiliation. They are Midget Minor aged kids (‘93 and ‘94 birth years) from Tier I and Tier II teams (judging from the hockey bags-Gulls, Royals, Ice Cats, Nassau, ect.). I used to think the Spring/Fall stuff at the Ice Hutch/Hommocks was goon hockey. While it is certainly not like going up to Marlborogh or down to Philly to play in an age specific AAA tourney, it serves the purpose of moving the HS programs forward and there does not appear to be a lot of goon antics. And, if everyone brings a full team, the games are competitive.
Lakeland panas should have went into the Ice Hutch league they would fit in their well. The Ice Hutch league has been pretty good so far. There are alwaysa chance for mis matches but for the most part the games have appeared to be good. I think Mamaroneck will be at the head of the class this winter. Lots of returning talent and experience. I watched Pelham clip Mamaroneck over the weekend here at Hommocks and it was interesting. Pelhams goalie and they say he was the starter before Lambdin came in was unbeatable. Pelham had hard charging young kids who fought hard. Pelham is rebuilding and you could tell that but the team that played was an aggressive group. Mamaroneck is going to be set up nicely with a lot of strong returners. The defense and offense has size speed and skill. I am looking forward to see what Rye Suffern and White Plains looks like too
congrats to tom natoli. just ran into him in suffern and said he has commited to becker college of the div 3 ecac northeast and has a great shot at battling for the starting job from what the coach’s say
Congrats to Natoli. Becker has pretty good baseball, also. Wonder if Natoli will try to play catcher there?
Tiger stripes- Thanks for the report. I think Rye plays Mamo this Saturday at Hommocks. Day after jr prom. Older Garnets may be sleepwalking. Agree that even a rebuilding Pelham team is dangerous. They lost a lot to graduation/prep, but all those support players get there shot at being “go to” guys. The Pelican defense and tending will be fine. Will be interesting to see how they generate offense. Next season should be an interesting one with a bunch of good southern Westchester teams. Too bad Rye not in Conference Two. Hopefully, the schedule allows for Rye to play Mamo and Pelham in the regular season. The Garnets will likely see the Pelicans in playoffs, but the regular season matches are also lots of excitement.
Becker Baseball Coach has contacted Tommy Natoli also.
The Spring Hockey at Ice Hutch/Hommacks actually has two divisions, Orr and Park, each with 7 teams. Teams play only in their division. The Mariners actually have a team in one division while Rye, Mamaroneck, Pelham, Stars, Predators play in the other divsion.
In the WSA Varsity hockey, while some schools have teams playing (ETB, Ossining, Mt. Pleasant) other teams are made up of random players who signed up and were just placed on a team.
One player on a randomly arranged team remarked to me how he thought it was strange that his team, with players who never met before, could go out and easily handle a team like Mt. Pleasant or ETB.
The WSA league has always been weak at the high school level. The rink itself is not a big high school fan to begin with. I think that WSA lets seniors play and the Hutch-Hommocks league does not. Thats a good rule by Hutch-Hommocks as the high school coaches want to look toward the future.
Information on Fall Leagues?
My son plays on a Rockland County high school team. He has played travel hockey for 7 or 8 years and is not doing that this year. We’ll miss it, but instead wiil be visiting and evaluating some colleges this fall (I don’t mind also not paying the $2,200 plus!).
Is there a good Fall high school league at Ice Hutch or WSA? Just something maybe 10-15 games, to get ready for the HS season.
Do they take individuals or team entires only.
Thanks.
Ice Hutch has a fall league. the last couple of years its been Pelham Rye Scarsdale and maybe Mahopac and Fox Lane were in it too.
I think the HS coaches who put teams in the Ice Hutch fall league would want only their HS players on the roster. They use the fall league as an extended tryout for the winter team.
You can always call Ed Witz at the Ice Hutch and ask if he would put your son on a Fall team. He offered to do that for me son a few years ago. Some school teams do not get enough players signing up and will take on an additional player.
HS hockey has an official restriction not allowing official school organized teams. Ed has his Pelham Players as part of the Pelham Youth Hockey Program but its mostly a method of practicing together. The kids on his squad who play fall sports are happy to get ice but some kids who don’t play fall sports go to the Vipers, Rye Rangers, Mariners and Brewster to play a split season of games in either Hudson Valley as Midget 16U or some full travel 18U. It should be noted that most of those programs have already finished the tryout process but some slots open up as many kids tryout for more than one team as a hedge…..The gap from first week of september till tryouts for HS teams is way too long for those not on a split squad or a Practice Squad like Pelham. Pelham’s midget team does not accept players who do not attend their High School.
Thanks all for the info. I’ll look into the Ice Hutch for the fall.
Not South….we’ve done midget travel before and aren’t looking for that type of commitment. For his senior year we’d/he rather not be spending fall Sat and Sundays playing travel games. We’ve done the split season and it invariably has conflicts or near-conflicts with high school games or practices. Again, the years of travel was great, but looking for something more low key in getting ready for the high school season.
He will work with anyone when it comes to kids. Call him, he`ll find a home for him in the Fall
Lion – the problem with spring and fall high school age hockey is that since the schools can’t be involved you land up with very fluid rosters, dads coaching and none too little control. All of the rinks have these programs, and they are money makers for the rink, but I’ve seen too many games at Brewster in spring/fall get out of control with poor officiating (1 ref), no / poor coaching and “anyone can play” rosters. So investigate carefully….
Conference One- Ice Hutch/Hommocks league in the Spring/Fall has Coach Witz behind the bench for Pelham and Coach Friesen behind the bench for Rye. I think the same is true for Mamo and Scarsdale in the Fall. Chaps might not be behind the bench for Mamo in the Spring due to baseball conflicts.
At Ice Hutch and my kid just finished senior year, he played in various spring and fall leagues there over his 4 years of high school. I believe all the teams were coached by the actual high school coaches. It looks like a training process for the high school teams in those leagues
My understanding is that the spring/fall leagues are not sanctioned by the schools and that the HS coaching staffs are not permitted to be involved. Similar to the rule that teams cannot practice prior to the first monday in November. Now we all know that rule is violated by many, many programs (captains practice anyone?) so I’m sure there are ways around the spring/fall rules….
I’m sure LoHud can shed light on what the actual rules are….
For Brewster leagues though my original point remains valid.
That rule is at least ten years old. As long as the team is not the actual and complete roster that competed in the high school league or as long as its not using any of the schools facilitites its not a problem. Anyone can put together a town or city team and the roster does not matter. Many high school coaches would like parents and players to believe that the old rule is in place then that way they get spring fall and summers off. Many high school coaches are appointed yearly, so therefore once the season ends they are no longer employed by the school until their re-appointment the following year. Many of the high school teams participating usually add non-roster younger players, that in itself takes the “high school team” out of it as its a different roster than the high school had.
Cambria might not be playing for Iona his upcoming senior season as he has an opportunity to play Jr. A Tier III for the Rockets
Conference one-
Sorry to say, but I don’t know the actual wording of the rule on this one. It was always my understanding that the varsity coach couldn’t coach the spring league teams. When I was in high school, usually the assistant varsity coaches would coach the spring league teams at SOR (although the head coach usually kept pretty close watch of how the team was doing). I’m not really sure if this was necessary because of a specific rule or if it was done to avoid any potential problems due to a grey area in the rule book.
I know many years ago, St. Joe’s of Montvale had some issues because the head coach at the time also coached the Junior B team for the Saints, so he wound up coaching some of his Varsity players in the fall on the Saints. I’m not sure if that was a NJ rule that they were violating or a universal one, but I believe that is what caused that particular coach to resign as the St. Joe’s coach.
In any event, I would imagine with the programs that Rye & Pelham have, and Witz’s knowledge of the rules being as how he does manage the Ice Hutch, that they would have double and triple checked to make sure coaching spring league teams is OK for he & Friesen before agreeing to do it. I don’t think they would put their HS programs in jeopardy when it could easily be avoided by having their assistants coach in the spring.
The Rye roster in the Spring and Fall is a far cry from the winter team. It is not extended practices. Lots of 8th graders from modified play in the Spring. Those same kids do it again as freshmen in the Fall. Also, lots of non varsity level upperclassmen play on the team to have fun with their friends who do play varsity. Probably only about 50% of the Spring/Fall roster actually plays varsity in the winter. Everyone gets equal ice. No power plays or man down specialists. Just roll the lines and let the experienced kids help out the less experienced ones. Keeps the Ice Hutch/Hommocks at full capacity and lets kids skate without making a travel commitment. Maybe someone who would not stand out in a week long tryout among 40 other kids gets his chance to show the coach something during a Spring/Fall game or two. The concept is good for everyone.
Also, some Spring/Fall hockey has a tendancy to get a little goonish. It is a heck of a lot safer having HS coaches as opposed to parents do the coaching. All the HS coach has to say is- don’t bother trying out in the winter if you do something unsportsmanlike or dangerous on the ice in the Spring/Fall. That message carries a lot more weight coming from the HS coach than a parent.
Hmmm…
Once again you see what separates the elite programs (Rye, Pelham, Mamo, Suffern) from everyone else.
My complaint is…why aren’t more varsity coaches getting involved in Spring and Fall teams???
Those coaches who work with their programs in the off season realize thats what it takes to gain success. Rye and Pelham are small schools and certainly do not have the elite travel player component within their programs. Mamaroneck has a large pipeline of players of all ages and skill levels and have volunteer coaches and parents who handle it while Chap is doing baseball.
Coaching…coaching..program administration.
If you are program is long mired in mediocrity. Look her first.
typing to fast…
If your program is long mired in mediocrity (or losing), look here first.
newest rumor,
That’s to bad about Cambria if it’s true. It’s a shame because he’s has been a tremendous player for Iona these past three years. I personally think it’s a mistake missing your senior year but go gotta do what you think is right.
BUT…....Iona is loaded next year. They will be cutting players. This is probably one school who will be competitive the next 4-6 years. I’ve been told that they have another 16 skaters coming into their program. A few might be playing varsity as freshman. So even though Cambria hurts, they still will have 20 players who an skate. And their goalie situation is alot brighter this year versus last year. SO I think it should be a competitive season for Iona.
The only rule that seems to pertain to off-season is this from the state handbook.
non-school sponsored activities are permitted if such programs are NOT mandated by coaches or school personnel.
school sponsored activities conducted out of the sport season such as general conditioning, weight training, weight lifting, intramurals, recreation. open gyms, club activities, and camps are permitted.1. if such programs are NOT mandated by coaches or school personnel. 2. if such programs are available to all students.
In my opinion coaches are allowed to be involved in NYS.
New Jersey has a completely different set of rules.
Thank you Coach Orlando.
chshl update,
you are right. while cambria might opt to go the solely junior route, yes, the school has approx. 20 8th graders who play coming in (one from jersey, a goalie, is living with a host family down the block…actually, b/c of brother gaffney, rip)...and yes, they will most likely be cutting some 4th-line-only-play-against-john-jay players as well as the scratches…look for talented froshes and sophs from this past jv year making names for themselves in the fall (mcdermott, logerfo, patalano, lipsky, chiariello, etc.)...besides the expected journal news highlighters like cambria (hopefully), mcardle, nolan, lynett, pellow, etc.
also, if anyone has been paying any off-season attention…
goalie-wise…excluding this probable incoming live-in frosh from jersey…
barry HANDS DOWN starts over gizzo for iona
Iona in 09-10…
With Section 1 teams only allowed to play 20 games, with maybe 2 required league games being up to 12 of the 20, upstate tournaments, and the remaining game(s) being for traditional rivals like Mamo-Suff and Rye-Pelham…It may not leave any or few game slots for Iona, Fordham or Step.
Al- unfortunately, I think that is true. Section One vs. CHSHL locals matches may be few and far between.
Al Bundy and fanotgame, I agree. Hopefully, that means more opportunity for Iona, Fordham, Stepinac to play some of the following:
St. Mary’s in Manhasset
Bergen Catholic
Don Bosco
St. Joe’s in Montvale
Delbarton
St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City
Paramus Catholic
Christian Brothers
Fairfield Prep
Trinity Catholic
Notre-Dame Fairfield
Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan, Ridgefield, etc.
...and maybe IP can re-ignite the old school Christian Brothers-Edmund Rice rivalries…like playing a home and home with powerhouse Bishop Hendricken in RI…
To CHSHL regarding Iona….
Both of the Teams were chock full of talent last year and both underachieved. Although Barry is the better of the Two Varsity goaltenders he is still young and in need of lots of defensive support. The Iona teams I saw last year did not play defense first but had more of the run and gun offense. The players who played on both squads last year being more offensive minded let their team down and the standing told the story. If Timmy and Glenn don’t adapt a posture of defense first they will be exploited for every turnover and every mistake. Before I started to skate with the title I would look at what is happening in the Nuetral Zone and the defensive zone. The JV Players moving up exhibited all of the same issues. I think the program needs some defensive counseling! You can’t win the way they play in my opinion….
Al Bundy,
Doesn’t really matter. The competition around our area will be VERY WEAK! next year. I’m sure Iona has plenty of competition around to fill their schedule.ANd it will be a competitive schedule!
Every year someone says the Section will be weaker than the prior year. Sure, the Section graduates super players every year. But every year, it seems to get better in relation to the rest of the state. And the state hockey can’t have that much of a prep drain in the current economy. Last season’s bloggers were saying that the Section will be nothing without Natoli, Conner, Eck, Rui et al. All that happened was: (i) two Section One teams played in state final games, (ii) 6 Section one teams made the final state rankings, (iii) 14 Section One players made “All State” teams and (iv) a Section One skater was named “player of the year” for New York state. Hard act to follow, but my money is on the Section having another great year.
fanotgame,
Yeah, a few teams in the section did well. But do you really think that this years class was better than the 2008 class (Natoli, Conner, Eck, Rui et al.). I don’t think so.
And I have to say, in my opinion this years stars have left High School Hockey! It’s going to be a very painful year!
Last year was a down year for Iona and Fordham talent wise too. Step overachieved or took advantage of Iona underachieving.
HockeyFan1- The state wide voters thought this year’s stars were better than last year’s stars, at least in relation to the others they played against. For the upcoming year, if you are referring to the talent drain resulting from the two ETB kids going to Choate or juniors, yes Hagen and Ciotti are very good players, but they never really focused on HS hockey in the first place. If you are talking about Pelham’s two dmen, yes Victor is a stud. Young Harms is a solid player, not really a star, yet. If you are talking about the two Mamo kids sometimes mentioned as considering prep, Christiansen and Gardiner are again very good players. There are others in the Section that play at or above their level, though. The Section would be stronger with these 6, but certainly not without substantail talent if those kids don’t play.
The Willows Flory combo is better than Rui Conner.
Iona and Fordham and Stepinac were not strong at all last year. I think only Fordham beat a league 1 team
good point- Actually, the 3 local CHSHL teams were 5-2 against League One teams last year. Mamo beat Step. Suffern didn’t play any of the Catholics. WP lost to both Stepinac and Fordham. Rye beat Fordham. Pelham didn’t play any of the Catholics. Pac lost to Fordham. Jay lost to Iona. RTH lost to Stepinac. Step was 2-1, Fordham 2-1 and Iona 1-0. Yes, 3 of the CHSHL’s League One wins were against the bottom 3 League One teams (Pac, Jay, RTH). No CHSHL team beat Mamo, Suffern, Rye or Pelham. An uneven (but state ranked) WP team was 0-2 vs. the CHSHL.
Good players leave senior year to play junior B or C because they feel this is a stepping stone for junior A,D3 or better.They don’t want to lose a year to get to the next level.Exposure is important but is it worth it?
Most end up spending tons of money to go nowhere and you give up and can’t get back all that goes along with being a star on your High School hockey team in section 1.Is it really worth it? For some I guess so but the rest are giving up a life time of memories from their School and communities. Example: Natoli stayed in high school and will be talked about forever in Suffern,maybe not so much if he left early.Either way good luck to all.
Senior Year-
I think Natoli would have been talked about just as much if he left after his junior year. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he stayed, but if his final game at Suffern was the 4OT scoreless tie against Ithaca in the state semi-final game where he made 57 saves and gave up 1 goal in the shoot-out instead of the OT loss to Mamk at SOR, it would have been just as high, if not a higher note to leave on. And to counter your example, we’re still all talking about Foster & the Daniels twins, all of whom left Suffern after their junior years.
regarding senior years- Saw Rye play Pelham last nite. Victor was spending a lot of time on the ice at defense for the Pelham. Maybe he is sticking around for his senior year to help out the young Pelicans.
Pelhams coach encouraged and worked with Dzenis getting to prep school. Everyone is on board with that. Thought it was a fast paced game last night with good play. Pelham is young and will get organized quickly and it will be Rye and Pelham again in the finals
no chance- lets hope so. Last season was a lot of fun. Too bad the two teams are not in the same conference. The situation is swithed from last year. Rye was the young team last season and Pelham had the experience. Last nite, the most experienced Rye forwards only got out every 5th shift due to 15 forwards (many of which won’t play varsity)getting equal ice. Those older forwards did get both Rye goals, coincidentally off plays where Victor was covering the shooter. Durand made some big saves to keep those two from getting a few more. But, for me, Spring hockey is all about the newbies. I was happy to see the 8th grade Rye goalies only let in one goal total. With the prep goalie coming back to Rye, it will be two more years before these youngsters will be starters, but it was fun to see them do OK versus the rivlal Pelicans. The young Pelham skaters played hard also.
agreed on all points. Durand may be the needed surprise for Pelham this year. With no play time this past year and returning as a senior he may be a key member for Pelham. He did play as the regular starter a few years ago I think in 10th grade and was in goal when Pelham lost out to Rye in the finals 2-1 so his experience helps. The Pelham team traditionally skates a hard game and I think that is a big part of the teams game and success. Causually watching last night Pelham had four plus lines too. Rye played a smart and hard game last night
Victor isn’t playing for Pelham next year.
Durand could steal a game from Rye like Benincasa did from Pelham.
completely diffrent situation, Durand is not close to what Benincasa was.
Its a stretch to compare Durand with Benincasa but lets look at this. Benincasa took over the number 1 job in Rye I believe 1/2 way through his junior year. He had virtually no experience at all when he became the number 1 goalie. Durand was the number 1 goalie for Pelham as a sophomore and he was in goal in Pelhams sectional final loss. he had a full year as a number 1 goalie and went through sectionals so I think Durand takes over the spot this year at the start of the season, as a senior and with experience in sectionals.
I would say you cannot compare Benincasa and Durand right now but lets look at this. Benincasa I think took over the number 1 spot for Rye in the middle of his junior year. Durand was the number 1 starter for Pelham as a soph two years ago and was on the ice when Rye beat Pelham in the section final. Now Durand comes back as a senior and has the experience of being a number 1 goalie and going through sectionals and into the finals. Pelham has lost much and will be extremely young but goaltending might be fine and if Pelham does what they have always done which is bounce back strong after heavy gradustion losses Pelham could be ok
Pelham will be a decent team but to compare Durand to Bennicasa is just silly. Why would Durand steal games for Pelham if he isn’t even better than Rye’s goalie next year?
The blog seems slow lately so does anyone want to throw out a list of their opinion of the top teams and then top players in the section next year in order?
joe naclerio and scott hagan from mamaroenick will be no doubt two of the top forwards in section 1 next year and you know norwin from suff will be among the best defenseman if not the top in the section
Chirs mastrocola from mahopac will be one of the top forwards
scott hagan snipes
Will be interesting to see how the Mahopac coach handles Mastrocola playing Brewster Junior B’s. Historically Mahopac has been pretty strict on not missing practices / games.
I was told by a Mahopac coach that they are strict and Mastrocola may have to decide which team he wants to play on if there are conflicts.Time will tell!
I would like to take this opportunity to laugh at everybody who doubted Mamaroneck early last season after they lost to Rye and White Plains. It was the fuel that drove them to go undefeated up until the state finals.
By the way, Scott Hagan and Matt Conner will be the two best players in the section.
The Tigers will be a very good team as always but there are a good 10 or 15 players better than those two. No knock on them as they are both very good players but not the best.
I predicted Mahopac to be a good team next year and going pretty far, maybe even making states, but without Mastrocola they have no chance. There is other player on Mahopac that can help lead them to a championship.
To Mahopac why are you talking to the Mahopac coach about another player anyway?
Agree Tigers will be the best in Section. They will do it like they usually do, with lots of depth.
Mamo will likely have 3 or 4 forwards who will be very good scorers. But, I would be surprised if they end up with two forwards on first team All County. That didn’t happen two seasons ago when Conner was player of the year or this past season when Mamo was arguably the best team in the state. There are lots of good forwards in the county and the Section in addition to those mentioned above by Mamo fans. Gardiner might be Mamo’s best forward. The aforementioned Mastracola and Olivario are two strong players. What about next year’s other seniors like Pesce, Katsuta, Mundinger, Miller and Flemming? And then there are some maturing underclassmen ready to break out, including Prunesti, Jaeger, Broderick, Caffrey, Belger and Rosenfeld? I am sure I missed a bunch more.
Regarding defensemen, if Dzenis is off to prep and Ciotti off to jrs, the remaining elite Dmen are McGee and Norwin. While both are very good returning honorable mention DI All State skaters, I give the nod to McGee who skates better. Belger and Christiansen lead the next group of Dmen.
Hard to bet against the Brewster Jr B duo of Gluck and Delaverne in net.
As a Tiger fan I m sick of every year hearing that the tigers are the best team. I agree that over the last ten seasons that I have followed them in almost all those years they had the ingredients yet they have won nothing. Since 2000 they have only won 3 division 1 sectional championships and thats counting the last two seasons. Going into this year the only one they had was in 04. Happy about the last two but tired of hearing it until we get to the next level
mamo fan- the last two seasons your team was eliminated by the eventual state champs (both one goal come-from- behind games). Not too shabby.
the team has had to talent to have done much much more
I would just like to add that the 2007 class wasn’t to bad either.Shuman,Willows,Wynne, Clark,Cimandano(not sure of spelling),Bloom and a few thers worth mentioning that escape me at the moment.
pelham fans are always trying to find ways to say that pelham is going to be good next year…face the facts, their not going to be good!