by Tinytim4 » Tue Dec 27, 2016 3:28 pm
Great topic!
First of all we can blame MEAHA and USA Hockey for the state of high school hockey. Their regionalization of travel teams, and then the no borders are what destroyed youth hockey. Every youth parent thinks that their child is going pro and are willing to pour thousands of dollars into their childs hockey. They will travel hours just to go to practice, all chasing a winner. By doing this they have made it too expensive for many to try hockey at a young age. Southern Maine may be an exception and Casco Bay had always done it correctly, but I can tell you its tough to try and get 6 yr olds out with sticker shock. Parents find a pair of sneakers and a warm gym much more inviting then 5am in a cold rink with $1000 in equipment. Let alone the team fees.
I think its a joke watching these kids with all the matching helmets, apparel, bags and so on. Ice hockey is all about ice time. You want to get better you need to be on the ice. I don't care how good you look, you need to be on the ice. Many towns no longer have outdoor rinks, you rarely see pond hockey. The parent who takes the time to build the home rink will tell you that's where their kids get better. The problem is too many people have found a way to make money and good money on our youth and gullible parents. We have created year round athletes, and yet the experts tell us to play multiple sports. A decade ago there were so many house programs with viable town teams. There are still the power house hockey towns of Lewiston, Biddeford, Waterville, and even the Gardiner's and Winslow's but those are soon coming to an end as well. Lewiston and Biddeford may survive for a bit. Waterville will not field a team on its own next year, nor will Winslow for long. Gardiner whose youth program finally had to cave in as there just wasn't ice or they had to travel by a rink only to go to another for ice.
The classification solution should be simple. If you have enough players for a jv team then you are an A school. If you have 20 or less then you are a B school. If hockey wants to survive it will have to be mostly co-ops, but the root of it is going to be towns recognizing that if they want to have a h.s. hockey team, then you need a local youth program. Too many trying to chase a dream at 6 - 10 yrs. old, and not enough getting their friends to come out and play some good ole ice hockey. I am fortunate that my kids had the opportunity to play in high school, and although, the youth years were fun, they were nothing like high school. I hope that not only will the mpa see that this problem will not fix itself over the next 10 years, but that parents will realize that they just might want to see their kids play high school for their home town then to travel an hour to play for a travel team made up of kids from all over the state, only to destroy their own local program, and then possibly not have a team to play on in high school.
Regardless it needs to be fixed at the youth level if high school hockey is to survive in Maine.