MHSAA hockey

Been following it a little. Three of the top nine teams in division 3 are on the same regional (Houghton, Calumet, Alpena). Alpena v Houghton on Wednesday. I find the division set up weird. For example:

Livonia Stevenson (1400 students) is in the smallest hockey division. But division 2 in football. If you combined the the enrollment of Houghton, Calumet, and Hancock (last year's finalist) you'd still fall 400 kids short of the 1400 loss LC has. Also kinda crazy that you could throw a blanket over Houghton, Hancock, and Calmet. All three schools are within 14 miles of each other. If you combined the rosters they'd literally never lose a game.

A lot of decent hockey players in Detroit Metro and to a lesser extent players in Mid Michigan, West and Southwest MI choose to play travel rather than HS hockey.

The HS hockey in those 3 communities looks a lot more like HS hockey in Minnesota where more skilled players choose to play for their HS then if necessary spend a year playing USHL before playing college hockey.

40-50 years ago MA hockey was town oriented. A lot of community rinks, fees were like Little League baseball and a thriving used equipment market at the rinks. I was in the USN with a guy from Lowell MA. His mom was a school secretary for the parish elementary and his dad was a city maintenance worker. All 4 sons played from Mites thru HS. There are 8-10 grandkids and only 1 plays hockey because of the expense. Recessions caused cities to close their public rinks.

GRR Spartan wrote:A lot of decent hockey players in Detroit Metro and to a lesser extent players in Mid Michigan, West and Southwest MI choose to play travel rather than HS hockey.

The HS hockey in those 3 communities looks a lot more like HS hockey in Minnesota where more skilled players choose to play for their HS then if necessary spend a year playing USHL before playing college hockey.

40-50 years ago MA hockey was town oriented. A lot of community rinks, fees were like Little League baseball and a thriving used equipment market at the rinks. I was in the USN with a guy from Lowell MA. His mom was a school secretary for the parish elementary and his dad was a city maintenance worker. All 4 sons played from Mites thru HS. There are 8-10 grandkids and only 1 plays hockey because of the expense. Recessions caused cities to close their public rinks.

Yeah, quality rink availability is tough. It's a huge expense. Always a shot show between the city or a management group and who is responsible for maintenance. To me it's mind boggling that Calumet for example has a population of 700 people and 194 public school kids and can compete with the DCC's, Brother Rices's, and DeLasalles of the world.

Its because Brother Rice, DCC and DeLaSalle all have players who played for Compuware, Junior Red Wings, Plymouth Whalers, Honeybaked, Oakland Jr. Grizzlies and other travel programs.

When they hit 8th-9th grade reality sets in that they are good enough to make their HS team and get PT or be relegated to the B teams in the high level travel teams when college scouts and OHL are looking solely at the A teams of those organizations.

You do get some exceptions like the Red Wings Luke Glendening who was twice an All State RB for EGR on at least one state championship team who also played hockey for EGR. Glendening went to The Hotchkiss School for a year then to umaa where he played for 4 years.

However more players take the route Dan Byslma, Abdelkater and the Millers took playing travel hockey and USHL before college.

Due to geography and in some cases financial considerations the Yoopers and the players in Alpena are good players who stayed home to play at their local rinks and play HS hockey.

GRR Spartan wrote:Its because Brother Rice, DCC and DeLaSalle all have players who played for Compuware, Junior Red Wings, Plymouth Whalers, Honeybaked, Oakland Jr. Grizzlies and other travel programs.

When they hit 8th-9th grade reality sets in that they are good enough to make their HS team and get PT or be relegated to the B teams in the high level travel teams when college scouts and OHL are looking solely at the A teams of those organizations.

You do get some exceptions like the Red Wings Luke Glendening who was twice an All State RB for EGR on at least one state championship team who also played hockey for EGR. Glendening went to The Hotchkiss School for a year then to umaa where he played for 4 years.

However more players take the route Dan Byslma, Abdelkater and the Millers took playing travel hockey and USHL before college.

Due to geography and in some cases financial considerations the Yoopers and the players in Alpena are good players who stayed home to play at their local rinks and play HS hockey.

Yeah I get it. Even with all the advantages these kids down state have, a town like Calumet still competes and often is better than pick of the litter kids. Obviously it's ingrained in these yooper kids. Hockey is life lol. Think I'm gonna make the trip to SSM and catch the Houghton v Alpena regional final.