Beyond the Scoresheet

NJSIAA posts public split

As you can probably tell, I’m fascinated by the state’s process in splitting the public tournament. The NJSIAA has posted the list of teams that will be classified as Public A or Public B. The list is available on Page 11 of this document (which always makes for interesting reading anyway).

I haven’t done a 100 percent cross-check, but here are a couple of things:

Woodbridge and JFK Iselin are on this list, but Monroe is not. Odd, considering Monroe fields a varsity team, and Woodbridge and JFK Iselin do not.

Co-ops are listed with the enrollment of one school (Whippany Park, Point Pleasant Boro, Tenafly, Jonathan Dayton, Verona) only. This leaves all five as Public B teams, when a combined enrollment figure would have pushed Point Pleasant, Tenafly and Park Regional into Public A.

I was originally told Nottingham would be Public B, but apparently the split has been amended to place Nottingham in the Public A classification.

I don’t know if these are mistakes or if the NJSIAA has reasons, but I really feel this should have (a) been fact-checked better and (b) been released much, much earlier.

MONDAY EDIT: I have been informed that the NJSIAA will likely re-release the list in the coming days, presumably with some of these mistakes corrected.

TUESDAY EDIT: The NJSIAA has added Monroe and fixed the enrollment of various co-ops. This led to me discovering that Pascack Valley and River Dell are both co-op teams. Why does nobody tell me these things? The only kink that remains involves Verona and WWPN. I’m trying to get it sorted out.

breaking down the public schools

I’m not going to pretend I don’t read the NJO forum, so I’m glad to see my rankings have stirred up such debate. And of course they’re not perfect. That’s the fun part.
Anyway, the thing I noticed most was confusion over which teams are Public A and which teams are Public B. So here’s the full list, with the NJSIAA enrollment numbers I have taken from the NJSIAA website:

Continue reading breaking down the public schools…

Preseason Top 10s

I usually eschew preseason polls. I don’t know enough about individual players, who’s back from last season, and the like. I prefer to wait for the first two weeks of results to provide some data. And I used to feel bad about ranking without seeing games, but hey, I see about two games per year now, so I might as well go ahead.

I’m putting these out there for discussion and debate, not because I think they’re infallible or because I’m particularly attached to any comparisons. I’m also splitting public schools into their Public A and Public B classifications, as we will for the state tournament.

Without further ado, the njhockey.org Preseason Top 10s (educated guesses included):

Continue reading Preseason Top 10s…

Public tourney split approved

As first reported here in the summer and reported today in the Newark Star-Ledger, the NJSIAA Wednesday approved the split of the public ice hockey tournaments into two divisions.

I can only imagine what the NJSIAA will call it (hopefully not the Large School Championship Subdivision and the Small School Championship Subdivision), but I’m going with Division I (small) and Division II (large) for now. When I get to a computer with my full listing of teams and have some free time, I’ll try to finalize a breakdown of which teams will be which.

I also heard today that the Shore Conference is changing the way its schedule works (again.) I’m getting pretty tired of this, quite frankly. All the northern conferences had their schedules done in July, and we don’t even have preliminary Shore schedules here in September. Meanwhile, it’s non-hockey people making poor decisions about a sport that has very specific scheduling issues. I’ll let you know if and when we get a decision on this.

my take on the Harvey Cohen situation

crazy that the hockey news keeps on coming. I’ve got schedules out for most of the NJIHL, as you may have noticed, and the NBIAL. A reminder that these are very, very preliminary and subject to change. I’ll keep checking various sites and various sources for updates. As always, please send schedule and coaching updates to jty [at] njhockey.org. … Slight realignment in the CVC, with Lawrence moving up to the Valley and Ewing dropping the Patriot. I believe that this is based on record in the last two years, which is why Ewing is dropping and not Hightstown. I could be mistaken about that. … If you’re bored, check out Delbarton’s schedule. In addition to its by-now annual trip to Rhode Island, the Green Wave is heading to Minnesota for four days in January to face three mid-level Minnesota private schools. Ought to be interesting. Also, for the second straight year, Delbarton will face Lawrenceville in February, this time returning the prep power’s trip to Aspen from last year. Check out this stat: Lawrenceville has not beaten Delbarton since 2000.

There will be / have been a number of coaching changes around the state, including at some high profile schools. The most well known of these, of course, could come at Chatham High School, if this story on Harvey Cohen’s situation holds up. I’m going to weigh in on this briefly. I haven’t talked to Harvey or to the Chatham school board about this, so take it with a grain of salt:

Harvey and I disagree about a lot of things in high school sports. Always have, always will. But we e-mail during the season and share opinions on rankings, seedings, scheduling, Morris County teams, private-public games and the like. We see eye-to-eye on some stuff but often have to agree to disagree. He was upset with me in 2006 when I criticized Chatham’s state tournament seeding and noted publicly that Cohen was on the seeding committee.
But although Harvey and I often disagree, I don’t think he got a fair deal on this one. Whatever you want to say about Harvey Cohen, he’s a dedicated coach who loves his players. Absolutely loves them, stands by them, tries to teach them, and looks out for them at all times. I have to like and respect a coach like that, and I like and respect Harvey.
We could argue all day about whether coaches should be athletic directors, both in general and in this specific instance, but that’s not really the point. Neither is the supposed point of contention concerning a $95/game fee for alternate site administrators necessitated by Cohen’s coaching duties.
To me, the most obvious thing is that the situation could have been handled more professionally by the School District of the Chathams Board of Education (hope I got that official name right). Harvey Cohen has been coaching Chatham hockey since 1973, and I, for one, will miss hearing his high-pitched cries of “Deep!” and “Body!” from the “Little Cougar” bench if the decision stands. As I understand it, there are a number of people in Chatham who feel the same way.

EDIT July 16: I’ve heard from several sources that after further consideration, Cohen will continue to be grandfathered on this rule and be eligible to remain coach and athletic director for several years.

firmer plan on realignment; schedules on the way

As first reported here, the NJSIAA is moving toward a public state tournament split. I did get wrong information about how the split will work, however; all publics will be designated as large or small (can I go ahead and suggest Public A and Public B, to keep in line with the designations for private schools in other sports? Public I and Public II or Group III/IV and Group I/II could be pretty confusing) before the season begins, rather than after teams qualify for the tournament.

Dan Breeman of the Daily Record got some feedback from Morris County coaches on the realignment; predictably enough, Harvey Cohen (and most league coaches, which coincidentally are small-school) is on one side and Rich McLaughlin the other. You gotta love it. The actual text of the proposal, which will be voted upon in September, can be found here.

Finally, the NJIHL’s preliminary schedule for most of its divisions (and the NBIAL) was recently passed on to me - I’m in the process of entering that data into my files and should have preliminary (very tentative) schedules up soon, hopefully helping coaches and administrators in fine-tuning those schedules. Once they’re up, please do not take them as gospel because schedules tend to change quite a bit from their original form. With that in mind, if there are any suggestions for the format of this site’s various schedule pages, I would love to hear them now so that I can incorporate them from the beginning.

And obviously, JVR was drafted by the Flyers and made history in the process, getting plenty of pub for it. I’m glad I got to see him play, albeit briefly, and hopefully we’ll eventually see the third NJ high school product in the NHL. Pretty cool that he can just go by his initials around here, huh?

spotlight on Mennen

Well, y’all, today’s the day. The state finals at Mennen Arena, just like it used to be (except for the whole two-state-finals thing). I know it is a shame the players did not get to play at Continental again and that some fans may be shut out, but I also think the atmosphere at Mennen will be second only to a Delbarton-Seton Hall Prep game, and it may even top that. With such a small venue and two large public schools on hand, the first game ought to be absolutely rocking. Also, parking is going to be a nightmare. With separate crowds totaling 4,000, there is no way all the cars will be able to fit in the parking lot toward the end of the first game. Get there way early, and you may want to park in Morris Plains and make the long walk over. Now on to the games …

5:00 pm (3) Bridgewater-Raritan vs. (1) Randolph

The third-seeded Panthers knocked off Ridge to deny a championship-game matchup between the two most talented teams, but I expect it to be close anyway. Much of the pressure will fall on BR goalie Gary Biggs, who has been up to the task all year. I remember talking to Patrick Alvin when he wasn’t sure who would take over for Dave Kababik … Biggs has come a long way.

Common thought is that Randolph will outskate and outskill Bridgewater with its deep cast of forwards. That could happen, but Bridgewater has long been similar to Randolph - lots of fast but bland forwards without overwhelming puckhandling skills - with more size. I would guess Bridgewater will need to come out hitting to really put its stamp on the game.

In the end, I think Kyle Krannich (or some unknown third-line player, it really doesn’t matter) will find the net for Randolph and Dan Swenson will be on the bottom of a pile once again. But do not count out Bridgewater.

8:00 pm (5) St. Augustine Prep vs. (2) St. Peter’s Prep

This is a tough one. I’m tempted to jump on the St. Augustine Prep bandwagon. Anybody that can beat Seton Hall Prep and Delbarton back-to-back deserves major props and is obviously capable of winning this thing. It would be a major blow for South Jersey hockey, and St. Augustine Prep could become the first non-Gordon team to win the private title since Delbarton in 02 and the lowest seed ever to win a private title. St. Peter’s Prep was a 5 seed when it lost the 2004 final; Seton Hall Prep was a 6 seed when it lost the 1997 final. Bergen Catholic was seeded third in 2001, the lowest seed to win a private title.

All that said, something tells me this will be St. Peter’s Prep’s night. Another team that has gradually risen through the ranks just to get to the Gordon Conference and was a huge underdog in this same spot three years ago. I think the experience of Kevin Fox, Tim Miller and their boys and the skill of a player like Kyle Palmieri will make the difference. Remember James van Riemsdyk scoring the winner two years ago before going to make the national team … Palmieri has a chance to follow in his footsteps tonight.

Anyway, I hate predictions, and who am I to make them anyway? Go to the games tonight, scream yourselves hoarse, and have a blast. If you’re playing, take a moment during warmups to soak up the atmosphere. Look around during the national anthem. Then lock in and compete your hardest on the biggest stage yet. Good luck.