Rankings, Vers. 3.0 (Dec. 30)

December 31, 2007 on 2:35 am | In analysis | 9 Comments

Alright, here’s the next installment of some rankings. Still not a lot of clarity between 10 and 25.
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.

Read on for the njhockey.org Top 10s:

Continue reading Rankings, Vers. 3.0 (Dec. 30)…

My one day of hockey

December 22, 2007 on 10:18 pm | In analysis | 2 Comments

Well, I got to watch my one game of New Jersey hockey for the year this afternoon. To be honest, I prioritized friends and family today, with no regrets. After doing these interviews (Part I, Part II) on SportsNet America this morning, I decided to skip the drive to Skylands. Christmas shopping, y’know.

So I went over to Mennen this afternoon and caught up with a bunch of old friends, which was totally worth it. I got a serious handshake from Pingry coach John Magadini (who remembers when I came up to about his waist) and his staff after Pingry’s 9-2 win over Pequannock. I caught up with former Morristown baseball coach Harry Shatel, a friend and mentor to me, and several other friends from the Morris County scene. I also hung out with Dan Breeman of the Daily Record, a longtime friend and colleague.

And I watched some hockey. Arriving at Mennen near the end of the Pingry-Pequannock game, I had been in the rink for about five minutes when I got hit by a loose puck. What are the odds? Had I been in mid-season form, I might have made the catch, but I have to admit I turned away and let it hit me in the side.
I also officially met Roxbury coach Jon Benbow for the first time, and I watched his Gaels beat Park Regional 4-1. Roxbury really dominated the game, and only some sick saves from Anthony White kept Regional in it. You have to think Roxbury is the class of the Haas/Charette Division at the moment, although no big scorers really stand out.

Being back at Mennen for the first time in almost two years … I really, really missed the place. I missed the skate guards and announcements and banners and, most of all, the faces. It was just great to be back watching New Jersey hockey, and it reminded me how much I really do miss it sometimes.
There are a couple games worth seeing tomorrow, notably Indian Hills-Northern Highlands, Cranford-Watchung Hills, Rumson-Red Bank and Clifton-Ridgewood, but I will probably not be able to make any of them due to family commitments. I hope everybody in the hockey community gets to spend time with their respective families this holiday season.

Rankings, Vers. 2.0 (Dec. 16)

December 17, 2007 on 9:30 am | In analysis | 4 Comments

Alright, I’ve always said I needed two weeks to rank teams, so I guess it’s that time again.

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.

Read on for the njhockey.org Top 10s:

Continue reading Rankings, Vers. 2.0 (Dec. 16)…

NJSIAA posts public split

December 8, 2007 on 6:17 pm | In analysis, breaking news | Comments Off on 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

November 28, 2007 on 1:04 pm | In analysis | 3 Comments

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

November 26, 2007 on 10:41 pm | In analysis | 9 Comments

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

September 14, 2007 on 1:46 pm | In analysis, breaking news | Comments Off on 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.

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