Provisional Teams

Since its inception, the MSHL has encouraged the development of high school hockey. In getting a high school team off the ground, frequently it is necessary to combine student-athletes from more than one school to get sufficient numbers to form a team. The term used by the MSHL (and other high school leagues), is "Provisional Varsity".

Provisional varsity teams have all the rights and priviliges of single school teams with the exception of not being able to compete for the state championship. There is a long history behind this, but the main reason is that, in the past, teams were formed for the express purpose of winning using only students that also played on travel teams to the exclusion of students who were unskilled or low skilled hockey players.

Most coaches and teams thankfully have gotten away from that mind set. High school sports is not solely about winning. Though winning is nice, wonderful even, the purpose of high school sports is to extend the learning begun in the classroom.

The MSHL gives a three year grace period for the provisional team to make it to a single school. Some schools have made the jump, while others have not and have no forseeable change in their status. If the status quo on these long term provisional schools won't or can't change, should the MSHL bow to the new reality and see what we can do for them?

In the past few years I have been thinking about the provisional teams and how other states handle low numbers in various schools. In states where the educational system is built around towns, many states allow schools to combine, for a certain period, to get enough numbers to field a team. These co-op teams have full rights and can participate in post season play. Interestingly, it is these states where we find ice hockey as a sanctioned sport.

The other side of the coin is what we have here in Maryland. Our schools are county run. The state has determined that individual high schools are self sufficient and cannot combine with another high school to get sufficient numbers to field a team. It also takes an entire county to sponsor a sport -- an single public school cannot go at it alone. Ice hockey teams in these states are generally club sports.

So how does this affect the MSHL?

Part of our problem with the counties and the state is we have these "provisional" teams competing with our single school teams. For many at the county and state level, this gives them the impression that we're just another youth sport masquerading under a high school flag. We're most certainly not, but if one does not know what we do, the external shell could lead one to that impression.

What I would like a healthy debate on are two things:
(a) changing the name "provisional" to "co-op"
(b) having a separate co-op championship.

With a co-op program, adjacent high schools or high schools within a defined cluster, set up a three year relationship. In that time frame, any student-athlete who attends the cluster schools is eligible to play for that co-op's ice hockey team. There can be no cuts. If somebody pays, then they are allowed to participate. No student from outside the co-op can participate on this team.

What about a home schooled student? Until the State of Maryland allows home schooled students to participate in extra curricular activities, or their local private school allows home schooled students to participate in their extracurricular activities, then they cannot play in the MSHL.

How does this work? Let me give a few examples:
There is one MSHL high school program in the District of Columbia -- Wilson. Any students attending a high school in DC that does not already sponsor ice hockey as a varsity sport, would be eligible to participate on Wilson's team.

Currently there appear not to be enough students in Washington County (Hagerstown) to form a single school team. Washington County would be be the co-op team for all the high schools in that county.

Frederick County has many single school teams and a few that do not have the numbers to field a full team. Tuscarora High School is designated as the co-op program for Frederick County.

In Montgomery County, the situation is a bit more complicated with clusters and many schools that have their own hockey teams. But for example, the Northeast Cluster is composed of Blake, Paint Branch, and Springbrook High Schools. In 2008-09, Blake had sufficient numbers to form its own team, while Paint Branch and Springbrook did not. Therefore, Paint Branch and Springbrook would combine students to reach the magic number of 15. If they are below that number, then they could combine with schools in the Downcounty Cluster (Einstein, Northwood) to form a team. There are similar, well defined, clusters in Montgomery County that can combine to form a co-op team.

In Prince Georges County, for example, Roosevelt would get all the schools West of the BW Parkway and inside the Beltway. Bowie would get all the schools East of the BW Parkway and outside the Beltway.

The list goes on.... The important thing is that no kid is cut because of ability and no student from outside the boundaries may play.

Now, because co-op teams can have, for the lack of a better tern, "ringers", should they be placed in their own separate schedule or should they be integrated in their county's schedule?? Personally, I prefer their own separate division, though travel concerns could be an issue.

So what about a championship? A certain amount of teams qualify and then they play down to their own championship on Saturday afternoon (3 ish) before the boys varsity title game.

This in new. This is a radical departure from the current paridigm. Can it work? Will it work?

I invite your comments. WARNING: If the comments get off track, or degenerate into name calling, I'll turn off the comm box.