An epidemic has been hitting the Colonial Valley Conference each winter and it has nothing to do with the cold and flu season.
Just call it co-op-tivitis, as more and more CVC ice hockey teams have reached co-op agreements — a merger of sorts — with other schools to keep their programs afloat. A co-op is basically a merger of two schools’ teams that have struggled with numbers.
With this year as the final year of an agreement between High School North and Ewing, North is looking to forge a new partnership with High School South for at least the next two years.
WW-P Athletic Director Jean Marie Seal, who oversees both programs, has gotten approval from the Board of Education to co-op. Next steps are approval from the CVC and the NJSIAA, with final state approval in June.
“I’ve met with our coaches,” Seal said. “They’re for it 100 percent. North has needed the help for years as far as numbers. When they wanted to co-op with Ewing two years ago, South didn’t need the help. But with South’s numbers starting to fall as far as experienced skaters, it absolutely makes more sense to co-op with the schools in the district. Some of these kids know each other. They’ve played each other before.”
The Pirates have traditionally been one of the CVC’s stronger teams and had a 14-9-2 record last year. There were heavy graduation tolls and no one to step in, however, as South has won just two of its first 22 games.
North won three games combined the previous two seasons and won six of its first 20 this year. But the Northern Knights’ numbers have been in steady decline. In coach Andrew Ferencevych’s first year there were 18 players on the team. Last year there were 15 from North and one from Ewing. This year there are 11 from North and two from Ewing.
Laurent Lassance, in his sixth year as South coach, says his numbers have remained steady but the quality of players has dropped.
“We’ve never had a full 20-man roster, but even if we only had 17 or 18 everybody had some decent skill at the very worst,” Lassance said. “Where now, some of the kids I have on the team would usually not make the varsity level team. But I kept them this year because I know there’s a good chance we’ll co-op next year and those kids will be part of a developmental program.”
Lassance’s comments strike at the heart of the matter. Just having numbers in a sport like hockey isn’t enough; there must be some experience involved. It’s not like baseball — where if an outfielder misjudges a fly ball he probably won’t end up injured. Putting an inexperienced player on the ice could be dangerous.
“We’re all kind of in survival mode,” Seal said. “Having bodies is not the same as having kids who know how to skate and play a contact sport. We are getting newcomers, which we welcome. But we want to give them a few years to develop. By merging we provide enough that you can skate safely and still provide time to develop.”
The plan is to put the best players on a varsity team, while placing the newcomers on a developmental squad to learn the skills. The long-range plan is to turn the developmental team into a junior varsity team.
“It should be two teams so some of the inexperienced players get time to practice, run more of a JV-style practice, and get game experience for those players who don’t really play at varsity now,” Ferencevych said. “Consolidating it would make sense to have at least two programs, with some focus on improving those players. Consolidation would allow more coaches on the ice to cater to the different levels of ability on the team.”
Because neither team is deep with talented players, the top line players are not getting pushed during practice, and the lower level players are not learning anything because they are just trying to keep up. Combining the talent levels from both schools combine will enable more productive practices.
Rather than immediately start a JV program, however, Lassance feels there should just be practice sessions with the developmental squad.
“I think for the first year it’s strictly going to be working to better their fundamental skills — from skating to passing to shooting — where not much competition is going to be involved,” the sixth-year Pirate coach said. “But we’re not going to throw them into a JV 10-game schedule right away. Even some of the JV teams around North Jersey and the Shore area give the varsity level some pretty good competition. It wouldn’t make sense to throw them right into the fire.”
The CVC began hockey in the 1980s and had a good run, but several issues have eaten away at the sport’s fabric. The cost is high, and most of the standout players transfer to non-public schools. In WW-P’s case, a feeder system has dried up.
“We used to have a lot of kids who came out for the team when IceLand (in Hamilton) was running a house league,” Ferencevych said. “Those players would start playing travel, and from there they would end up playing in high school. But there’s no IceLand house feeder, and there aren’t as many kids picking it up who would just plunk down a couple of thousand bucks to play on a team when they have no experience.”
Lassance provided several other reasons when he noted “I don’t think there’s as many kids playing street hockey outside. And some parents are veering their kids away from contact sports because of the concussion issue.”
Seal pointed out that if the schools are granted a co-op, it would only be a two-year agreement. After those two years, a discussion will be had whether to keep it that way, or go back to each school fielding a team.
But for now, everyone agrees that consolidating is the way to go. Seal said the plan is to have Ferencevych and Lassance remain as co-coaches.
“Each of the teams has two or three good defensemen and some good forwards,” Ferencevych said. “If you combine those two into one team I think it could be pretty competitive with the level of the teams in the upper division, like Hopewell and Princeton.”
It would also help to build a foundation so that graduation losses don’t become crippling. It will combine the budget of two programs into one, as well as helping players develop on a deeper level.
“It’s going to be one program so we can use some of that money for the developmental kids, for their own ice slot,” Lassance said. “They’ll be able to work on what they need to work on instead of maybe being forced to not be able to be in certain drills because the level is too high.”
In short: the merger makes sense.
