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THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
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Head start in school hockey
By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe Correspondent, 10/29/2000
Maher was doing battle against a bigger Oliver Ames entry from Easton. He'd get knocked down, get up, and do it all over again - usually with a smile.
''That kid can really take a pounding,'' his father, David Maher, said in the stands. ''He gets knocked down, goes to the bench, but then gets right back out there.
''Hopefully he'll get to play high school hockey.''
And that, parents say, is the lure of what is called junior high hockey, which has exploded on the youth sports scene in the last few years. The league Sean Maher plays in nearly tripled in size since last year. Youngsters eager to learn the high school way of playing sign up for junior high hockey because it teaches high school level skills more than the usual youth hockey programs that have been around much longer, parents say. In addition, it puts youngsters from a town together on the same team, while most youth hockey league teams are composed of children from several communities.
But while playing junior high hockey along with youth hockey guarantees more practice and game time (youths playing both levels can be on the ice up to four times or more a week, fall through spring), it is not necessarily a good thing, said Kenneth O'Brien, president of the Taunton Brewins, a youth hockey organization composed of children from Taunton, Middleborough, Raynham, Lakeville, East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, and Bridgewater.
''It may seem good to do both, but it's too much hockey too quickly,'' O'Brien said. ''And it's just not interfering with kids and teams,'' because sometimes practices and games overlap in both leagues, forcing parents to decide between them, ''but it's misleading. They're calling it `junior high hockey,' and a lot of parents think if their kids don't play it, they won't be able to play with their high school, which just isn't true. They are not affiliated with any school, they just use the town's name.''
Most junior high level teams are not affiliated with, nor are they funded by, a school system or town. They're started by parent-run booster clubs eager to give their children more ice time and high school level training. The teams are usually funded by fees charged to parents (which can average $500 a child) or via fund-raising by the teams. Coaching is largely voluntary, with a small stipend paid in some cases. And it's not likely towns will be funding junior high hockey soon, coaches said, since it is relatively new.
But it all adds up to more hockey, with some children playing in youth leagues in addition to junior high. In the Bridgewater-Raynham Junior High League, teams now number 17, up from six last season, said William Ahern, who helped found the league last year and directs it this year.
''If you're in Bridgewater or Foxborough or Easton, let's say, and if you can start prior to high school playing with the kids who will likely go to the high school team, that makes it much easier to adapt to the high school level of play,'' Ahern said.
''In youth hockey, you have kids on teams from various towns, but in junior high hockey, it's mostly kids from one town. If they start playing together now, it'll be easier once they get to high school.''
William Buckley, coach of one of two Bridgewater-Raynham teams in the junior high league, said he uses drill suggestions from Mark Jones, head hockey coach at Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School, to give his players a better understanding of what will be expected at the next level.
''It gets them familiar to the high school drills,'' Buckley said. ''Nothing against youth hockey, but sometimes they're taught one thing and then have to relearn it once they get to high school.''
Enthusiasm for junior high school hockey is so great, he said, there are 21 players on his team; most hockey clubs generally carry 15 players. Currently, the league format is that everyone plays, but in the future it may adopt a tryout system, officials said.
Junior high hockey hasn't drained his league that much, said O'Brien of the Brewins; last year, a few more than 400 children played Taunton Brewins hockey, and this year the total is 394. But that just means more youngsters are likely doing both, he said.
''It's a big burden on parents,'' O'Brien said.
While playing junior high hockey is no guarantee a child will make that town's high school team, it does give them more of a shot, said Paul Daniels, coach of one of two Oliver Ames teams from Easton in the Bridgewater-Raynham Junior High League.
''We try to use the same philosophy as high school, starting at a younger age so when they get to high school they'll know the system,'' Daniels said. ''The other thing is to try and get their interest and excitement at a younger age. Some kids go off to private [high] schools because they feel it's better hockey there. But if you can prove you have a good program and a good system and be successful at the town level, they may not leave.''
Junior high level teams also feed existing - or potential - high school teams, said Timothy Kinch, who coaches Avon-Holbrook, a high school cooperative team that began two years ago, and who helped create junior high hockey in Middleborough. Also, the town now boasts a high school junior varsity team in hopes of creating a high school squad next year. Middleborough's last high school team was abolished for lack of school department funding 27 years ago, Kinch said.
''Junior high hockey is definitely a feeder for high school,'' Kinch said, adding that Middleborough's junior high squad will emulate the high school program, meaning practice won't start until the high school season does, after Thanksgiving. ''We want it to be as close to the high school program as we can.''
Junior high-level hockey teams also can be found throughout the South Weekly area including Norton, Foxborough. Mansfield, Whitman, Hanson, Pembroke, Canton, Stoughton, and Randolph.
Hockey is a very expensive sport, and parents whose children want to play both youth and junior high school hockey have to foot twice the bill in some cases. Playing for the Taunton Brewins costs $590 a child each season and playing junior high hockey can run $500 for the season (some teams that use extensive fund-raisers have knocked the cost down to between $100 and $200). But to many parents, having their children play a sport they enjoy is worth the cost.
''This is his first year playing ice hockey, and he's doing both Taunton Brewins and junior high, with a Freetown-Lakeville team,'' Kevin Gill said of his son, Owen, 12, a goaltender. ''He loves it, and I like it because it keeps him on the ice and away from the hard elements of life out there. You have to keep kids busy these days.''
John O'Donnell of Bridgewater, when asked how much it costs to keep his son, Nick, in junior high hockey and the Taunton Brewins, laughed and said, ''Beats me, I just keep making out checks.''
Robert Clancy, 12, plays both Bridgewater-Raynham junior high hockey and New England College Development League hockey, a privately run youth hockey venture that costs $1,500 a child. His mother, Helen, said as long as he can handle the load and, more importantly, keep up with his schoolwork, he can play.
''So far, he's able to handle it all, homework and this,'' she said. ''And it gets all his energy out, they get him good and tired out there.''
But beyond the cost of hockey, Kinch said, is the feeling of being part of a team sport that can make or break an impressionable child at risk of taking a wrong turn in life.
''I've heard about kids who used to walk around school kind of moping, their heads down,'' Kinch said. ''They get on a team, they walk around with their heads up.''
In Middleborough, where much of the cost of playing junior high hockey is offset by a variety of fund-raising and donations, hockey costs upward of $10,000 a year, Kinch said.
''If it costs ten, twelve grand and you might save five or six kids,'' he said, ''it's worth the money.''
This story ran on page S01 of the Boston Globe on 10/29/2000.
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AYNHAM - On the ice at the International Skating Center, Sean Maher was getting knocked around pretty good. The 12-year-old from Bridgewater, a hockey player for the Bridgewater-Raynham junior high level team, was one of the smallest - but gamest - youngsters on the ice.