A thought to help HS hockey’s potential MLK weekend event scheduling dilemmas
This thought is so easy it most likely has no enterprise working for no matter motive.
However right here it goes anyway.
One of many challenges of mid-January in Ohio highschool hockey is placing collectively a aggressive Martin Luther King Jr. weekend event.
With a purpose to obtain that aim, for instance, a number of Information-Herald protection space hockey applications hit the highway yearly.
College heads to Sylvania to the venerable Tam O’Shanter — one among these years, by the best way, I’ve received to trek on the market to see how venerable that rink is. Gilmour travels to Ontario for a event. Mentor goes to the Columbus space. And so forth.
However for each workforce that does funds for and get in MLK hockey, there are a lot of who don’t.
In the event that they don’t have league motion scheduled, that would imply a break of practically two weeks between video games if their league counterparts are hitting the highway.
Moreover, there isn’t a Information-Herald protection area-based MLK event. Gilmour has its Brother James Memorial event after Christmas. Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin briefly hosted a Winter Invitational at Mentor Civic Enviornment means again when. Lake Catholic, previous to its dormancy, staged a Cougar Vacation Extravaganza for some time.
With all that in thoughts, you may argue it’s a basic problem to search out constant MLK weekend hockey.
Effectively, despite the fact that it received’t lead anyplace, let’s attempt to repair that on paper, lets?
A thought sprung into my head round New 12 months’s, and truthfully, I used to be shocked it took me this lengthy.
Let’s take into consideration this logically.
All the highschool hockey leagues in Ohio play basically the Pink/White/Blue mannequin to which we’ve got all grown accustomed.
In idea, meaning the groups who play in these divisions are of comparatively aggressive stature.
For instance, the second-place workforce within the Better Cleveland Excessive College Hockey League’s White East would conceivably get a very good sport out of the second-place workforce within the Columbus-area Capital Hockey Convention’s White Division.
The Nice Lakes Hockey League right here in Cleveland, together with Information-Herald protection space staples US and Gilmour, has 5 groups.
The GCHSHL Pink has seven. The GCHSHL White has eight, and the GCHSHL Blue has 18.
The Northwest Hockey Convention, which is Toledo-area squads, has a seven-team Pink and a five-team White (which incorporates two so-called “membership” groups).
The CHC has a six-team Pink, a six-team White and a six-team Blue.
What if we might discover a solution to have a kind of “problem cup” between the respective Reds, Whites and Blues from every a part of the state?
For the sake of the train, let’s contemplate the GLHL a part of the Pink — which, clearly, it’s, as a result of it’s the upper-echelon standard-bearer applications in Cleveland minus two independents in St. Edward and St. Ignatius.
Let’s say it’s an eight-team format with pool play main right into a closing day, like Gilmour’s Brother James event simply did.
Take the highest two groups every — both by present or final 12 months’s league standings; we are able to debate that side later — from the GLHL, GCHSHL Pink, NHC Pink and CHC Pink. Put one among every in every pool.
Allow them to slug it out over two days, with a one-game Day 1 and two-game Day 2, right into a championship spherical Day 3.
That format might proceed on.
It could go as follows, and we’ll simply quantity the tournaments in lieu of a extra intelligent title:
Match 1
GLHL, GCHSHL, NHC and CHC Pink first and second
Match 2
GLHL, GCHSHL, NHC and CHC Pink third and fourth
Let’s have some enjoyable and spice it up just a little:
Match 3
GLHL, GCHSHL, NHC and CHC fifth and the highest 4 groups from the prior 12 months’s Buckeye Cup to crown a state membership champion
(And sure, I understand how some individuals really feel in regards to the “membership” label. It’s varsity-level hockey and sanctioned by USA Hockey. “Membership” has been a long-standing catch-all phrase to explain applications not a part of the league of their area of Ohio. If you already know my work, you’ve heard me use the membership phrase for years. It’s not meant to be an insult in any means.)
Match 4
GCHSHL Pink sixth and seventh, NHC Pink sixth and seventh, CHC sixth and the White Division champions of the GCHSHL, NHC and CHC (within the GCHSHL’s case, clearly one must be chosen from the 2 divisions — the reigning Baron Cup II champion maybe?)
Match 5
The opposite GCHSHL White champion not in Match 4, the GCHSHL White East and White West and NHC White and CHC White second and three extra “membership” applications based mostly on rankings
Match 6
GCHSHL White East and White West, NHC White and CHC White third plus 4 “membership” groups
Match 7
GCHSHL White East and White West, NHC White and CHC White fourth and the GCHSHL Blue and CHC Blue prime two
Because the NHC doesn’t have a Blue Division and the CHC Blue solely has six groups, we’ll finish it with an eighth event.
Match 8
GCHSHL Blue and CHC Blue third, fourth, fifth and sixth based mostly on a rankings system
The remaining 12 GCHSHL Blue groups not in these tournaments might be a part of two extra “tournaments” with additional “membership” competitors to fill the fields, albeit with the draw back of it not being in opposition to out-of-area competitors just like the others.
The eight tournaments might cycle in who hosts what — say three websites every in Cleveland and Columbus and two in Toledo annually. So you’d be assured to hit the highway, which is sort of a part of the purpose, two of each three years and keep house one.
All 64 groups concerned would get 4 fairly good video games (theoretically) heading into the stretch run of their league schedule into late January, early February and their respective metropolis championship and postseason tournaments and be higher off for it.
At the least three of the 4 video games — and probably 4 relying on pool play — could be in opposition to unfamiliar out-of-area opponents, which is all the time one of many advantages of vacation hockey.
Possibly it will assist boost the mid-January doldrums and be a well timed win-win for all concerned.