Fair or Unfair Mega Hockey Co-ops?

This was a great article written by Jeremy Mayo, Sports Editor of the Northwoods River News. I completely agree with him. It's time the WIAA take a close look at this situation and in my opinion an extremely unfair playing field for teams like Northland Pines! Go Eagles!!

3/2/2015 3:40:00 PM Shoutouts & Callouts Super-teams are stunting growth of girls' hockey in Wisconsin Jeremy Mayo Sports Editor A close examination the teams that advanced to the sectional finals of the WIAA girls' hockey playoffs will tell you exactly what's wrong with the sport. • Bay Area (Green Bay East/Ashwaubenon/Bay Port/De Pere/Green Bay Preble/Green Bay Southwest/Green Bay West/Notre Dame/Pulaski/ Seymour/West De Pere), combined enrollment - 13,200. • Sun Prairie/Cap City (Sun Prairie/DeForest/Madison East/Madison La Follette/Waunakee), combined enrollment - 7,515. • Onalaska (Onalaska/Aquinas/Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Holmen/La Crosse Central/La Crosse Logan/West Salem), combined enrollment - 5,272. • Central Wisconsin (D.C. Everest/Mosinee/Wausau East/Wausau West), combined enrollment - 4,910. • USM Wildcats (University School of Milwaukee/Divine Savior Holy Angels/Nicolet/Shorewood/Whitefish Bay), combined enrollment - 4,441. • Hayward (Hayward/Ashland/Northwestern/Rice Lake/Shell Lake/Spooner), combined enrollment - 3,055. • St. Croix Valley (River Falls/Baldwin-Woodville/Boyceville/Glenwood City/Saint Croix Central), combined enrollment - 2,281. Want the game of hockey to grow in the state? Want more girls to have the opportunity to play? Put an end to the mega co-ops. I can hear the screams from Green Bay, Milwaukee, Madison and Wausau now. "There's no way you can split up our co-ops! Our schools don't have the money to go it alone. These girls have been skating together for years. We wouldn't be able to put a competitive product on the ice." There is one exception in the girls' hockey elite eight, a small school going it alone that blows all those arguments out of the water - Northland Pines. Here are the Eagles, with a paltry enrollment of 446 students - the lowest for any school in the state that fields a girls' hockey team. Despite that handicap, they are able to field a deep, competitive team and be a threat for the state tournament every year. And they'd get there more often if they didn't have to face the likes Central Wisconsin in the sectional finals every year. But this issue starts way before high school. A quick survey of the teams participating in this year's Wisconsin Amateur Hockey Association state girls' tournaments reveals the likes of Western Wisconsin, Appleton, Wausau/Everest/ Mosinee, Rock County, Green Bay and Stevens Point/Marshfield/Waupaca. What's happening is all-star teams formed at the youth level are making their way through the ranks to the high school level. Since only the best play, only the best continue to play, so when someone asks why a team from Green Bay needs 11 schools to make up one team they'll say, "because we need that many to fill the a roster." The real purpose for co-ops should be to help schools with smaller enrollments increase the number of extra-curricular options for their students beyond what they can feasibly provide themselves. If Mercer, with an enrollment of 32, has a couple of girls who want to skate and needs to join up with Lakeland (enrollment 734) to do it, by all means go for it. I find it inconceivable that it takes over 13,000 students to find 20 girls to make up a hockey team. But that's what we've got in Wisconsin girls' hockey. Let's look at the numbers another way. Throw Northland Pines out of the equation again and the schools that make up the seven co-ops in the sectional finals field 25 WIAA boys' hockey teams. The Central Wisconsin co-op is made up of four schools that all have standalone boys' hockey teams. The schools of the Bay Area co-op have five boys' hockey teams. The Hayward, Sun Prairie and Onalaska co-ops each have four. University School co-op has only two, but there's an asterisk there: USM and Divine Savior Holy Angels are both private schools - and DSHA is an all girls' school. It's a farce and a system that slants the playing field heavily in the favor of major metropolitan areas. It boils down to rural versus urban - just like the WIAA public-private school debate, the school voucher program and the state spending formula on education. And, as with those other issues, it's rural schools that get the short end of the stick. If any school from the Northwoods is going to win a girls' hockey state championship, it's going to have to play the co-op game like everyone else. And, at least looking at the Great Northern Conference this year, the talent is there to do it. Imagine if the Northern Edge, Northland Pines, Lakeland and Tomahawk joined forces. Let's call them the Northwoods RATTLERs (as in Rhinelander, Antigo, Three Lakes, Tomahawk, Lakeland, Eagle River). You'd have several strong players from Pines and the Edge. Throw in standouts Nicole Nerva, Erika Vallier and goalie Erin Sparks from Tomahawk, and a few role players from Lakeland and you'd have a team with three excellent lines, at least six strong defenders and arguably the three best goalies in the conference. With a combined enrollment of 3,456 students and representing four boys' hockey teams, the RATTLERs would be right in line with the other major co-ops in the state - and would probably be as successful. But here's the problem. The Edge and Northland Pines had enough participants to play JV games against each other this year. You combine those teams and add two more to the mix, you are shutting the door on the opportunity to play for a significant number of girls. That's not to way to grow a sport, though it might be a good way to win a state title. Sadly, too many around the girls' hockey community are far more obsessed with the latter rather than the former. Until that changes, girls' hockey in Wisconsin will continue to struggle. Jeremy Mayo may be reached at jeremy@rivernewsonline.com.