Guru,
Why do you think WC and D-Town aren't comparible?
East, Henderson and Rustin are all under the West Chester School District. Imagine the best of those schools put together. As is DTown west and east high schools.

The arguement that the kids from Harriton didn't help is just convienent for this year and not appropriate. What if they were 2nd line players? or scored 8 goals instead of 4? What is the line where their contribution is enough to warrant a dq?

What about all of the unpure teams in the Lehigh Valley, should they be allowed to compete in the Flyers Cup? There are a six of them. Stroudsberg is 11-3-0 and Central Catholic is 9-2-0.

Guru, I respect your opinion, but weather or not the Harriton players are the weakest or the best on the team should have absolutely NO bearing on the arguement what-so-ever.

In essence you are saying that it was OK that LM was ineligible last year beacuse their #1 goalie was from Harriton? But this year they should be eligible? What about next year? Who determines weather the kids from Harriton are "good" or not....it's arbitrary and should NOT be a part of the decision making.

It's a simple rule...."all players that play on the team must attend the school that they play for". It doesn't say that all members from a team can belong to the same school district and it doesn't say that if the school board wants them to play on the same team that they will be eligible.

Do it for the kids sake? What about the team/kids that are playing by the eligibilty rules, that wont make it because LM gets in? Is it fair to those kids that get bumped to make a SECOND exception for an impure team?

The way I see it is: It's the LM school board/district that is holding LM back from participating in the Flyers Cup, not the Flyers Cup committee.

My comments weren't based on the calibre of players from Harriton but merely the numbers. I think Aces12 said there are 3 players from Harriton on the team.

The point I was trying to make is that situations arise which are not readily addressed by rules. LM is different than WC or Downingtown because they had sufficient quantities of players to field complete teams. Harriton could not have fielded its own team and this has been proven over time.

I'm not familar with the Stroudsberg or Central Catholic situation. However, I am sure the FC committee is capable of reviewing each school, its application for an exception and come up with a just solution. I don't think having a cookie-cutter approach to high school hockey, especially in light of decreasing interest, is such a good idea nor does it promote interest among the kids knowing their school cannot play in the local and state tournament.

I also want to remind everyone that Penn State Delco and Penn State Berks play each other for the 5th straight year in the DVCHC championships with Berks winning the past 4 times. PSU Berks is also going to the ACHA D3 Nationals in Ft Wayne IN starting on 2/28 as one of four teams in the Atlantic Division along with SUNY-Albany, IUP and Cal U of Pa.

There are lots of former local high school players on both rosters of PSU Delco and Berks.
Games are at the Body Zone near Reading.

It's clear LM is between a rock and a hard place and I feel sorry for the kids, but I agree with Matt. You are leaving yourself open for more problems than you solve by doling out exceptions.

The fact is none of us actually have a vote, and besides Matt and a few others all of us really are just voicing our opinions without any real basis. I appreciate the support that the argument has gained, whether it be good or bad for Lower Merion, at least were back on the map after a couples years. Well just have to wait till March 1st to find out what the final decision will be.

Also, good luck to everybody the rest of the year in playoffs and flyers cup, I hope to see everyone in the flyer cup but it will be what it will be.

I've actually spoken to one of the coaches of LM about this topic. He indicated to me that the LM team NEEDED the Harriton players at the beginning of the year because they were light on numbers to start the year (due to other school sports & injury). Remember that although they may be third liners or support/role players, a very real important role of these type of players is to allow proper recovery for your 1st & 2nd liners. I have seen a lot more teams that are successful that can play 3 lines than one that can play 2. So, regardless of whether someone feels that LM should just cut the Harriton players loose, LM got their record WITH those players. Like Matt said, LM school district is the problem here. Don't go to the FC committee to try to resolve an issue that the school district should take care of. Alternatively, why doesn't LM dissolve ties to the school district and operate exclusively as a club. Then that issue goes away.

What assistance does LM School District give the hockey club? When you say the hockey club should cut ties with the school district, what do you mean? From my experience with another HS club hockey team a few years ago, there was no assistance, financial or otherwise, whatsoever provided to the club by the school.

Certainly the school provides busing to and from games. That in and of itself is support from the school, as little as it might be. If that is all it is, then why not sever from the school district and go as a club like most of the other HSs? Perhaps the affiliation with the school district is so the players are recognized as part of a Varsity sport? That used to be (perhaps still is) a big thing to many HS hockey teams. However, if that is what is preventing them from participating in the Flyers Cup, perhaps all the more reason to go their own way. I've coached at the HS level for over 15 years at several schools both here and in Pittsburgh and it pretty much boils down to this: HS teams like their autonomy primarily because the PIAA won't sanction it as a statewide sport. That means that generally HS hockey teams are clubs, BUT the members of those clubs feel that their players are atheletes just like any other school sport. As such they fight like anything to get that recognition. Sometimes, in exchange for that the club team has to abide by the rules of the school district. This may be the case with LM, I don't know. I do know that it is the case for one school that I coached in the Pittsburgh area.

quote:

Originally posted by Jigga Beef:


3) Penncrest- Beat stoga, big game experice should help the lions go far in the flyers cup

ok, they beat stoga with out stoga's best player, and another game when stoga didnt have him they tied radnor, and i dont see radnor in your top 10 anywhere

why are you so infatuated with Masciantonio, this board was for LM not stoga, he is a good player, but not the greatest around!

quote:

Originally posted by Mandell89:
this board was for LM not stoga,

The topic is "Flyers Cup Predictions" not "lets talk about how great LM is" I was commenting on the person having penncrest so high, nothing to do with LM at all

Poor Stoga!!! They must be the only team that has to play without some of it's top players at times. Check a team like Perkiomen Valley who has 2 or 3 Junior B JR Flyers on it. None of those players have played in all 18 of their games.

Pavelich77, do some research before you go making excuses for your team. Maybe some of your opponents missed some important players as well??? You know what they say about excuses... they're like _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , everybody's got one.

But then that would mean you would have to do some work and not just spout off at the mouth, and we know that's not going to happen, right?

Matt, sorry, I could take only so much of the morons who show no respect for the game or obviously their opponents! But usually the hockey gods tend to wash out all the garbage come this time of the year don't they?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Matt Sacks,

dude, i was just commenting on how suprised i was that he had Penncrest at #3, who finished 4th in Central League, and he had Springfield at #6, who finished 1st in the Central League, am i the only one who sees something wrong with that?

And i never said, OMG Rich missed 4 games, with him we would have SOOOOOOOOO much better, Stoga should be 1st in AA Flyers cup. I never said anything like that.

Back to the LM situation. They knew the rules before the season. In fact they've known the rules for at least three seasons. Yet their board and/or school board decided to operate under their own set of rules. Well, that's fine if you want to operate that way, but accept the consequences of those actions. Obviously, the ICSHL has allowed you to operate under those rules -- I'm not sure why -- but maybe that should stop as well.

Also, who gets to decide how good or bad or how much influence your Harriton players have? You? The ICSHL? Flyers Cup committee? Let's face it the only way for ANY rule to work is if it's black and white. Not black and white with an exception here and there based upon some arbitrary opinion.

I sympathize with your situation, and even though the players didn't make the decision, they got to live with the result of that. You've got a good team and it's a shame for you not to be involved, but the problem is in your house -- not with the Flyers Cup committee.

Also, I sat in a league meeting where your league rep spoke long and strong about the now 9 game rule for varsity-jv player movement. He insisted teams need to play with the players they have and if they're shorthanded as a result of that so be it. Does that not apply here? If Harriton can't field a team, then they can't field a team. If they can only field a team of ten players then it's ten or none. If LM can only field a small team then that's what they go with. His words, not mine. I know they were spoken with respect to teams only having 20 or so HS players and wanting to swing guys, but it applies here too.