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birdielane wrote:Lots of things need to be fixed in Roch. Big 9 is not really to blame.

I agree...and disagree. RYHA needs fixed; but they refuse to be fixed. It would be a messy battle, but the board needs to be replaced and new leadership installed, one that would implement teams at the A & B levels which represent the 3 public schools. I'm not convinced, however, that this would encourage more participation by girls.

I'm not ready to completely absolve the Big 9. Essentially, they didn't want the Rochester teams to be too good. I understand that some could deem it unfair that the best team is a co-op. However, with a little thought, they'd realize that Mayo is going to be the best team in conference, regardless. Now, their solution led to the elimination of girls hockey at Century.

I know (now, at least,) that they gave Rochester warning long ago. Still, their inflexible stance is keeping girls out of hockey, bottom line. And simply telling Rochester that they're going to stop the AA co-ops isn't going to create more hockey players out of thin air. For at least 3 years, the Rochester U14 team has had a team with fewer than 15 players. Thats for all of Rochester. The numbers increase in the future. With a minimum of study and some patience, the Big 9 could have seen when the split could be achieved.

I'm most angered with Rochester administration right now. They didn't give the teams enough warning about the situation. There's a frantic scramble at Century now to recruit enough new players in order to have a team. If administration had made it clear how serious the situation would become, there would be a team in place at Century, even if it included many players new to the game. At least they'd be able to play hockey.

I agree with everyone 100% that the sins of RYHA shouldn't be paid for by the Century girls and that something should be done to find them a home.

But I also think that you would find your girls ##'s go up if you split. The "frantic scramble" at Century that SEDad describe is one in which a lot of associations with low girls numbers go through - but the scramble is much earlier because parants realize that you need to scramble if they want to field a U10 team. Associations do this by scouring the soccer and softball fields, hitting up sisters of boys players, etc. If you are recruiting new high school players, it is too late to field a competitive team.

There has never been an organized effort to recruit girls to play hockey in Rochester but that is hopefully changing.

You make a good point that the issue is 'hidden' in Rochester because all girls are combined in U10, U12, etc. Having the youth teams aligned by HS would identify these issues sooner and it woudl be very nice to get to this point someday...and the girls don't have the LHS issue clouding this kind of alignment like the boys do.

But things are looking up in some ways. Last year, Rochester had two U10 teams for the first time and next year, there may be three U10 teams. U12 had two very full teams as well.

And this summer, there is going to be a 3 day, FREE, "intro to hockey" camp for new girls that want to try the sport. This is first such attempt at mass marketing the game to girls and hopefully it will pay off.

The other strange thing in Rochester is how the girls are so unevenly distributed. Mayo has great numbers for years to come and JMs numbers are improving as well, but Century numbers do not look good, which is strange because the for the boys, Century seems to be growing the most.

Fingers are crossed that the CHS girls will still get to play next year. There is some hope that they'll get a chance to attempt to recruit more girls to play.

birdielane wrote:There has never been an organized effort to recruit girls to play hockey in Rochester but that is hopefully changing.

Great point, and add to that retention is not been a priority either. I get home flyers for soccer, softball, basketball, girl scouts, 4H, etc. but not hockey.

One other thing is that unlike Mayo who has played a number of girls over the years the JM/Century brain trust has relied on 8-9 girls even though they rostered 20. Not the best way to not only deleop players but keep players and recruit new ones into the fold. Why play if you're going to sit on the bench for the entire season regardless of the score.