I’m already on to lacrosse season, but wanted to stop and say thank you to all who made this another record-setting year on the blog. Thousands of readers made a few minutes for the LoHud Hockey Blog several times a day. Perhaps we’ve discovered what those countless thousands who’ve supposedly given up on finding a job are doing with the free time.
Seriously, it’s nice to know that when you hit the publish button, somebody’s reading (or getting ready to pounce).
We should make a little noise for the coaches, who used to be able to make one quick phone call to the paper after each game and go home. Now they have to report the result to countless media outlets and provide blog material. It’s a long day for those guys and that stipend they get doesn’t even cover a summer’s worth of greens fees.
The kids deserve some credit, too, especially the ones who stopped and spoke after tough losses. Hockey players have no filters and make this job easy. And we should probably acknowledge the parents who seem to be absorbing more and more of the cost of this sport. Sadly, it’s going to get even tougher with school budgets getting trimmed again. Let’s hope we don’t lose anybody.
I’m not quite free and clear of hockey … the Rockland and Westchester/All-Star teams are being picked as we speak.
When the run date gets closer, I’ll send out a reminder and post them here on the blog when they publish. I will check in from time to time with any news that I stumble over, and maybe provide a fresh post every couple of weeks so the string of comments doesn’t stretch out so far in the offseason.
You can find me on the LoHud Boys Lacrosse Blog with Ta-Da, slacrosse and Bundy for the next couple of months and on the LoHud Golf Blog until the leaves turn color and fall. Don’t forget my other Twitter feeds, too … @LoHudLacrosse and @LoHudGolf.
Play hard. Have fun.
33 Comments
It was a long strange season this year. Who would have predicted that a NON-Big 4 team would make it the furthest this year in the state playoffs..?. (OK fine, I’ll give Smart Hockey some credit). Mamaroneck chose to stay in D1 this year… I guess they’ll decide soon if they will stay in D1 and give Suffern their only competition, or drop down to D2. Weird that hockey is the only sport where you can choose to play up.
Lets hope John Jay can continue where it left off and stay as a top team for years on end. It seems in the past, these teams come and go and don’t maintain their winning ways year after year.
Mamaroneck will lose most of its scoring prowess, but their freshman class is the strongest it’s ever been. Next year as sophomores they’ll have big goal scoring shoes to fill in, but I think they’ll be strong again, and in a few years a state contender.
New Rochelle gets decimated by graduation, I can’t see how they will be able to compete. I think teams that they rolled up on the last couple of years, will be able to exact revenge next year. What comes around, goes around.
Thanks to the regular bloggers who made it so entertaining with your biting and bickering and backhanded compliments. It made for a great read during my breaks at work.
And thanks to Mike who uses great judgement in letting us have some fun, while keeping it a mostly positive blog (except for that creep that is obsessed with Rye Rangers and Rye coaches), using a good sense of humor and his offbeat musical sensibilities as entertainment. Have fun in LaCrosse.
@Dump and Chase, Suffern will be challenged by Scarsdale who will move up to D1 next year and by White Plains who beat them this season and are only losing one player to graduation.
@bq
Keep dreaming
Thanks Mike for another fun year. Yes, along with the good positive stuff there is a lot of nonsense on this blog and I’m probably a part that as well but at the end of the day it’s all in fun.
This blog has become the “go to” vehicle for HS hockey talk in New York. Glad to see we are pulling in bloggers from around the state; NW, Sweet Home, North Country and a few Saratogians at the end there. Other sites are becoming less relevent and don’t even bother to get to updates until the next day. Lohud Hockey is in real time and a credit to you.
Thanks
Mike are you going to the Section 1 awards dinner tonight?
We just need to rely on some team like New Ro (or next year’s version) to beat WP in the playoffs. For some reason WP always plays Suffern tough, and can clearly beat us, but struggles against teams that Suffern handles easily. I don’t think Scarsdale has the depth necessary. Is that other good player from Scarsdale (who didn’t play this year) coming back next year? In any event, I see Suffern being a stronger team next year.
Mike, great job on the blog this year.
Thanks Mike, great job as usual this year!
Thanks to Cliff for running section1hockey.com …. Totally does that in his spare time for us.
@Suffern Fan- You are referring to Hunter Jurman, who was their best/2nd best player last season, started the this year out at Loomis before coming back to school at Scarsdale in January. Based on what I’m hearing, the likelihood of him suiting up in maroon and white next year is about the same as whether or not Tony Gonzalez is going to return for the Falcons next year. Unlikely, but still a chance.
Wow and what do you know, Tony Gonzalez IS coming back now. Maybe a good omen??
@ dump and chase
Yorktown now playing lacrosse in Class B ( where it falls from school size) chose to play up in Class A for many years. You can play up but obviously not down and don’t know if every sport allows a move upward.
Clearly we’re all ready for next season to begin, as made evident by the fact that we’re going around the table saying what we’re thankful for while we’re really all trying to figure out how we’ll get to BIA for the icebreaker tournament, or Ebb-brrrrrrrr-sole for the WP tourney or SOR for the suffern home opener/alumni game this weekend.
So here’s my incomplete list:
Thanks to all the regular bloggers who weren’t afraid of exposing their identites to me when they emailed me or said hi to me at a game. Bigby, I’m still waiting for you to expose yourself…wait a minute…that didn’t come out right.
Thanks to all the fans/parents/players/grandparents/etc. who emailed me when they found spelling or statistical errors on the site so I can correct them. You guys are my quality control.
Thanks to the scorekeeprs on both sides of the river for getting me the scoresheets in a timely fashion so I can update the stats.
Thanks to Grammerati for classing up the joint. Still laughing about you helping your Uncle Jack, off a horse.
Thanks to my day job for giving me an aircard which grants me internet access on the train so I can update the stats.
Thanks to NJ Transit for being on-time most of he year so I can get to SOR on Friday nights in time for the 7:15 games (only 2 scares all season, but still arrived in the nick of time).
Thanks to SOR for putting up that net, preventing the fans at the Suffern games from pelting me with pucks during the chuck-a-puck competition.
Thanks to Mike, Zam Man, ValisBrees, and all the other reliable guys for posting the final scores right after the games end so I can update the standings without waiting until the next afternoon to find out who won the late game at BIA.
Thanks to Glen Charles, Les Charles, and James Burrows for allowing me to use the “Cliff Clavin” name for another year.
And most of all, thanks to my wife and kids for putting up with everything that comes with the hockey season for 4 months a year and allowing me to give you guys the site. If you know who I am, and you know who my wife is, you should thank her when you see her at SOR. Without her patience & understanding, you guys would be lost.
Oh yeah…and thanks to all of you who shop on Amazon via the website. It really does make a world of difference.
The addition of Hunter Jurmain would be a great add for Scarsdale, but they are only losing 4 seniors this year, and are getting a goalie back who played for Avon this past year. They only lose one other starter, and they get back burns and schell who were gone most of the year with injuries.
They move up in class, but have a large freshman year coming in which should help their third line depth. Suffern is in a class of their own, but Nicholas, Schell, Blakely, Burns and the younger Nicholas as well as a new goalie means this team has some decent players and will challenge.
Thanks Mike, great blog season. I hope to meet you covering a lax game this season. I’ll be at most Nyack games. Rockland lax schools should compete well with each other this year.
I just got my first new set of golf clubs in in 25 years, I’ve actually been playing with “wood” woods. Maybe I’ll start golf blogging too.
okay, so maybe Scarsdale has more depth than I thought. I had heard the depth comment from a Scarsdale person.
Al,
I’ll be across the bridge from time to time, definitely come say hello. Nyack should be OK with a couple of good players coming back. I would’ve let you have some gently used Titleist AP1 irons for cheap, and would’ve thrown in a Bigby autograph or something. Spending tomorrow at the driving range testing new irons and I cannot wait.
Depth has always been an issue. They have done quite well in division 2 although they have never won a division 2 title they do compete for it. Going against Suffern will be quite different though. That they never played Suffern before will make a playoff game interesting as Scarsdale may not know what to expect.
@ @scarsdale fan, how sure are you that the Avon goalie is coming back next year? If I remember correctly, someone on the blog last year said he’d be back this year…
Fun season. 56 seconds away from a ssection title… ugh. The pain is finally easing. Thank goodness for this outlet… what would I do at work (besides work) if I did not have this to read. JOhn Jay was a nice surprise. Smart Hockey was right… A BIA team was legit. However, I think he was thinking more Greeley than John Jay. Regardless, congrats to JJ for a dynamite season.
I think I made a new friend in Grammarati, and a few enemies… pretty much all Suffern bloggers. But c’mon, would’nt it be kinda boring to have a friendly rivalry? Congrats to Suffern for being clutch, and taking away what looked like what belonged to mamaroneck. Thats how you do it. Just wish it was mamk that was doing it.
Congrats to the mamk seniors. After sub-par junior years for pretty much all of them… they finally reached their potential that most fans thought they had in their senior year.
To Cliff, thanks for the arguments but mostly, thanks for your website. Its great to refer to it and see what is going on daily. BTW, I don’t think Ned will have any problem exposing himself to you… just a hunch.
Thanks to mike who let us have fun on this blog… let us push the envelope a little, but kept it sane. If you think the hockey blog was rough…. the football blog is brutal. I’m scared to go on there.
Thanks to this blog I can still high school hockey.I enjoy this outlet so much,
Be well,
heard a rumor tonight at the hockey dinner that one parent thinks their team will be so bad next year that he has his wife trying to get a job with pelham boe so their son can play with witz
Didnt his kids graduate this year?
Frazier Bostwick wasn’t on the roster for the exceptional seniors game?? while JJ’s Blaney and Grimm were, whats up with that?
i have a feeling bostwick cant play because of lacrosse. maybe he doesnt play lax.. who knows
Bostwick plays lax.
How about a thanks to the on ice officials?? They never get a thanks. Yet they take crap from the coaches players and fans.
Not sure why anyone would care about the identity of Ned Bigby. (spolier alert…in real life Ned Bigby is a major douche)
I have no problem revealing my actual identity.
But Ned Bigby is really more than just a loser who posts on the blog. (by the way… we are not “bloggers”...Mike is the blogger…we just post comments on his blog)
In reality, Ned Bigby is a part of all of us
Ned Bigby watches HS hockey, only because it is a cool sport.
Ned Bigby appreciates good players on any team.
Ned Bigby appreciates good refs who can skate and take control of a game without being heavy handed about it.
Ned Bigby does not appreciate when parents yell at refs and call them “Stripes”...even if the refs are having a “bad” game.
Ned Bigby likes a quality ice-cut between each period.
Ned Bigby likes that there is a kid who figure-skates between periods at Hommocks.
Ned Bigby appreciates student fans who show up and make noise…even if the team is not great…even if the game is outdoors and it is really cold out.
Ned Bigby likes veal parmagiana, Irish whiskey, and bacon
Ned Bigby appreciates a good break-out…a good power play and good team defense.
Ned Bigby likes when you can actually hear what the PA announcer is saying.
Ned Bigby would rather see good passing and player movement than to see a guy stickhandling through traffic.
...Ned Bigby is the Jock, the Brain, the Criminal, the Princess, and the Basket Case.
Thanks to Mike D for the pro coverage.
Sincerely,
Russell Sicklick
Very true, bostwick does play and will actually be a huge factor in JJ’s offense this year.. looking forward to lax season!!
Ned Bigby sounds like he just watched “The Breakfast Club” when it was on the other night.
Ned Bigby talks in the third person & appreciates high school hockey and all of its nuances.
Ned Bigby has a razor sharp wit.
Ned Bigby is King Moonracer on our little island of misfit toys.
Ned Bigby is one of us.
Ned Bigby has great vertical leap.
This is a bit off topic, but checkout this fun video of the 2013 Minnesota H.S. Tourney!
http://www.hockeybias.com/hockey-news-past/2013/March/KSTC-45-TV-Boys-MSHSL-Hockey-2013-video-montage.html
Looks like BIA!
I spent some time in Duluth, MN, my college roommate still lives there and I go out to visit him and his family twice a year… they love their hockey out there…that and ice fishing.(They drive their pick-ups on Lake Superior)
I caught a squirt game last year, they had more people attend than a Mamaroneck / Suffern game. Different culture I guess…
Thanks for the link..the parting of the sea at 2:25 was the best part.
Thanks Mike! Gladly take you out on Manhattan Woods some time.