Oh you're talking teams and the other guy is talking players. Well of course the preps are deeper than the catholics and the catholics are deeper than the publics. The other guy's point is a good player is a good player regardless of where they play 4 month of the year.

Yeah, and unfortunately there just aren't that many left in public high school. Look at last year's Beantown summer classic rosters. Out of nearly 300 players in the high school age brackets only 4 go to public high school.

That's only 4 that wanted to play but go to some of the other tournaments / showcases and combines and you'll see a handful that don't miss a beat playing against prep and top junior teams. I was standing next to a D-1 coach a couple years ago and he pointed out a public school defensemen and said he was the best defesnemen he had seen all season (and it was January) so they are out there.

Yeah, the rest of them turned down the invite!!! I think the point of the OP was that public and catholic/prep are so different that it makes no sense for them to compete any more. The NHL doesn't play the AHL and there's plenty of really good players in the AHL. Who cares if there's one or two good players on a high school team? With so many kids playing there's bound to be a couple. But expecting good hockey with only one or two standouts is ridiculous. Let the publics play D-1 and celebrate 9th place on the Garden ice with their buddies. My hat is off to any kid who goes further after playing 4 years of public hockey.

Play the public and go off to Juniors if you want to keep going. Prep hockey, the cost, the added year, the academics make it a fading proposition. See you in the USPHL after your 5 years at $40k + 2 years at $10k just to play D-3 college hockey in most cases.

If you ever choose all this craziness for a financial return, i.e 4 yr Division 1 scholarship you are crazy! You will never recover your investment! Kind of a ponzi scheme if you really think about it. That being said:

If you are a good student, a decent athlete and qualify for enough financial aid then Prep school is a great option. Would you pay 10% of your household income to send your kid to Exeter or Andover? If he does well academically he very likely will get into a NESCAC or IVY school with or without sports. Other Prep Schools are typically superior to public schools but certainly not in every case.

If he lives in a town with excellent public schools - Lexington, Winchester, than maybe public high school and Jr hockey. Keep in mind the avg home in these towns is $1Mil +/-, so money for private school, jr hockey, skills, camps, tournaments is irrelevant.


I have seen a few USPHL Premiere games. It is very good hockey! I have seen Division 3 hockey. It is outstanding hockey!

Division 1, Division 3, Club, doesn't matter. Enjoy it as long as you can ( be it opportunities or funds).

I believe it, but the kid was probably a frosh or soph and probably left the next year for prep. That is just the way it goes!

The best Div 1 public teams can compete with the middle of the road catholic teams but lose consistently to the better ( Super 8 usual suspects).

The better Catholic teams could compete and beat 50/50 with the lower tiered preps ( Pingree, Moses Brown, other EIL schools) and would be competitive with those preps outside of the top 25 or 30) Delbarton did beat MC 4-1 but only beat CM 2-0 ( HOW???) and tied Berkshire 2-2 and beat Dexter 3-2.

The Powehouse Preps- KUA, Salisbury, AOF, Cushing would beat the Catholics pretty handily. Those teams roll 3 or 4 lines as strong and better than Catholics 1st line. Fact!


Makes sense to have a Catholic Tournament Division 1 & 2 ( smaller catholics) and separate one for the publics.

Pope Francis went up to played a weekend series with St Andrews ( the #1 prep team in Canada) beat them 6-2 and lost 4-1. Guessing they held back a little in game 2. They had a bit of an off year but still #1 in Canada. You can go to My Hockey Rankings and see how the did against New England and Ind preps, as a comparison.

MC has been playing Delbarton for years and historically has gotten the better of them. Both teams have great programs, as for being "smoked".... It was 1-1 after one where MC dominated the play, Delbarton scored goals on back to back PP's in 2nd and then scored an ENG at the final buzzer. It was their 7th game of the season and it was MC's 1st. It was not a good performance by MC and if they played again it would most certainly be a different outcome. Delbarton beat Dexter as well this season. As referenced earlier Pope Francis beat St Andrew Prep (CA)....St. Andrews beat SSM a few times this year. MC rolled Pope Francis in the semi Finals after not playing well against them earlier in the season.

There isn't much of a gap between the top Catholics and Preps...it's a matter of motivating and helping the players understand you don't simply pull on the jersey and win. Schools like MC have placed 25+ players in college hockey over the past few years and have had multiple NHL picks over the past few seasons and will have 2 more alums drafted this year in MF and CF. The only thing that has hurt MC over the past couple seasons is losing players to the USHL. It's also been obvious when guys have left to play at the top Prep teams they become their best players....see KUA a few years back.

Watch the Frozen Four....this will be the 3rd year in a row where a ex MC players have hoisted the National Championship trophy.

Great Post! You Nailed it!

Additionally:

Catholic and Prep have both been slightly diluted because of the popularity of U16/U18 Full season teams gaining popularity. Now with the Tier 1 league making it's way into New England ( Ct Wolfpack, Boston Advantage, most recently NH Monarchs) we should see the trend continue or even escalate! Do you want to go to pay for Prep or Catholic or pay for AAA Midget? What are your goals? is education a priority? is your public High School strong academically?

In most areas of the country, they do not have all the choices as we do in New England. It will be interesting to see how it trends over the next few years.

Complaining about the USHL taking kids off your high school team is like BU complaining about the Buffalo Sabers taking Jack Eichel from them. What is a kid suppose to do when the majority of high school hockey isn't all that great in this area.

And it's hilarious for the MIAA or the state's high school coaches to think, like the earlier poster stated about MC successes that kids from one little ZIP Code can compete with a regional All-star team like MC. If they think a public school has a snowballs chance in ever winning again then they are living in a different era. I have news for everyone, nice little teams like Reading & Hingham will never have a chance again. Catholics recruit heavily, are a draw due to their success winning state titles and success placing kids at the next level, have repeat kids that end-up being 19 year seniors, have better and deeper coaching staffs, bigger budgets, better competition....let's not kid ourselves.

No one is complaining that kids leave to play in the USHL. Simply validating the quality of the players. Kids from publics leave and are successful at very level....as do kids that leave the local catholic conference teams. When you're playing in the best junior league in the US as a SR in HS and are lighting it up you can compete on and against any team in the US or Canada.... USHL, OHL, QMJHL, HS, Prep, Private, Public....Maybe we should complete about the football and basketball programs exploiting Metco....I mean how can one possibly compete against schools that draw the best athletes around from the inner city....blow it out your arse. If you're a coach worth anything you play against the best and try to develop your kids on to the next level whatever that may be.....you don't go around boo hooing it that we can't compete. That's whats wrong with the people today....they ***** and moan instead of buckling up and taking it head on.

That's the problem, the coaches know they don't have the personnel and don't even bother trying to compete. Hingham makes the Super 8 and the coaches did absolutely no preparation to play PF. Instead they turned their practices into a circus by inviting half of the JV team the 2 weeks before and during the Super 8!! They got destroyed in the first game when their goalie had an uncharacteristically bad game and the only reason they did as well as they did in the second was that he stood on his head like he did the rest of the season. If they're not even going to try to compete they shouldn't even be invited. [How they did get invited is beyond me--in 7 games versus the Catholic Super 8 teams this year, Hingham was outscored 26-2!] The point is the good kids leave because high school hockey is just a quick stop between town hockey and beer league, which is fine, but anybody who thinks that public is "good hockey" is delusional.

Public and Catholic Tournaments - Division 1 Public - Division 2 Public and Division 1 Catholic & Division 2 Catholic.

Once completed Winners from public play winners of catholic. Then pick an All Star team from each to play each other. Make a weekend out of it.

If it turns out to be lopsided than make the necessary changes. Would definitely be a draw at the gate MIAA!!

. [How they did get invited is beyond me--in 7 games versus the Catholic Super 8 teams this year, Hingham was outscored 26-2!]

Everyone knows why they were invited, it was a make-up call for the committee screwing-up the voting from the year before. And that team saved those coaches jobs for another five years. They get some pretty good players delivered to them via all of the local programs and still struggle with what to do with them.

Well put. Last year they only lost 19-8 cumulatively. Still didn't beat any Super 8 Catholics but at least they put the puck in the net a few more times.

Better team, better players the year before and the make-up call putting them in the Super 8 was silly. They should play every year to win the D-1 and forget about playing regional all-star teams (i.e. C.C. Schools)

No doubt. Even with last year's team the Super 8 result would likely have been the same--public should just stick to D-1 and leave Super 8 to the Big Boys!

I think the MIAA needs to recognize this and make the changes Catholic Div 1& 2. Public Div 1&2.

Crossover championship and or All Star game

Not so much 'Big Boys' as much as leave it to the team that can recruit & encourage kids to repeat a year so they have 7-8 19 year olds playing. D-I publics have a couple lines that can compete, not four.

What public team this year had 2 lines that could compete with MC, BCH, PF or SJP? Compete meaning put the puck in the net. The only public those teams have played consistently is Hingham and, after this year, they may rethink even playing them. Franklin won D-1 this year and lost to MC 6-0!!

No publics could compete with Catholics and this was an off year for Catholics, particularly up front.

Most prep schools are not close to Exeter and Andover academically. I'd say Lexington and Belmont High Schools are better than 90% of preps.

the mica would never format the playoffs as D1 private, D1 public, D2 Private, and D2 public. Although its a better system than they have now, i would be very surprised if they did it

I wonder why they wouldn't consider this? Any insight?

I think they're under the impression their current way is to maximize revenue.

the mica would never format the playoffs as D1 private, D1 public, D2 Private, and D2 public. Although its a better system than they have now, i would be very surprised if they did it


Your both probably correct but with a Catholic And Public Playoff they could get 1-3 more playoff games at both Div 1 & 2 plus a few more all star games. Seems to me it would be more revenue.

Div 1A is already public for the most part.

D-1A is already essentially private and D-1 is already essentially public. Who cares about D-2?