Connecticut H.S./Prep Hockey Question

[Duncan Idaho]

What area of the state is it the best represented or most popular or the hotbed for the sport at this level?

 

[FDNY99]

That's tough...I would say there are 3 spots...Fairfield County, CT Shoreline area (West Haven to Branford) and the greater Hartford Area.

 

[huskymedic]

That's tough...I would say there are 3 spots...Fairfield County, CT Shoreline area (West Haven to Branford) and the greater Hartford Area.

Agreed but then you have to add in the preps tucked in the corners (Gunnery, Kent, AOF, Pomfret, Salisbury, Canterbury, etc..)

 

[FDNY99]

Agreed but then you have to add in the preps tucked in the corners (Gunnery, Kent, AOF, Pomfret, Salisbury, Canterbury, etc..)

Thanks for bailing me out Medic...LOL...I can't believe I forgot those.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I would agree that the #1 spot is the shore from East Haven down through Greenwich. Hartford used to be bigger; but, their numbers have dropped lately with a lot of teams forming co-ops and dropping down to DII or DII. Looks like only S Windsor, Glastonbury & Simsbury still have stand alone teams in Hartford County plus Xavier in Middlesex County. The rest are New Haven and Fairfield Country teams. In DII, looks like Conard (W Hartford) is stand alone with everyone outside of New Haven and Fairfield county in Co-Ops.

The preps are in a league of their own as most of their players are not from Kent, Salisbury, etc.

 

[huskymedic]

The preps are in a league of their own as most of their players are not from Kent, Salisbury, etc.

Agreed, but an increasingly growing number are in-state "high school" kids are siphoned off public school teams. True traditional public hockey powers (Hamden, West Haven, etc...) continue to lose kids to parochials/boarding preps.

There is good talent in CT.

 

[SirHypeAlot]

As stated above, athletes in the sport of hockey that demonstrate a surperior skill level compared to their peers entering high school or during their freshman/sophomore year generally leave their public/parochial school for a boarding prep school. The quality of competition in the prep leagues is vastly higher and from a scouting prospective the prep schools are big feeders to the big hockey programs of the northeast and beyond.
There is great talent in the state of CT in hockey however once kids make the jump to prep school the doors to a much larger pool of colleges/universities opens which certainly makes it harder to keep them in state.

 

[FDNY99]

Agreed, but an increasingly growing number are in-state "high school" kids are siphoned off public school teams. True traditional public hockey powers (Hamden, West Haven, etc...) continue to lose kids to parochials/boarding preps.

There is good talent in CT.

Don't forget the teams like the CT Oilers and USHL teams siphoning talent away too. This is one area where Joe Periera and Brendan Buckley will help...both know the organizations these kids play for VERY well.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Agreed, but an increasingly growing number are in-state "high school" kids are siphoned off public school teams. True traditional public hockey powers (Hamden, West Haven, etc...) continue to lose kids to parochials/boarding preps.

There is good talent in CT.

Completely agree and it has been that way for a while, and its not even for just hockey. If your child could go to Salibury, Suffeld, Avon Old Farms, etc. instead of West Haven or East Haven High School for an education on some form of scholarship would you even hesitate? When I was young, my won, which has good schools (currently ranked in US News for whatever that is worth) was lucky to be able to hold on to our hockey super star for 2 years before he bolted for Avon Old Farms.

 

[gioff23]

The siphoning starts before high school. Programs such as the one operating out of Cromwell pull the better kids in and then see them pushed to non-publics as they advance.