High school hockey remains a competitive sport in Michigan. But it’s never been one of the least inexpensive sports for participants, and getting enough players to field a team has been challenging for some area teams.
“Generally, we have no more than 26 players that try out each year, and usually it’s less than that,” said Big Rapids coachTim Blashill. “We have not seen a tremendous increase or decrease.”
Big Rapids is currently not co-oping with other schools.
“Our numbers have continued to be good through the years,” said Big Rapids athletic director Nick Scheible. “There has been a given year or two where we have gone with a smaller team, but that was more of a coach’s decision than interest.
“I think there are a group of people that think travel hockey is the way to go, but that isn’t a new problem. People have been making that choice for years.”
Jeff Bell, athletic director at Freeland, said his school had an increase in numbers due to a new co-op agreement between Freeland, Nouvel Catholic Central, and Valley Lutheran. “I would hope [numbers] increase as the program grows,” he said. “I would say that the youth programs in the area will be the feeders for our team.”
Tim Beurer is the hockey coach at Lowell High School, which co-ops with Caledonia and South Christian. “We have seen the number of players on our team hold steady over the past couple of seasons, give or take a player or two,” he said. “However, our tryouts are not producing a large selection of potential players to select our team from.
“Ideally, I would like to get 20 players on the roster [18 skaters and two goalies] each season. This past season, we started the season with 18 players and will finish with just 16. We had just over 20 players at the tryouts back in early November for the team.”
Beurer said the economy has more than likely caused a downturn in numbers at the youth level. “Although we have seen somewhat of a rebound in the economy, the kids just have not come back like some may have expected. All of the costs to play this sport are continuing to rise, which makes it more difficult for families to make the financial commitment. We have even experienced families unable to pay their bill and had to take their son off of the ice in order to get them to pay.”
The numbers have been looking good at Midland Dow. The program doesn’t have a co-op arrangement, but the numbers have been higher than average.
“We have a very strong team, and boys wanted to be part of it,” said head coach Dick Blasy. He added that the numbers “should be normal in the near future but may go down in the distant future.”
Travel and house hockey programs in the Midland area are healthy. “But the enrollment in elementary schools in Midland is down,” Blasy said.
Mike Willett is the coach at Mount Pleasant, and he said numbers have been staying around 18 to 20 the past couple of years.
It’s Willett’s first season coaching. The school is not in a co-op, and he is concerned with numbers. “Next season, we will drop to around 15 because of a mix of players staying with travel teams and a lack of incoming ninth graders. Mount Pleasant does have a local house program and travel programs that are between 30 to 60 minutes away.”
JJ Bamberger, coach at Saginaw Heritage, has had some challenges with his program. “We had 39 kids try out this year, which is slightly down,” he said. “I like our future. We have a lot of kids that are going to try out for our team.” he said.
Heritage draws from a number of travel teams, he added.
Peter Ryan is Heritage’s athletic director. He indicated that the number of players who tried out for the hockey team is consistent with past seasons.
For the future, some coaches and athletic directors are optimistic. Youth programs from Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland continue to feed his high school program, Ryan indicated.
“The numbers look good, a tribute to the USA ADM program,” Blashill said. “It looks like it will produce more sustained numbers for our area. Our local youth association [has had] a steady increase in number over the past three years.”
Scheible agreed with his coach. “I believe that the numbers in Big Rapids will continue to stay healthy into the future,” he said. “Hockey is a big sport in our community, and I think that will continue, although numbers have decreased slightly at the youth level.”
“I suspect the next couple of seasons to be around the same or slightly down from this season. There are quite of a few players playing hockey, but many are either leaving the game or choosing to play youth hockey versus high school,” Beurer said.
“According to the information we have been able to gather from local area associations, there are a lot of young kids playing hockey from Caledonia.
“Our primary feeder program for the varsity team is our JV club team, which provides kids an opportunity to continue to work on their skills before making the jump to varsity hockey. There are also several youth hockey associations in the Grand Rapids area where in-district youth players are playing. For example, there are approximately 40-plus kids playing hockey in the Kentwood hockey association this season. However, it will be several years before they are age eligible to play at the varsity level.”
Beurer is cautiously optimistic about the future. “I would really like to see the numbers go back up to where they were like 5-10 years ago,” he said. “However, I just do not think that will ever happen.”
