As the opening spherical of the second annual Ed Burns Coffee Pot Tournament kicked into gear final Sunday afternoon, there was no mistaking the importance of getting eight of the state’s finest public faculty boys hockey groups battling in opposition to one another inside the Doherty division.
All eight ranked within the high 15 of their respective divisions within the newest MIAA energy rankings. Five of them even ranked high 10. Calling the slate “loaded” could be understating it.
But when Div. 1 playoff menace Braintree bought able to face title contender Arlington, what ought to have been an enormous tilt felt a little bit incomplete.
“Like (Arlington coach John Messuri) says, and we talk about it all the time; that would’ve been a huge game for the Super 8,” stated Braintree coach David Fasano. “Right now, you’d say Arlington is in and Braintree is not in. But it would’ve been an opportunity for Braintree to showcase and maybe get in. … Obviously, it’s an opportunity to showcase the best teams in the state in the Super 8 every year, and we miss that.”
Messuri and Fasano belong to an extended record of coaches who miss the Div. 1A event for quite a lot of causes.
Since launched in 1991, qualifying for the unique event was the very best honor outdoors of profitable a state title. That ferocious want to be there may be what fueled a number of the most fun highschool hockey within the nation.
Up till three years in the past, earlier than COVID-19 hit and the Super 8 was then suspended, groups would glue their eyes to the event’s “watch list” round this time of the common season. Braintree’s matchup with Arlington would have carried vital implications because it possible fought for its Super 8 life. Canton would have accomplished a lot of the identical in opposition to Hingham, and the implications of shedding could be much more extreme than having their rankings simply drop a tenth of decimal.
“(Losing the Super 8), it’s made the regular season games much more meaningless,” Messuri stated. “You’d be looking at games in December thinking, ‘Man, if I don’t win this game, we could get knocked out of the Super 8.’ … It would be so much fun, the games took on so much more meaning.”
“You set goals, but one of them was always to make the Super 8,” added St. John’s Prep head coach Kris Hanson. “It was always fun to compete for that, so we do miss that excitement surrounding it.”
Programs like St. Mary’s (L), Wellesley, Franklin, Canton, Xaverian, BC High, Braintree and Central Catholic are among the many possible groups lacking out on the joys of clawing for one of many final three spots. Aside from Canton, they’re additionally the teams that will be front-runners within the Div. 1 area in the event you take away the Super 8 qualifiers.
One of the explanations given for suspending the Super 8 stemmed from whether or not or not it was wanted anymore. The rise of the publics over the past decade have considerably neutralized the personal faculty domination rhetoric that known as for the Div. 1A event within the first place.
Every coach talked to raved in regards to the new energy rankings system, appreciating its numeric system. The finest groups have discovered their technique to the highest, and to this point, the 2 years it has existed has proven a good break up between publics and privates within the Div. 1 rankings’ top-10.
Yet, unsurprisingly, the brand new event’s first Div. 1 state semifinals nonetheless featured three Catholic Conference groups. The staff BC High beat to affix Xaverian and St. John’s Prep there was Catholic Memorial. And this yr, albeit one other 50-50 break up within the newest Div. 1 high 10, No. 1 St. John’s Prep is extensively thought to be a staff in its personal class. If the Eagles aren’t the runaway favourite, then it’s No. 2 Catholic Memorial.
St. Mary’s longtime coach Mark Lee remembers the joys of simply barely qualifying for the Super 8 play-in sport in 2017, shedding it, then instantly working desk to take house the Div. 1 title. The new event system actually labored wonders for each division, however he finds it irrefutable that the eight mega-powerhouses every year ought to be in their very own tourney.
“You’ve got St. John’s Prep, you’ve got CM, you’ve got Pope Francis, then you’ve got everybody else (this year),” he stated. “I think the way they had it with the Super 8, it really creates a lot of excitement for that tournament and for (a Div. 1) tournament. Now you have teams that are very, very good – maybe not quite as good as the top two, three, four teams – that will still have an opportunity to compete for a title.”
The one main flaw attributed to the Super 8 was the choice course of, sometimes called a political affair. Should the Super 8 return when eligible, it could be an attention-grabbing flip for the facility rankings system to interchange a lot of that human judgment. Lee, Hanson, Messuri and Fasano all a lot choose the rankings, with Hanson tremendously appreciating the brand new event system largely due to it.
“I like taking the human element out of it,” Hanson stated. “If at some point the Super 8 is brought back, I would like it to be under the power rankings system.”
Within the rankings, we see a notable love for the publics this yr, which might make historical past within the Super 8. Xaverian and BC High stake declare inside the Div. 1 top-10 proper now, however ought to Franklin, Wellesley or Braintree – all proper behind them – supplant them, it could mark seven publics within the top-10.
Six is essentially the most ever in a Super 8, together with the play-in spherical.
“St. John’s Prep and Catholic Memorial are probably the two best teams, but on any day, I think the publics can win a game against them,” stated Hingham head coach Tony Messina. “It’s a season where it’s open, anyone can compete for it.”
Obviously, it’s all hypothesis. But that’s all the time been part of the fun surrounding the Super 8. So, with out an official watchlist to gawk at, right here’s an opinion for one on the girls and boys with three weeks to play:
Boys
1.) St. John’s Prep, 2.) Catholic Memorial, 3.) Hingham, 4.) Belmont, 5.) Pope Francis, 6.) Reading, 7.) Arlington, 8.) Marshfield, 9.) Xaverian, 10.) BC High, 11.) St. Mary’s, 12.) Wellesley, 13.) Braintree, 14.) Franklin, 15.) Canton.
Girls
1.) St. Mary’s, 2.) Archbishop Williams, 3.) Duxbury, 4.) NDA (H), 5.) Winthrop, 6.) Shrewsbury, 7.) Peabody/Lynnf./NR, 8.) Andover, 9.) HPNA, 10.) Methuen/Tewksbury, 11.) Falmouth, 12.) Hingham, 13.) Algonquin, 14.) Sandwich, 15.) Billerica/Chelmsford, 16.) Arlington, 17.) Canton, 18.) Winchester.
Source: www.bostonherald.com