Changes to MHS Girls Hockey (10 minutes) vote required

Transcript (~14 min @ 1:10:30)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 1:10:28 Speaker 4: the table is to approve all in favor motion passes unanimously next up

▶ 1:10:37 Speaker 4: changes to Rose High School girls hockey Mr. Fogarty come forward with your

▶ 1:10:45 Speaker 4: permission now this does require a vote but Mr. Fogarty please introduce the

▶ 1:10:52 Speaker 5: topic thank you this year the last two years we've been very successful of girls hockey we've won the league the last two years we had 16 students on the team this year five of which are graduating three of which have chosen to go to private school next year and they declared that to us so that leaves us

▶ 1:11:10 Speaker 5: with eight girls the smallest team in the league last year was water time excuse me was um Woburn with 12 if we asked for a waiver potentially we got three eighth graders last year to the year before that three the year before that I think those numbers would hold true and Stoneham found themselves in a similar situation where they have nine athletes on their girls team and we're looking for approval to get a waiver to join with Stoneham Stoneham high school being the home team we would share we've had preliminary conversations with them and we would share staff you know part with our school part with their school we would use their stonem arena as the home base because they would be designated the home school so I come to you asking for the opportunity of a cooperative team with stonem high school through conversation with the principal Merrill superintendent a more to go for a waiver reaching down to the sixth the seventh grade we didn't feel that would be the right move socially physically emotionally to put potentially an 11 year old girl in the room with a 19 year old and therefore we're seeking this cooperative opportunity this time

▶ 1:12:29 Speaker 1: I would entertain a motion I would make a motion to approve second motion be

▶ 1:12:31 Speaker 4: made by mr. O'Connell second by mr. McAndrew a discussion mr. school what is

▶ 1:12:37 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: what would the name of the team be we haven't gone that far we would be

▶ 1:12:41 Speaker 5: wearing stone and blue but uh they would be the host school that's typically what happens when you have a school one school becomes the host and they do a

▶ 1:12:54 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: little more of the legwork if you will I'd recommend you add some red to the blue uniforms we'll try and maybe include something about now if this is a cooperative team I think it should be represented as such for your consideration I think what we as a community we believe in our athletes we believe in our student athletes in particular as we've discussed in this chamber before I think we have a proud history of all our athletes and I don't think that the Melrose tradition should get lost in something that we feel is for the greater good of all students certainly completely agree with your concerns around safety and so I think that's certainly the larger and most important issue and certainly the goal is to sustain student athletics in whatever form a student chooses to take that I think that is critically important to students I would hate to see the Melrose tradition lost in the

▶ 1:13:57 Speaker 5: entire mix we hope that this is going to be a one-year fix if you will so we hope

▶ 1:14:01 Speaker 5: to have numbers to support ourselves here on our own but time will tell with with that and we certainly do not want to lose our identity as well and they know that and David Pignone their athletic director he and I have known each other a long time and very respectful for conversations about what our needs are what their needs are as well thank you madam mayor thank you

▶ 1:14:26 Gail Infurna: very much thank you for coming here this evening I do echo mr. skills comments and just for some information where is the home team where is the home ice now

▶ 1:14:39 Speaker 5: it's the store mice arena up on Montville that's what you use now well I'm sorry we're Flynn ring oh okay you're a Flynn rink yes but we go forward with this we would play the girls team would play out of Stoneham sure sure great thank you very much mr. Thomas I'm just curious a couple

▶ 1:15:04 Speaker 5: questions who thought this up this has been talked about well the co-op hasn't been talked about but obviously for the last three years I've come back and asked for the the waiver here and uh i did not see us losing three students to the private schools this spring i i knew we were going to lose the five with attrition of graduation and uh i was hoping that i would just be coming back asking for that eighth eighth grade waiver we knew it was going to be a lean year you know maybe get us up to 12 but once those three students declared it um the conversation was brought up with stoneham and uh they're the most viable uh watertown they have nine students returning to their team and we've done that before but to go melrose to watertown or watertown to melrose dollars and cents wise it's it's a it's a tough task so wakefield is 16 students returning to their team wilmington is 13 burlington has 16 and uh it just kind of made sense that with the proximity of the two schools that it happened to work out

▶ 1:16:12 Speaker 3: so again again for those of you who don't remember we were watertown melrose for many years and we worked hard to become our own team but girls hockey is a pathway to college scholarships and as good as we are the really competitive schools are the privates and that's where kids getting scholarships out of so you know i i don't fault the families for wanting the best for their children but the problem for us is we don't have enough girls to safely um have a first line and a second line and that's important to us how about the players and the coaches what do they think of

▶ 1:16:54 Speaker 5: this i had feedback from two families and one family was asking for that middle school waiver i've come and asked for an eighth grade waiver eighth grade waiver lets an eighth grader play at the lowest level and for us it's varsity middle school waiver would allow a sixth seventh or eighth grader play at that lowest level which would allow for that student to play on our varsity team so potentially you know a sixth grade in a locker room with an 18 year old that's it's not a good mix i did not want to go down this road and um but once those three students declared we were limited without choices as far as the

▶ 1:17:36 Speaker 5: conversation it stemmed out of a Middlesex League meeting that we have monthly and once we were talking about this when teams were coming in asking for their waivers storm and I we happen to be sitting next to each other and that's when the conversation started and he entertained thoughts with other schools as well and we just thought it would be nice to keep it together in the league with this

▶ 1:18:00 Speaker 2: how about will it decrease our cost in ice time it will it will so i going back to you

▶ 1:18:05 Speaker 5: your question a moment ago i had two families reach out to me the other family was looking not to play with middle school athletes so that family was hoping that you know this rising senior would be playing with someone of her own age physical ability and so forth so those are the two families that reached out to me the coach has a nice relationship with their coach our coach frank sorrenti um he's comfortable with this we know this isn't ideal but we know this isn't long term either middlesex league would never allow that and uh like i said i hope it's one year

▶ 1:18:45 Speaker 1: thank you okay mr obronski just a couple of comments i think this is a positive thing i mean you're going to keep girls playing i think that you're right in saying that to have a sixth grader with a senior that's a little um ridiculous to say i don't think we'll be losing our identity in the sense it's a one-year shot we were just talking about keeping kids engaged and keeping kids active and trying to keep kids having opportunities i think this gives these girls the opportunity to play and stone's close i think this is the best way to move and i appreciate all your leg work on it because i know it's not easy uh thank you thank you

▶ 1:19:33 Speaker 2: any further questions or comments ms mcandrew just one super quick same fee that's the plan

▶ 1:19:36 Speaker 5: um and that's up for debate because talking with stoneham their fee is significantly lower than ours but i i think for us i think it's easier to stay with where we are rather than restructure our fee system we're at 600 they're at 300. we will have costs associated with it we would split

▶ 1:19:59 Speaker 5: the ice time again these are preliminary conversations we haven't sat down there's no contracts we haven't gone that far we're just looking for the approval to move forward

▶ 1:20:13 Speaker 5: but uh the ice time would be split it looks like their staff would work the the rink because it is their home rink they are the host school their athletic trainer their scoreboard operator things like that we would split the coast split the coaching duties with each school the transportation

▶ 1:20:39 Speaker 4: costs we'd still have to talk about any other comments i have a few lightning round if you will what's the max roster size I'm sorry what's the max roster size for Middlesex

▶ 1:20:48 Speaker 5: oh it's an MIA roster I want to say it's 22 okay and we've only been at 20 twice in the history I believe that was 17 18 and 16 17 and the minimum minimum you

▶ 1:21:00 Speaker 4: mentioned Watertown at 12 Woburn played last year with 12 Woburn sorry I haven't

▶ 1:21:06 Speaker 5: heard a minimum I do know a minimum in a sense that you need to have a backup goalie when it comes to tournament time so it becomes very difficult to play

▶ 1:21:20 Speaker 4: without that right madam superintendent I would remind you I refereed ice hockey

▶ 1:21:29 Speaker 3: to put myself through college I know I don't have a part-time job but thank you

▶ 1:21:39 Speaker 4: I appreciate it we are in dire need of referees second but I think I might be biased in doing in doing this one year would we lose access to Flynn the

▶ 1:21:51 Speaker 5: following year I did speak with them quickly today would we lose access each time you solicit ice from the different venues it is a one-year deal so they want to make sure we're comfortable we're going to be able to move forward and then they'll consider they're looking to get the boys that done improvements over there they would like to get the boys back to the Flynn there's a lot of things up in the air right now but no we we could go back to the Flynn next year if necessary if there's a concern might I suggest maybe

▶ 1:22:21 Speaker 4: alternate practices that either just to make keep a pressure last remind me did we approve the eighth grade waiver for this upcoming year we have not I have not asked for that at the same would you still expect to ask for that I will not

▶ 1:22:39 Speaker 5: ask for that if this cooperative team goes through even if you only have a

▶ 1:22:47 Speaker 4: roster of 17 yes okay understood last but not least I see women's lacrosse youth lacrosse everywhere I see women's soccer here in Melrose everywhere do we have a similar situation with youth hockey and it's so is that some a is there some way you can help facilitate that I I'm not a hockey guy I was a

▶ 1:23:12 Speaker 5: wrestler if I can talk about that it's a nausea the hockey world is a little bit different to me we do have numbers to support the program but you're counting on every kid that signs up to play youth hockey coming through Melrose High school and as Miss Tama already mentioned a lot of these kids are taking alternate paths to go to the Division one route there are people that will tell you hockey experts will tell you that that 14 year old female athlete that's where they're going to peak with their skill and the you don't see a huge progression you do in the mind but not so much physically so the older kid gets a little bit wiser a little bit better skater maybe but it's the mind of knowing where that pucks going to rebound to make that next pass going the other way so you're counting on a parent a family making a decision early on with the trajectory of that child and they're not usually sharing that with us we know the numbers in that element or that elementary school age you're counting on them to come to the middle school counting on them to come to the high school and as we see we're losing kids each year you know some of these more skilled players to some of the private schools some of the schools they play more games more exposure they play longer periods of time so that's more minutes on ice so depending on what school you go to in what league you're gonna play in dictates the amount of exposure you're gonna get at the end of that which translates to a division one down to division three thank you very