Leaders expect increased participation in midget split-season option for Year 2

By @MichaelCaples –

Last fall, the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association began a pilot program for the midget age level that offered a ‘split season’ schedule so that players could skate with a travel team before joining their high school team.

After having 27 teams participate in Year 1, organizers are expecting an even better showing for Year 2.

“Year 1 went real well,” said Don Wright, MAHA’s high school hockey director and president of the Michigan High School Hockey Coaches’ Association. “It got passed kind of late in the May meeting a year ago, so most people didn’t know about it until [the summer meeting] last year. There were 27 teams between A and AA, so I think it went real well. Everyone seemed happy with how it worked for them, and you know, it was all different types of teams, as far as how they were made up. Going into this year, I think certainly things are way more organized, things are on the website, so I would expect more teams this year, but I think because it is a little diverse in how it applies to across the state, I’m not sure on the total numbers but, you know, I’ve certainly heard from way more teams than last year at this time.”

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By having more lead-time for planning, MAHA is able to communicate with interested teams, which will help all parties. Teams can express interest in participating in the split-season program by completing a form available on the MAHA official website, which in turn will allow MAHA to create a database of all split-season teams for scheduling purposes.

“We expect quite a stronger result, based on everything that we have heard,” said MAHA president George Atkinson. “We had a lot of people last year that either weren’t quite sure how to do it or didn’t hear about it until a little later or a lot of different things. Last year was kind of a learning curve, we had a good response last year, and then from what we hear this year, so far, obviously, we expect quite a few more teams this year than what we had last year.

“We’re in the process of trying to identify those teams; we have a form on our website right now that they can declare that they’re going to be playing in the split season, and that’s a two-fold thing, No. 1 so we know kind of what we’re dealing with in terms of when we get to the playoffs, so we know how to plan for that, but the other part of that is that one of the complaints last year was that teams didn’t know who the other teams were. They couldn’t get their games going, so what we’ve said this year is, everybody signs up and tells us who’s doing what, then we can give you back a database to everybody who signs up, here’s who the teams are.”

MORE: MAHA announces midget/high school split season pilot program

Atkinson also said that he has heard of more tournament options for split-season teams, which adds to the sense that the idea is gaining traction within the state.

“I do know there are quite a few early-season tournaments that are going to be geared towards the split season, way more than last year,” Atkinson said. “Last year, there were a couple thrown together last-minute; this year, I know of at least three or four what I would call major ones, or major people who normally run tournaments that are planning for the split season, so obviously they’re thinking there is a demand there, as well.”