Private Schools Leaving GCHSHL (Red North)

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Bennies'01

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Word on the street is that traditional hockey powerhouses Lake Catholic, Padua, St. Edward, St. Ignatius, and University School are leaving the GCHSHL and joining up with Gilmour Academy to form their own Cleveland-area private school hockey league. Not a lot of details have come out yet, but supposedly it is official and will be happening this season. The move was apparently spurred by scheduling issues and division realignments that came with being in the GCHSHL.

There are a lot of interesting lines of discussion that come with this move, although the biggest thing I'm curious about is why include Padua? And why weren't Walsh Jesuit or Holy Name invited?
 
 
Interesting. Perhaps Walsh and Holy Name were invited, but turned it down. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
 
I understand why this is being done but I wonder if the bosses @ Ignatius, Ed's, US, etc., gave any thought to how this appears viz a viz the larger issue of a private/public split...which I'm sure they all oppose.
 
I expect a small hockey conference won't impact that discussion. But it does deserve a thought.
 
This leaves some private schools behind in the GCHSHL. I wonder if Benedictine or Elyria Catholic improving to the top of the Red North will lead them to join the new conference. WRA may also be a threat someday.
 
From a # of games perpective, the Red North teams played 12 league games and this new conference will play 10 and already plan on using extra points for post-season tourney ("Baron Cup" like). So really no scheduling issues caused.
 
EagleFan said:
This leaves some private schools behind in the GCHSHL. I wonder if Benedictine or Elyria Catholic improving to the top of the Red North will lead them to join the new conference. WRA may also be a threat someday.
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Doubtful on all three, I think.

Benedictine hockey has been in a slow, steady decline since the coach that re-established the program in 1999 left in 2008. If this league were formed in the early 2000s, I would like to believe that the Bengals would have received serious consideration for a conference invite. Perhaps someday the program will get back on track and once again be in a position to be invited, but I'm not holding my breath.

Elyria Catholic's always had a solid program, but never quite gotten to the level that Walsh has reached in recent years. And I also think that EC's best days are in the past.

WRA has never committed to hockey like some of the other area prep schools and the school has always been in the Blue or White Divisions. Unless there were to be a serious shift in how the administration viewed the sport, they wouldn't be competitive in the GLL.

EagleFan said:
From a # of games perpective, the Red North teams played 12 league games and this new conference will play 10 and already plan on using extra points for post-season tourney ("Baron Cup" like). So really no scheduling issues caused.
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The Red North only played a 12 game schedule last year and in 2010-2011 because the division had been expanded to 7 teams (which was likely because the teams couldn't decide who should be relegated). However in most years in the past decade Red North teams were playing 10 league games.

The point about the Baron Cup is a very good one and something I've been saying for a long time. That could have and should have been turned into a three game tournament years ago.

The other point made in the article that stood out to me was the one about St. Ignatius' relegation to the Red East a few years back. It should be noted that Eds and Iggy still managed to play three times that year and for sake of comparison, the two schools played four times last year.

It will be interesting to see how this affects scheduling across the board in Northeast Ohio.

Just for fun, the new top division of the GCHSHL in 2013-2014 might look like this:

-Strongsville
-Hudson
-Shaker Heights
-Rocky River
-Mentor
-Solon
 
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