Good Luck to Randolph

April 1st is quickly approaching! The snow is starting to melt. Most fields are almost snow free and the temp’s look to be over 50 for a few straight days.

I am sure you know by now, but the Ice Hockey State Final featuring Randolph High School is being held at Mennen. That major snow storm last Friday forced the games to moved. Ice Hockey Finals will be played on March 23rd at Mennen Arena. The Public Game is at 5:00 pm, with Non-Public 8:15 pm.

Randolph looks to make it three straight years that a Morris County Team has won the public State Championship. Knolls won in 2005. Randolph won last year.
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NJHS Ice Hockey Champions from Morris County
1989 – Delbarton with St. Joe’s Montvale
1992 – Delbarton
2002 – Delbarton won Non-Public and Over-all
2003 – Randolph won Public
2005 – Morris Knolls won Public
2006 – Randolph won Public
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I still think that it’s time for Groups or Sections in Hockey. The Public Bracket had 54 teams. Fifty-Four and only one champion!! Non-public had 20 – that makes 74 Total teams in the playoffs.

To put that in perspective, look at Girls Hoops – North Jersey – Section 1 (Groups 1 through 4) had 42 teams and 4 Sectional Champs. Section 2 has 56 teams and 4 Sectional Champs. It is time for 4 Champs in Hockey in Public and 2 in Non-Public.

The problem is how? By size? By geography? That’s something that hopefully the NJSIAA Ice Hockey Committee is looking into.

Snow days ...

Rain is one thing … but snow!? What’s a coach to do? This is when you revamp your pre season plan. I have always felt that the NJSIAA made a huge mistake starting the first Friday in March. I also think that coaches can greatly improve skills inside. At Whippany Park, we used to spend over 75% of practice on personal skills and save team concepts for that little 25% or when we get outside.

Once the season starts, these little skills are forgotten or even neglected. Habits formed now make players better. I have always felt that this gave a huge advantage when the season started. We were ready to go into the season and do all the fundamentals correctly. We were ready to make the routine plays and play within ourselves. I also felt that this cleared up our mid-season to dedicate to the situations that win games in the post season. As a coach, you have to have a building design.

Think of it this way. Build the foundation. Make each player strong and you have a base come April 1st. That is, if you avoid April showers and wet fields. One of the secrets here, when the fields are snow-covered is to make sure that kids see a realistic time-line. As a coach, you need to never let cabin fever into the picture. My advice … do not get upset of things you cannot control. You cannot control the weather, you can control how to take advantage of your time inside.

Ice Hockey Note: Congratulations to Delbarton and Morris Knolls on your fantastic seasons. Randolph – keep it going!