Does anyone know why a physical is required for high school athletics but not travel hockey? Perhaps it is just big government putting their fingers in school athletics. Do private schools also require a physical? Just curious.
Just a guess, but probably because high school hockey is not an official high school sport. It does not have CIF designation, which probably requires the physical.
Hockey has a very tenuous relationship with the public high schools. In some cases around us team have had to sort of 'go underground' because the teams have essentially been given 'cease and desist' messages from the school to stop using school names, etc. As far as I can tell, most public high school teams, if they are associated with a school, are associated as a 'club'. My son's team is such, and was listed next to the chess club, the astronomy club, etc. Unfortunately, the school then decided that sports clubs actually went against the rules as well, so they eliminated them all.
This is at least partially because of legal reasons. High school sports have to guarantee staff presence, must provide transportation, must practice on campus, etc. None of this is possible for hockey here.
So the question is probably not 'why aren't physicals required', because the requirement is likely part of CIF, and it isn't a CIF sport.