2017 High School Hockey USA Nationals

[4 The Kids]

Congrats to OLU and SM for great seasons and representing California well at 2017 USA Hockey High School Nationals in Cleveland last week.  OLU went 3-0 in pool play and lost in a tough battle in the 1/4 finals.  SM went 3-0 in pool play and made it to the finals vs Bayard Rustin, who they beat in pool play.  Bayard won 4-3 in a great game that was tied till 5 minutes in the 3rd.  SM battled to the end but could not get one in the net to tie it up.  Congrats to both teams on great seasons and being great representative for CA hockey.

Link to USA hockey article on final and video of all goals in final game.

link:  http://nationals.usahockey.com/news_article/show/777070?referrer_id=2885865

[islandhockey]

Congratulations!  For us that know little about high school hockey nationally, does this differ from some of the powerhouse prep school teams such as Shattucks, the Kent Academy, etc?  Or, do the Prep teams compete against the Tier ! age based teams?  Sorry for now knowing if this seems like a dumb question. 

[Portent]

The high school teams that participated this year in USA Nationals seemed pretty soft to me. I am not taking anything away from OLU or SM. To get as far as they did this year says a lot of SoCal hockey. However, you can not compare OLU and SM to the power house teams back east. I know that USA sends invites out to qualifying teams each year and there are always those who decline for one reason or another.

[lcadad]

So in the case of the Pennsylvania teams in the "pure" division, they were actually state winners in 2 different divisions by size.  The team that beat Santa Margarita is actually a smaller school, albeit one that won 4 straight state championships, and yet only got an invite/attended the tournament this year.

Calling the tournament a "National championship" is a bit misleading, because it's invitational, and private/prep schools are often as good/better.  It's really very hard to get any sort of comparison of all these schools, given all the different leagues and teams.  In the same PA league where the 2 PA teams came from, there is a "AAA" division that has many of the aforementioned private schools.  So basically, you have Santa Margarita playing public school teams, but not the teams that would more closely match them.

Then of course you have your traditional hockey states like Minnesota and Mass. that have their own systems and so of course you don't see teams from those places represented at all. 

[islandhockey]

Ah.  That makes things more understandable!  Thank you!  I'm hearing Bosco will move up to the "pure" Division next season which could give the two ADHSL powerhouses a run for their money I would imagine.  Anyone know anything about the Lake Tahoe Hockey Academy Prep School? Seems like a decent record for their first season.  In reading their website, it seems they are moving in the right direction and will get even more exposure next season, though I heard some families were unhappy with their experience.  It would be nice to see a hockey prep school excel on the west coast. 

[4 The Kids]

Comments above are right on - Bayard Rustin was ranked 146th (92.66 rating) in My Hockey for High Schools.  Top HS is Eden Prairie MN (rating 97.47), so there are better HS teams that decline to play and would clearly be a step ahead of those that do come if the accepted the invitations.  The competition would be similar to 15U AAA or 16 or 18U AA, where the top high school rankings are similar to 16U AAA.