Hanover
Not being zealous sports folk or particularly plugged in to the Marauders’ athletic scene, the Norwich couple was taken aback.
“We had no idea and were really surprised and not prepared,” Adami said.
Added her husband: “They tell you about the cost of ice and referees and buses, but it’s definitely sticker shock. That just blows me away.”
Such has quietly been the case for more than a decade. At least this season, JV hockey parents don’t also have to pay the school-wide $150 participation fee, which is charged for each player in each sport. Coaches Marty White and Bill Miles work for free, and their players don’t have the matching practice jerseys and jackets given to varsity players, but there’s no doubt about the commitment of the skaters and their families.
“The money thing is not contentious, but it’s frustrating,” said White, a 59-year-old former varsity assistant, whose son, Gus, played two years on the junior varsity and two years with the varsity. “My peers at other schools think I’m kidding when I tell the what our kids have to pay.”
Hanover athletic director Mike Jackson said an inconsistent turnout from year to year and the relatively high cost of the sport have worked against junior varsity hockey’s $16,000 cost being included in the school’s $644,000 annual athletic budget.
The NHIAA does not allow girls to play for the Marauders’ boys junior varsity hockey team because there is a girls varsity hockey team. This rule applies, even though there is no Hanover girls junior varsity hockey team. Miles said he asked if players cut from Lebanon’s varsity boys team could join the Hanover JV team, but discovered they could practice but not play in games. Lebanon, Woodstock and Hartford do not have boys or girls junior varsity hockey squads.
Jackson describes himself as “philosophically against pay-for-play.” He said the participation fee was implemented in 1996 because of overwhelming demand for high school athletic teams. He noted that the Marauders’ rowing program is partially funded by the school, but that its 140 competitors and their parents and coaches conduct extensive fundraising on a yearly basis.
Swimming and diving also was once a self-funded Hanover sport. As participant numbers rose and stabilized around 50 to 60 competitors, however, its expenses were added into the annual budget by the School Board and town voters.
“We’d like to get to a point where (junior varsity hockey) is funded,” Jackson said. “We’re looking at the numbers coming up, but it depends on budget discussions, which is why it’s hard to say.”
Miles is the JV assistant and a longtime youth hockey coach who began helping the JV when his since-graduated son, Matthew, joined that team four years ago. He finds it difficult to believe that towns as comparatively wealthy as Hanover and Norwich can’t find a way to pay for an 18-game season for kids who have played the sport virtually their entire lives. Roughly half of the Marauders’ varsity players each year once skated for the junior varsity, where White gives each player equal time.
“Is the additional money to support this program going to add a dime, a dollar, $10 to my real estate taxes?” Miles said. “I can afford that, and so can most people. We’ve got a bunch of kids who want to play hockey, and this is a hockey town. It continues a (high school) tradition that’s been here for almost 100 years.”
Miles said he’s tried to organize junior varsity hockey parents to lobby the School Board over the years, but that’s difficult because many boys are only on the team for a year or two. Other families are comfortable enough financially that writing a $1,000 check isn’t significant. That amount is less than the annual cost for youth hockey participation at most levels of local organizations.
Were the JV team to dissolve, it would not only leave some skaters in the lurch, but the Hanover varsity as well. Longtime Marauders coach Dick Dodds, who got his start guiding the 1981 JV team, routinely pulls up players from the lower level when injuries or illness strike. He had three such substitutes in his lineup for a recent game. The junior varsity is currently comprised of 11 freshmen, a sophomore, two juniors and three seniors.
“As the program has progressed, it’s become more and more of a feeder for us,” Dodds said. “We’ve got to make sure we have a place for everybody to play … but I know what a burden it puts on the players.”
Dodds and White each have contributed financially to the JV team in recent years to keep it afloat. There have also been a few cases in which families facing financial hardship have received assistance through funds raised by the varsity team’s booster club, Dodds said. Still, the JV team’s survival is a year-to-year issue.
“I’ve been playing since I was 5 and with most of these people on the team for 10 years,” freshman defenseman Cameron Woods said. “We were hearing right as the season started that we didn’t have enough money, and that was a worry. I really love playing hockey; it’s my favorite sport by far.”
The same is true for Daniel Jones, a freshman who moved up to Hanover High after previously attending Lyme’s Crossroads Academy. Quiet and studious, Jones played last season for a Hanover Youth Hockey Association limited-travel team comprised of 11- to 14-year-olds.
He began that winter as a goaltender before switching to forward and received a jarring wake-up call when he began skating with older, more experienced players this season.
“He couldn’t keep up with some of them, and he almost gave up,” Adami said. “But he loves hockey. He walks around the house with his stick and a little ball, and he does CrossFit and weight training on his own. He’s been down to Hooksett for individual skating lessons.
“I think the friendships, time management and improved self-confidence that results from being on the team is very important.”
Jackson and White said the need to fund this season’s JV team in advance was caused when some parents didn’t pay what they still owed at the end of previous winters. This season’s parents have been told they may have to chip in a few hundred more dollars at the campaign’s conclusion, Dan Jones said.
“You’d think the costs would be fixed,” Jones said. “Living in Norwich and paying the school tax, which is no small amount of money, you think that you’ll get everything, including two kitchen sinks. This seems almost like another tax.”
Consider the financial hit to the Warhold family, which has three boys, Joe, John and Peter, on the JV roster. Joe represents a distinct type of JV player, one who loves the game, but doesn’t want to play it five or six times per week. The junior varsity skates closer to half that amount, and while it plays games in far-flung locales such as Berlin and Derry, it also matches up with area prep school squads from Cardigan Mountain School and Kimball Union Academy.
“I prefer JV to varsity because it’s more fun and less serious,” said Joe Warhold, a senior headed to art school later this year who declined to try out for the varsity this season. “It’s more hanging out and having a good time, but we have a whole lot of teamwork and people are laughing while they’re learning how to play.”
At the same time, it’s clear from watching a JV practice that there are good players on the ice, which has been reflected by the team’s 4-2-0 record. Goaltender Harris Larock is likely a future varsity starter, and several of the freshmen are highly skilled and just need time to grow. White, his gray hair flowing over his collar when he skates in a scrimmage, growls and gestures emphatically with his hands and stick, but the players clearly know he’s a teddy bear.
“I’d take Marty over any teacher at my school,” Warhold said. “He may be my favorite adult figure out there. I’ve had some issues with my family, and he’s talked me through it. We’re really good friends, and I’m glad I get to play my last season of hockey with him.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.