To JV, or not to JV, that is the question, at least when it comes to hockey at Hanover High.
The answer will come from voters on Tuesday during the Dresden School District’s annual school district election, as they determine the future of a privately funded junior varsity program.
Article 6 asks voters to decide whether “SAU 70, the School District and/or Hanover High School recognize, support, and endorse a privately funded and administered boys’ and girls’ junior varsity hockey team so as to enable and authorize such a team to play interscholastic junior varsity hockey under New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association rules?”
The article further notes that, “This obligation would be sustained and open-ended, but does not require the SAU, the School District or Hanover High School to pay for ice time, equipment, fees, insurance, or any other outlay, nor to field a junior varsity hockey team if a privately funded junior varsity hockey team is not privately mobilized and created.”
The article ended up on the ballot through a petition spearheaded by a group of parents: Jeremy Eggleton, Sarah Schweitzer, and Eunice Wharton of Etna, and Kim Dovin of Norwich. They gathered over 50 signatures. Eggleton penned the article voters will ponder come next week.
Earlier this winter, a JV team, independent of Hanover High, was created to give younger players who have aged out of youth hockey but may not be ready or want to play at the varsity level a chance to keep playing the sport. The team was scheduled to participate in a league based in Concord, which would have had the squad play other NHIAA schools. However, things did not go as planned.
“We had a schedule for the whole winter, ready to go. Because we’re not represented by the high school, and under NHIAA rules, we can’t play,” said Marc Cote, after a recent practice at James W. Campion III Rink in West Lebanon.
Cote, 44, who grew up in Hanover and now resides in Lebanon, coaches the team, without pay, which was funded through donations and player fees and carries a $13,000 price tag.
That cost was lower than the estimated cost of $20,000 — without factoring in transportation — had the team been able to play NHIAA competition.
“That would have given us a regular schedule, where we’re not trying to just find games here and there wherever we can,” he said of the NHIAA slate. “It’s a regular schedule, every week, here we are, let’s play.”
Cote said participation in that league would have given athletes the chance to gain experience against other kids in New Hampshire who they might face once they reach the varsity level.
This regulatory snafu has forced the team into an intermittent schedule of games against prep schools.
“We practice, and you know, we have a certain tempo during practice, but that doesn’t compare to a game situation where the nerves are there and all that,” Cote said. “We’ve played three games, I mean, what are we doing?”
The last time JV hockey was offered at Hanover High, before being eliminated, was during the 2021-2022 school year.
It was eliminated partly due to budgetary reasons, but also as part of a “larger philosophical review of our entire athletic program,” Megan Sobel, the school’s athletic director, wrote in an email. That review entailed analyzing factors such as participation data, the number of athletes who moved from JV to varsity, facility availability, and more.
“Given the size of Hanover High School, we already offer more teams than any other school in New Hampshire with similar enrollment,” wrote Sobel.
The school offers 66 teams in 33 sports, 17 of which are subvarsity level.
“When JV hockey was active, the numbers were not consistent, and very few players moved up to the varsity level, so we chose to redirect those resources to provide broader, more equitable opportunities for our students,” she added.
Article 6 acknowledges that the school district is “not yet prepared to support JV Hockey Teams financially.”
The last season JV hockey was offered at the school, it cost the district about $35,000, said Sobel, and the cost likely would be higher today.
A privately-funded extracurricular program at Hanover High would not be unprecedented. Programs such volleyball, crew and swimming were started without full district funding, before eventually receiving that support. But no current program relies on private funding.
Among the proponents of a JV team is Hanover’s boys varsity hockey Head Coach Dick Dodds.
“It’s a great development tool for some of the players, and a majority of them are not ready to play high school hockey in the Division I level coming right out of youth hockey,” he said. “There needs to be some place that they can continue to develop.”
Members of the JV team also supported the idea of a program that would have the school’s stamp of approval.
“I think it 100% should happen. I think it gives kids a chance to keep playing a sport that they want to play,” said Liam Herrick, a 15-year-old freshman at Hanover High. “I think that it gives kids time to develop if they ever want to play varsity.”
Wes Wharton, a 17-year-old junior who just picked up the sport this year, said a JV team sanctioned by the school could help more students take up the sport.
“It would be a lot more helpful than what we have now with scheduling games and practice,” Wharton said. “It just gets more time out on the ice, rather than three practices a week.”
“The bottom line is we want to be out here, and we want to play hockey,” said Henry Dinsmore, a 16-year-old sophomore.
While Sobel indicated she understood the passion of folks who want to see more opportunities for student-athletes, she had concerns about the precedent this article sets.
“Athletic program decisions have historically been made by the athletic department and school administration based on educational philosophy, equity, participation data, and available resources,” Sobel wrote.
“When voters directly dictate which specific teams the district must offer, it raises important long-term questions about how we manage limited resources and maintain balanced, sustainable programs for all students,” she added.
Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Frances C. Richmond Middle School gym.
