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Recent CHC Blue News

Ohio Moving Towards Multiple Divisions for Hockey

By Scott Harrington 06/11/2020, 3:00pm EDT

Two brackets possible for 2022 state tournament

Saint Ignatius head coach Patrick O’Rourke, a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Coach’s Advisory Board for hockey, said on this week’s Ohio Hockey Digest On Air podcast that the OHSAA is taking steps to establish two divisions for hockey beginning with the 2021-22 hockey season.

O’Rourke said nothing has officially been decided yet, but the advisory board and OHSAA executive director Jerry Snodgrass are in favor of the move, which has been a popular topic around the Ohio high school hockey scene for years.

“It’s not for this upcoming season but for the following year,” O’Rourke told Ohio Hockey Digest. “But with Jerry behind it we’ve basically moved beyond ‘is this going to happen’ more to ‘how is it going to happen’.

Shaker Heights Wins Ohio High School Jersey Tournament

By Scott Harrington 04/21/2020, 4:00pm EDT

53 teams participated in inaugural competition

The Shaker Heights Red Raiders are the champions of Ohio Hockey Digest’s first state-wide high school hockey jersey competition – a tournament among 53 high school teams that was decided by online voting.

“Congratulations to Shaker Heights,” said Ohio Hockey Digest founder Scott Harrington.  “The Red Raiders sport a classic throwback sweater design and their fan base certainly turned out to support them.”

Twenty-four teams moved from eight qualifying pools into a fixed bracket.  The Red Raiders edged Olentangy Berlin in the final.  Voting irregularities raised red flags in the Bears’ semifinal and final match-ups.

Just over 17,000 unique users visited www.ohiohockeydigest.com during the 48-hour voting window, but almost 73,000 votes were cast.  Each user was limited to one vote.

“Unfortunately, there is really no way for us to know how much influence voter fraud had on the entire competition – not just the later rounds,” said Harrington.  “But it is clear that we need to find a way to guard against similar interference before we do a tournament like this again.  This should not take away from Shaker’s celebration.”

Harrington wanted to make it clear that he was not implicating the Berlin players, coaching staff or administration, but there were large numbers of votes cast in short windows of time that suggested some kind of bots or voter fraud that was benefitting the Bears.  When Harrington shut the voting off at the deadline, hundreds of Berlin votes were surging in by the minute.  They fell four short.  Similar voting irregularities occurred in their win over #2 seed Nordonia in the semifinals.

The competition drove a lot of traffic to www.ohiohockeydigest.com and gave high school hockey fans all over the state something to do during a spring without hockey.

Sylvania Northview was the other semifinalists in the high school bracket.

John Carroll University defeated the University of Dayton in the ACHA competition.

 

There WILL be a state champion crowned in Ohio

By Scott Harrington 03/31/2020, 11:00pm EDT

Ohio Hockey Digest to determine which high school team has the best jersey

In the absence of a state hockey tournament – and to fill some of the void during what is usually the best time of year for hockey – Ohio Hockey Digest will be running a tournament-style competition to determine which high school hockey team in Ohio has the best-looking jerseys.

Coaches can submit one picture of the jersey WORN DURING THE 2019-20 SEASON that they would like to enter into the competition – home, away or third jersey – by Sunday, April 5 by tweeting it and tagging @hockey_ohio, e-mailing it to scott@ohiohockeydigest.com.  It can be an action shot, player pose, or hung jersey, but will ideally show the front and the sleeve/shoulder.

We will determine the format for the tournament once we see how many submissions we get, but the voting will take place at www.ohiohockeydigest.com

The competition will be open to any high school hockey team in Ohio – varsity, club or USA Hockey.

--- Scott Harrington for Ohio Hockey Digest

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