Never have postseason HS hockey at FirstEnergy Stadium again

Retrospect is a powerful resource.

That includes the instances when you have to admit you were wrong.

Now that it’s over, let me raise my hand: I was wrong.

Having postseason high school hockey at FirstEnergy Stadium should never happen again.

It’s not that anyone involved — from the Browns to stadium operations to the Ohio High School Athletic Association to the Greater Cleveland high school hockey community — had nothing but the best intentions.

Ohio State-Michigan and the Monsters are a different conversation.

It just didn’t and doesn’t work for postseason high school hockey.

It sounded like such a cool concept when it was announced in October

— a likely one-time special venture to outdoor hockey, the kind of jolt high school hockey needs locally.

Then the next four months transpired.

Let’s start with the span that led into these scheduled semifinals and finals in late February, slated to be staged in conjunction with Ohio State-Michigan, the Monsters, John Carroll and Youngstown Phantoms games, along with various public open-ice events.

One source with direct knowledge of its inner workings painted a picture to The News-Herald of an almost total lack of communication until it nearly came time for the games.

Following the October announcement that the Kent and Brooklyn district semifinals and finals would be staged at FirstEnergy Stadium, coaches and schools had questions from practice time to access to weather contingencies to general logistics.

Efforts were made from school and league standpoints to get clarification from the OHSAA. Those efforts were stated by this source to have gone unanswered.

During the district seeding meeting Feb. 8, those questions were raised again. The response, essentially, was it was too early — less than three weeks out — to know for sure.

I want to be careful to not make this a “the Browns/FirstEnergy Stadium/Haslam Sports Group/OHSAA are the enemy here” narrative. These entities saw this as a creative marketing opportunity and wanted to do right by the local hockey community.

FirstEnergy Stadium goes largely unused most of the calendar year except for 8-to-10 Browns home games, the occasional concert and other one-off events. If you can host Ohio State-Michigan or the Monsters on the outdoor ice — and you’re going to go to the trouble of building the rink, you should maximize it.

Incorporating all facets of hockey in Northeast Ohio is smart. It’s a gesture of goodwill.

But Greater Cleveland high school hockey wasn’t asked what it thought.

The issue is an outdoor rink is not easy to manage. You could have been the inventor or innovator of the idea and still struggle with Mother Nature, wear and tear and implementation.

Several of the games staged at FirstEnergy Stadium had ice delays. The stadium crew, working their butts off to their utmost credit, went around with slush buckets and CO2 canisters attempting to fix the ice.

As a bystander who’s admittedly not an expert, the ice seemed less than ideal. It was uneven in spots, particularly along the boards. And it wasn’t just the ice.

Both days of high school semifinals had delayed starts due to sunset — the right thing to do, but still.

Fans in the bleachers were at least 30 yards away. Many fans selected spots near the mezzanine to see as best they could. It was stated, during the Phantoms’ game, the glass temporarily fogged to an extent fans couldn’t see.

The glass behind the east goal, at least during the high school semifinals, gave in a noticeably unusual way, even for the Zamboni entry point.

Sound, sans roof, was muffled and made action difficult to follow.

During the GilmourWalsh Jesuit semifinal, multiple Lancers’ players were injured. There’s no telling whether that would have been any more or less likely inside at Kent or Brooklyn, but it happened.

While covering the Kent semifinals downtown, I encountered a parent from a team not in The News-Herald coverage area.

He went on a visceral, expletive-filled tirade about the experience for his son and the teams, all potentially playing their final game of the season, for seniors maybe their last.

It was uncomfortable, but he wasn’t wrong.

The most meaningful high school hockey in Greater Cleveland this winter to that point was contested at a temporary outdoor rink that, despite all efforts, had infrastructure issues.

Mother Nature plotted another path for both Cleveland finals, when an initial forecast of snow that became persistent rain forced a Plan B of shifting to Brooklyn on March 4.

Had the games remained at FirstEnergy Stadium, I honestly would have been concerned after witnessing those semifinals.

The once-in-a-lifetime aspect — for these high school student-athletes and not necessarily the collegians and pros who could navigate it better — did not compensate for the headaches.

Following his team’s 3-1 semifinal loss to Walsh, Gilmour coach John Malloy — as Ohio’s alltime winningest high school hockey coach has never been shy to do — volunteered his perspective.

“Well, it’s just a different surface,” Malloy said. “The kids, as I told them, ‘Hey you lost, but you lost at FirstEnergy Stadium. And it’s a memory that you can have, and not many people are going to have, win or lose.’

“It’s something that we had no input in. If they would have asked me, I would have said, ‘Never put a game like this down here.’ Because it’s a meaningful game. But all in all, I think the conditions were fine.”

That adequately summarizes what has been expressed publicly and privately in our high school hockey community. It was unique.

All parties involved worked diligently to make it special. It shouldn’t have been for postseason games.

In 2011, also in conjunction with an OSUMichigan clash, Progressive Field hosted high school games at an outdoor rink as well. But it was in December.

No one in Greater Cleveland high school hockey would have objected had this venture downtown taken place during the holidays — for regular-season tournament and league games. That would have been fun.

For the most meaningful hockey of the year?

It was a nice thought. They meant well.

Specifically for Greater Cleveland postseason high school hockey, there was far too much unknown — and this concept just didn’t work.

Here’s to hoping we never see it again.