Central Attack ready to attack new season
Charlottetown and Sherwood-Parkdale minor hockey organizations working together on new team for 2017-18 campaign
There are changes afoot for Charlottetown and Sherwood minor hockey this season as the Central Attack becomes the central theme of the year.
For 2017-18, the Central Attack lends its name to the bantam AA, midget AA and midget AAA teams from the Charlottetown Minor Hockey Association and the Sherwood-Parkdale Rural Minor Hockey Association.
The organizations merged their bantam AAA programs into the Central Attack for the 2014-15 season.
For Brian Matheson, president of the SPRMHA, the timing was right to combine other levels to increase development through tougher competition and build a deeper, more talented pool of players to feed into the AAAs.
“It just seemed to make a lot of sense to use the Central Attack program. The teams’ competitiveness has been an issue for Sherwood in the last halfdozen years,” said Matheson, who’s in his third year as Sherwood hockey administrative boss. “Hockey P.E.I. suggested we look into it, but we’ve had ongoing discussions for years and years.”
Last season, Sherwood’s midget AAA’s went 0-30 and were swept out of the playoffs in three games while Charlottetown was a respectable 15-13-2, although it lost in four games in the opening round.
Bantam AAA level
At the bantam AAA level, the Central Attack went 0-3 in the post-season after a 4-22-2 regular season.
Meanwhile, in midget AA, Sherwood was a strong 18-8-2, second behind North River, and Charlottetown didn’t ice a team.
In bantam AA, Sherwood had a middling 12-10-6 mark, and again Charlottetown had no entry.
When the bantam AAA teams combined there were rumblings around the province because the league shrunk to four teams from seven teams.
In Sherwood, Matheson had his organization poll its members to thumbs-up results and Charlottetown Minor Hockey Association president Keith Ford said there wasn’t a peep of protest this time.
“It’s all positive. Our organization backed this right from the get go,” said Ford. “It’s better for the kids. Draw more players and have more competitive teams.
“As important we’ll have a feeder system for the AAA team, and have kids playing at the appropriate levels.”
As far as home barns, the bantam AAA and midget AAAs will play at Simmons Sports Centre and Cody Banks Arena, respectively. The bantam AA and midget AA locations are yet to be determined.
It’s also part of a trend of regional blending in Island hockey. The Mid-Isle Matrix, Eastern Express, Prince County, Kings County and West Prince in male hockey and the Mid-Isle Wildcats, Western Wind and Central Storm on the female side.
Matheson said he hopes the move can retain top athletes drawn to other sports in everexpanding choices for top-level competition in the province, and possibly set things in motion to combine more levels later.
“In Sherwood, our numbers seem to be consistent over the last five years. It’s the elite athletes choosing other sports rather than hockey,” he said. “We’ll see how this works, see how the agreement works… and see how it goes. We’ll make sure this is working properly.”
“We’ll see how this works, see how the agreement works… and see how it goes. We’ll make sure this is working properly.” Brian Matheson, president of the Sherwood-Parkdale Rural Minor Hockey Association