Creating a mythical Super 8 watchlist
As the opening round of the second annual Ed Burns Coffee Pot Tournament kicked into gear last Sunday afternoon, there was no mistaking the significance of having eight of the state’s best public school boys hockey teams battling against each other within the Doherty division.
All eight ranked in the top 15 of their respective divisions in the latest MIAA power rankings. Five of them even ranked top 10. Calling the slate “loaded” would be understating it.
But when Div. 1 playoff threat Braintree got ready to face title contender Arlington, what should have been a massive tilt felt a little incomplete.
“Like (Arlington coach John Messuri) says, and we talk about it all the time; that would’ve been a huge game for the Super 8,” said Braintree coach David Fasano. “Right now, you’d say Arlington is in and Braintree is not in. But it would’ve been an opportunity for Braintree to showcase and maybe get in. … Obviously, it’s an opportunity to showcase the best teams in the state in the Super 8 every year, and we miss that.”
Messuri and Fasano belong to a long list of coaches who miss the Div. 1A tournament for a variety of reasons.
Since introduced in 1991, qualifying for the exclusive tournament was the highest honor outside of winning a state title. That ferocious desire to be there is what fueled some of the most exciting high school hockey in the country.
Up until three years ago, before COVID-19 hit and the Super 8 was then suspended, teams would glue their eyes to the tournament’s “watch list” around this time of the regular season. Braintree’s matchup with Arlington would have carried significant implications as it likely fought for its Super 8 life. Canton would have done much of the same against Hingham, and the consequences of losing would be far more severe than having their ratings just drop a tenth of decimal.
“(Losing the Super 8), it’s made the regular season games much more meaningless,” Messuri said. “You’d be looking at games in December thinking, ‘Man, if I don’t win this game, we could get knocked out of the Super 8.’ … It would be so much fun, the games took on so much more meaning.”
“You set goals, but one of them was always to make the Super 8,” added St. John’s Prep head coach Kris Hanson. “It was always fun to compete for that, so we do miss that excitement surrounding it.”
Programs like St. Mary’s (L), Wellesley, Franklin, Canton, Xaverian, BC High, Braintree and Central Catholic are among the likely teams missing out on the thrill of clawing for one of the last three spots. Aside from Canton, they’re also the groups that would be frontrunners in the Div. 1 field if you remove the Super 8 qualifiers.
One of the reasons given for suspending the Super 8 stemmed from whether or not it was needed anymore. The rise of the publics over the last decade have somewhat neutralized the private school domination rhetoric that called for the Div. 1A tournament in the first place.
Every coach talked to raved about the new power rankings system, appreciating its numeric formula. The best teams have found their way to the top, and so far, the two years it has existed has shown an even split between publics and privates in the Div. 1 rankings’ top-10.
Yet, unsurprisingly, the new tournament’s first Div. 1 state semifinals still featured three Catholic Conference teams. The team BC High beat to join Xaverian and St. John’s Prep there was Catholic Memorial. And this year, albeit another 50-50 split in the latest Div. 1 top 10, No. 1 St. John’s Prep is widely regarded as a team in its own class. If the Eagles aren’t the runaway favorite, then it’s No. 2 Catholic Memorial.
St. Mary’s longtime coach Mark Lee remembers the thrill of just barely qualifying for the Super 8 play-in game in 2017, losing it, then immediately running table to take home the Div. 1 title. The new tournament system certainly worked wonders for every division, but he finds it irrefutable that the eight mega-powerhouses each year should be in their own tourney.
“You’ve got St. John’s Prep, you’ve got CM, you’ve got Pope Francis, then you’ve got everybody else (this year),” he said. “I think the way they had it with the Super 8, it really creates a lot of excitement for that tournament and for (a Div. 1) tournament. Now you have teams that are very, very good — maybe not quite as good as the top two, three, four teams — that will still have an opportunity to compete for a title.”
The one major flaw attributed to the Super 8 was the selection process, often referred to as a political affair. Should the Super 8 return when eligible, it would be an interesting turn for the power rankings formula to replace much of that human judgment. Lee, Hanson, Messuri and Fasano all much prefer the rankings, with Hanson greatly appreciating the new tournament system largely because of it.
“I like taking the human element out of it,” Hanson said. “If at some point the Super 8 is brought back, I would like it to be under the power rankings system.”
Within the rankings, we see a notable love for the publics this year, which would make history in the Super 8.
Xaverian and BC High stake claim within the Div. 1 top-10 right now, but should Franklin, Wellesley or Braintree — all right behind them — supplant them, it would mark seven publics in the top-10.
Six is the most ever in a Super 8, including the playin round.
“St. John’s Prep and Catholic Memorial are probably the two best teams, but on any day, I think the publics can win a game against them,” said Hingham head coach Tony Messina. “It’s a
season where it’s open, anyone can compete for it.”
Obviously, it’s all speculation. But that’s always been a part of the joys surrounding the Super 8. So, without an official watchlist to gawk at, here’s an opinion for one on the boys and girls with three weeks to play:
Boys
1.) St. John’s Prep, 2.) Cath- olic Memorial, 3.) Hingham, 4.) Belmont, 5.) Pope Francis, 6.) Reading, 7.) Arlington, 8.) Marshfield, 9.) Xaverian, 10.)*
BC High, 11.) St. Mary’s, 12.) Wellesley, 13.) Braintree, 14.) Franklin, 15.) Canton.
Girls
1.) St. Mary’s, 2.) Archbishop Williams, 3.) Duxbury, 4.) NDA (H), 5.) Winthrop, 6.) Shrewsbury, 7.) Peabody/Lynnf./NR, 8.) Andover, 9.) HPNA, 10.) Methuen/Tewksbury, 11.) Falmouth, 12.) Hingham, 13.) Algonquin, 14.) Sandwich, 15.) Billerica/Chelmsford, 16.) Arlington, 17.) Canton, 18.) Winchester.