Wondering what has happened to female players at the U19 tier one level. At the Princeton Tiger Lilies and West Chester Quakers tryouts there were very few players and the organizations may be unable to field teams at this level. Did not see/hear about the NJ Rockets U19 turnout.

The Rockets tryout had a big turnout since the entire Colonials 16u team quit and jumped ship to them. It was obvious that big deals were made as some of the girls made 19u without even skating. There were also Tigerlillies at the tryout. The Rockets got enough players to field both a 19 and 16u team while the Colonials senior team will be their 14u.

Unfortunuately, MAWHA has locked some teams into White because of politics. I guess the Rockets only competition next year will be from Suffolk PAL although I am not sure that they can field a Red team with all the changing Mawha rules.

Even though they have not added any real talent, the Rockets will have a clear run to the Nationals next year. The Quaker girl 16u dynasty has all aged out and ran off to prep school instead of moving up. The 16u division Atlantic Division is wide open for the Tigerlillies as they will be the only returning team in that division.

So what really happened is that politics has killed girls hockey in the Atlantic District. MAWHA should be ashamed of themselves as it is their elitist political posture that has caused this.

Thanks for the info.
Anyone know what the draw is with the Rockets? Princeton has had a good organization for a few years and it looked like the Colonials were heading in the right direction. This was just the 2nd year for the Rockets U19 team. Had the Quaker dynasty stuck together they would have been good competition for the Rockets.

Not sure I understand the politics involved with MAWHA. It does appear that the White divisions will grow while the number of Red Division teams may drop.

Idon't know what the problems are in Princeton, but their best 19u shooter was at the Rockets tryouts. The Rockets core group of girls was there Colonials that walked out three years ago. There training is intense and they also play in the MWEHL and made a respectable showing last year.

I don't think anyone understands the MAWHA politics. The rules get rewritten for one "in group" and are inflexible for outsiders. Here is one example...The Flyers 14u disolved in 06 and some of the players regrouped under the Team Compast name. The rules were rewritten to give them automatic entrance into th red division. However, even though the Rockest 16u will be mostly exColonials, they will be forced to play in the white division. Other organizations that would like to join MAWHA are also forced to play white no matter what their previous competitive record was.

Another example is the selection of the players for the National Camp. Last year the selections from the 14u group were blatantly even through the "in group" teams and no player that wasn't in the "in group" got considered. Even their advertisement of the tryouts is intentionally vague and hard to find. They have not even posted the dates for the district camp, but I am sure that the players on the "in group" have that information.

I saw on the Lady Patriots (Warminster Pa)website that they will be having a tier 1 U19 team next year after being tier 2 (MAWHA White) the last few. Did any Tiger Lilies, Colonials, or Quakers join up with them to give them a boost to the tier 1 level?

I checked the site out and did not see them actually declaring red division. Remember that all White teams are technically "National Bound" also. But if they picked up a little talent they might feel it is a good challenge for the girls and I believe they will only have the Rockets and Tiger Lillies (maybe) to contend with in the Atlantic Division. There is a lot of movement going on among the teams. Even the Quakers are talking about a 12u red team next year. The Penguins are talking about 14u and 16u red teams. With the Quakers and Colonials out of the 16u red division, everything wide open there! There will also be some new organizations joining which, even though they may be forced to play white next year, may end up being a threat in the playoffs.