Mallinders Move On

The Mallinder brothers have left Hamilton High School’s hockey team. Nate is a sophomore defenseman with 15 goals from the blue line in the last two seasons. His younger brother Tyler is an 8th grader who I have told you has the potential to be the “real deal” in goal over the next several seasons. The Mallinder’s are students at Oneida Central and I now wonder out loud if part of the problems that lead to this situation has to do with the friction that comes with combined high school teams. I know that there had been problems for the past two seasons and it boiled over on Thursday, Jan. 24th. After phone and e-mail communications between the school and family decisions were made that resulted in the boys getting off the team bus before the Emerald Knights departed for their scheduled game against Proctor.

When I talked with him, Hamilton Central Athletic Director Bill Dowsland had no comment about the situation. However, Bill did lay to rest one rumor floating around the rinks – Hamilton has not killed off the practice off accepting players from other schools. Bill explained that it is procedure for Hamilton high officials to review the program at the end of each season, take a look at the team’s status and the numbers of returning players and then decide about relationships with other schools. If, at that time, it is thought that outside players would enhance the program then they would either maintain current relationships or develop new ones.

It would be wrong for me to portray this development as being devastating for Hamilton. First of all, the Emerald Knights are not making the playoffs. Secondly, they remain strong on the ice, as evidenced by their one goal loss to league leading Whitesboro. But, this does make things interesting for next season. Where the Mallinders play in 2008-09 could have playoff implications for several schools for several seasons to come. The other question could be what kind of hoops, current or created, will the Mallinders face as they seek to play high school hockey again.

The complications of combining schools under one varsity letter is something I promise we will examine after the season ends.