A development league the Scarborough Hockey Association (SHA) hoped to kick off this season has been scrapped due to a familiar reason - lack of interest.
The new league would have operated in place of its A-level league which the SHA operated exclusively in Scarborough for more than half a century but which the SHA was forced to scrap after last season, also do to declining numbers.The SHA - which continues to operate a full slate of house league and select programs - isn't getting out of rep hockey, though.Instead of operating its own internal A-level rep league within Scarborough, it will instead, for this upcoming season, be fielding a full slate of A-level 'Scarborough Ice Raiders' rep teams, at most age levels, in the east division of the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL).But the SHA had also hoped to operate within Scarborough, the development league - kind of a lesser version of the A-level rep hockey, less costly and competing only within Scarborough, but with full contact.But the proposed league just didn't pan out.As SHA president Ed Wahl stated in a press release:"The decision comes after the SHA spent approximately $5,000 on promotion and advertising of the new program, mailed information packages to every player registered in the SHA during the 2009-10 season, conducted two public information sessions and held 13 registration nights in an attempt to recruit youth to the program. The SHA Board is very disappointed in the response to this program. We did everything we could to promote the program."We thought it was best to make the decision now so that the players that had registered could find a new place to play and the SHA would not be committing to the huge expense of ice time that would likely be wasted next season given the early trend in registrations."The GTHL, which had hoped the new development league in Scarborough would ensure no players were left behind, supported the decision."We are convinced that the SHA made every best effort to make this program work for the coming season" said GTHL President John Gardner, in the same press release."If the displaced players have not registered for this program, they have either decided to play house league hockey or have joined other existing hockey teams in the GTHL."We are convinced that all players have been accommodated and the responsible thing to do, both financially and for those that had registered, was to terminate the plans to operate this program. Therefore, the GTHL has removed the condition requiring the SHA to operate this program".Wahl said that only about 44 players had signed up for the new program where the absolute minimum needed was 152. They were given either a full refund or a reduced rate to join the affiliated Scarborough Youth Hockey League House League.While Scarborough maybe having problems in terms of the quanity of hockey players, quality does not appear to be an issue yet. Chris Stewart just had a breakout year with the Colorado Avalanche and Tyler Toffoli was drafted this past spring by the Los Angeles Kings. Both are just the latest SHA alumni to make their mark.WEST HILL MINOR HOCKEYHoward Ryan, president of West Hill Minor Hockey Association, which split from the Scarborough Hockey Association last season, is seeing a boost in registration this year. "Absolutely," he said when asked if he's seeing more interest. "We've had full teams inquire about coming in and playing in our house league and keeping those teams together for our (North York Hockey League) select program."Our numbers are very high for this time of year. We have not even started our registration yet and we're at almost 450 kids (registered)." In-person registration for West Hill begins this week, Aug. 31, Sept. 1 and Sept. 2."The scary part is, the city told me that if we grow too much we'll have to cap the amount of teams we have," added Ryan. "I hope to heck that we don't have to turn players away but there's a possibility that that might happen."- with files from Norm Nelson