Parents, Students Lobby Toms River Schools For Co-Op Hockey Team
TOMS RIVER, NJ — Parents and players on the Toms River North ice hockey team are urging the administration of the Toms River Regional School District to allow a cooperative team with the Jackson Township Schools for the 2023-24 ice hockey season.
Parents and players pleaded their case to the administration at the Toms River Regional Board of Education meeting on Tuesday night, saying they would welcome a co-op with the Jackson Schools.
There are no ice hockey teams at Jackson Memorial or Jackson Liberty for the 2023-24 season due to budget cuts that school district was forced to make as a result of state aid cuts under S2, the Asbury Park Press reported.
As a result, about 10 Jackson players are looking for a team, that report said.
Stephanie Schneider, president of the Toms River North Ice Hockey Booster Club, told the Toms River school board that their players and parents want to have Jackson join them and that it would benefit all of the kids because Toms River North has been struggling with player numbers, too.
"Usually a team has no less than 20 players," Schneider said. "We are at bare bones right now."
Toms River North has about 13 players, the Asbury Park Press report said. The players were present at the meeting Tuesday night and stood up as Schneider and Kevin Butch, who coaches club hockey in Toms River and is a parent of one of the players, spoke.
"We have children from another town who want to continue to play the game they love," she said. "Our children are here to represent they welcome this."
Butch told the board the matter is a safety issue as well as one of ensuring the Mariners hockey team is able to play its season.
Five players are on the ice at a time plus the goaltender, and the five skaters play in shifts to try to keep the players from becoming exhausted.
With Toms River's current roster, "these kids are going to be physically exhausted," Butch said. "It's a very physical game, it’s a fast game." When players are exhausted, it increases the chances of injuries.
Injuries nearly doomed the 2022-23 season, he said, because they could barely put a team on the ice.
"If we play with this team we're going to have a lot of issues," Butch said. "If we have any injuries we're going to have to shut down the season or cancel games."
"We should have been co-oped already," he said.
Toms River East and Toms River South participate together as a co-op ice hockey team, and there are other districts across Ocean County and inNew Jersey where neighboring school districts combine their hockey teams to provide opportunities for students.
Superintendent Michael Citta said Toms River has not pursued a co-op with the Jackson schools because "usually you hear from (the other school's) superintendent asking about the potential to combine sports programs.
In addition, Citta said he had been told that Jackson Superintendent Nicole Pormilli had signed a contract and memorandum of understanding with the Point Pleasant Borough School District for a co-op team, but said he was told the Jackson parents opposed that.
"I can’t propose a co-op with another school district until I get it from said school district," Citta said. But he promised to follow up with the parents and find a solution, even as ice hockey season is set to begin within days.
Schneider and Butch said turning it into a co-op would not cost the district extra money. The district does not bus the players to and from practices or games, and the ice time and referees have been paid for, they said.
"Please consider doing this coop for us," Butch said. "It’s not going to change anything, it's just adding to the roster. It will make us have a better season, a more productive season, a safer season."
"We’ll come up with solutions to this situation," Citta said. "We will make sure they are safe on the ice and there’s a season and there’s no disruption to that season."
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