MONSIGNOR MARTIN WITHDRAWS FROM FED HOCKEY LEAGUE

The Monsignor Martin High School Athletic Association and the Western New York Boys Federation Hockey League are headed for an amicable divorce.

MMHSAA executive director Pete Schneider announced on Friday that the two factions will separate beginning with the 2025-26 season. It will mark the first time in 35 years that private and public schools won’t compete under the same roof.

“After 35 years as a member of the league our schools no longer feel that the Federation League serves the purpose for our schools that was intended when the league originated back in 1990,” Schneider said in a prepared statement.

Originally, the “Fed” started with eight teams – St. Joe’s, Canisius, St. Francis, Bishop Timon-St. Jude, the three Williamsville Schools (North, South and East) and Amherst. Each school would play a balanced schedule that featured two games against each divisional opponent along with games against various Section VI teams, and that setup lasted for two decades.

Yet over the last decade, things began to change. The “Fed” expanded and was separated into public and private divisions. Because of this, Monsignor Martin teams (now also featuring St. Mary’s) faced off against one another three times each in 2024-25 and only had two scheduled games versus public schools in Section VI.

“Over the years, with the addition of more public schools, the Federation separated out first into distinct public and private championships and then into public and private divisions,” Schneider said. “As a consequence of this separation and the increase in the number of league members, the Monsignor Martin teams have seen their schedule change to where they are playing MMAA teams 12 times during the season and only receiving two games with public schools.

“While our schools recognize that this is a function of growth within the public school sector, we feel that our schools would be better served at this time to continue playing under the MMHSAA banner and to seek individual games with our public school counterparts, in a similar fashion as we do for other sports. We look forward to continuing our great working relationship with Section VI and the NYSPHSAA in all sports.”

After so many years under one umbrella, naturally the parting of ways between the “Fed” and Monsignor Martin would provoke some opinions from those who have been connected to hockey in Western New York.

“My initial response is a little bit of disappointment and sadness,” former St. Joe’s coach Rich Crozier said. “One of the things that I think made high school hockey special – specifically in Section VI – was the private-public rivalries that developed over the last 35 years. At St. Joe's, we had a great rivalry with Williamsville North and in recent years that started to materialize with Orchard Park as well. Now some of those great rivalries have ended.

“But from the private schools’ perspective, it gives them an advantage. They'll be able to have more flexibility in their scheduling and in the way they run their playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if schools start having series against one another, which would be really cool.”

Crozier was skeptical of the idea that expansion of the “Fed” was what led to the Monsignor Martin stepping away.

“This idea that somehow they couldn’t continue to rework the schedule because of expansion, in my opinion, is misleading,” Crozier said. “The reality is the public schools don't want to play against the privates, and that's because of the same reason that it doesn't occur in football or any of the other sports. The public school’s chip on their shoulder is they believe the private schools are stealing their best athletes, and that's just not necessarily the case.

“Kids pick to go to private schools for several reasons. The majority of the people that played for me at St. Joe's had a direct connection to the school, whether they had family members go there or their Catholic faith was really strong and they wanted their son brought up in a school connected to the religion. Unfortunately, the kids will be the ones losing out here and what’s disappointing is you can now write hockey on a long list of other sports that have also been doing this.”