MANCHESTER, N.H. – It remains uncertain if Manchester will merge all of its public high schools, but this winter it will merge all of its public high school ice hockey teams.
On Monday night, the Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) unanimously voted to create a new cooperative baseball team and boys’ ice hockey team set to begin this school year. The baseball team will include students from Manchester Central and Manchester West High Schools and play at Gill Stadium. The ice hockey team will include students from Central, West and Manchester Memorial High Schools and play at JFK Coliseum.
Both teams will play in Division I of New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association, reserved for schools with the largest student populations.
The Athletics Department of the Manchester School District requested the mergers following declining participation rates. In hockey, there are a combined 20 players from all three schools, with only three freshmen and in baseball Central did not have enough players for a junior varsity team and West only had 11 players indicating interest in joining a team.
Ward 8 BOSC Member Peter Perich, a 2020 inductee into the NHIAA Hall of Fame, said that the ultimate goal of the NHIAA is to eventually attract new participants at schools to reverse newly created cooperative teams, adding that he hopes the mergers can be reversed within two years.
Manchester School District Assistant Superintendent Amy Allen said that the mergers need not be permanent, but would require NHIAA approval before they could be proposed to the BOSC, also stating that these mergers came in part due to team size recommendations from the NHIAA.
Allen added that in order to reverse the mergers, additional work would be required building feeder programs for the high schools at the city’s middle school and elementary school levels. She noted that for hockey, one key issue is the prevalence of private club teams while declining enrollment overall was the key factor in baseball.
Ward 7 BOSC Member William Shea noted differing interests among students over the years, with soccer and lacrosse becoming more popular. He also noted gap between Manchester and suburban schools in player and equipment intensive sports like hockey, baseball and football compared to sports requiring less equipment and players such as basketball.
“In order to play hockey, you have to have money,” he said.
Shea also noted that many suburban schools have pilot programs to feed high school teams, building on Allen’s observation.
Additional transportation will likely be included for students without cars who will now have to travel farther for practice and games than in previous seasons.
It was noted that Allen will also create a committee to investigate how to entice more Manchester School District students to participate in sports, with the possibility of eSports being added at the varsity level as well in the near future.
