Tuesday, July 13, 2022
During this past weekend's 2022 MAHA Summer Meetings, MAHA made a major change to their Midget split season program.
As you may know, there has been a Midget Tier 2 "split season" program the past 8 years in Michigan. It has been for 16 U & 18 U. The way the program works is split season teams can start playing games August 1st (A month sooner than full season teams). They can play in the split season playoff at the end of October and the winner (16 U) as well as the winner and runner up (18 U) advance to MAHA's Midget Tier 2 state championship in March.
This is a National bound level with USA Hockey, so the winner of the MAHA state tournament would go to USA Hockey Nationals. The split season teams would compete against full season teams at the state tournament.
This has given a lot of High School players the opportunity to play for their HS but also get to compete for a USA national championship. Over the 8 years we have had 3 split season teams win National Championships.
In recent years, the issue has been that MAHA's State Tournament was scheduled the same weekend as the MHSAA state finals. Therefore, a lot of split season or preseason teams would play in the fall but choose to not compete in the split season playoff due to this conflict.
Starting this fall, MAHA has made changes at 18 U Midget Tier 2. This year, all 18 U Tier 2 teams (Full & Split season) can start playing games on August 1st. The State Championship at this level will happen the last weekend of October (not March). As a result, there will not be a conflict with the MHSAA State Finals, anymore. This State Championship will be over before the High School Season starts. Whoever wins the MAHA State Tournament in October will have their roster go dormant. Players can go play High School and then get back together after the High School season to go play in USA Hockey Nationals.
This may be a Fall opportunity for a lot of High School players and Fall programs around the state. Please access the link below for more information:
https://www.maha.org/page/show/1894586-high-school
Please direct any questions to Don Wright, High School Representative - USA Hockey & MAHA