While maintaining a hopeful eye toward Middlesex League tiering within the next two years, Watertown High athletic director Michael Lahiff decided he couldn't wait that long to help two sports with dangerously low numbers.
Starting this winter, the varsity boys hockey team will play an independent schedule until the Middlesex League splits into six-team large and small school divisions in 2011-2012. The girls soccer program will do the same next year after it was determined it was too late - for scheduling purposes - to pull it out of the league this fall.
``Basically, I didn't know if we could make it two years,'' said Lahiff last night. ``Our girls soccer program is down to 20 girls. Our boys hockey program is down to 17 players. There is no JV and no freshman team in either sport. I was concerned.''
Lahiff said he was especially concerned to see an 89-pound freshman forced on to the ice of a Middlesex League varsity hockey game last winter, while freshmen girls endured the pressure of facing state powers such as Winchester and Lexington on the soccer turf each week.
The independent status will allow Watertown to schedule non-league games against schools of similar size and, perhaps, abilities.
``My thought process is we tried it in football a couple of years ago when we had 23 kids,'' he said, ``and then they were able to be more competitive and that helped build the numbers. This year, on paper, we have 79 kids who have signed up for football, including 35 freshmen.
``We are playing a schedule that allows us to be competitive on Friday nights. That helps generate interest. No one wants to go out and get slaughtered every week.''
While the boys hockey team has managed a handful of victories each year despite the low numbers - the Raiders went 2-16-2 last winter - the girls soccer team has been decimated playing a brutal schedule. It has been nine years since the Raider girls have won a Middlesex League game, with many of the losses worse than the 6-0 scores that routinely get reported.
``This is the state we're in,'' acknowledged Lahiff. ``What good does this do anybody playing these games in the Middlesex League? It's not great for our kids. It's not great for their kids. It's not good for Winchester to come over here and win 14-0. That doesn't help anyone.''
Lahiff said this was not an indication the Raiders had renewed interest in leaving the Middlesex League altogether - which he had warned might happen without the tiers - but that it is a bridge to help some squads get ready to rejoin the league in 2011-2012.
``I think it's more to try to compete for the level we're at for the next two years to get us ready to compete in the tiers,'' he said.
Lahiff said the programs were losing players at a rapid rate - both to other schools and other sports at Watertown High such as the very strong field hockey and boys basketball programs.
``If it's not a good experience for them it gets very discouraging,'' he said. ``Then it becomes self-defeating around the school because kids gravitate toward the successful teams and away from the non-successful teams.
``(In hockey), teams in our league have been very good to us. They haven't piled the scores on. But it was a situation where I was worried we wouldn't get kids into the program and we were losing kids to other schools. They can go to Arlington Catholic, or someplace else. We need kids to stay in town to be competitive.''
Lahiff noted that changing demographics - where some suburban schools are exploding with population, while more urban areas are seeing declines in enrollment - make it necessary to tinker with the older league models. He added that what Watertown has tried to do to rebuild its programs could be part of a trend for smaller schools throughout the state.
``We have divisions on a state level,'' he noted. ``The MIAA doesn't say that everyone should go into the same tournament. Leagues should look at the numbers too. Leagues change, towns change and numbers change. We have to adjust.''
(Scott Souza is a Daily News staff writer. He can be reached at 781-398-8006 or ssouza@cnc.com.)
