NEPSAC sports such as baseball and lacrosse were fortunate enough to get most of their seasons played in the spring of the 2020-21 school year. Winter sports weren’t so lucky.
As the pandemic surged in the late stages of 2020, league seasons were delayed, cut short, or canceled altogether, as a slew of school- and state-imposed restrictions left teams unable to cross state lines to play games against their traditional prep opponents.
Things got a bit better as time wore on — and it was different for every team — but for the most part, aside from a handful of exhibition matchups and a heavy dose of skills sessions, typical winter prep activities were few and far between.
With the season in jeopardy as 2020 turned into 2021, many of the local prep school players went and played full-time with their local split-season teams, but that was really it.
Now, almost 18 months since the last true prep hockey game took place in the days leading up to the pandemic, things are finally inching towards returning to normal as teams, players, and coaches get set to gear up for the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
Things will really start to heat up when students return to their respective campuses after Labor Day to begin training for the season’s late November start date.
In the meantime, New England Hockey Journal checks in with several local coaches to see how things were left at the end of the 2019-20 season, how they fared in 2020-21, as well as how things are developing heading into 2021-22.
This article appeared in the print edition of the July/August 2021 New England Hockey Journal magazine.
