Rockville High School Seeking Another Hockey Co-op

The Vernon Board of Education is being asked on Monday to put in place a piece of a complicated puzzle that will help put a shattered high school hockey program back together.

Rockville High School Athletic Director Steven Phelps is asking the school board to approve a cooperative agreement with Bolton and Coventry high schools to form a new team. RHS had been playing with Manchester and Stafford High Schools, but in a letter to the board dated May 8, Phelps said that co-op "was experiencing difficulty obtaining an adequate number of competitors to form a hockey team."

Rockville-Manchester-Stafford reached the CIAC Division III quarterfinals last season. RHS Principal Eric Baim said that co-op has been "dissolved," and that the application with Bolton and Coventry has already been endorsed by the schools' respective boards of education.

Baim said once the three school boards approve the co-op plan, the three principals then sign it and deliver it to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference's Co-op Committee for review. Baim is serving as the point person for all CIAC correspondence regarding the co-op. 

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Phelps said the athletic directors in the Central Connecticut Conference have endorsed the plan.

Phelps said a "no-cut" policy would be adopted for the team if the co-op is approved by the CIAC. Neither a potential official team name or a mascot were mentioned in any of the correspondence. 

Neither Phelps nor Baim has indicated what would become of the hockey interests of Manchester and Stafford.