St. Ignatius and St. Edward hockey rivalry was the road to the OHSAA state final four

CLEVELAND, Ohio One of the safest bets in sports is a regional final in Brooklyn between St. Edward and St. Ignatius.

For seven of the past ten seasons, the storied rivalry between the Wildcats and Eagles has determined who goes to Columbus for the state Frozen Four, which is a pretty wild statistic.

By the numbers, the Wildcats have won five of seven matchups, winning state in four of those cases. The Wildcats also won in 2020, but the state tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Wildcats defeated the Eagles in the regional final last season and went on to claim the state title at University School for the program's eighth hockey championship.

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The Eagles last earned a regional final victory over the Wildcats in 2022. In total, the Eagles have been to the state finals 23 times, with the most recent of their 11 state titles coming in 2008.

The Wildcats have made 11 appearances, with eight titles.

You have to go back to 2013 to find a Brooklyn regional final that didn't involve at least one of the teams, and you have to go back to 2007 to find a year where neither of them made at least the regional semifinals achieved.

The road to the region goes via St. Edward and St. Ignatius. And that reminds someone heavily invested in the rivalry of another famous clash between two storied programs.

It's like OSU-Michigan, it's definitely still the rivalry game, it's a huge crowd, but the winner also goes to Columbus and that's the ultimate goal, St. Ignatius coach Pat ORourke said. You have to balance both things, but I think it makes it even sweeter. It elevates everything and we would be playing the Boston Bruins to try to get to Columbus, no matter who it is.

Neither side has to worry about the Bruins anymore, but both use the same technology as the pros and try to gain an edge over the other in every game they play against each other.

It's almost like SEC football, we're just looking for the slightest tendencies and there's all this software you can use now to break down other teams, ORourke said. It's like spy games. Sometimes you hold things back during the regular season or try to buck the trends. It's really intriguing, it's one of the more fun things to do in sports.

The rivalry has evolved from regular season meetings, to now conference championships in the recently formed Greater Ohio Hockey League, to representing Northeast Ohio at the state level. It is clear that both coaches have a high level of respect for each other and for each program.

It's a great storied rivalry and we play a lot of similar teams, whether it's in the area or in the region like Michigan or whatever it may be, St. Edward coach Tim Sullivan said. The regular season game, it's always Ignatius week, or Eds week for them, and then when we get to the postseason, not that the rivalry isn't there, but I think at that point you're really looking at the ultimate prize, what a state is. championship.

You don't put the rivalry aside, but to some extent you do that because it's different. The winner no longer gets to brag about the rivalry, the winner gets the chance to move on. They are, to some extent, two different feelings.

And while there is a kinship between the two coaches for most of the year, the smiles and secrets are kept hidden for a few hours when the two teams meet in a match unlike any other you will encounter in field hockey. secondary school.

It's a pretty classy rivalry and Tim and I have known each other for a long time, probably since we were four years old, and we get along really well, it's just for those two hours that we were scratching and clawing each other, ORourke said. In the months and weeks before and after, I like to call us friends, and in terms of atmosphere, nothing beats it.

One thing Sullivan is particularly proud of for both schools is rejecting the idea that the only route to elite hockey is through the junior programs, not high school hockey.

Our two programs have proven to the hockey community that this is a path to the next level if a player wants to play at the next level, Sullivan said. The stigma that high school hockey is not a path to the next level has been debunked by our two programs, by players who play for us for three or four years and move on to the next level.

We hear all the time from some other organizations that if you play high school hockey you're pretty much throwing it away, and I've been disputing that statement for the last four years. I think the two programs have done a great job of creating an avenue for our players who choose to move on. The proof lies in the facts of our kids playing at junior level for the last four or five years.

For the players who play in high school to represent their school, the environment that the Eds vs. Ignatius cultivates unlike any other you will encounter in a crowded high school arena.

Even if you go and watch some travel teams, they never play in front of 2,000 people, and if anyone is going to play college hockey, they're going to be prepared for that because that's what that crowd is like, ORourke said. It really tells you a lot about yourself when you participate in those games. It's not the same when there's forty people in the stands and the mom and dad, maybe a couple of grandparents, and there's no electricity. This is electric and some guys shy away from it, some rise to the occasion and you really don't know until you get into the game and get to know yourself.

The Eagles and Wildcats will renew their rivalry on Dec. 6 at Winterhurst Ice Arena, knowing this likely won't be the last time they'll see each other this season.