There will be lots of new faces skating in OK Tier 3 this season, with the addition of Grand Haven and three City League programs: Christian High, Ottawa-Union, and Creston-Central. Those four newbies will join West Ottawa, Northview, Wayland and South Christian to round out the 8-team conference, which should be very competitive in 2008-09. West Ottawa returns a lot of talent from the team that finished second in the league last year, and Grand Haven is expected to be a powerhouse with the addition of some strong kids who played travel hockey last year. Christian High has a youngish team, and Wayland will be working to integrate it's new co-op school (Hastings) into the mix. Northview and South Christian return key players from last year and look to improve, while Ottawa-Union and Creston-Central hope to show that City League play has prepped them for the OK Conference.
What are your thoughts on the T-3 race? Who are the teams and the players to watch in the coming season? Share your comments below.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
OK Tier 3 Predictions
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41 comments:
Does northview even have a goalie?
Northview has a pretty solid guy on defence....
MATT CASTLE will be one of the better players in OK Tier 3 this year.
Northview Defenseman Keegan Ferris will be the best player in Tier 3 HANDS Down
no way
Keegan is good
Matt Castle is the best player on northview and in Tier 3
grand haven is looking good.
Yes Northview does have a goalie...and Matt Castle will be the best player in tier 3 this year hands down. With Keegan and another guy to watch out for Steve Harwood that will just accelerate Matt's play because he is with better players around him.
Whoever this Matt Castle kid is really needs to quit talking himself up. I believe Keegan is going to be trying out for forward as well. Either way he will be head and shoulders above everyone else in the conference skill wise as well as with knowledge of the the game.
Agree, Keegan will be the Tier's best player. If Matt is related to Jeff and plays as hard as he did, 20 years ago, this will be a nice lineup for the 'Cats! I would expect this to be a very competitive conference with GH and Christian looking strong.
Christian has no goalie i don't see them being that competitive
Either with Matt Castle and Keegan Ferris on the same team and there is some other help...Northview may go some where this year.
You are so wrong. Christian may have the best goalie in Tier 3. In fact, he may be the best goalie in any of the OK conference tiers. They have a senior who is expected to play for them this season who has played AAA in West Michigan and Lansing throughout his career. Watch out for Christian high this season.
whats the goalies name?
Brian Mersman. Good Goalie and probably the best in T3. That being said he is not the best in all the tier's. Bresko-Tiefendahl-Wysocki-Andrus-boorsma just to name a few might have something to say about that!
Ferris for Nview is a huge pick up. Top notch dman that hits like a truck.
Christian High
Grand Haven
Northview
South Christian
West Ottawa
Wayland
Ottawa-Union
Creston-Central
The race for first place in tier 3 will definately be between christian high, Grand Haven, and Northview.
Grand Haven has a great D line, with having picked up excellent goal tending and three solid D men. They will be a force this year.
Northview definately picked up the best dman of the year by getting keegan ferris. No one is more solid than that kid.
brian mersman is not the best goalie in tier 3. scott berry from grandhaven is by far the best goalie in tier 3 and is one of the best in any tier
I'd say Berry and Mersman are about equal in talent. They both played against each other back when. The only thing that would give Mersman the edge is he's played AAA for two years and berry hasn't. I haven't seen Mersman play since midget a but I heard he's gotten better
Here's what I think each team will finish at best and at worst:
Grand Rapids Christian (1st-3rd)
Grand Haven (1st-3rd)
West Ottawa (1st-4th)
Northview (2nd-4th)
South Christian (4th-7th)
Wayland(4th-7th)
Ottawa/Union (6th-8th)
Creston/Central(7th-8th)
I think there will be 3-4 teams close at the top, 3-4 teams battling it out in the middle, and 2 teams that will be bottom dwellers.
The thing with Tier III is that just a couple of players can make or break a season for a team. Look what happened the past few seasons, Hudsonville got some good players and moved out of tier III, Lowell/Caledonia picked up some good players last year and moved out of tier III as well. It's all going to depend on who shows up for what team.
West ottawa is the only team that is consistant dont count them out this year.
How would you know who's consistent if nobody has played a game yet?
GR Christian is returnig a line of juniors that played on the same line together last year as sophmores and was one of there better lines. they are young but would definitly watch out for them
GR Christian doesn't have any defense so they'll give up too many shots and lose too many games to compete in Tier III
KEEGAN FERRIS IS THE BEST PLAYER IN TIER 3 NO DOUBT. HARD SHOT HARD HITTER. KEEP YOUR HEAD UP FOLKS THE KEG IS COMING.
Ya but does that matter? You need people around you too and im not sure if they have that. Its the team that matters. And just wait i think there will be a few players that might surprise you
Keegan will be the best player in tier 3...there is no one else better...and he does have players around him...plenty of them...the only problem with northview is gonna be their goaltending
It's going to be a three-way race between GR Christian, Grand Haven, and Northview and maybe West Ottawa in there... GR Christian and Grand Haven have the two best goalies by far so looked for them to finish first and second if nothing unexpected happens
who was the goalie?
No respect for an improving OU? How about Wayland/TK/Hopkins/Hastings Co-op? The Wildcats always seem to raise eyebrows. The've got a new kid from Hastings that can light it up!
Watch out T-lll. Suprises are in store.
Cranbrook Goalie.... Luke Johnson?
where did Luke Johnson play before cranbrooke?
OU did show some progress last season compared to previous years. Its going be interesting to see how they do after losing their seniors and all-city players.
I think every year each team changes by getting new guys from travel and i think the team that gets the most guys and most talented will win. Whichever teams get the guys from travel will win because no team has tons of strength coming back beside maybe one or two guys.
i just heard that OU doesnt have enough players to have a team this year. they tried to combine with creston/central but mhsaa wouldnt allow it..
what about south christian? They lost two key players and a good goalie but they have some good forwards coming back and have a good goalie who was a back up last year. They have some travel kids coming in and some freshman who can really play the game. i expect South Christain to be better then what we think. they'll be up in the standings for tier 3 this year.
Why would MHSAA not allow the four GR city high schools to combine? It just don't seem right to keep the O/U kids that do want to play from having a place to do so.
Well Keegan Ferris can suck a big one ! and so can Matt Castle! They wont have anything in the Tier 3!
Northview dosent have a chance, West Catholic and South Christian both handle northview pretty good this week. And Matt Castle looked like crap in both of these games.
Grand Haven owns everyone. Matt Castle is trash, and Brian Mersman on GR Christian isn't all that great. Scott Berry is the best in the tier in goal. Jake Kramer and Conor Fredricks absolutely tear it up. Nobody can match up.
northview has been a disappointment this year, but they have some top notch guys coming up. 2 good defenseman and 1 great forward that is one of the best in jv.
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