Boys’ and Girls’ Hockey No. 1 in Midseason Washington Post Rankings

In the recent rankings published by the Washington Post, St. John’s ranked No. 1 in both the Boys’ and Girls’ rankings. Both programs are coming off of several championships, both in the WCAC and MAPHL/MAGHL.

What is the MAPHL/MAGHL?

The Mid-Atlantic Preparatory Hockey League was established in 2008 as a ‘league for leagues’ in association with the Washington Capitals organization. Its goal is to promote hockey throughout the DMV by fostering collaboration through the major private school programs in the region. It contains the members of the WCAC, IAC, MAC, and MIAA.

The MAGHL

The Mid-Atlantic Girls Hockey League was established in 2011, to foster the growth of girls’ hockey throughout the region. The league contains 12 teams split into two divisions, one upper and one lower. Visitation, Stone Ridge, Holy Child, O’Connell, and Spalding join St. John’s in the AA division.

Divisions

Both leagues have two divisions, designed similarly to the WCAC’s football divisions. Teams can compete in the AA Division (the higher division) or the A Division (the lower division) or both. Teams that compete in both feature a Varsity 1 and a Varsity 2 team, as well as having the option for a JV team. St. John’s has a V1, V2, and JV team for the Boys’ program, but only has a V1 and V2 team for the Girls (The V2 team operates as both a V2 and JV team.) The MAPHL contains a total of 16 programs (12 V1 teams and 10 V2 teams), and of the 12 V1 teams there are 6 programs who also feature a V2 squad. For example: Calvert Hall features a V1 team and V2 team, Bullis only features a V1 team, and Good Counsel only features a V2 team.

The MAGHL splits into two separate divisions, and does not have the option for containing both a V1 and V2 squad. Why are they separate? Take for example WCAC football. When teams are required to compete against nationally ranked programs like St. John’s and DeMatha, programs will get frustrated about not being able to keep up. Why should a team full of guys who just want to play high school football be forced to play a team loaded with future Division 1 athletes? The divisions are split based on what the coaches believe they can accomplish, giving the smaller schools an opportunity to win a championship without constantly losing to larger schools who can recruit.

Season Outlook

The Boys’ program has 3 regular season games remaining. The will start next week @ DeMatha on Monday and @ O’Connell on Wednesday. They’ll finish off the regular season against Gonzaga at home on Friday night. The Girls’ team will finish off the regular season tonight (1/31/25) against Montgomery High School.

Seeding

The Girls’ Varsity team has the 1 seed locked up in both the MAGHL and WCAC regardless of the senior night results. The Boys’, however, still need to fight for it. They will need to go 3-0 against DeMatha, O’Connell, and Gonzaga next week to secure the 1 seed in both the MAPHL and WCAC.