Nashua Athletic Director Peter Casey has taken an expected diplomatic, wait-and-see, patient approach when it comes to the future of high school hockey in Nashua. The two teams, North and South, have one win and a tie between them in regular season Division I play when they collide for the final time Wednesday at 6:10 p.m. at Conway Arena, and that is South’s 3-0 win over North back in early January.

Isn’t he concerned?

“You know, we don’t have the wins and losses,” he said. “Define concern. Every program goes through ebs and flows and at the end of the year we’ll evaluate it. But at the present time, I’m not concerned about it. This is not something that’s happened over the course of three or four years. It’s a bad season.”

That’s where Casey, being a newcomer to the situation, may be in error with that statement, because it is something that’s been three or four years in the making because neither North nor South has had a JV team the last couple of years and the numbers have always been tenuous since The Split. It seems as if last year’s big North first round tourney win over Manchester West is as good as it can get.

“That’s yet to be seen,” Casey said, adding it will take him some time to evaluate. “You always want more kids participating, and that’s a concern in the whole town. Numbers are down across the board, and it’s not just hockey. At the end of the year, that’s something we’re going to evaluate. We’re always looking to make our programs stronger.

“As a first-year athletic director, you always want to look at the long-term success of the program, and try to get to the bottom of it on how you can improve it. Improve on the things you feel you do well, and learn from other programs to try to better the things in areas you don’t do well now.”

Casey said at the beginning of the year he spoke to both North coach Jim Miner and South coach Kevin Purdy about the short and long-term goals of each program.  “And at the end of the year we’ll talk about that again,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair (to comment) without talking to them again.”

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Meanwhile, in Division II, Merrimack, with six wins, is closing in on the eighth seed which would likely pit the Tomahawks against unbeaten Timberlane in the quarterfinals in 10 days. Souhegan sits atop Division III, and Hollis-Brookline is in third, so both could host first-round tourney games. In Division I, the final big local game of the regular season with tourney impact will be Concord at BG at 1:30 on Saturday at Skate 3. Winner gets top seed, loser finishes second. But it’s not that big an issue except for who you will play in the quarters and semis since both teams will have quarterfinal home ice. The semis are at St. Anselm College and the finals at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester.

“It’ll be a good game,” Guertin coach Gary Bishop said. “In the long run, being No. 1 seed or 2 seed doesn’t matter. It’s nice to be able to say you finished first…”

But it’s better to say you’ve finished as champions.

– TOM KING