Four Lake George student-athletes will join the Queensbury boys ice hockey team to become Queensbury/Lake George Spartans for the 2023-24 academic year. The boards of education at both schools are expected to vote on the anticipated merger at their June board meetings.
The newly merged team will wear Spartans Hockey jerseys and will continue to be a Division II ice hockey team.
“We are at a point where we need this merger to keep our program moving ahead,” said Queensbury Superintendent Kyle Gannon. “We are one of four schools in Section 2 that hasn’t merged with another school team.”
The three other schools with their own boys ice hockey teams — Saratoga, Shenendehowa and Bethlehem — are much larger districts.
Lake George Central School District does not currently have a boys ice hockey team, however, students at both schools already know each other, because most of these athletes play ice hockey together on travel and club teams.
Rich Keys, Queensbury’s director of health, physical education and athletics, said Lake George reached out to Queensbury regarding the merger.
“Lake George certainly cannot sustain a program on their own,” Keys said. “The most logical merger partner is Queensbury. Lake George is also a complementary school to supplement our program. We’re not going to be a 50/50 split. It works out well. It makes sense.”
Keys added that Queensbury hockey players will not be pushed out of the program at the expense of adding students from Lake George. He called it a “win-win scenario.”
Queensbury ice hockey coach Dean Williams has already discussed the merger with parents.
“The landscape of hockey throughout the state has been changing over the last decade,” Williams said. “The number of Queensbury students playing hockey in Adirondack Youth Hockey Association has dropped over the years. This, coupled with Lake George players not having an opportunity to play high school hockey, makes for a good situation for both schools and all student-athletes involved at this moment.”