OT: MN High School Hockey Thread
- Thread starter gopherman23
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I don't think it was in the paper but it certainly is on the Beyond the Pond Podcast from that morning (it was on around the 11am Central Time) If I get a chance later today I'll see if I can find a transcript or something.
Essentially Duluth East's coach said that kids should stop worrying about going to the Juniors and realize that their true friends are the ones they are playing with right now and not who they would be playing with in the Juniors. And even if they go to Juniors they still have a 1% chance of making it to the NHL and they are sacrificing being a kid and having fun with the game like they should.
He was extremely well spoken and you could tell it was something he peeves over that is for sure. He even said his son left for Omaha to play Jr's and he hated it and couldn't wait for the seasons to be done to come home and see his friends.
MuckOG
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I think each situation depends on how strong the HS program is. It's easy to want to stay at Edina, Hill-Murray, STA and those types of programs where you're guaranteed to get quality coaching and face quality competition.
It gets trickier if the kid is playing for a bottom-feeder. If they commit to a D-1 team, that college program may put more pressure on that player to go play juniors for the coaching/competitions.
Ideally, all kids would finish out their HS years, play with the buddies, go to prom, etc. You can only be a HS kid once.
Absolutely agree. I think your last statement is what he was pretty much trying to convey. You are only a kid once, don't lose out on experiences for the 1% hope you make it to the big league.
Paul Bunyan
Registered User
Agreed.
I thought I read an article about this somewhere on here, and it talked about kids who stayed guys like Niskanen who thought going to state with your teammates was better than anything else and he was glad he did that rather than skip out.
If it was other states than here I'd say there would be more competition elsewhere, but I'd say here it's easier to stay and still become a NHL player.
Didn't Bjugstad play through his senior year with Blaine?
1% though...it would be nice if kids would understand that.
1% though...it would be nice if kids would understand that.
Hell, look at Edina. All those championships, how many have gone on to prospering NHL careers? Same can be said for damn near every other school.
Bjugstad accelerated his schooling so he could graduate after his junior year and get to the U a year early.
As far as the leaving early to chase the NHL-
It's pretty easy for guys like us to sit back and take the common sense approach. Probably not as easy for 15-17 year old kids to think they might be putting their dreams on hold, especially when you realize that the reason they are great players is most likely because they are insanely driven to get better.
Jaykay
Registered User
Oh boo fricking hoo! The Tournament SHOULDN'T be an every year thing! The fact that it is for them shows that they have little to no competition down there and thus should be AA.
Some of the sections seemed watered down. I don't know Hermantown's situation but you'd like to think that places like Two Harbors, Virginia, Silver Bay, maybe perhaps Eveleth could actually put a decent enough team together every once in a while to compete with a team like Hermantown.
TaLon I'm not sure what your post was about - do you have an issue with Warroad going to small school every out of their section? Roseau and them have it set up so they both (in theory) get to state out of their section every year.
TaLon I'm not sure what your post was about - do you have an issue with Warroad going to small school every out of their section? Roseau and them have it set up so they both (in theory) get to state out of their section every year.
When was the last time Warroad was in the tournament in class A? Roseau doesn't make it every year either.
When Warroad WAS going every year... Yes, they should have jumped up to AA.
The ENTIRE arguement for the two class system was that "small schools can't compete" which isn't the simple problem some people wanted it to be.
Small schools can absolutely compete if they have the talent, and when they have the talent consistently to do so, they should be up in the AA bracket for the integrity of the system itself.
Hermantown's coach (as you can see in that quote provided in BigT2002's post since I bolded it) complained they wouldn't be able to make it to State EVERY YEAR if they were in AA... THAT is what I am talking about. If they are in the tournament in Class A EVERY YEAR (not only that, they are in the fricking FINALS EVERY YEAR) they are abusing the system and the "small school" thing is now just an excuse to do so.
STA used to use that same excuse, but at least they have decided that being a small school alone shouldn't be enough to keep a team down.
Roseau opted up because they didn't think it was worth winning the title for themselves in the "lesser" bracket. If they win the title, it will be the "real title" as they put it. I absolutely respect teams that know they can compete at the higher level, so opt up to do just that.
Warroad hasn't made it to state in 5 years. Roseau has twice in the last 5 years. 6 times in the last 15. Not even close to every year.
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Exactly. I have stopped my complaining about Warroad these days. In the early 2000's though it was getting pretty ugly with them in Class A, and at that time they CLEARLY could have competed with anyone in the State. That has died down a lot since the mid 2000's. They've struggled quite a bit in recent years and clearly belong in class A now.
I think Warroad would have made noise in the tournament this year and last year if not for the fact that they had to play EGF to make it.
Last year they had three of the top scorers in the state with talent for days. Those three carried that team and would have done work against most of the other schools in the A tournament.
This year they lost two of those guys (one to graduation/USHL, the other to leaving early for the WHL), and the third guy missed like half the season with injury. Even still they had a few guys step up and do really well.
Roseau, from my experience, just doesn't have the same passion toward hockey as a town as it once did. This is all anecdotal, but I would say that they won't reach their old heights anytime soon. The entire mindset and focus of the town is changing.
Sure, the town still supports the team, and everybody still likes hockey, and the kids there sure do want to "grow up" and play for the Rams, but the focus is shifting toward more sports. There are more athletic kids turning toward Basketball and Football than before, where every kid who had even an ounce of talent tried out for the hockey team. Also add that Polaris is poaching high school aged kids to work at their plant there (offering $13-$18/hour starting pay for the most basic of jobs), and it isn't really all that encouraged anymore to devote tons and tons and tons of time toward hockey like they used to.
http://www.mnhockeyhub.com/news_article/show/490006?referrer_id=32760
Class AA section re-alignment...
Class AA section re-alignment...
http://www.startribune.com/sports/296224141.html
“I don’t know exactly how this process works, but I wondered how that happened.â€
How do they decide who goes where?
“I don’t know exactly how this process works, but I wondered how that happened.â€
How do they decide who goes where?
Jr.Gold A State Ship between Wayzata and Edina went 7 OT periods before Edina finally scored. The game started Sunday, but had to be called off during the third period after the power failed. Third period was resumed today.
Sounds epic.
Sounds epic.
Northerner
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HotDish
Win it for Hynes
GordieGallant
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Was at Blake arena to watch Gentry Academy pound Blake. This Gentry team is very good and is going to make some noise in Class A.
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Northerner
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No way Johnson comes out of Gentry's section. In the preseason JHS was ranked 9 in A. They just got beat by Gentry 7-1.
I guess Gentry is pulling from WBL, maybe Stillwater too?
I guess Gentry is pulling from WBL, maybe Stillwater too?
