MN High School Hockey

[harvey lee]

No offense Harvey, but it’s that kind of thinking that gave us this gawd-awful split tournament and hosed everything up.

Want to be crowned the champ then beat the best.

I am all for one tourny and one state champ. I do not agree with the 2 class toruny or private teams being able to recruit all thier players and then play in the class A.

All I am trying to say is if we have to have a 2 class tourny, make the schools that recruit the majority of thier players play in the class AA side. Thats all.

I have been watching the high school tourny since 1967. I loved it when the smaller schools Like Roseau, IF and Warroad to name a few came to St Paul to take on the big city schools and then beat them. That was when the tourny was great. The days of Larry Ross and IF coming down and doing what they did was awesome. I remember Grand Rapids for another who played awesome for many years and could compete with any team in the state.

I also remember when Henry Bouche played and they almost won it all but he got injured in that game I believe.

Those were the days.

[Kidd]

Those were the day's weren't they? And the thing about those day's was the northern teams had an unfair advantage over the southern teams due to the length of ice time. It was all outside back then and the northern teams had a month, or more, ice than the southern part of the state but you didn't hear the southern teams complain and try to bust up the tourney.

I remember playing Duluth for the state bantam championship and they come down here with three solid lines with three sets of defensmen while we have two lines and three defensmen, they killed us. We had not had a practice or a game for about three weeks prior to the state tourney due to a lack of ice while they were playing the entire time.(not an excuse, they were just flat out better)

Now the programs that weren't even in existence back then are the ones that got the tourney changed while the old programs like Roseau, International Falls and Warroad just sucked it up and tried to compete.

Sigh...............

[jwmiller33]

I'm picking Hermantown and East to take home the hardware this year. However, being that they are both favorites, it wouldn't surprise me if one or both get upset. East sure is fun to watch. It's too bad Minnetonka dind't make the tourney because I sure was hoping to see a rematch in the title game.

For those of you who didn't see this video from last year, I highly recommend watching it. It is definitely worth a watch for all you fans and former players out there.

2011 All Hockey Hair Team

[Bryce]

Peroxide Jesus IALTO. Hope there's a 2012 edition.

Back in the day. Those treasured up north schools were recruiting just as heavy as the private school are supposedly doing now. That was OK? I believe most of the recruiting done now is more so the players getting together and wanting to play with other good players. Just maybe the school helps with reduced tuition? I don't know. Those up north schools were using jobs for parents.

Back in the day when I was running, our school was in the region with just about all the private schools. I didn't curl up in the corner hugging myself. I worked harder and beat everybody they brought in.

1 class for me please. Not every kid needs a ribbon.

[Bear55]

Perfect, now we all got that out of our system we can get back to hockey. The evil Hill Murry is up 2-1 vs those angles from Maple Grove, 1st period winding down.

Once again the link ot the live stream.

http://www.prep45.com/page/show/418193-live-schedule

[scsavre]

That's my team. I went to hill. They are a great programn. You all can get mad about recruiting. Get over it. Ep, mintonk and wyz all pick from 3,500 students. That bigger then any pool hill will ever recruit kids from. St thomas, you are laughable to be beating up on the class A teams, you too hermantown. Man up. If your team name isn't Hifanated with multiple town names, get in AA.

[PierBridge]

Exactly! Hill does about as much recruiting as Hooters does on a Friday night!

Go Pioneers!

Thankx for not taking that bet Scott!

[harvey lee]

"]That's my team. I went to hill. They are a great programn. You all can get mad about recruiting. Get over it. Ep, mintonk and wyz all pick from 3,500 students. That bigger then any pool hill will ever recruit kids from. St thomas, you are laughable to be beating up on the class A teams, you too hermantown. Man up. If your team name isn't Hifanated with multiple town names, get in AA.

Not quite sure I understand your thinking.

Yes, the bigger schools do pick from a larger amount of students. They also play the class AA tourny as required.

I guess they could split like Edina did once and have east and west.

I believe there is quite some difference from recruitng and picking from your students in school.

I do not expect anyone from a private school to understand this thinking.

So you are saying a small towem like Hermantown should play class AA. Why??

How many kids come from the Hill Murray youth program?

[Dragonsm]

Saw the video...Very funny stuff!!!!

I give Moorhead the nod in the game between them and Eagan...Moorhead is bringing a much stronger hair presence!

I'm picking Hermantown and East to take home the hardware this year. However, being that they are both favorites, it wouldn't surprise me if one or both get upset. East sure is fun to watch. It's too bad Minnetonka dind't make the tourney because I sure was hoping to see a rematch in the title game.

For those of you who didn't see this video from last year, I highly recommend watching it. It is definitely worth a watch for all you fans and former players out there.

2011 All Hockey Hair Team

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[CigarGuy]

I didn't know who to root for, Hill or Maple Grove. The head coach of Hill use to be my Bantam coach back in the day and the head coach of Maple Grove is a good friends brother, who I've hunted with many times.....guess, I can't lose either way! Hill won-now I pull for Hill until later.......

GO Cougars!!!

[Bear55]

I don't get worked up about the whole recruiting thing, its done all over the place going back many decades and most of it is the kids wanting to play for a better shot at state, what do ya do.

I just don't care for class A privates mopping the floor with public schools when they should be playing AA. People use to complain about Warroad several years back but look at them now. Same with Redwing, they use to be an A power but no small public school can sustain that forever. Hermantown has been good for a while too but I doubt it lasts forever. Can't really say the same thing for STA and Breck, they have been at it for a while now. 10 years from now I hope I still don't have to watch them playing for A championships.

[PierBridge]

My thoughts exactly!

Go Spuds they look good!

[PierBridge]

Quote:

Yes, the bigger schools do pick from a larger amount of students. They also play the class AA tourny as required.

You need to keep up with the times. Eagan just stole Lakeville North's Goalie from them and are now set in goal for the next 4 years. Happens all the time in non Private schools.

to say they play as required is laughable to say the least.

[fishing tech]

Hill was recruiting back in the 70's. They went after 3 guys that I played with. They stayed put and we had some very talented teams.

A guy I played jr's with had his son recruited by STA. He went and won a State championship. He was happy at the time and has a great memory for life but he also wish he would have stayed with his friends he grew up with.

The good programs recruit whether they are big or small schools. If you think that every kid on Edina or Duluth East actually lives in that school district you are living in a dream world. I have seen it start at the squirt level on up.

There is 1 player on STA and 2 on Hill that I have coached. I wish them all good luck and told them to enjoy the experiance but I cannot cheer for a private school. Just the way I am.

[Bear55]

Go Spuds they look good!

They are looking good, up 2-0 now. They haven't had the high end talent in recent years but if I recall correctly they have pulled off some nice update in recent tourney play. Might be another one in the works.

[Bear55]

Taters win 4-0, #2 and #3 seeds are toast.

[Hockey Guy]

Wow, I feel bad for the Eagan kids right now. They looked to me like twice the team with half the goalie. But, it’s a team sport. What do you do?

I would personally love to see the MSHSL figure out a way to eliminate sections. I know, I know, I’ve heard all the arguments about why they have to keep them, but I just feel that the State Tournament should be a showcase of the best of the best in the state. When you have five teams in the same section that are all ranked in the top ten in the state, it just doesn’t seem right to me. Then you get to the state tournament and you have blowouts. Big school, little school, recruiting, not recruiting, metro, outstate… All that has it’s place and good arguments. I would just like to see a pairwise ranking or something to get the top 16 teams in the state from either class A or AA to compete in the greatest showcase of high school talent in the country.

[Bran32]

Well I for for one want nothing to do with a "Pairwise" type thing in high school its bad enough to deal with it in college, hockeys version of the BCS yippee!! GO SPUDS

[Hockey Guy]

It doesn't have to be pairwise, but there has to be a way to get the best teams in the state playing in the state tournament. Don't you think?

[scsavre]

Gotta stick with sectons. Awesome tournamets to have.

If hill had a school district, you wouold find a lot of kids that go to school there thatlive near there. Public schools recruit, or parents at least move to communities where there is better teams. I don't know how much there is recruiting vs parents just sending their kids there. I gurantee you bill lechnar is not calling kids to ttend hill.

St thomas is a bunch of whimps

[cjac]

I went to Hill and now live in Maple Grove, and I have to admit, I'm glad that Hill took it to them. Pretty amazing program they run there quite honestly. Keep in mind this is a younger and smaller team at Hill than at MG, and not all kids grew up playing in the same youth program, as Hill has no true feeder program like a MG or Centennial for example.

Interesting story on the recruiting aspect:

I was at Champps having a beer while getting an oil change a couple weeks ago and chatted with a guy there who grew up in Thief River Falls. He grew up playing with Wyatt Smith and between 7th and 8th grades (about 1990) Smith's parents got jobs at Marvin Windows in Warroad and they moved. He said public opinion at the time that it was totally a recruiting move to land Smith in the Warroad program.

Take is as you wish, but the point being there is all kinds of "positioning" with who plays and lives where across the state and in public school districts that goes on, it's not a new deal or a Metro only deal.

During my time at Hill our best player was Craig Johnson, who went to the Gophers, Olympics, and 10 years in the NHL. He came from Como Park, not exactly a hockey power. I'm sure he was seen as being recruited, but here's a clip from his MN Top 100 player profile, the quote comes from a player a year older than Johnson, Pat Schafhauser.

*** St. Paul’s Como Park neighborhood wasn’t routinely producing top-flight hockey players in the late 1980s, so Johnson was a bit of an unknown commodity when he showed up for Hill-Murray tryouts as a sophomore.

“He came out to the first practice and started skating around,” Schafhauser said. “Obviously the speed was easy to see. People took notice pretty quick. They were like, ‘I’m not sure who he is, but I’d sure like to get to know him.’ ” ***

It's kind of hard to say a recruited player can be called an "unknown commodity", eh?

Anyhow, good stuff to watch and still the best high school tourney around, even with 2 classes!

[fishing tech]

Lechner doesn't have to, he has his players do it for him. As do other teams I should add.

Benilde could be the cinderella team. Would be a feel good story.

[OnAFly]

I haven't read through all the thread, so if it's been brought up, ignore this. What do you guys think of an All-State game? AA Champs vs A Champs? That would be some pretty good hockey, and seeing those smaller schools win would be awesome.

[Bran32]

I think we are seeing one heck of a tournament right now!! I mean if you can't get through your section who's to say you won't lose in the first round!! Case and point Eagan, Maple Grove and Duluth East is in the battle of their lives as I write this down 1-1 after 2 periods!! The only thing I would change would like others have said is to have AA and A champs play that would be fun!!

[CigarGuy]

SCORE....................COUGARS!!!!!

[scsavre]

South should be up 2 to 1. Real good game.

This randolph kid looks pretty weak compared to kloos and toninito. Randolph just gets the nod to play suck hole.

Good game.

By the way, I did play for lechnar.......most of the hill recriting rumors were durring the godbout days. That family did a lot of recruiting for the team.

[lovebigbluegills]

It's starting to look like upset #3 of the day.

[lovebigbluegills]

Taters win 4-0, #2 and #3 seeds are toast.

As is the #1 seed, Duluth East falls to Lakeville South 3-2.

Who'd a thunk that one?

[CigarGuy]

Do you believe in Miracles!!!!!!!!! COUGARS....

like I always tell my son ....."any team can be beaten on a given day!!!!!!

Ooppps...making it close...Duluth scored.

[fishing tech]

East seamed flat the 2nd and 3rd periods. Heck 1 player during the introduction was yawning.

Scott, what year did you graduate from Hill?

I hope Benilde beats Edina.

Could be some good non-telavized games tomorrow.