The greatest high school tournament in the nation got underway last night with the Class A (small schools) quarterfinals at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Results so far: Last night's Class A Quarterfinals: Breck 10 Albert Lea 1 South St. Paul 6 Wadena 1 Orono 2 Warroad 1 (OT) Hibbing 5 St. Cloud Cathedral 1 This afternoon's Class AA Quarterfinals: Centennial 2 Academy of Holy Angels 0 Wayzata 6 Tartan 0 This afternoon's doubleheader was attended by a tournament record 19,027 fans... The official seating capacity of the X is 18,046. Another huge crowd is expected for tonight's other Class AA quaters that feature Moorhead vs. Elk River and Duluth East vs. Lakeville. Tomorrow is Semifinal Friday for both classes. Class A has... Breck vs. South St. Paul at noon and... Hibbing vs. Orono at 2 The big schools take the ice firday night with Centennial vs. Wayzata at 7 and the winner of Moorhead vs. Elk River and Duluth East vs. Lakeville at 9. Tomorrow night's games will probably surpass this afternoon's attendance figure, as the friday night games are traditionally the best attended.
Questions about MN H.S. Hockey: -How many classes (A, etc..) are there? -Who should we be watching out for in the next couple of years as young hopefuls? -Which schools are powerhouses that always steamroll over everyone?
There's always a couple. I believe Shattuck St. Mary's represents the "Yankee's" of MN HS Hockey. I think some of the Southern suburb teams usually show up in the tourney and do well.
1. There are two classes. "Class A" is for the small schools (enrollment of under 1000 or so)....and "Class AA" for the big schools. Small schools can, however, opt to play up in Class AA. 2. I don't think I could answer that one. There are too many to name. Pretty much every team that has a winning record will have at least one D1 prospect. 3. Class AA- Centennial, Moorhead, Edina, Duluth East, Holy Angles, Eden Prairie, Hill-Murray, Bloomington Jefferson (in the 90s anyway), Elk River...and the list goes on Class A- Warroad, Breck, Blake, Benilde St. Margarets, St. Louis Park... Hope that helps.
Shattuck St. Mary's is not a high school hockey team, and they don't participate in the Minnesota State High School League. They are a private prep school that plays a national schedule against MidgetAAA, Junior A, and other prep school teams.
Here's a good article from Sports Illustrated http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/features/si50/states/minnesota/story/
Yeah, that helps. In TX, H.S. Hockey is virtually non-existant, at least in Austin. It's starting to pick up in the last few years, the Austin public school district has a team comprising people from all ten different high schools and they just play in their league with other area high schools that have kids playing hockey. UT - Austin even has a hockey team that has a "league" comprising of a few other Big 12 schools, but of course, it's not an NCAA-sanctioned sport.
This is a question for Adam or any other Minnesotans: is Shattuck significantly better than some of the top AA state HS teams or is there any way of quantifying it? Do they play reguar HS teams in exhibition play or is any comparison based on reputation? There's a chance (rather slim probably) that I'll get to see Shattuck play in a few weeks. Do you know if other Minnesota HS teams travel to tournaments extensively or do they largely stay in state? One of these years I would love to go down and watch the tournament. It sounds amazing. cheers, hobbes
The top 10 high school teams can probably compete with Shattuck. They usually play a handful of high school teams each season. This year it looks like they play Breck, Blake, Benilde St. Margarets, and Academy of Holy Angels...all private schools. I seem to remember Shattuck playing some of the better public schools in the past few years though. I'm not entirely sure about high school teams travelling out of state. I want to say that Holy Angels travelled out to Boston a couple years ago, but don't quote me on that. Generally, though, there is enough good competition in Minnesota that teams don't need to go anywhere else. Plus, the vast majority of teams are public schools...so I'm sure there are money issues involved. Hope that helps.
Academy of Holy Angels will be out East this coming week to face Mount St. Charles of RI and Catholic Memorial of Mass. Should be interesting to see how they do. They're currently ranked 4th in Class AA...behind Centennial, Moorhead, and Bloomington Jefferson (all public shcools, BTW).
Gee, Adam. I didn't realize that you were on this. Holy Angels did beat Mount, 3-1 at Brother Adelard Arena in Woonsocket, RI on Monday night. AHA kicked some ass out here. Fair play to them. Their coach did say that he felt that Mount could stack right up in Minnesota. Here's to more intersectional play. AHA, because it is a Catholic school, is well equipped to do ambassadorial work in New England.
[ I'm not entirely sure about high school teams travelling out of state. I want to say that Holy Angels travelled out to Boston a couple years ago, but don't quote me on that. Hope that helps.[/QUOTE] Adam, they did come out for two games with Mount and CM the year they won it in Minny. They dropped a couple of one goal games which, considering the travel and crammed intinerary, is not shameful. Mount is maybe 45 minutes to an hour from WBA, where CM plays.
I was at the Mac's Midget Tournament in Calgary and I thought Team Illinois (minus all of their 86s) were really impressive. Probably a shade better than the Swedish national U17s (all of those players were 88s) which isn't too shabby. The tournament wouldn't allow any 86s so Shattuck pulled out and Detroit Honeybaked didn't enter either. The Alaska All-Stars sent a depleated roster and looked quite competitive, had they had a full bench they might have made some noise. cheers, hobbes
Is this a problem in Minny, as well? It is here. http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/hockey/articles/2005/02/13/calling_interference?mode=PF
Interesting article. Since there isn't a big prep school presence here (other than Shattuck), that aspect doesn't really apply. There have been an increasing amount of players opting to play in the USHL though. The most widely known case of this is Blake Wheeler, the NHL's #5 overall pick and formerly of Breck High School. He opted out of his senior year this season to play juniors. Despite that, I wouldn't say it's a huge problem. Most players are still finishing out their high school careers before heading to the USHL. One advantage that Minnesota has over New England (in terms of keeping kids in high school hockey) is the chance of making it to the state tournament and getting to play in front of 18,000-19,000 people....and be on TV state wide. These kids, especially those from small towns, are treated like celebrities.
I once saw St. John's Prep play Burlington in front of a packed Garden. But those days are over. I like that in Minnesota every speck on the map seems to have a HS team. Here, every municipality is a pretty large population center so making a team is a long shot. In northern Minnesota a village of 1,500 would have a team. Here towns of 45,000 have teams. So, it seems, by the time kids are in high school, only the very best play. It has the effect of discouraging participation. I think that it's fair to say that over the last twenty years Massachusetts has produced far more elite players. But Minnesota tends to crank out a ton of solid two-way players. That's a result of the structure in the respective states. I prefer the Minny model. It appeals to the hockey romantic more and it encourages more participation. Every kid back here has his eye on a prep school.
http://www.ushl.com/news/20050210ushlc.cfm Here's an article on Blake Wheeler. It's posted on the USHL site, so it's obviously going to talk up junior hockey.
2005 State Tournament field is now set. Class AA GAMES THURSDAY Quarterfinals Upper-bracket • Duluth East (Section 7) vs. White Bear Lake (Section 3), noon • Moorhead (Section 8) vs. Rochester Century (Section 1), 2 p.m. Lower-bracket • Bloomington Jefferson (Section 6) vs. Holy Angels (Section 5), 7 p.m. • Elk River (Section 4) vs. Tartan (Section 2), 9 p.m. GAMES FRIDAY Semifinals • Upper-bracket winners, 7 p.m. • Lower-bracket winners, 9 p.m. Consolation semifinals/at Mariucci • Upper-bracket winners, 10 a.m. • Lower-bracket winners, noon GAMES SATURDAY Championship • Semifinal winners, 7 p.m. Third place • Semifinal losers, 4 p.m. Consolation final/at Mariucci • Consolation semifinal winners, noon Class A GAMES WEDNESDAY Quarterfinals Upper-bracket • Virginia-MIB (Section 7) vs. St. Thomas Academy (Section 3), noon • Warroad (Section 8) vs. Albert Lea (Section 1), 2 p.m. Lower-bracket • Shakopee (Section 6) vs. Totino-Grace (Section 5), 7 p.m. • Little Falls (Section 4) vs. Duluth Marshall (Section 2), 9 p.m. GAMES THURSDAY Consolation semifinals/at Mariucci • Upper-bracket winners, 10 a.m. • Lower-bracket winners, noon GAMES FRIDAY Semifinals • Upper-bracket winners, noon • Lower-bracket winners, 2 p.m. GAMES SATURDAY Championship • Semifinal winners, noon Third place • Semifinal losers, 9 a.m. Consolation final/at Mariucci • Consolation semifinal winners, 10 a.m. Should be a good tournament for both classes. Thursday's Jefferson vs. Holy Angels matchup could be the game of the tournament...classic public vs. private school game. We could be looking at 19,000 at the X for that one.
That's a really interesting article. I don't think I appreciated how much of an impact the USHL was having. The one thing the article didn't really mention was that the situation in Mass. is moving much closer to how things are in Canada. While it may be problematic, you can't really fault the program in Ann Arbor, I know one player who went there and it really got him exposure and was the first step to getting him drafted in the NHL. It's not like anyone would argue to shut down Bradenton because its hurting HS soccer. As far as junior, I can't see how an expensive prep school can compete against a free program that plays more games like USHL. Unless the prep school has a coach with an amazing pedigree I see junior gaining a stronger foothold. I think another reason junior is growing is because hockey is being played in more areas and creating better players from areas that don't have HS hockey. Players from California and the Pac NW (which I assume doesn't have HS hockey) or ND, SD, Montana go the junior route because they have nothing else or at least not the level of competition they need. As these players get stronger, the USHL gets stronger and makes it more attractive. Minnesota might be the exception, but I can see HS hockey and esp public HS hockey becomming more marginalized. And I say this every year, but I need to get to the Minnesota State tourney once in my life. cheers, hobbes
You and me both, Hobbes. More than anything, though, I think I'd like to catch some regular season games in Northern Minny. How can the prep schools compete? By preparing for you a great college. Not all players will cut it on the rink. But if your hockey can get you into Exeter or Andover, you'll think about it.
I watched the A final on tv between Totino-Grace and Warroad on Saturday. One of the best hockey games I have ever seen in my life. I'm still shaking my head. Freaking incredible.