Wadena?????

[warroadsalt]

Am I hearing it correctly, coach woods moved the entire bantam team up to highschool level. 2 kids moved to other programs, and they are going to what, have the rest of the 80 pound five footers play JV. Great idea, scare the heck out of all the little kids, and what are they planning on doing next year? <p>*WILD HOCKEY FAN FOREVER*</p><i></i>

[warroadsalt]

80 views and no info, I need some stats <p>*WILD HOCKEY FAN FOREVER*</p><i></i>

[spudfan25]

I heard the Wadena program did not have enough kids to make a bantam team... <p></p><i></i>

[qwerty16]

I heard Wadena straight up sucks this year and fo rthe next at least 5 years! <p></p><i></i>

[Renegade Ram]

Wasn't someone touting the Wadena team having a possiblity of making it too the Excel? Didn't they just beat a very bad Hallock team 2 - 1? Someone should go back to sleep and have another dream.... <p></p><i></i>

[hockeystar29]

and didnt they just barely beat pequot lakes on ot? <p></p><i></i>

[hockeystar29]

i meant in OT 3-2 <p></p><i></i>

[Thehockeyplaya]

guess come on now take it easy i mean typically it seems that the smaller towns go through periods where they are good than they are not to good for another 7 or 8yrs and ppl say its becuase a team goes to the X all the little kids want to play and the time inbetween there is not the greatest teams so take it easy on Wadena they talked tough when they were up and if you notice they are not over powering the board like they used to. <p></p><i></i>

[puckswerestones]

you have it right on wadena, they inlisted large numbers in the little guys group as a result of the xcel appearence. 2 teams in squirts, a first time in years, and plenty of in house mites, the bantam team mess is troubleing, lost 2 first year bantams to brainerd and i suspect the one will never be back.2 others arent even playing , the posters from wadena that were on here alot have graduated sons and arnt on here anymore, and a few of the younger ones are off to school. I suspect if they were here you would hear it all because they have only lost one. Now dont start typing crazy, i know the schedule and the test will come in the next few weeks,they are very young, with a couple exciting players. Small town hockey your up your down, good post playa you have it right on! <p></p><i></i>

[rinkratz]

Calling What happened to Wadena’s Bantam program a mess is an understatement.<br><br>What I've heard is that coach Woods Wanted to move the bantams up for a JV teams and that the parents voted it down. So Woods goes Behind the Hockey Associations back and moved one of the top bantam prospects to varsity. A move that makes no sense at all. Gutting a good bantam team, so the varsity might be a game or two closer to 500. <br><br>In protest the President and the treasurer (who wanted a bantam team) resigned and pulled their kids. (who were also top Bantam prospects) making it impossible to have a bantam team due to #’s.<br><br>Coach woods got his JV team but at what cost.<br><br>That makes 3 top prospects from Wadena’s youth program to leave the program sense Woody took over. A Star goaltender last season and a pair of fast two way players this season. Both loaded with potential, and are contributing to their new bantam teams.<br><br>Wadena has plenty of on ice problems too. They gave up 3 shorthanded goals last night. WEAK!<br><br>On offence Pettit logs mad minutes and flies around but there’s nothing after that.<br><br>Defense is soft and gives up way to many shots per game.<br><br>Between the pipes is any ones guess with Nue out who knows.<br><br>Looks to me like its going to be a long season. <p></p><i></i>

[oldschool]

<br>If all of this is correct it is very sad. For one thing, once these players step on High school ice, youth hockey is over.................................<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :| --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/indifferent.gif ALT=":|"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :| --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/indifferent.gif ALT=":|"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br>this is sad because at this point they are going to play maybe 23 games, in bantams, make that 40-50 games...in those 20 or so games, they will get schooled and won't have a ton of fun, in youth hockey, not saying that they would be awesome, at least they would be playing other hs freshman and 8th graders, not sophomores, juniors, maybe seniors. age gap not huge, but level jump big enough.............. <p></p><i></i>

[Locknload]

No doubt that this situation with Bantams should have been thought thru a little more before they put it in motion. But whats done is done so now they have to move on and look for the positives. One thing going for the young guys is, they are getting a jump on high school level hockey such as speed, physical play and work ethics. Most of them seem to be holding up just fine and enjoying the game even though they are usually on the short end of the score board. That will change. If not this year, then next. Right now , the varsity is playing some pretty close games and coming out on top in most of them. Granted it is against teams that they used to kick around. Like the old saying, what goes around, comes around. Yeah, they got kicked Sat. nite by Willmar, but I'm thinking it would have been entirley different with a healthy Neu in goal. He probably could have played but why aggravate it for future games. Little Uselman did fine for 2 periods. Not bad for a Freshman first time on Varsity and thrown to the wolves. And I don't think it was any current varsity player that mentioned a return to the X. They know where they stand and what they have to do this year year. <p></p><i></i>