Lots of 7th graders play Bantam. Not uncommon at all. I think its about 1 in every 12 Minnesota Hockey players (Boys) would play Bantam as a 7th grader. In the 97 age group kids that come to mind are Zach Sitarz at Andover, AJ Robbel at Jefferson, Alec Baer from BSM, Will Garin from Holy Family, Mica Horn from Edina. Heck, Joey Anderson at Roseville ( 98 ). Just a few off the top of my head.GatorLand wrote:So this is the first player I have heard of to try make the jump to bantams before 8th grade....has anyone ever skated bantams in 7th grade or 6th grade?
Most of the frosh on Teaks list are summer or fall ( June-Dec ) birthday 97s. Some are older 98s
Many of the top sophs are 96s. Wahlin (WBL), Gillette (R'MOUNT), Lindgren (EAGAN) etc.
Top juniors are 95s, Sheehy (BURN), Hurley (EDINA), Kuhlman (CLOQ), Yon (ROSSEAU) etc.
Top seniors are 94s, Gleinke (EAGAN), Bischoff (GR), Besse (BSM) ... and Zevnik (STA) is just 18 days away from being a 93
Its all par for the course
Not all of the above were bantam eligible in grade 7 & 8, but many were. In fact:
- Any current Minnesota freshman with a birthday from January-June has no bantam eligibility. (Sitarz (AND), Robbel (JEFF), Almquist (OSS), Horn (EDINA), Gabrielle (EAGAN), Tweeten (EGF) etc. etc.)
- Any current Minnesota sophomore with a Jan-June / 1996 birthday exhausted their Bantam eligibility in 8th grade. (John Peterson (HFA), Josh Passolt (MG) etc.)
- Any current Minnesota sophomore with a Jan-June / 1995 birthday exhausted their Bantam eligibility in 8th grade. (Spencer Naas (BSM), Avery Peterson (GR) etc.)
- Any current Minnesota sophomore with a Jan-June / 1994 birthday exhausted their Bantam eligibility in 8th grade. (Max Coatta (TONKA), David Zevnik (STA) etc.)
The vast majority of these guys are June birthday kids who are excluded from the Minnesota Hockey Summer cutoff. June kids are held back for the same reason as July/August kids, with birthdays falling in the summer holiday months AFTER the school year and parents having to decide on the maturity of their young child at that point in their lives. It's now recommended in general that girls be moved ahead and boys be held back. Minnesota Hockey makes allowances for kids born in July and August, but inexplicably, they don't for kids with June birthdays. These kids on Teaks list are doing fine, but there are many June birthday kids with no bantam eligibility left in grade 9 who aren't physically ready for varsity/JV hockey, but that's a whole other thread.
Others though, like Peterson (HFA), Coatta (TONKA), Zevnik (STA) have January-May (in-school) birthdays, started late for whatever reason.
Other Minnesota players who played Bantam in 7th grade include late birthday kids (July-December) who played Tier 1 Hockey out of state. Anyone who played for the Wisconsin Fire or any private school move ins from Tier 1 States or other move ins. Alec Baer & Will Garin fall in this category as peewee eliigible 7th graders who played Bantam.
In fact, I could be wrong, but I believe there are even Minnesota players who played Bantam hockey in 6th grade. Taylor Schneider and Mason Palmer come to mind, although I am not 100% sure on their grade at the time. I know they were underage '98's on the Wisconsin Fire Bantam Minor team, so its possible they played Bantam in 6th grade.
And now my apologies to Teak for putting his thread off-topic.
