This makes me sad...Jeffy95 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:49 amNot most but there are a few. I know of one 9th Grader and two 8th Graders from this year's Bantam group that go to Marshall. There may be a couple more, I'm sure one of the Denfeld fans on here can confirm.BP wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:33 amAren't most of the Denfeld kids a Duluth Marshall?rainier2 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2019 4:38 pm
Agreed, I'd pump the brakes on Denfeld a bit. As good as their bantam team was this year, they only beat Hibbing 3-2 and 3-1, and Virginia 3-0, so it's not like they were light years ahead of other 7A teams. Plus, their Pee Wee team was 2-23, so it doesn't appear there will be a solid sophomore crop coming up to fill in behind the bantam talent later in HS.
Even if Denfeld is better than the Range teams by a solid margin, getting by Hermantown is still a monumental challenge. Hermantown beat the Denfeld bantams this year, the Hawks 1st year bantams were #5 in Pee Wee AA last year, and their Pee Wee team this year was #13 in AA. Add in the usual one or two star transfers that will materialize between now and HS and Hermantown is again looking like a top 10 AA team.
As great as the Greenway run was this year, let's not forget that the Raiders needed two top-six forwards and a goalie to transfer there in order to squeak by the Hawks. Denfeld has a decent history of getting transfers, so maybe they will attract a couple over the next few years, but is this what we want in Class A, to hope for transfers every year?
Hopefully by the time the Denfeld kids are seniors Hermantown will be in AA. I'd gladly root for the Hunters at state.
Denfeld has some top end talent for sure. They should be good in a couple of years. But the transfers will always be the difference for Hermantown. A lot of them are top end talent and the rest add a ton of depth that Denfeld and other 7A teams won't be able to match. As someone said, Denfeld's PeeWee group wasn't strong this year, and Hermantown's PeeWee AA team has the Plante kid and a whopping 4 transfers from Proctor and 3 from Denfeld. (Half of their 14 skaters) I'm sure we'll see a few more by the time those kids get to High School. No class A team can compete with that type of player movement.
But to clear up, Denfeld bantams have three DMarshall kids and one of those kids is probably going to be switching over to Denfeld now that their bantams had so much success. The top kids are all Denfeld kids as well. The team won the consolation at state and lost to Warroad in a battle 4-2 in the opening round, who eventually won the whole thing. Looking at next year, I expect Denfeld to be down just slightly. Yes, the bantam group will be very good in high school in 2 and 3 years, but for next year it will be tough for them to match this years solid senior class.