Sparlimb wrote:Snap Shot wrote:Let me get this straight.
I get to start a "hockey school."
I can choose from the best players in the city/region that I want to play for me.
Those player do not have restrictions on where they live...in fact they don't even have to live in my school’s "district."
I can recruit them...and basically decide who's on my team.
Sign me up. Why am I not winning state every year?
Don't get me wrong. I love the Benilde story (this year) and Ken Pauley is a great coach.
But why do we still operate under the illusion that MN hockey is realistically equitable? Benilde, Breck, STA, HM. etc might as well be juinor programs that recruit.
Make whatever case you want. It's stupid, unfair, unhealthy, and it's not the best model for MN HS hockey. If you want to go to private school, eligibility rule should start in 7th grade or earlier.
"Districts" should be established for private schools juts like pubic schools, or your kid doesn't play sports there. Want your kid to attend private school for a great education? Great but he/she can't play sports unless you're in the district. Want your kid to be an all star or pro hockey player but go to private school? Awesome. Send them to juniors early. Good on ya mate.
Also, if you kid leaves early from public school ala Literri or Nanne...good for you, but you get to pay for the year you wasted on the coaches and the rest of your teammates.
Make a commitment to a community and stay there.
MN HS hockey is good enough that If your kid is good enough he/she will make it just like the Brotens, Ramseys, Cullens of the world.
The "Private School" hockey concept is really a farce, and it's not good for Minnesota hockey overall.
This argument is stale, but you've littered your post with all kinds of falsehoods.
"I can choose from the best players in the city/region that I want to play for me" - FALSE. Parents and kids pick the school, not the other way around. How many private school Mr. Hockey's have their been? HM has never had one, so under your scenario they must suck at picking.
"Those players do not have restrictions on where they live" - Neither do public schools. This was all resolved in open enrollment. You can live in Rochester and attend Roseau if you want.
"I can recruit them" - HM, probably the strongest AA program over the 37 years Private schools could participate has all of 3 titles. Either their recruiting has picked the wrong kids or public schools have done just fine competing. I thought I noticed Moorhead taking HM to overtime last night. Seemed like a competitive game to me. I'm sure BSM, AHA, CDH and HM would have all liked to have Kyle Rau, Nick Leddy, Nick Bjugstad, etc, but those kids chose where they wanted to play. And that is how it should be...
"It's stupid, unfair and unhealthy" - I agree, there were 4 public schools in the AA tournament all seeded ahead of the private schools. How could anyone in their right mind beleive public schools could beat the big bad private schools? This whole thread is boring and the same every year.
You know as well as I do that if a really average WBL team had made the section finals it would have been another close game that WBL very well could have won. And then HM wouldn't even be in the finals. EP gets shocked by a #7 seed which gives BSM a free pass to the section finals and they manage to beat Tonka in what most hockey fans knew to be a big upset. There is no competitve unbalance, just a lot of bitter folks mad their team isn't playing for a final.
The one place we can agree is on Class A. I don't know if a relegation rule needs to be made or what, but Class A is broken right now. And to be honest, it is more than just private schools. If you force all the private schools to AA, you are still going to get matchups of small outstate schools getting pounded by city A schools like Mahtomedi. The competitve balance in the A tournament is skewed and needs some sort of fixing. Although the teams getting pounded may be happy their kids get a chance to go to St. Paul and don't want to fix anything. Who knows...
