6A Coach of the year

fivehole628 · Post by **fivehole628** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:49 pm

Who's the top coach in 6A this year?

Hischoolhokfan · Post by **Hischoolhokfan** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 9:28 pm

Dave Nelson, He's one game away from tying most wins in a season for HF< And he's probably going to do it. Only Leseur Litch Delano left. All teams of which HF has already won.

The coach of the year will go to whoever takes there team through the playoffs to state.

twine finder · Post by **twine finder** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:36 am

This one's a no brainer.

Orono and New Prague have long been the best two teams for these age brackets (they were usually the #1 seeds from their districts going into their regional tournament), so I don't think you can really consider either one of them (Ryan or Sawchuk) for Coach of the Year.

Providence has been a little bit of a disappointment. Give them another year or two. I have a lot of respect for Hal, and I think he'll get that program up there.

Mound has been terribly inconsistent, losing to some teams that are less talented than them.

Delano has underachieved (there was a lot of talk about them as a preseason favorite).

Faribault has met their expectations (some people thought they might win the Big 9 outright).

IMHO, Holy Family, which is a coop with Waconia (a fairly new program) has been really surprising some teams. Losing to Mound earlier in the year (big time) and coming back and beating them tells me that their coaches are doing their homework and making adjustments to give their team a chance.

Dave Nelson has my vote.

fivehole628 · Post by **fivehole628** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:06 am

The only reason H.F. will be tiying their record is because they didnt play anyone before conference play. Dave Nelson is a good coach don't get me wrong but my vote goes to Sawchuk.

nickel slots · Post by **nickel slots** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:53 pm

No disrespect to Sawchuk, or anybody else from New Prague, but they have had some good talent there for the last few years and haven't gotten past the semifinals. If my memory serves, last year they were beat in the first round by Hutch or Litch (can't remember).

The point I'm trying to make is that I've seen this group of kids from New Prague have success all the way up the ladder and I'm not convinced that this coach is the reason for it. Nelson has the advantage because his team doesn't have the successful history that this particular group from NP has. When you take a class like this year's seniors from NP and throw in some underclassmen that contribute on a nightly basis (I've seen the scoreboxes), you'd be hard pressed not to have a successful season.

No matter which way you cut it, it should be an exciting few weeks of hockey for 6A.

bugsy · Post by **bugsy** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 2:39 pm

Nickel, please define success. has this group of kids won Districts in Youth hockey. Yes they have. Have they advanced out of Regions, Not sure on that but if memory serves me right I don't believe they did. Now, they are having great success on a nightly basis with only a few hiccups so far this year so that must have something to do with Sawchuck.

I see a team that may finally take the next step and advance to the State tournament and in doing so I hope you take down Orono who Ii think is your major obstacle in getting to State

nickel slots · Post by **nickel slots** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:40 pm

New Prague: Their youth program is, for the most part, competitive on a yearly basis at the A levels.

Waconia: Their youth program has never even fielded an A bantam team.

Like I said... no offense to anybody in NP, but Nelson has a less proven commodity, so he gets my vote.

fivehole628 · Post by **fivehole628** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 6:02 pm

Sawchuk

George Blanda · Post by **George Blanda** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 6:05 pm

Oh fivehole...you can only vote once!!

fivehole628 · Post by **fivehole628** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 6:14 pm

George Blanda wrote:Oh fivehole...you can only vote once!!

oh yeah... sorry

golferguy · Post by **golferguy** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:12 pm

Are all the coaches in this section included in this poll? I think I see a couple who are missing from the list.

THEDOMINATOR39 · Post by **THEDOMINATOR39** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:13 pm

Darren sawchuck should not be and should never be coach of the year, sure this is the most success nps had in a while but the guy is a terrible coach, i could coach the players on np this year to season like there having now and thats saying alot about the players. I have seen alot of great talent leave np saying that they cant get better under this coach, and if you dont remember last years record was 8-16-2

Biggame 101 · Post by **Biggame 101** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:59 pm

Sawchuk's team is playing better as the season goes on. I would assess that the team is developing. They took a very good Holy angels team to overtime( I know AHA was not at their best with injury and possibly some illness.) They are also soundly beating the teams they should late in the season. He is obviously either coaching very well or is smart enough to let his best players decide the game.

hockeydad · Post by **hockeydad** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 12:29 am

THEDOMINATOR39 wrote:Darren sawchuck should not be and should never be coach of the year, sure this is the most success nps had in a while but the guy is a terrible coach, i could coach the players on np this year to season like there having now and thats saying alot about the players. I have seen alot of great talent leave np saying that they cant get better under this coach, and if you dont remember last years record was 8-16-2

What "great talent" has left the program because of this coach? He's been in New Prague for four years and I can only think of one player who went through the association who is playing for another program, and he left the association as a bantam, before he ever got to the high school program.

fivehole628 · Post by **fivehole628** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:56 am

golferguy wrote:Are all the coaches in this section included in this poll? I think I see a couple who are missing from the list.

Nope, All of them didn't fit in the poll

THEDOMINATOR39 · Post by **THEDOMINATOR39** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:57 pm

well hockey dad then we are thinking of the same great talent(glynn), who didnt want to play for this coach just imagine the team this year with glynn on it it would be amazing. plus last years record doesnt lie folks

hockeydad · Post by **hockeydad** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:13 pm

One player, who I'll agree is a great talent. But your post said you'd seen "a lot of great talent" leave on account of sawchuk. Also, I don't believe the coach was the reason Glynn left.

Snowman27 · Post by **Snowman27** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:36 pm

Orono is still working with a team that is built from years past. Of course Brad Ryan should not get this because he has done nothing to develope this team. This Orono team was put together by Kevin Armstong primarily. You cannot only be a part of a program for a year and a half and be concidered to change the association. this takes time and orono hasn't had a coach that has stuck around since armstrong. no offence to brad ryan, if he sticks with it he may be there some day, but its definatly not today!

Also, some of his shenanigans with the goalies this year will hurt him in the long run. We don't need to get into this conversation again!

state 06 · Post by **state 06** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:51 pm

I totally agree with you snow man. Brad Ryan can only be given a small amount of credit for the teams success this year. the kids were brought up under kevin armstrong and he was a better coach than brad ryan ten fold

power92 · Post by **power92** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:18 am

Hey guys don't forget Weisjahn came into the EXCACT same situation, and won the award.

Snowman27 · Post by **Snowman27** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:13 pm

power92 wrote:Hey guys don't forget Weisjahn came into the EXCACT same situation, and won the award.

he didn't deserve it either...that team definatly had nothing to do with his coaching. they could have put a monkey behind the bench and done as well...thats just how it is when you step into a strong program, who was in the state tournament the year before. he had more talent on that team than orono has ever seen!

dipseydoodle17 · Post by **dipseydoodle17** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:30 pm

i agree with the dominator on this one. If you live near new prague you know exactly why sawchuck shouldn't be considered as the best coach in 6a. I dont know much about the other coaches, but what i do know is that over the last two years at least 7 players have dropped off the team. This is not because of the schedule or dislike of the game its because of the coaching. Ask many people on or off the team on what they think of him and about 90% will say they dislike him, even some former captains for sawchuck. I also heard that the holy angels coached asked one of NP's players if their coaches "know anything about hockey?" Bottom line, New Prague is a great team because they have great talent not because they have great coaching at the high school level

MC12 · Post by **MC12** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 8:56 am

So Dipsy- Help me a little on this one. Why do so many people dislike the NP coach? What has he done? I know a few players who have played there and they said that the 7 or so players quit because they basically knew they were never going to play because they were terrible. So that wouldn't make it the coaches fault would it? I agree, NP has a lot of talent, but if they're so great why didn't they rule last year? Most of the players were on the team. The young group they have is good but what have they done? I don't know but they've never won their region or state have they?

dipseydoodle17 · Post by **dipseydoodle17** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:21 pm

MC, its not so much sawchuck as it is the assistant coach. There were several instances with this coach last season. He physically hit the senior goaltender in practice. He also would take slap shots and try to hit the kids when he was angry. As for sawchuck he just doesnt know how to coach. To answer your questions about the younger talent i think they did reach regions the past two years, they should have won both years but they choked. The bantams that moved up to varsity account for 25% of the teams points so far this season, and the upperclassmen (juniors and seniors) only have 60% of the teams points. I think that there was only 5 starters that graduated last year and one was out most of the season. Another reason for the team doing so good this year is that a lot of the seniors have really stepped it up and trained hard in the offseason.

hockeydad · Post by **hockeydad** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:38 pm

Dipsy - are you my neighbor?

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