Section 1A 2007-8

[RSI]

I hear you have a new "backup". Man, I hope you never get sick or hurt

[tigerpower]

I hear you have a new "backup". Man, I hope you never get sick or hurt

You're a little too hard on your daughter... she didn't do that bad. You should consider a transfer, she could start in Austin.

[falcons89]

Did I get the scores right: Faribault 3 Al 3
Considering, our supposedly best player wasn't there, and we were constantly using our best forwards to play defense, AL got off easy. If that was AL's best, it should be a great year for the Falcons.

More surpisingly, who was Austin's goalie? Never seen her before. That is an improvement, is she really from Austin? She might give them a chance. Now I know it wasn't #12, she was obviously on the ice.

[mngirlshockeyfan]

Again the scrimmages went well. How many lines was Albert Lea playing? It appeared that their top line never came off the ice when they indeed had more than enough players for three lines on the bench. I was also impressed with the play of austin's goalie, is she the backup?

[RSI]

Did I get the scores right: Faribault 3 Al 3
Considering, our supposedly best player wasn't there, and we were constantly using our best forwards to play defense, AL got off easy. If that was AL's best, it should be a great year for the Falcons.

More surpisingly, who was Austin's goalie? Never seen her before. That is an improvement, is she really from Austin? She might give them a chance. Now I know it wasn't #12, she was obviously on the ice.

Congrats falcons, you guys tied a team with a bunch (at least 5) 5th graders. Is it safe for me to assume that all the nets stayed in place for this tie??
Good run on the "cliches" too...
1. Best player gone
2. Forwards playing D
I imagine the girls were a little road weary too

I told you last week Austin had a solid goalie. Shees, I have no idea why you would think I jerk your chain like that...

[hocsocstud]

Albert Lea ran 3 lines consistently (even the line that had 3 girls under 5 feet tall, by the way they only got scored on twice, pretty good for 6th graders huh).. just ask coach Bray because he was running the line changes. By the way Falcons89 i barely saw any of your best forwards playing defense.

[falcons89]

I was also impressed with the play of austin's goalie, is she the backup?

Probably not the backup anymore.

I will say the scrimmages were run well again. Hocsocstud, you probably never noticed what was going on because all you were seeing was Falcon Green. The best chance for Albert Lea to go to state is in basketball or maybe danceline. Then again I did see a lot of AL figure skaters on the ice last night.

[christmaseve21]

falcons bottom line is that you tied us...you didn't beat us, so stop being so smart about it...also there were about 8 players from our team there and about 8 girls who aren't older than 12...our defence was made up of a little girl and a girl from the varsity team...no wonder your forwards got around the 12 year olds...furthermore your forwards were playing forward nothing else....

[HOCKEYPUCK2]

The coaches did run 3 lines with equal ice to all. They played 8-9, U12 players and we tied. Did you notice the different colored jerseys? We are the better team. STATE HERE WE COME!!!!! My section picks:

1. Albert Lea (by 3-5 goals)
2. Northfield
3. Faribault on a good day.
4. Austin- tied Redwing in scrimmage (missing players though)
5. Redwing
6. Waseca

Great year to be a tiger!!!!!!

[falcons89]

Two dates to remember:

DEC 11 Faribault vs Albert Lea and their Uncle Refs (AKA the Sheriffs), in the shed.

JAN 24 Faribault vs Albert Lea with good refs, in the great town of Faribault, where the kids can count without using their fingers.

Then of course, the section championship, where Albert Lea's Season will be over. Albert Lea will then be forced to listen to Faribault in the state playoffs, on their little radios. I do not believe they have TVs there yet.

I will bring my broom to the section championship to sweep Albert Lea away. I predict a season sweep.

Faribault is the greatest.

[christmaseve21]

i think someone is getting a little defensive...

[RSI]

I predict a season sweep.

WOW!

I think you've been making a few too many "trips" to Northfield!

[Rocket78]

The Mayo girls won the WalMart Cup at the Schwann's Super Rink this weekend (and so did the Lourdes boys). Mayo beat S St Paul 2-1 in OT, then Anoka 3-2 and then the Mpls Nova 3-2 in overtime and then a shootout. Flesher missed the championship game and several other players didn't compete. Hold onto our butts in the Big 9 cuz I think they will dominate again. They had at least a pair of 7th graders with them too.

[Twinnesota]

The Mayo girls won the WalMart Cup at the Schwann's Super Rink this weekend (and so did the Lourdes boys). Mayo beat S St Paul 2-1 in OT, then Anoka 3-2 and then the Mpls Nova 3-2 in overtime and then a shootout. Flesher missed the championship game and several other players didn't compete. Hold onto our butts in the Big 9 cuz I think they will dominate again. They had at least a pair of 7th graders with them too.

Glad they're in Class AA
T

[RSI]

Hold onto our butts in the Big 9 cuz I think they will dominate again.

I think there's at least a couple teams in the Big 9 will disagree with that statement!
Mankato West
AL
Owatonna
and maybe even Faribo

Don't get me wrong, Mayo should be one of the top teams, but I don't think they will dominate the Big 9. Although, I did hear the JM goalie moved/is moving to the Mayo side of town. If that's true it can't hurt, I thought she was pretty good.

[hockeybuff]

did mayo have a full team? glad to hear they did well. they will miss their seniors, a lot of talent graduated. hopefully the others will step in and take up where they left off. i think there is a fair amount of talent still there, may need to refocus a few players and remind them this is a team sport; a few tend to focus on individual stats/success rather than what's best for the team.

[Northland]

After reading this thread I'm might have to drive down to the Faribault vs Albert Lea tilts. ( tough crowd )

[Rocket78]

Mayo was only missing 3 players from what I saw (although I was there to watch Lourdes boys). The missing players were a Sr D, a young forward and backup goalie. They weren't crisp but they just keep battling. Good forecheck. Strong near their own goal. Murphy was solid between pipes. Most of the girls have not been skating this summer due to softball and soccer.

Coach Gamble is gone and is replaced by Phillips assisted by Moffit, Fordham ('05) and Harwood.

Bonapace (9th grade) is at JM/Lourdes is not moving to Mayo although it would have made for a great 1-2 goalie punch for Mayo.

The Century girls have skated a lot this summer so they will be improved. Ten of their players started hockey this past season so they have a long way to go.

The JM girls have not skated much either. Some are doing local camps but have not heard of any playing spring or summer leagues. Bonapace has been doing CODP so we will have to hope for her to get a 95% save percentage to give anyone in the Big 9 a scare. Many of our girls also play softball and soccer so at least they are working on their athleticism rather than just hockey year round. I'm not sure why we don't do off season tournaments.

[PuxRinmyblood]

Not to hijack the 1A thread any further.....but while on this topic it should be noted that Mayo has a very nice club. After last weekend I would pay special attention to their goaltender. I saw all three of their games and believe that Ms. Murphy was easily the MVP of last week's Wal-Mart cup. She was extremely solid, especially against Anoka and the Mpls. Novas, who she repeatedly stonewalled.

[Rocket78]

Sorry to speak of AA teams on this thread. My interest in the A class teams is that I want to downsize to a smaller community in SE Minnesota and hockey will be a part of the decision process... So some questions.

What are the various programs in 1A doing to promote the growth of girls hockey? Rochester is running a free introduction program and the last news was that over 60 girls will participate. Is this common practice? What other methods are being used?

Are the various girls youth programs growing or are their numbers stagnent?

Why not compete at the 'A' level like Faribault did (U12A and U14A)? Owatonna realized that winning a U12B state championship (05-06) was fun but to really advance they decided to try U12A last year. Their record wasn't great but a guaranteed those girls grew more than they did the previous year while kicking everyone's butt. Congrats on your courage coach Holcomb!

Why are Austin girls waiving out of their youth program? Is it Bray or is it the youth coaching.

Is the Mankato girls program going to improve? What would motivate Mankato to split into 2 programs?? East was 0-13 and West was 12-5-1. It seems clear that the West AD knew what was coming up through the ranks.

Heres' a random idea- Coop all of the Big 9 to improve all of the teams (I suppose this would move everyone up to 1AA). One Mankato team, Austin/Albert Lea, two Rochester teams, Winona/LaCrescent, Faribault/Owatonna/Waseca. Would this improve the game or eliminate the less skilled girls?

Sorry for the long post...I suppose I should do some smack talking like other post but I really have no team that is my archenemy

[SEhockeyDAD]

This weekend, a team from souther MN, the Southern Heat, will be playing in the International Cup tournament in Blaine. The team has players from almost every Big 9 team, plus Dodge County and Northfield. Girls who are normally opponents are teammates this weekend, and its pretty cool to see. If you know one of the players, wish them well and thank them for representing southern MN! I'll try to keep you all informed about results.

G Liz Maidl, Century
D Amber Ostoff, Mankato West
D Alyssa Coughlin, Mankato West
D Katy Nelson, Albert Lea
D Sonia Bakke, Century
D Natalie Christensen, Dodge County
D Kyli Ellingson, Austin
D (sub) Rachel Sanvik, Winona
F Jenna Christensen, Albert Lea
F Megan Kramer, Owatonna
F Erin Kastner, Faribault
F Tara Rasmussen, Dodge County
F Vy Ngyuen, Northfield
F Mary Grace Flesher, Mayo
F Melena Nelson, Mayo
F Keri Pickel, Mayo
F Alyssa Weise, Mayo
F (sub) Stevie Fiek, Mayo

[Betty 99]

Rocket-

I can only speak on to Mankato portion of your post with having a daughter who plays. Why would East & West split? Because the MSHSL made them split after they went to the state tournament; they didn't have a choice (Rochester was given 10 years as a COOP however). East was fine after the split but West had to build a program from the ground up. They really took their lumps for a few years. It didn't have anything to do with the West AD seeing what was coming. West has just done a good job building over the past several years. You're are right however in that Mankato has one U12 B team feeding two high schools, with most being West kids, so a COOP may be coming sooner than later.

[Rocket78]

Betty,

The way coops work is that MSHSL is ok with a AA/AA coop if the conference is ok with it. If the conference declines the coop then the schools can petition to the section. If the section is ok with it, then it overrules the conference. The Big 9 crushed the Rochester coops in a vote a year ago.

The Big 9 schools were tired of Mayo/Lourdes winning the conference title so they voted to disallow the JM/Century AA/AA coop. This effectively forced Rochester to move Lourdes to one of the other two high schools. Rochester has the option to coop Lourdes (A) with any other school. One of the options that Rochester had was to withdraw JM and Century from the conference in hockey but keep Mayo/Lourdes in but the Rochester ADs did not want to alienate the other Big 9 schools. The net effect is that they went to 3 teams and it killed the U14 program. They will probably have U14 this year but it will be all first year girls and it will include some rookie hockey players.

Rochester girls hockey will be rebuilding since there are not enough girls in the youth program to fill 3 high school teams with experienced players. It appears that many of the existing players will funnel to JM and Mayo but Century will be short for a while. By the time they get the feeder system built up then Rochester will build another high school and the problem will start again.

If Mankato is looking to have their teams coop (which is the right thing to do) then it would be fair for Rochester to go back to their coops. The only positive thing that I can see for 3 Rochester teams is that more kids get to participate. The benefit for Rochester going back to 2 teams is that with the growth in the youth program they could actually have a girls JV program.

In my view of high school hockey it is far more important for a school to do well in their Section and to heck with their conference. Do we really think that anyone in the Metro area has any knowledge and/or respect for the Big 9. For that matter, they are contemptuous of Section 1 (A or AA) too. Since the 70's they have 'stuck' somebody to beat up on Southern Minney beginning with Bloomington, then Burnsville, then Apple Valley and now Lakeville. Good luck to all Section 1 teams and maybe some year we'll win a State title again.



I looked at the Southern Heat roster and there are some good players in there. Rasmussen is a big strong player. Sanvik's dad used coach. Maidl is a solid goalie. Bakke is a very strong girl too. Who is coaching the team? I don't see any JM representation The Mayo players are all pretty good. Is Nelson from Albert Lea related to Steve Nelson that played at CC?

[SEhockeyDAD]

The Southern Heat's dropped both games they've played so far, both by a score of 3-1. Keri Pickel scored both goals for the Heat, though many of the girls are playing well. The competition is really tough; talented, physical, fast and maybe a little nasty at times. 2 games today, 1 tomorrow.

[falcons89]

The Mayo girls won the WalMart Cup at the Schwann's Super Rink this weekend (and so did the Lourdes boys). Mayo beat S St Paul 2-1 in OT, then Anoka 3-2 and then the Mpls Nova 3-2 in overtime and then a shootout. Flesher missed the championship game and several other players didn't compete. Hold onto our butts in the Big 9 cuz I think they will dominate again. They had at least a pair of 7th graders with them too.

Dream on. This Mayo team lost too much talent. You are not as good as a Mayo team with Harwood, Psimos, Erickson and the crew. With your population you should dominate. Faribault will have something to say about you wanting the Big 9 target on your chest. You will compete but will not dominate like the past.

By the way, you competed in a water downed tourney.

Faribault is the greatest.