District 8/District 4 Merger?

[Frozen Water]

After the regular season is completed and the District 8 and District 4 teams return to their respective District tournaments. How do they decide seedings? Do all the teams automatically qualify for their District tournament?

[elliott70]

After the regular season is completed and the District 8 and District 4 teams return to their respective District tournaments. How do they decide seedings? Do all the teams automatically qualify for their District tournament?

I don't know.
This should be addressed (by email) to D4 director if you reisde in D4 or D8 director if you reside in D8.
Addresses are at minnesotahockey.org under BOARD.

[Frozen Water]

I mentioned this in the Lakeville topic, but I really don't have a problem with some District 4 teams playing against District 8 teams during the season as long as those teams still get to play in the District 4 Tournament. I can see Albert Lea doing really well against the Mason City/Waseca/St Peter/Luverne type teams while Austin is going to get throttled against the Rochester/New Prague/ Faribault/Shattuck's in their division.

[jackstraw]

It will only hurt the teams playing weaker competition come playoff time. I don't know if I would be too worried about Austin's perspective as they haven't fielded an A Bantam team in 2 year's and from what I have heard, many 2nd year B Bantam's are going the high school route. I am assuming you are referring to A Bantam's as you are including Shattuck and they only have 1 team in this, playing at the A Bantam level. This is Shattuck's no. 2 bantam team.

[SEMetro]

I suspect they will seed based upon coach's rankings similar to high school sections.

[Frozen Water]

www.stickstats.com has the newest proposal

[jackstraw]

I am pretty sure that the coaches are going to seed them, very similar to HS section seeds. It is my guess that the D4 teams are still going to have the home and home series' at the very least, no matter which "league" they are put in. The bright side is that if it is a non-league game, you could play the full 15 min. periods with an ice cut if the rink staff is cordial!The D4 A Bantam coaches that I am aware of have for the most part been there for at least a few years and know the other programs pretty well, seem to get a long pretty well and should be fairly impartial with their seeding. This all would be my guess.

[Frozen Water]

The D-4 Bantam A coaches are all good coaches and fair, so I'm sure the seedings will be fine. My concern is a District 4 team will get penalized (not allowed to play Districts) for getting put in a division with District 8 teams. Like I said earlier, they only fair thing to do is allow all District 4 teams into the District 4 tournament at the end of the season.

[jackstraw]

The way it was told to me is that everyone will participate in the end of the year tourney. It is my guess that there will be some byes for the top seeds and some play in games for the others, and that will give you an 8 team field in Marshall. I hope it all works out well as this inter-league stuff has already created many headaches.

[Frozen Water]

Jackstraw,
I hope your right. From what I understand Marshall should have ten teams at Districts.
1. Faribault (East Division)
2. New Prague (East Division)
3. Austin (East Division)
4. Owatonna (East Division)
5. Albert Lea (Central Division)
6. Waseca (Central Division)
7. St Peter (Central Division)
8. Mankato (Central Division)
9. New Ulm (Central Division)
10 Luverne (Central Division)
*Mason City (Central Division) and Shattuck (East Division) are guest associations I believe?

[jackstraw]

That could turn into 8 teams pretty easy as I am not sure Waseca or Austin will field A teams when all is said and done.

[Frozen Water]

Waseca had 25 Bantams signup, so they are going with two teams (one A and one B team). Austin had 18 Bantams sign up, so they will probably just have one large B team.

[jackstraw]

Well here is where we sit right now; Austin and Luverne don't have A Bantam teams (kudos to Waseca for stepping up to the plate), and Lakeville is still in D8. Now where do we go? If I am not mistaken, that is a 6 team central division and that includes a team from Iowa. Please do something!

[Frozen Water]

According to the District 4 website under Bantam A Standings there are now 8 teams (9 if you count guest association Mason City) in District 4.

New Ulm (Central)
Mankato (Central)
Waseca (Central)
Albert Lea (Central)
St Peter (Central)
Mason City (Central)
Faribault (East)
Owatonna (East)
New Prague (East)

[Miracle1980]

District 4 will no longer have East and West divisions. All District 4 teams will qualify for the District 4 tournament in Marshall. If they have more than eight teams they will have a play-in game to determine the eight teams. The coaches will determine the seedings.

[jackstraw]

New alignment: add Faribault and Owatonna to Central, only NP is still in the North. Hope it gets finalized soon, games have to be scheduled.

[Frozen Water]

Moving Owatonna and Faribault to the Central and leaving New Prague in the East is the best solution. I don't like the idea of the coaches calling each other to schedule games though. Doesn't it make more sense to have all the coaches in one location and do everything in one night? Jackstraw is correct, games should be scheduled soon.

[Rocket78]

D8 has always had a rules meeting/scheduling meeting for the various leagues and levels. I wonder if the D4 team will be attending these this year.


Here is the latest schedule from the D8 website:

Bantam A and B Game Scheduling Meeting, October 8th - 7:00 PM,

(Entry Revised on 10/2) PeeWee A, B and B2 Game Scheduling Meeting, October 10th - 7:00 PM,

(Entry Revised on 10/2) Girls 14U A, 12U A, B, and C, 10U A and B Game Scheduling Meeting, October 17th - 7:00 PM, South St Paul VFW

Squirt A and B Game Scheduling Meeting, October 24th - 7:00 PM,

Bantam C and PeeWee C Game Scheduling Meeting, October 31st - 7:00 PM,

Girls 14U B Game Scheduling Meeting, November 7th - 5:30 PM,

District 8 District Rep and Team Manager Meeting, November 7th - 7:00 PM,

Squirt C Game Scheduling Meeting, November 8th - 7:00 PM, St Paul Park American Legion - 328 Broadway Av. - St Paul Park, MN

Junior Gold B Game Scheduling Meeting, November 25th - 7:00 PM,

[HockeyRocks1]

RE DICK U LESS scheduling meetings in the first half of October. What's the stink'n rush? Can't the kids play a fall sport. Hockey is killing itself with this hockey only MEN TAL ITY.

[jackstraw]

Kids don't do the scheduling there Mr. Limbaugh. Rink managers would be in quite a quandry if nobody scheduled their ice until Nov. or later. What would you suggest? Sometimes it is better to just keep quiet when your information is lacking.

[Rocket78]

Kids don't do the scheduling there Mr. Limbaugh. Rink managers would be in quite a quandry if nobody scheduled their ice until Nov. or later. What would you suggest? Sometimes it is better to just keep quiet when your information is lacking.

Yeah, but can you imagine what the schedules would look like if they got to do it?

[Rocket78]

RE DICK U LESS scheduling meetings in the first half of October. What's the stink'n rush? Can't the kids play a fall sport. Hockey is killing itself with this hockey only MEN TAL ITY.

As stated in the other posts the kids don't do the scheduling.

However, tryouts are going on all over the state beginning this week. I know when I was a bantam we had tryouts in November but then again we practiced outside too. Times have changed. The East Coast teams are already playing games and complaining about the refs . Kids can still play their fall sport but yes they may be tired at tryouts.

[goldy313]

Most associations already bought their ice and distributed it i.e. Dec. 12 from 8-9 Bantam A, 9:15-10:15 Jr Gold, etc. The team managers have a list of all their ice for the season then go meet with other managers and set up games based on that ice schedule. You don't need teams selected to schedule games, just have the ice scheduled. You don't schedule games then go get the ice.

Yes, hockey will eventually kill itself by starting so early. Either kids have to choose a sport or tryouts become a forgone conclusion before they even happen, neither is good and both lead to less players. Rochester will only field 6 bantam teams this year their lowest total in nearly 30 years yet the town has doubled in population.

[Marty McSorely]

Rochester has doubled in size? I would assume that is Medical type people who think hockey is too dangerous and the other half would be immigrant kids who don't even know what hockey is.

Has your school population doubled. I know the town south of me has exploded but their schools have maintained enrollment. Baby Boomers on the move.

[Rocket78]

goldy313, I don't know where you got your Rochester information. This year RYHA will have BTA -2 , BTB - 2, BTC - 3 = 7 teams... the same number as last year. In 2000 they had 11 teams so you are correct that their numbers are down. But, this was obvious when the current bantams were in mites and squirts because this age group had light numbers then and I wouldn't expect them to gain players when they move to peewees and bantams.

Marty, there are a lot of medical people with kids in hockey. The Somalis and Mexicans do not have very many hockey players though as it comes down to $$ and culture. RYHA has never actively recruited players (other than in the girls programs) and it might be time to start. With a new sheet of ice this winter we need participants to pay for it.