brokenbat22 wrote:2 of the best HS hockey players in MN (Ben Hanowski and Nate Schmidt) are outstanding athletes. Both played 3 sports growing up but gave up football as freshman or so I believe to play elite league...
Nate played AAA for the 91 Blades who were arguably a top 5 team in North American and Hano I believe played for the Junior Gophers. Not sure on Hano, but he was always playing hockey year round. The Elite League is set up so a player does not have to quit a fall sport to participate so they didn't "give it up" to play Elite I.
Agreed that most parents put to much into the lower levels of youth hockey and take the game way to seriously. But at the same time, Nate or Ben wouldn't be where they are today without playing hoceky as much as they have.
On topic, Its going to be interesting to see where the Tech program goes from here. I can see the Tech youth hockey people wanting to see Denardo take over the HS program.
It is amazing what parents can do to a program. A very similar thing happened over at SCC a few years ago.
I am waiting to see where these kids that belong to the complainers end up playing post-high school. These parents think that they have D1 players and are going to be very shocked when it doesn't happen.
Sorry to see Chad be removed in such a manner. His buddies (you all know who you are) that got him involved in the "Tech Youth Hockey" debacle last year do shoulder a lot of the blame. Even though I may not have agreed with everything that Chad did, nobody can fault the effort and compasion that he showed.
brokenbat22 wrote:2 of the best HS hockey players in MN (Ben Hanowski and Nate Schmidt) are outstanding athletes. Both played 3 sports growing up but gave up football as freshman or so I believe to play elite league...
Nate played AAA for the 91 Blades who were arguably a top 5 team in North American and Hano I believe played for the Junior Gophers. Not sure on Hano, but he was always playing hockey year round. The Elite League is set up so a player does not have to quit a fall sport to participate so they didn't "give it up" to play Elite I.
Agreed that most parents put to much into the lower levels of youth hockey and take the game way to seriously. But at the same time, Nate or Ben wouldn't be where they are today without playing hoceky as much as they have.
On topic, Its going to be interesting to see where the Tech program goes from here. I can see the Tech youth hockey people wanting to see Denardo take over the HS program.
Western, keep updating us.
Trying playing a hockey game, after a Friday night football game...not many kids can do it, and I commend the ones that do cause they've got to be sore. I think Nate and Ben would both be D1 players without playing hockey year round since PeeWee's. There's other ways to be develop better than spending thousands of dollars playing traveling all over playing AAA hockey. Granted, teams like the Blades are very good and a lot of kids do it, there are better ways. That's my point
brokenbat22 wrote:2 of the best HS hockey players in MN (Ben Hanowski and Nate Schmidt) are outstanding athletes. Both played 3 sports growing up but gave up football as freshman or so I believe to play elite league...
Nate played AAA for the 91 Blades who were arguably a top 5 team in North American and Hano I believe played for the Junior Gophers. Not sure on Hano, but he was always playing hockey year round. The Elite League is set up so a player does not have to quit a fall sport to participate so they didn't "give it up" to play Elite I.
Agreed that most parents put to much into the lower levels of youth hockey and take the game way to seriously. But at the same time, Nate or Ben wouldn't be where they are today without playing hoceky as much as they have.
On topic, Its going to be interesting to see where the Tech program goes from here. I can see the Tech youth hockey people wanting to see Denardo take over the HS program.
Western, keep updating us.
Trying playing a hockey game, after a Friday night football game...not many kids can do it, and I commend the ones that do cause they've got to be sore. I think Nate and Ben would both be D1 players without playing hockey year round since PeeWee's. There's other ways to be develop better than spending thousands of dollars playing traveling all over playing AAA hockey. Granted, teams like the Blades are very good and a lot of kids do it, there are better ways. That's my point
Curious.. Can you name one player that has gone on to play D1 in the past 5 years or so who didn't play Elite League and some sort of summer program? Every one I think of was at the rink during the summer on some AAA program and played some sort of fall hockey. Many do play other sports as well, but nobody (that I can think of) took the summer off. Let me know if I'm wrong..
Oh come on. Blue and Gold, I agree with everything you say, but no one got him involved. He wouldn't have been involved if he didn't want to be. My friends tell me that he is perfectly capable of deciding for himself what he does and doesn't do.
As far as the summer thing goes, here's a good tool to use. Does your kid want to play summer hockey and have ambitions to play at higher levels. Then let em. If he or she doesn't and wants to play other sports, then let em. Pretty simple. Pretty basic. Quit trying to mold your kid into a superstar (which 99.999999999999 will never be anyway) and let the kid decide what he or she wants to do.
western wrote:Oh come on. Blue and Gold, I agree with everything you say, but no one got him involved. He wouldn't have been involved if he didn't want to be. My friends tell me that he is perfectly capable of deciding for himself what he does and doesn't do.
As far as the summer thing goes, here's a good tool to use. Does your kid want to play summer hockey and have ambitions to play at higher levels. Then let em. If he or she doesn't and wants to play other sports, then let em. Pretty simple. Pretty basic. Quit trying to mold your kid into a superstar (which 99.999999999999 will never be anyway) and let the kid decide what he or she wants to do.
If there's only 99.999999999999 kids out of the whole population that will never be superstars, I like my kid's odds.
OK, ya got me -- I forgot to put the % sign in. However, if costs continue to go up and we keep developing kids (not) as we have the the past, there will only be about 100 kids playing hockey in the U.S. Sad to say, but more companies are getting out of hockey equipment (Nike bailed) or going out of business or getting bought out, and the sport doesn't seem to be growing. Most of my friends won't let their kids get into hockey because of cost. Youth associations better come up with a plan, fast.
Add to that the retarded TV contracts the NHL has and the game isn't getting the exposure it needs in the U.S. for new generations. In the not-to-distant future, the NHL itself may relocate to Europe. I'm normally an optimist and I love hockey, but the future isn't looking bright.
western wrote:Oh come on. Blue and Gold, I agree with everything you say, but no one got him involved. He wouldn't have been involved if he didn't want to be. My friends tell me that he is perfectly capable of deciding for himself what he does and doesn't do.
As far as the summer thing goes, here's a good tool to use. Does your kid want to play summer hockey and have ambitions to play at higher levels. Then let em. If he or she doesn't and wants to play other sports, then let em. Pretty simple. Pretty basic. Quit trying to mold your kid into a superstar (which 99.999999999999 will never be anyway) and let the kid decide what he or she wants to do.
OK, yes Chad is a big boy. But I know many of these folks and I will say that if left to his own devices he might have just sat around like everyone else and wondered if it wouldn't be cool to have your own association so that you can develop your own players in the mold of your choice. But Chad does have to pay the piper for going in as deep as he did. Some influences are best left alone..
As far as the summer hockey thing goes - I'm in 100% agreement with you. Been there, done that. However, my point was that I don't know of any kids that are playing D1, or where ever, (post-high school) that didn't do the summer thing. The cost is outrageous and to be honest, if I had it to do over I'm not sure that we would do as much hockey as we did. As far as my kid... ask around..
Let's give the sport back to the kids.. but it won't happen with the pressure that the "adults" put on everyone.
You asked in an earlier post what some of the Tech parents are going to do now. The rumor is that at least one family of a varsity player and maybe one other are looking at sending their kid to private school -- IN THE CITIES and moving or partially relocating by renting to get around the residency requirements.
It appears that some of those who complained never intended to stick around anyway, not that many of the kids or families will mind anyway. It will free up some spots for others to get a chance.
You probably know one Tech bound player's family moved to Detroit so he could play in some league with high exposure. What's next? Moving to Saskatchewan?
4theparents wrote:partially relocating by renting to get around the residency requirements.
I believe that loophole in the transfer rules has been closed, although others have opened. I think you need only to move "out" of the district you're in to be eligible for varsity play at the school of your chosing.
Alexandria parents did this same thing two years ago. It was a much needed coaching change for that program. When a coach loses respect for what ever reason things seem to just go down hill. Now Alexandria has a coach with passion for the game and the players. I am sure not all players and parents are happy but it seems, for the most part, like the Alexandria program is back on track.
The Duinick family (don't know if I spelled that right) moved to Detroit so their son, who would have been a sophmore at Tech, could play in a more visible league. Rumor has it that he is an OHL prospect for major junior Canadian hockey or for the national development team. So maybe the move will pay off. But if he plays major junior canadian, I don't think he can come back and play D1 college hockey. Maybe someone knows facts about that better than I.
You asked in an earlier post what some of the Tech parents are going to do now. The rumor is that at least one family of a varsity player and maybe one other are looking at sending their kid to private school -- IN THE CITIES and moving or partially relocating by renting to get around the residency requirements.
It appears that some of those who complained never intended to stick around anyway, not that many of the kids or families will mind anyway. It will free up some spots for others to get a chance.
You probably know one Tech bound player's family moved to Detroit so he could play in some league with high exposure. What's next? Moving to Saskatchewan?
Let 'em move. I have no problem with that. However, running a coach out is not the right plan. In most cases, those kids end up not making it past high school or Tier III anyway. Here's what I know for a fact: making it to D1 hockey, and succeeding is VERY hard and few who think they'll make it really do.
One thing that these parents need to know, is that there is a good chance that they will have NO say in who the next coach is. Cathedral went through this and had a real tough time with the coach that replaced Boerger (who was run out by a cadre of parents.. go figure). They got real lucky though when Eric Johnson came in to replace Voss. But the two years between were hard. I hope for Tech's kids sake that this doesn't happen and that they get someone even close to Chad as far as his committment to the program.
If someone moves on, wish them the best and work to make your program as good of a program as you can.
I can tell you that there is not even close to enough money in the budget to have me coach some of these parents' kids. And some of these kids I'd coach for free. Actually, most of the kids I would coach for free, but it only takes about 4 bad seeds on a team to ruin it for the rest.
Blue&Gold wrote:
Curious.. Can you name one player that has gone on to play D1 in the past 5 years or so who didn't play Elite League and some sort of summer program? Every one I think of was at the rink during the summer on some AAA program and played some sort of fall hockey. Many do play other sports as well, but nobody (that I can think of) took the summer off. Let me know if I'm wrong..
Alex Kangas.
I can think of a handfull of players that were on Elite rosters but missed a bunch due to football and a bigger group that played Legion baseball.
By saying "some sort of summer program" the door is wide open for what type of participation you mean. From AAA, selects etc. down to open hockey there's a wide range of skating out there.
Blue&Gold wrote:
Curious.. Can you name one player that has gone on to play D1 in the past 5 years or so who didn't play Elite League and some sort of summer program? Every one I think of was at the rink during the summer on some AAA program and played some sort of fall hockey. Many do play other sports as well, but nobody (that I can think of) took the summer off. Let me know if I'm wrong..
Alex Kangas.
I can think of a handfull of players that were on Elite rosters but missed a bunch due to football and a bigger group that played Legion baseball.
By saying "some sort of summer program" the door is wide open for what type of participation you mean. From AAA, selects etc. down to open hockey there's a wide range of skating out there.
So Alex did very little hockey in the off-season as he grew up and until he went to the USHL? No intense AAA program? No Elite League? No summer travel hockey? If that's the case, that is a great testement to his abilities.
I'm not talking about kids who didn't play multiple sports. Heck, I know many of the current D1 players that played football, soccer, baseball etc. But they all did some hockey year-round. My response was aimed at the poster who said that they should hang up the skates from March to October, to some degree. I say, that's great but name me a D1 player who didn't do some high-level hockey during the off-season. You say Kangas, and so that's one.
I think the multi-sport player is the best thing, and some of the better college players did play multiple sports. But it is becoming more and more specialized and I'm afraid that they are going to be the exception even more as time goes on.
Agree, Blue and Gold. It could be a tough couple of years and it will be VERY difficult to find someone who committed the time and effort like Chad did. No question that he cared about the program and the kids. I remember the Cathedral situation and you're right. They were lucky to get Eric.
I can think of a handfull of players that were on Elite rosters but missed a bunch due to football and a bigger group that played Legion baseball.
There you go, he didn't need to stop playing football WHILE he was playing in the Elite league, thats the point. Another poster said Hano and Schmitty quit playing football in nineth grade to play in the Elite League.
Did Kangas stop playing hockey from the end of the winter youth or High School season, only to start up again in the fall? Without knowing him I'd say that was highly dobltful. How many goalie camps did he attend evey summer? Did he play on a AAA type team in the off season?
Alex was cut from the Elite League, I don't have any idea what he did in the summer hockeywise other than he also played Legion baseball.
I can also quickly come up with 3 kids who could have played Division 1 hockey but chose other paths; Jamie Hoffman from New Ulm was recruited by Minnesota and Colorado College before choosing to sign with the Dodgers orginization, Mike Kvasnicka from Lakeville was a tremendous 3 sport star at Lakeville before choosing baseball at Minnesota, and Bayode Adofin from Lourdes ended up at Dartmouth (I think) playing soccer. For every kid that quits other sports and focuses soley on hockey how many don't, still play soccer, baseball, run track, etc. and still play D1?
Places like the Elite League and AAA teams are great but they also are self serving entities, dig a little deeper andyou'll find out more. If you truly believe you need to be in those to have a shot to play D1, go for it, but how many kids go that route and never play D1? My guess is the ratio is more than 10:1 against it. Ultimatly advertising wins out over facts, there are kids who do get noticed playing in those events but most would have gotten noticed anyhow. An athelte is athelte, deciding when you're 10 to specialize in 1 sport is stupid, when your 16 maybe you can figure that football isn't for you or you just really don't like baseball anymore and quit to focus on hockey but when people like Lucia start dangling carrots in front of kids in order to get them to specialize it's stupid and the really bad part is too many parents buy into it hook line and sinker.
