ilbok wrote:South St. Paul went to State nearly every year in the Fifties and Sixties.
With no championships and only a couple of final appearances, the Packers were firmly established as also-rans by the mid-Seventies.
I think South St. Paul and Hill were the only small schools to move up to class AA initially in the early-Nineties, but the Packers lost that respect since moving back down to class A (a couple other small schools have moved up since).
Packer tradition is just that:
history.
Agreed but that could change if SSP makes some changes...losing top players doesn't help the situation but why are they leaving? The SSP bantams (River Heights) are combined with Inver Grove Heights, why not do the same with the high schools? Just a thought...
SSP wont combine High School teams with Simley because they think they are better than IGH...they would rather just take Simley's better players and pretend they are from SSP than actually combine programs and have to admit they needed IGH to stay competitive.
A large majority of those transfers attend SSP schools from 7th grade on, with a good portion starting even before that. And it isn't just hockey players. I know that doesn't make them 'from' SSP but it's not exactly a suprise to Simley when they don't show up to High School tryouts as 10th graders.
And the more logical reason Simley and SSP won't combine is because they both still field a Varsity and JV each, and i'm not sure but I would guess at least 1 Jr. Gold team between the 2 schools? Why would they take away the opportunity from their kids to play high school hockey?
DubCHAGuy wrote:And the more logical reason Simley and SSP won't combine is because they both still field a Varsity and JV each, and i'm not sure but I would guess at least 1 Jr. Gold team between the 2 schools? Why would they take away the opportunity from their kids to play high school hockey?
Last year Simley had to fold the JV team during the season due to lack of players. This year the decision has been made to only field a Varsity team because of numbers. They would have to pretty much destroy the bantam level to have a JV team.
I was part of the coaching staff for the IGH Jr Gold team for the last 9 years. Last season us as a coaching staff decided to move over to Rosemount to coach their Jr Gold team due to the lack of numbers. Over the last 5 years we at IGH saw less and less kids play at the Jr Gold level. The same goes for SSP. The numbers in the two communities are not very strong any more and don't look like they will rebound any time soon.
As a Packer alumni it would be sad to see them join eachother. Though in my three years with the Packers it was always lopsided, they were the most intense games between the two. I always thought the rivalry would get better after combining Bantams too.
Here's the problem with South St. Paul. Short and simple...
1) They don't have the numbers anymore...Sad but true, kids in South St. Paul don't play anymore.
2) Awful coaching, they have had the same breakout/forecheck for the past millenium...every team knows what to expect.
3) Kids have bad attitudes nowadays, and aren't willing to make the sacrifices necessary to win. South St. Paul has always been known as hard working tough kids who would do anything to win, or at least leave everything out on the ice.
4) There is no loyalty anymore. As people have said before, kids leave instead of playing for their hometown teams. They would much prefer buying are being handed a state tournament by going to private schools. It's a joke. If I recall, Herb Brooks said his favorite memory, even more so than winning the '80 gold was winning the State Championship with THE BOYS HE GREW UP WITH.
There is much pride in South St. Paul, but it's sad because the alumni, and old players who watch the games are the ones with the pride, not the players...
Sad to see such a great tradition be flushed right down the drain...
Derek Sutton 09 wrote:Here's the problem with South St. Paul. Short and simple...
2) Awful coaching, they have had the same breakout/forecheck for the past millenium...every team knows what to expect.
3) Kids have bad attitudes nowadays, and aren't willing to make the sacrifices necessary to win. South St. Paul has always been known as hard working tough kids who would do anything to win, or at least leave everything out on the ice.
With "awful coaching" and "bad attitudes", can you really blame a motivated kid who wants to join a team that has good coaching and be surrounded with other motivated players?
"4) There is no loyalty anymore. As people have said before, kids leave instead of playing for their hometown teams. They would much prefer buying are being handed a state tournament by going to private schools. It's a joke. If I recall, Herb Brooks said his favorite memory, even more so than winning the '80 gold was winning the State Championship with THE BOYS HE GREW UP WITH."
You are talking about a different era when qouting Herb...It's not about "loyalty" it's about doing what's right for your son/daughter because in the end no one cares more for the player then the parent period...and by the way, there not buying or handed a state title...THEY EARNED IT!
Sounds like Simley will field a JV team now. I can't completely confirm this but the reasoning behind the change is that the school told them if they take it out of the budget this year and don't field a JV team then they don't need it in the future.
