Congrats to Holy Family Fire for moving up to AA hockey. They will play in 6AA next year. Hats off to them for making the move to help keep building that program. They were the only ones to move up according to Minnesota State High School league page. Hopefully this will start a trend for other private A schools to follow....We all know who those teams are.....
Good Luck to the FIRE!!!!
Holy Family Fire Opted Up to AA
Moderators: Mitch Hawker, east hockey, karl(east)
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GordonBombay99
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High Flyer
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dzonecoverage
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It will be interesting to see how Gersich handles the higher level of competition. He was a stud this year as an 8th grader, I think he either led the team in scoring or was right up there. Anyways, 2015 Mr. Hockey favorite lol. Hats off to the Fire for making the jump and further embarrassing STA, Breck, and Blake.
EP two out of three.
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AlterEagle
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HShockeywatcher
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Agreed, it would be nice to see more there. Breck the last two years, Blake recently and St Thomas would all be good to see.Zamman wrote:Glad they decided to move to the Varsity tournament. Maybe more teams will follow??? any takers???
Any private school within 10 miles of the 494/694 ring should be AA no questions asked!!
I wish they counted opt ups before putting 64 teams in AA...
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larsengeno27
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the top EP, Tonka, Chan, Chaska players, he'll want to show they will be able to play against those teams in Sectionals rather than the Litchfields. He also wants to jump in when EP will be down.-
iwearmysunglassesatnight
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Re: fire
[quote="blueblood"]Good luck trying to "recruit" kids from Tonka. Why would they go to a school that has no hockey history and costs ~$14K a year.[/quote]
Because they can, and in many cases the education comes back to assist them.
Because they can, and in many cases the education comes back to assist them.
Was a duster and paying for it?????
Re: fire
Any SW metro public is as good, if not better academically than private schools. I think Noel will have a tough time recruiting to HF until he builds the program to a little bit. BSM already has a lock on SW kids that want to go private so it will be a tough market to tap.iwearmysunglassesatnight wrote:blueblood wrote:Good luck trying to "recruit" kids from Tonka. Why would they go to a school that has no hockey history and costs ~$14K a year.
Because they can, and in many cases the education comes back to assist them.
EP two out of three.
Tonka vs. HF
Tonka has consistently been ranked the #1 or #2 academic High School in the State of MN for the past seveal years based on ACT scores, SAT scores, and MCA's and several other criteria.
HF may be a good school, but your argument is flawed. Tonka has top academics in the State at a fraction of the cost....
HF may be a good school, but your argument is flawed. Tonka has top academics in the State at a fraction of the cost....
Re: fire
Agree, BSM has been taking kids for a while so that'll be a tuff nut to crack especially with KP behind the bench (he's the schools "Ikola" and won't be fired... he'll retire when he's an old man.) Then you have EP's success in recent years, 'Tonka being a top 10 team every year since Urick took over (thanks to Ken Pauly for setting up the foundation on that,) and you start to see how it's going to be even harder for HF to get some of those kids. I do (however) think they will be able to get some kids from Wayzata if they can't keep up in hockey (they are a football first school, just like Hopkins is all about basketball.)HockeyMN1 wrote:Any SW metro public is as good, if not better academically than private schools. I think Noel will have a tough time recruiting to HF until he builds the program to a little bit. BSM already has a lock on SW kids that want to go private so it will be a tough market to tap.iwearmysunglassesatnight wrote:blueblood wrote:Good luck trying to "recruit" kids from Tonka. Why would they go to a school that has no hockey history and costs ~$14K a year.
Because they can, and in many cases the education comes back to assist them.
My guess is that they will get top level talent from small towns west of them who don't have AA hockey programs or other private school options until they build their program enough to be just as attractive as BSM or AHA, which will be a while in my opinion. I say this because they are like Wayzata or Hopkins in the sense that football and basketball are the sports the students care about.
Holy Family opted up and new section teams
Hockey Hub Article on Holy Family Opted up.
High class decision
03/24/2011, 11:49am (CDT)
Noel Rahn was behind the bench when a youngster named Kyle Rau was racking up mind-boggling scoring totals and winning state championships at most every level he passed through in Eden Prairie's youth hockey association.
As a high schooler, all Rau did was help the Eagles win two state Class 2A championships and, this spring as a senior, earn the title of Mr. Hockey.
Rahn, meanwhile, has moved west from Eden Prairie to Victoria's Holy Family Catholic High School, where he is coaching another prodigal talent.
“I think he is the next big thing to come out of Minnesota,” Rahn, who has worked as an NHL scout, said about Shane Gersich, a 5-foot-11, 155-pound eighth grader who scored 16 goals and added 25 assists last season. “I haven’t seen a kid like this come through Minnesota in a long time.”
Gersich’s presence is one reason why Holy Family Catholic, a private school with an enrollment of 586, has opted to move up from Class 1A to 2A starting next season.
“That was one of the things that went into it, that he is going to be around,” Rahn said about Gersich. “We also had three good freshmen that played for us and a good crop of sophomores. We don’t lose a lot in the next couple of years. We’re basically going to have the same team for quite a while.”
While Gersich isn’t a household name just yet, Holy Family Catholic has created a statewide buzz with its eyebrow-hiking decision to move up to the higher classification.
Brady Riesgraf led Holy Family Catholic with 56 points last season. He was one of just four seniors listed on the Fire's roster. Photo by Helen Nelson
The news the Fire had moved up to Class 2A came just a few days after St. Thomas Academy won its third state Class 1A title in six years. St. Thomas Academy and Breck, which won state Class 1A titles in 2009 and 2010, in particular have come under fire from some fans and coaches for choosing to continue to play at the Class 1A level.
Hill-Murray, Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Holy Angels are private schools that for the past several years have opted up to participate in the Class 2A playoffs. Since 2002, Holy Angels has won two big-school state titles (2002, 2005) and Hill-Murray has one (2008). Benilde-St. Margaret’s placed third in Class 2A in 2008.
Holy Family Catholic’s program just completed its 10th season. The Fire have lost to Delano in the quarterfinals of the Section 2A playoffs each of the past two seasons.
Holy Family Catholic never has reached a section championship game, much less the state Class 1A tournament, raising questions about the timing of the move for a program still trying to establish itself among the state’s elite.
“When Noel and I first started talking about it, I was more kind of in that mindset of, ‘You know what let’s go (to the state tournament) a few times. Let’s at least get there,’ ” Holy Family Catholic athletic director Matt Thulli said. “There is something to be said about that, there certainly is.
“But as we talked more and we did more research, looking at the area we are in, we couldn’t afford to possibly lose good hockey players because we are in (Class) A. If we are in a different geographic area, it might have been different. Now kids can’t say I’m going to go over here and play 2A. We have taken that off the table.”
Holy Family Catholic’s girls’ hockey team already plays at the Class 2A level. Thuli said most of the Fire’s other athletic programs play at higher classifications than where they are slotted by the MSHSL based on enrollment.
“This aligns our whole school competing at higher levels,” Thuli said. “We want to challenge our students and our athletes to reach the highest levels.”
Rahn, who won a state championship as a player at Edina in 1988, led the Fire to a 14-11-1 record in his first season as head coach. Just two of Holy Family Catholic’s top 13 scorers were seniors. None of the three goaltenders who saw action for the Fire were seniors.
Holy Family Catholic will continue to play in the small-school Wright County Conference, where the Fire finished fourth out of eight teams. The big change will come in next season’s playoffs. The Minnesota State High School League has placed Holy Family Catholic in Section 6AA with public-school powerhouses Eden Prairie, Minnetonka and Wayzata. Benilde-St. Margaret’s also is in Section 6AA, making it the toughest of the state’s eight big-school sections.
“They weren’t nice to us,” Rahn said with a laugh about the MSHSL’s section placement of the Fire. “But at the end of the day you still have to play those guys to get into the state tournament or in the state tournament.
“Our kids have grown up playing the Minnetonkas and the Eden Prairies. They want to play double-A hockey.”
SCHOOLS OPTING UP IN 2011-12
School Enrollment Secton
Bemidji 1,144 8AA
Benilde-St. Margaret's 889 6AA
Cloquet/Esko/Carlton 1,160 7AA
Duluth East 1,396 7AA
Grand Rapids 978 7AA
Hill-Murray 814 4AA
Holy Angels 797 2AA
Holy Family Catholic 586 6AA
Roseau 393 8AA
St. Cloud Tech 1,326 8AA
CLASS 1A CHANGES FOR 2011-12
Section Change
1A REMOVE: St. Peter/LeSueur-Henderson/L/ML
2A ADD: Minnehaha Academy; REMOVE: Holy Family Catholic
3A No change
4A ADD: Henry Sibley; REMOVE: Minnehaha Academy; REMOVE: St. Paul Saints
5A REMOVE: St. Michael-Albertville
6A ADD: Breckenridge/Wahpeton (ND)*; REMOVE: Detroit Lakes; REMOVE: Northern Lakes
7A No change
8A ADD: Detroit Lakes
* Breckenridge/Wahpeton (ND) is a new team added to the MSHSL for hockey. Breckenridge is listed as the host school.
CLASS 2A CHANGES FOR 2011-12
Section Change
1AA No change
2AA ADD: St. Peter/LeSueur-Henderson/LeCenter/Montgomery-Lonsdale
3AA REMOVE: Henry Sibley
4AA ADD: St. Paul Saints
5AA No change
6AA ADD: Holy Family Catholic
7AA ADD: St. Michael-Albertville
8AA ADD: Northern Lakes
RECENT STORIES
High class decision
03/24/2011, 11:49am (CDT)
Noel Rahn was behind the bench when a youngster named Kyle Rau was racking up mind-boggling scoring totals and winning state championships at most every level he passed through in Eden Prairie's youth hockey association.
As a high schooler, all Rau did was help the Eagles win two state Class 2A championships and, this spring as a senior, earn the title of Mr. Hockey.
Rahn, meanwhile, has moved west from Eden Prairie to Victoria's Holy Family Catholic High School, where he is coaching another prodigal talent.
“I think he is the next big thing to come out of Minnesota,” Rahn, who has worked as an NHL scout, said about Shane Gersich, a 5-foot-11, 155-pound eighth grader who scored 16 goals and added 25 assists last season. “I haven’t seen a kid like this come through Minnesota in a long time.”
Gersich’s presence is one reason why Holy Family Catholic, a private school with an enrollment of 586, has opted to move up from Class 1A to 2A starting next season.
“That was one of the things that went into it, that he is going to be around,” Rahn said about Gersich. “We also had three good freshmen that played for us and a good crop of sophomores. We don’t lose a lot in the next couple of years. We’re basically going to have the same team for quite a while.”
While Gersich isn’t a household name just yet, Holy Family Catholic has created a statewide buzz with its eyebrow-hiking decision to move up to the higher classification.
Brady Riesgraf led Holy Family Catholic with 56 points last season. He was one of just four seniors listed on the Fire's roster. Photo by Helen Nelson
The news the Fire had moved up to Class 2A came just a few days after St. Thomas Academy won its third state Class 1A title in six years. St. Thomas Academy and Breck, which won state Class 1A titles in 2009 and 2010, in particular have come under fire from some fans and coaches for choosing to continue to play at the Class 1A level.
Hill-Murray, Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Holy Angels are private schools that for the past several years have opted up to participate in the Class 2A playoffs. Since 2002, Holy Angels has won two big-school state titles (2002, 2005) and Hill-Murray has one (2008). Benilde-St. Margaret’s placed third in Class 2A in 2008.
Holy Family Catholic’s program just completed its 10th season. The Fire have lost to Delano in the quarterfinals of the Section 2A playoffs each of the past two seasons.
Holy Family Catholic never has reached a section championship game, much less the state Class 1A tournament, raising questions about the timing of the move for a program still trying to establish itself among the state’s elite.
“When Noel and I first started talking about it, I was more kind of in that mindset of, ‘You know what let’s go (to the state tournament) a few times. Let’s at least get there,’ ” Holy Family Catholic athletic director Matt Thulli said. “There is something to be said about that, there certainly is.
“But as we talked more and we did more research, looking at the area we are in, we couldn’t afford to possibly lose good hockey players because we are in (Class) A. If we are in a different geographic area, it might have been different. Now kids can’t say I’m going to go over here and play 2A. We have taken that off the table.”
Holy Family Catholic’s girls’ hockey team already plays at the Class 2A level. Thuli said most of the Fire’s other athletic programs play at higher classifications than where they are slotted by the MSHSL based on enrollment.
“This aligns our whole school competing at higher levels,” Thuli said. “We want to challenge our students and our athletes to reach the highest levels.”
Rahn, who won a state championship as a player at Edina in 1988, led the Fire to a 14-11-1 record in his first season as head coach. Just two of Holy Family Catholic’s top 13 scorers were seniors. None of the three goaltenders who saw action for the Fire were seniors.
Holy Family Catholic will continue to play in the small-school Wright County Conference, where the Fire finished fourth out of eight teams. The big change will come in next season’s playoffs. The Minnesota State High School League has placed Holy Family Catholic in Section 6AA with public-school powerhouses Eden Prairie, Minnetonka and Wayzata. Benilde-St. Margaret’s also is in Section 6AA, making it the toughest of the state’s eight big-school sections.
“They weren’t nice to us,” Rahn said with a laugh about the MSHSL’s section placement of the Fire. “But at the end of the day you still have to play those guys to get into the state tournament or in the state tournament.
“Our kids have grown up playing the Minnetonkas and the Eden Prairies. They want to play double-A hockey.”
SCHOOLS OPTING UP IN 2011-12
School Enrollment Secton
Bemidji 1,144 8AA
Benilde-St. Margaret's 889 6AA
Cloquet/Esko/Carlton 1,160 7AA
Duluth East 1,396 7AA
Grand Rapids 978 7AA
Hill-Murray 814 4AA
Holy Angels 797 2AA
Holy Family Catholic 586 6AA
Roseau 393 8AA
St. Cloud Tech 1,326 8AA
CLASS 1A CHANGES FOR 2011-12
Section Change
1A REMOVE: St. Peter/LeSueur-Henderson/L/ML
2A ADD: Minnehaha Academy; REMOVE: Holy Family Catholic
3A No change
4A ADD: Henry Sibley; REMOVE: Minnehaha Academy; REMOVE: St. Paul Saints
5A REMOVE: St. Michael-Albertville
6A ADD: Breckenridge/Wahpeton (ND)*; REMOVE: Detroit Lakes; REMOVE: Northern Lakes
7A No change
8A ADD: Detroit Lakes
* Breckenridge/Wahpeton (ND) is a new team added to the MSHSL for hockey. Breckenridge is listed as the host school.
CLASS 2A CHANGES FOR 2011-12
Section Change
1AA No change
2AA ADD: St. Peter/LeSueur-Henderson/LeCenter/Montgomery-Lonsdale
3AA REMOVE: Henry Sibley
4AA ADD: St. Paul Saints
5AA No change
6AA ADD: Holy Family Catholic
7AA ADD: St. Michael-Albertville
8AA ADD: Northern Lakes
RECENT STORIES
Interesting the word "recruit" comes up several times within this topic. Are there not rules against recruiting???
Also, one player does not make a team. No matter how special he is.
I would be surprised if a local AA team would sign up to play HF. I think the word "recruit" will come to local AA Head Coaches minds and will likely be a road block.
Also, one player does not make a team. No matter how special he is.
I would be surprised if a local AA team would sign up to play HF. I think the word "recruit" will come to local AA Head Coaches minds and will likely be a road block.
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High Flyer
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:13 am
You think Jordan Schroeders particapation with STA as an 8 grader had anything to do with STA future teams?breakout wrote: Also, one player does not make a team. No matter how special he is.
I would be surprised if a local AA team would sign up to play HF. I think the word "recruit" will come to local AA Head Coaches minds and will likely be a road block.
HF can look for games vs. thier catholic brother in arms, as I think they will be willing to help out:
CDH-AA
HM-AA
STA-A
TG-A
DM-A
Lourdes-A (already playing)
They might start out with preseason scrimmages, but they could grow into annual regular season non-conference games.
Doubt BSM would play them for fear of losing and the possibility of being perceived as a comparable option.