Things I learned at the single A state champ game

[grandmeadowhockeyfan]

Thought this could be an interesting conversation. How long will it take for this to get locked? I hope we can keep it clean men.

[EliteHockeyMind]

Everyone in the state hates STA, even booing the players recieving their medals that played in the class they had to with no say whatsoever.

Hermantown can win a state championship, and be runner-up 4 times in a row, but only STA and Breck are supposed to move up to class 2A. But their coach Bruce made it clear he "could" recruit if he wanted to, but is above that but not above crying to the referees.

STA was able to do what Breck and Duluth Marshall weren't. They are a private school that was able to become a Class A dynasty with the same capabilites. Now that STA is moving up, Breck will have another chance to be the school that everyone will hate.

[bemused]

Everyone in the state hates STA, even booing the players recieving their medals that played in the class they had to with no say whatsoever.

Hermantown can win a state championship, and be runner-up 4 times in a row, but only STA and Breck are supposed to move up to class 2A. But their coach Bruce made it clear he "could" recruit if he wanted to, but is above that but not above crying to the referees.

STA was able to do what Breck and Duluth Marshall weren't. They are a private school that was able to become a Class A dynasty with the same capabilites. Now that STA is moving up, Breck will have another chance to be the school that everyone will hate.

+1

[eastsideguy]

[SimplyPut]

other thing to take note on, this did surprise me. only 6,000 came to the Class A championship. even though it was built up as the top 2 teams. and 17,000+ were at the Class AA game. fact of the matter - not many seem to care about the Class A game. why wouldn't a team want to be part of the AA tournament then the A??? Hermentown should except that they do have some good players up there and and run a good program, so push them to compete at the AA level rather then except the lower level that when all said and done is not the same acheivement level... Next Year Hermantown will be expected to win the Single A title, I really don't think many will spend much time thiniking about it.. To me the Class A is for those terams such as Marshall, Man those guys were excited to be there, and their enthusiam showed even though they lost. OK - enough said on this topic. its over. now prep for next year begins (After Baseball, Lacrosse, Track, Tennis, Golf, Football, Soccer, and what ever else i am missnig..)

[Deck Slide]

Refs are humans and make mistakes. Life is not fair. And its about dam time STA goes to AA. STA could have been the best team in the state this year except they opted to play the little guys again!

I would like to see a 16 team tournament and i am a small town Class A guy. Take out Apollo and Marshall and everyone in Class A would have competed with the AA schools.. It won't happen but i think a lot of people want to see the small town school with a quality program go against the big AA programs. Gotta get the Small Northern School vs. the City/Burbs rivalary going again!

[GolfGuy7900]

This should get locked simply because it's the same people regurgitating the same stuff from multiple other threads.

[east hockey]

Everyone in the state hates STA, even booing the players recieving their medals that played in the class they had to with no say whatsoever.

Hermantown can win a state championship, and be runner-up 4 times in a row, but only STA and Breck are supposed to move up to class 2A. But their coach Bruce made it clear he "could" recruit if he wanted to, but is above that but not above crying to the referees.

STA was able to do what Breck and Duluth Marshall weren't. They are a private school that was able to become a Class A dynasty with the same capabilites. Now that STA is moving up, Breck will have another chance to be the school that everyone will hate.

Who says people won't still hate STA?

Lee

[thestickler07]

Who says people won't still hate STA?

Lee

They're like an exiled dictator of a 3rd world country. Just because you don't see them all the time doesn't mean you are going to like them any more.

[hockeymannorth]

other thing to take note on, this did surprise me. only 6,000 came to the Class A championship. even though it was built up as the top 2 teams. and 17,000+ were at the Class AA game. fact of the matter - not many seem to care about the Class A game. why wouldn't a team want to be part of the AA tournament then the A??? Hermentown should except that they do have some good players up there and and run a good program, so push them to compete at the AA level rather then except the lower level that when all said and done is not the same acheivement level... Next Year Hermantown will be expected to win the Single A title, I really don't think many will spend much time thiniking about it.. To me the Class A is for those terams such as Marshall, Man those guys were excited to be there, and their enthusiam showed even though they lost. OK - enough said on this topic. its over. now prep for next year begins (After Baseball, Lacrosse, Track, Tennis, Golf, Football, Soccer, and what ever else i am missnig..)

Too become AA they would have to travel 1000's of miles thats why most of the teams up there stayed in A

[Mite-dad]

I wasn't there, I watched on TV, but to be honest, the A teams looked as good as or better than the AA teams. JMVHO. Not sure why either team would want to stay in A. Hermantown's program looks good longterm with youth teams playing AA.

And why are so many people so concerned with attendance? Quit having a tournament because only 6000 show up? Some single A towns don't have 6000 people. I guarantee every small A community that makes the A tournament is thrilled to be there. Most don't "expect" to be there every year like some do. Most can't realistically expect to. Most will have a decent run and then cycle down.

I think some of the AA co-ops that have not been successful for a long time should play down and the very successful A teams should move up. There's got to be a system to do that out there.

[deacon]

I was at the game and thought it was awesome but not necessarily because I graduated from STA. The atmosphere was incredible, IMO. They do it right by not opening the upper deck, not because people would fill it but because it forces people to sit in the lower bowl. It wass pretty full with open seats scattered throughout. If they opened the UD I'm pretty sure people would find a reason to sit up there. There were maybe 3 sections of STA fans and the rest were Hermantown fans/ people that hate STA. When Hermantown scored their 2nd and 3rd goals back to back it was super loud. I thought that was cool. Likewise, the boos were really loud. I don't think that missed call was as bad as people are saying although I would like to hear an explanation from the refs on why it wasn't called from their perspective.

[goldy313]

I wasn't there, I watched on TV, but to be honest, the A teams looked as good as or better than the AA teams. JMVHO. Not sure why either team would want to stay in A. Hermantown's program looks good longterm with youth teams playing AA.

And why are so many people so concerned with attendance? Quit having a tournament because only 6000 show up? Some single A towns don't have 6000 people. I guarantee every small A community that makes the A tournament is thrilled to be there. Most don't "expect" to be there every year like some do. Most can't realistically expect to. Most will have a decent run and then cycle down.

I think some of the AA co-ops that have not been successful for a long time should play down and the very successful A teams should move up. There's got to be a system to do that out there.

Of the class A schools only Marshall comes from an area with a population under 60,000. Think about that, only 1 class A school. EGF and Hermantown are part of greater metro areas, St. Cloud is over 60,000, Duluth over 85,000, Lourdes pulls from 120,000 and Breck and STA from a couple of million. These aren't exactly small communities. And hockey, unlike jusrt about anyother sport needs special facilities much more likely to be in larger area - year around ice for example.

[mn miracle man]

I wasn't there, I watched on TV, but to be honest, the A teams looked as good as or better than the AA teams. JMVHO. Not sure why either team would want to stay in A. Hermantown's program looks good longterm with youth teams playing AA.

And why are so many people so concerned with attendance? Quit having a tournament because only 6000 show up? Some single A towns don't have 6000 people. I guarantee every small A community that makes the A tournament is thrilled to be there. Most don't "expect" to be there every year like some do. Most can't realistically expect to. Most will have a decent run and then cycle down.

I think some of the AA co-ops that have not been successful for a long time should play down and the very successful A teams should move up. There's got to be a system to do that out there.

Of the class A schools only Marshall comes from an area with a population under 60,000. Think about that, only 1 class A school. EGF and Hermantown are part of greater metro areas, St. Cloud is over 60,000, Duluth over 85,000, Lourdes pulls from 120,000 and Breck and STA from a couple of million. These aren't exactly small communities. And hockey, unlike jusrt about anyother sport needs special facilities much more likely to be in larger area - year around ice for example.

That is all fine and dandy that they come from a large area but they are high school hockey teams representing a community not the general population.

EGF 8,560 -- Grand Forks is in North Dakota, not really relevant

Hermantown 9,416 -- Keep in mind there are 4 other high schools just in this area for fans to keep tabs on (Denfeld, East, Marshall, and Proctor)

St. Cloud although large also has 3 high schools and not to mention Sauk Rapids and Sartell to split allegiances with

The last three, Lourdes Breck and STA, are all private and hardly bring a fan base other than the parents/familes of the players and the small student population (roughly 500 students or so for all three schools)

I would say the size of the schools and communities more accurately reflect the amount of fans that participate in the tourney.

[truehockeyfan]

I wasn't there, I watched on TV, but to be honest, the A teams looked as good as or better than the AA teams. JMVHO. Not sure why either team would want to stay in A. Hermantown's program looks good longterm with youth teams playing AA.

And why are so many people so concerned with attendance? Quit having a tournament because only 6000 show up? Some single A towns don't have 6000 people. I guarantee every small A community that makes the A tournament is thrilled to be there. Most don't "expect" to be there every year like some do. Most can't realistically expect to. Most will have a decent run and then cycle down.

I think some of the AA co-ops that have not been successful for a long time should play down and the very successful A teams should move up. There's got to be a system to do that out there.

Of the class A schools only Marshall comes from an area with a population under 60,000. Think about that, only 1 class A school. EGF and Hermantown are part of greater metro areas, St. Cloud is over 60,000, Duluth over 85,000, Lourdes pulls from 120,000 and Breck and STA from a couple of million. These aren't exactly small communities. And hockey, unlike jusrt about anyother sport needs special facilities much more likely to be in larger area - year around ice for example.

That is all fine and dandy that they come from a large area but they are high school hockey teams representing a community not the general population.

EGF 8,560 -- Grand Forks is in North Dakota, not really relevant

Hermantown 9,416 -- Keep in mind there are 4 other high schools just in this area for fans to keep tabs on (Denfeld, East, Marshall, and Proctor)

St. Cloud although large also has 3 high schools and not to mention Sauk Rapids and Sartell to split allegiances with

The last three, Lourdes Breck and STA, are all private and hardly bring a fan base other than the parents/familes of the players and the small student population (roughly 500 students or so for all three schools)

I would say the size of the schools and communities more accurately reflect the amount of fans that participate in the tourney.

I disagree. Fans from the area like to see local schools go to the tournament regardless if they are rival schools. This is proven through the fact that many Hermantown fans were upset that they moved to 7A because then two Duluth area teams couldn't go.

[mn miracle man]

Of the class A schools only Marshall comes from an area with a population under 60,000. Think about that, only 1 class A school. EGF and Hermantown are part of greater metro areas, St. Cloud is over 60,000, Duluth over 85,000, Lourdes pulls from 120,000 and Breck and STA from a couple of million. These aren't exactly small communities. And hockey, unlike jusrt about anyother sport needs special facilities much more likely to be in larger area - year around ice for example.

That is all fine and dandy that they come from a large area but they are high school hockey teams representing a community not the general population.

EGF 8,560 -- Grand Forks is in North Dakota, not really relevant

Hermantown 9,416 -- Keep in mind there are 4 other high schools just in this area for fans to keep tabs on (Denfeld, East, Marshall, and Proctor)

St. Cloud although large also has 3 high schools and not to mention Sauk Rapids and Sartell to split allegiances with

The last three, Lourdes Breck and STA, are all private and hardly bring a fan base other than the parents/familes of the players and the small student population (roughly 500 students or so for all three schools)

I would say the size of the schools and communities more accurately reflect the amount of fans that participate in the tourney.

I disagree. Fans from the area like to see local schools go to the tournament regardless if they are rival schools. This is proven through the fact that many Hermantown fans were upset that they moved to 7A because then two Duluth area teams couldn't go.

Yes they may support their rivals, but drive to the cities to watch in person? Not likely. We are talking state tourney attendance. How many casual hockey fans from Grand Forks are driving 4+ hours to watch EGF? Proctor fans driving to watch the Hawks? Realistically, not many.

[goldy313]

I think many go, just not to the A tournament. More than 17,000 show up to watch Roseau, Hill-Murray, Benilde, or Grand Rapids. Just a hunch but more from those large 60,000+ class A communities would show up to watch them if they were in the AA tournament. Cripes, I think we had more fans for the section final between Lourdes and Mankato West than were in St Paul for the start of the second period of Lourdes/EGF. A lot of causual hockey people show up to the AA tournament.

At any rate you can make any comment about relevence you want but the fact is 7 of the 8 class A teams came from very sizable communities with a lot of hockey amenities not small ones.