Time for St.Francis and Cambridge to move down to A?

[Mouse in the corner]

I know there is a lot of people that want coach Plante to move is team to AA but interestingly Plante feels his program does not have the depth yet to make the switch despite that fact that have given teams like Eden Prairie a battle. I think Hermantown could challenge East but not sure if they could beat Edina. For a team to opt down do they have wait for their schools enrollment to decrease?

Most AA schools can't challenge Edina( or LN or whomever). The point is whether or not a team can be competitive ( .500 pr better) at the AA level. Hermantown is clearly at that point.

Yes, they would be competitive every year. The computer models have them as the 6th best team in the State this year and they would have as good a shot as anyone at knocking off Lakeville North or Edina. It's not fair to put it all on Coach Plante though. He's in the twilight of his career and there is a lot of pressure to win in Hermantown. Hermantown is nothing like Grand Rapids, Cloquet, Bemidji and Roseau. Those towns are steeped in History, Tradition and Pride in competing with the best. A Single A title means nothing to those towns. This isn't the case in Hermantown. People don't open-enroll or move their kids there to be competitive. They enroll them there to go to State and win. Single A gives them a better chance to do this which is why they stay there. Up until this point you can't really blame them as most of the kids on the High School team have been Hermantown kids. When the pressure is going to ramp up is in 5-6 years when half or more of their roster is open-enrollees or move-ins. Those kids are in Mites, Squirts and PeeWees now. Hopefully they will opt up at that point and some of the Hermantown kids who are displaced will catch on with some of the surrounding programs to help their numbers. It would be the best thing for the game in the Duluth area.

I agree with parts of this but not all of it. First off they have kids from all around the area right now moving to Hermantown. In the past few years Proctor, Virginia, Hibbing, and Duluth have all contributed kids to the Hermantown program. To be fair though they have also lost a couple of kids too. Right now I think that Bruce is desperate for another trophy so he can retire and the only way that he will be able to even see a chance of getting it is to stay in A. Hermantown can compete at the AA level but they are not going to have anywhere near the sucess that they have had up to that point. I am not so sure that they would make it to state in 7AA as I think that ER, GR (yes they blew out GR in January when it did not really matter to anybody), and probably East would beat them in sections. Hermantown does not have the tradition and history of hockey that those other programs that you mention have. That is why it is easy for them to stay in A and not feel compelled to move up. I think that DM is the true wild card here. Kids will start to look at Hermantown who is that perennial runner up and sort of a running joke's punch line and will look at DM and see an AA team taht will give them a chance to play in the big league and will take it. Kids from Duluth, Hibbing, Virginia and etc who come from programs with that history and tradition will factor that in some how. Of course that (guessing here) 20K price tag to go to school and play there is gonna take some scholarship help.

[Froggy Richards]

Most AA schools can't challenge Edina( or LN or whomever). The point is whether or not a team can be competitive ( .500 pr better) at the AA level. Hermantown is clearly at that point.

Yes, they would be competitive every year. The computer models have them as the 6th best team in the State this year and they would have as good a shot as anyone at knocking off Lakeville North or Edina. It's not fair to put it all on Coach Plante though. He's in the twilight of his career and there is a lot of pressure to win in Hermantown. Hermantown is nothing like Grand Rapids, Cloquet, Bemidji and Roseau. Those towns are steeped in History, Tradition and Pride in competing with the best. A Single A title means nothing to those towns. This isn't the case in Hermantown. People don't open-enroll or move their kids there to be competitive. They enroll them there to go to State and win. Single A gives them a better chance to do this which is why they stay there. Up until this point you can't really blame them as most of the kids on the High School team have been Hermantown kids. When the pressure is going to ramp up is in 5-6 years when half or more of their roster is open-enrollees or move-ins. Those kids are in Mites, Squirts and PeeWees now. Hopefully they will opt up at that point and some of the Hermantown kids who are displaced will catch on with some of the surrounding programs to help their numbers. It would be the best thing for the game in the Duluth area.

First off they have kids from all around the area right now moving to Hermantown. In the past few years Proctor, Virginia, Hibbing, and Duluth have all contributed kids to the Hermantown program.

Absolutely. They've always had kids from other programs but it's ramped up in the last 2 years. The kids I referred to in Mites, Squirts and PeeWees are already there, that's what I meant. A few Move-ins but mostly open-enrollees. When they get to High School and it's an All-Area team, that's when people are going to go nuts about them opting up. And even more kids are sure to join them prior to that. The real wild-card may be within the Hermantown Association itself. Lots of Hermantown natives are going to keep getting bumped from the top teams by these kids. That probably isn't going to sit very well. Like they say, Hell hath no fury like a Hockey Parent scorned.......