New Section Assignments Posted

[Nebhoc471]

It's a joke how 1AA stays unchanged. Should have moved a team from section 2 and 6 to breath some new life and challenge the Lakeville Schools. I understand Farmington is up and coming but section 1 has been a two team race for years.

1AA is 9-3 the last 4 years at the state tournament, better than any other section except for 2AA. Sure it's been 2 teams but the same can be said for nearly every section. Bemidji broke the Moorhead/Roseau lock for the first time in 26 years or so, Duluth East has been 7 times in a row, Stillwater put a 1 year hold on the Hill-Murray/WBL stranglehold. The fact is most sections really aren't that competitive outside 2 teams. I think people just miss the first round "bye" that 1AA provided up until 2007. Be thankful they didn't put LeSeuer in and take the Lakeville schools out.

I am surprised Faribault went to AA, I can't imagine they get any kids from the Deaf school (they have in the past though) and Bethelem Academy is an A football school. Century having a co-op with Stewartville surprises me too, I can't see getting enough kids from there to make a difference between fielding a team or not which will be an issue.

Lastly, it's a local issue but nearly across the board New Prague is in 1AA or the highest level section 1 teams compete at, the Big Nine and especially the larger 4 schools should have pushed for New Prague to join instead of Red Wing who is among the smallest schools.

Faribault will more than likely petition down to A since the coop puts them over the AA enrollment threshold.

Surprised Dodge County hasn't done the same since I believe they'd also be eligible to petition down since none of the schools in their coop has AA enrollment.

[paulsonj72]

It's a joke how 1AA stays unchanged. Should have moved a team from section 2 and 6 to breath some new life and challenge the Lakeville Schools. I understand Farmington is up and coming but section 1 has been a two team race for years.

1AA is 9-3 the last 4 years at the state tournament, better than any other section except for 2AA. Sure it's been 2 teams but the same can be said for nearly every section. Bemidji broke the Moorhead/Roseau lock for the first time in 26 years or so, Duluth East has been 7 times in a row, Stillwater put a 1 year hold on the Hill-Murray/WBL stranglehold. The fact is most sections really aren't that competitive outside 2 teams. I think people just miss the first round "bye" that 1AA provided up until 2007. Be thankful they didn't put LeSeuer in and take the Lakeville schools out.

I am surprised Faribault went to AA, I can't imagine they get any kids from the Deaf school (they have in the past though) and Bethelem Academy is an A football school. Century having a co-op with Stewartville surprises me too, I can't see getting enough kids from there to make a difference between fielding a team or not which will be an issue.

Lastly, it's a local issue but nearly across the board New Prague is in 1AA or the highest level section 1 teams compete at, the Big Nine and especially the larger 4 schools should have pushed for New Prague to join instead of Red Wing who is among the smallest schools.

Faribault will more than likely petition down to A since the coop puts them over the AA enrollment threshold.

Surprised Dodge County hasn't done the same since I believe they'd also be eligible to petition down since none of the schools in their coop has AA enrollment.

Dosen't matter if any one school in a coop isn't AA in enrollment. They take the enrollment of each school in a coop and add them all up to determine a schools class. Thats also why Minnehaha Academy is a AA hockey school. They have 4 schools and when they are up it puts them at over 1700 students, thus the AA assignment. I also added up the enrollment of all 8 schools in the Dodge County coop. It comes out to 2707. Dodge County is the 4th largest program in the state based on enrollment numbers alone. Enrollments of the 8 schools(as taken from the new MSHSL enrollment numbers) Blooming Prairie 189, Byron 503, Dover-Eyota 296 Hayfield 200 Kasson-Mantorville(host school) 594 Pine Island 342 Triton 271 and Zumbrota-Mazzeppa 312.

[MrBoDangles]

From what I've gathered teams that are over the AA enrollment threshold due to being in a coop can petition down. So Minneapolis, Marshall, LeSuer, and Mound-Westonka (coop with Watertown put them over) will probably petition down. However St. Louis Park and Spring Lake Park might be out of luck since those schools each have enrollment over the threshold. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

I saw somewhere that Spring Lake Park had an enrollment of 1,192 this year, so I'm guessing theirs will be over the 1,200 threshold next year forcing them to play AA. Which makes sense because their conference is made up of most of those new section opponents now. Going to be some tough years for the Panthers after finally making it in Class A.

Enrollment of 1226 for next year and as a result Spring Lake Park has moved up to Class AA in Section 5. Schools listed in this section for next year are as follows:

Anoka High School
Blaine High School
Centennial High School
Champlin Park High School
Coon Rapids High School
Maple Grove High School
Spring Lake Park High School
Coop: 342 "Osseo H.S."
Maranatha Christian Academy
Osseo High School (HOST)
Coop: 345 "North Metro Stars"
Brooklyn Center High School
Columbia Heights High School
Park Center High School (HOST

SLP's school boundaries go way up into Blaine with many of the houses being built in the 600g - 1+mil range. Could match the strength of Blaine's program fairly soon.

[MrBoDangles]

I was reading through and noticed Monticello was moved down to class A... How is that possible when their school's attendance is over 1200 on their own?

[paulsonj72]

[quote="MrBoDangles"]I was reading through and noticed Monticello was moved down to class A... How is that possible when their school's attendance is over 1200 on their own?[/quote

Probably because they(or a school in the co-op) have more than 50% of students on free or reduced lunches. Under a MSHSL bylaw schools that have this can drop down one class in team sports

[MrBoDangles]

I was reading through and noticed Monticello was moved down to class A... How is that possible when their school's attendance is over 1200 on their own?[/quote

Probably because they(or a school in the co-op) have more than 50% of students on free or reduced lunches. Under a MSHSL bylaw schools that have this can drop down one class in team sports

I'm curious to hear.. Close to 1900 students is quite a few.

Did they possibly drop the co-op? If so, are the kids on the team from the other schools still able to play?

[Usthockey13]

Holy crap 7AA will be tough section the next few years.

Rapids may have their best team in many years next season, but East going as far as they did with such a young team, Elk River and Cloquet have strong youth programs, and Duluth Marshall already strong, getting stronger with the AA move. Yeah, it's going to be insane next year. If Randolph comes back, East is still the hands down favorite no matter what anyone else does.

He'll be back...

[YearbookWontClose]

One thing that baffled me was how Sauk Rapids got put in 5A but all of the teams that actually competed in 6A this year from the St. Cloud area are still there. Now they might look like a favorite in 5A and wouldn't even contend at all in 6A. I understand that Sauk Rapids is slightly more east than Apollo, Sartell and Cathedral but it is seriously a matter of a mile or two. I think that they should have put Sartell in that section as well so a team that might actually belong at the X would go and not some team that will be lucky not to lose by 10. This could definitely be done and still have the same amount of teams in both section by moving Becker/Big Lake into 6A and it would still make sense geographically. I would say leave Apollo and Cathedral though because it creates a great rivalry and potential for another killer section final at both teams' home rink.

[Nebhoc471]

1AA is 9-3 the last 4 years at the state tournament, better than any other section except for 2AA. Sure it's been 2 teams but the same can be said for nearly every section. Bemidji broke the Moorhead/Roseau lock for the first time in 26 years or so, Duluth East has been 7 times in a row, Stillwater put a 1 year hold on the Hill-Murray/WBL stranglehold. The fact is most sections really aren't that competitive outside 2 teams. I think people just miss the first round "bye" that 1AA provided up until 2007. Be thankful they didn't put LeSeuer in and take the Lakeville schools out.

I am surprised Faribault went to AA, I can't imagine they get any kids from the Deaf school (they have in the past though) and Bethelem Academy is an A football school. Century having a co-op with Stewartville surprises me too, I can't see getting enough kids from there to make a difference between fielding a team or not which will be an issue.

Lastly, it's a local issue but nearly across the board New Prague is in 1AA or the highest level section 1 teams compete at, the Big Nine and especially the larger 4 schools should have pushed for New Prague to join instead of Red Wing who is among the smallest schools.

Faribault will more than likely petition down to A since the coop puts them over the AA enrollment threshold.

Surprised Dodge County hasn't done the same since I believe they'd also be eligible to petition down since none of the schools in their coop has AA enrollment.

Dosen't matter if any one school in a coop isn't AA in enrollment. They take the enrollment of each school in a coop and add them all up to determine a schools class. Thats also why Minnehaha Academy is a AA hockey school. They have 4 schools and when they are up it puts them at over 1700 students, thus the AA assignment. I also added up the enrollment of all 8 schools in the Dodge County coop. It comes out to 2707. Dodge County is the 4th largest program in the state based on enrollment numbers alone. Enrollments of the 8 schools(as taken from the new MSHSL enrollment numbers) Blooming Prairie 189, Byron 503, Dover-Eyota 296 Hayfield 200 Kasson-Mantorville(host school) 594 Pine Island 342 Triton 271 and Zumbrota-Mazzeppa 312.

You're partially correct. While its accurate the MSHSL adds the enrollment of all the coop schools together, you can petition down if none of your schools in a coop have AA enrollment. This explains why a whole bunch of coop teams that get assigned to AA every cycle petition down like LeSuer, Marshall, Mound-Westonka, Norhern Lakes, Faribault, and Minnehaha. Look at past cycles. Those teams were all initially assigned to AA.

[hockey9011]

One thing that baffled me was how Sauk Rapids got put in 5A but all of the teams that actually competed in 6A this year from the St. Cloud area are still there. Now they might look like a favorite in 5A and wouldn't even contend at all in 6A. I understand that Sauk Rapids is slightly more east than Apollo, Sartell and Cathedral but it is seriously a matter of a mile or two. I think that they should have put Sartell in that section as well so a team that might actually belong at the X would go and not some team that will be lucky not to lose by 10. This could definitely be done and still have the same amount of teams in both section by moving Becker/Big Lake into 6A and it would still make sense geographically. I would say leave Apollo and Cathedral though because it creates a great rivalry and potential for another killer section final at both teams' home rink.

I don't think throwing Sartell in 5A would do much better than having Sauk Rapids in there. Having Sartell, SCC, Apollo, and Sauk Rapids all in the same section has led to some great rivalry games in the past two years and the rinks are also filled when these teams play each other. All four schools are located within 10 miles of each other which leads to high intensity games every year.

[YearbookWontClose]

One thing that baffled me was how Sauk Rapids got put in 5A but all of the teams that actually competed in 6A this year from the St. Cloud area are still there. Now they might look like a favorite in 5A and wouldn't even contend at all in 6A. I understand that Sauk Rapids is slightly more east than Apollo, Sartell and Cathedral but it is seriously a matter of a mile or two. I think that they should have put Sartell in that section as well so a team that might actually belong at the X would go and not some team that will be lucky not to lose by 10. This could definitely be done and still have the same amount of teams in both section by moving Becker/Big Lake into 6A and it would still make sense geographically. I would say leave Apollo and Cathedral though because it creates a great rivalry and potential for another killer section final at both teams' home rink.

I don't think throwing Sartell in 5A would do much better than having Sauk Rapids in there. Having Sartell, SCC, Apollo, and Sauk Rapids all in the same section has led to some great rivalry games in the past two years and the rinks are also filled when these teams play each other. All four schools are located within 10 miles of each other which leads to high intensity games every year.

I have absolutely no problem with all of those teams being in 6A, but Sauk Rapids got moved out with the realignment. What I am saying is that if they're going to move a team out at least have it be a team that could potentially make a game at the X interesting because I don't see Sauk doing that in the coming years or any other team in the section and that Sartell would make the most sense of the competitive 6A teams. But I definitely agree that the rivalries around St. Cloud have become more tense with section implications being involved.

[hockey9011]

One thing that baffled me was how Sauk Rapids got put in 5A but all of the teams that actually competed in 6A this year from the St. Cloud area are still there. Now they might look like a favorite in 5A and wouldn't even contend at all in 6A. I understand that Sauk Rapids is slightly more east than Apollo, Sartell and Cathedral but it is seriously a matter of a mile or two. I think that they should have put Sartell in that section as well so a team that might actually belong at the X would go and not some team that will be lucky not to lose by 10. This could definitely be done and still have the same amount of teams in both section by moving Becker/Big Lake into 6A and it would still make sense geographically. I would say leave Apollo and Cathedral though because it creates a great rivalry and potential for another killer section final at both teams' home rink.

I don't think throwing Sartell in 5A would do much better than having Sauk Rapids in there. Having Sartell, SCC, Apollo, and Sauk Rapids all in the same section has led to some great rivalry games in the past two years and the rinks are also filled when these teams play each other. All four schools are located within 10 miles of each other which leads to high intensity games every year.

I have absolutely no problem with all of those teams being in 6A, but Sauk Rapids got moved out with the realignment. What I am saying is that if they're going to move a team out at least have it be a team that could potentially make a game at the X interesting because I don't see Sauk doing that in the coming years or any other team in the section and that Sartell would make the most sense of the competitive 6A teams. But I definitely agree that the rivalries around St. Cloud have become more tense with section implications being involved.

oh yes i definitely agree. I don't believe Sauk Rapids or Apollo will be very strong in the next couple years but I think that Sartell will be tough again next year and would make a much more competitive game at the X then any current 5A team. To be honest, there just isn't that much talent in that region of the state for class A teams.

[MWS coach]

I don't get why this does not mirror more of the youth hockey play downs. 8 AA schools north of St. Cloud. Seems like a perfect region to me. I get the tradition of having both 7AA and 8AA have north schools in it, but times are a changing and with enrollment based criteria, how does it not make sense to have one north section for AA, or maybe it makes to much sense. DE can then drive to TRF to play section games on neutral ice...

I totally agree lets make the state tournament metro-centric after all the metro teams are far more entitled to annual trips St. Paul. Don't stop with AA do it in single A too! Fantastic idea. Cannot have an all out state A and AA final like this season. Get on the MSHSL board and make the change.

Hey Oldtimer, it does not make it metro centric, it makes sure a North Team even makes it to state. We know Elk River can't win at Amsoil (the curse) but what about upcoming Andover, their youth teams coming up are very strong. Also same for STMA. Just think of a tournament where Andover wins 7AA and STMA wins 5AA, not that far of a reach, then you have NO north teams even making it to the state tournament, let alone in the final game. North means North and should ALWAYS have representation at state. Sure it is better to have them split 4 and 4 between two sections, until the above happens. Just Sayin! there are 8 teams north of St. Cloud that play AA, seems like a great region to me. A is not an issue as there are many more teams north of St. Cloud whom represent A. Plenty of teams to make up two section of "north" teams only.

[mnhockeynut77]

I'm not sure why people are saying the geography for the new Sections 2AA and 6AA doesn't make sense...

http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/googlemap15.asp

If you click on Hockey, Boys and go to AA, you can clearly see the geographical division.

That being said, it seems like Section 6AA got the shorter end of the stick with stronger teams outside of their "top 3" compared to 2AA. [/img]

[MrBoDangles]

I don't think throwing Sartell in 5A would do much better than having Sauk Rapids in there. Having Sartell, SCC, Apollo, and Sauk Rapids all in the same section has led to some great rivalry games in the past two years and the rinks are also filled when these teams play each other. All four schools are located within 10 miles of each other which leads to high intensity games every year.

I have absolutely no problem with all of those teams being in 6A, but Sauk Rapids got moved out with the realignment. What I am saying is that if they're going to move a team out at least have it be a team that could potentially make a game at the X interesting because I don't see Sauk doing that in the coming years or any other team in the section and that Sartell would make the most sense of the competitive 6A teams. But I definitely agree that the rivalries around St. Cloud have become more tense with section implications being involved.

oh yes i definitely agree. I don't believe Sauk Rapids or Apollo will be very strong in the next couple years but I think that Sartell will be tough again next year and would make a much more competitive game at the X then any current 5A team. To be honest, there just isn't that much talent in that region of the state for class A teams.

Will be on the weaker side for a year or two, but then will probably have some of the stronger A teams for a while after that.

[almostashappy]

[
You're partially correct. While its accurate the MSHSL adds the enrollment of all the coop schools together, you can petition down if none of your schools in a coop have AA enrollment. This explains why a whole bunch of coop teams that get assigned to AA every cycle petition down like LeSuer, Marshall, Mound-Westonka, Norhern Lakes, Faribault, and Minnehaha. Look at past cycles. Those teams were all initially assigned to AA.

Why can't they require petitions to be be made (and ruled upon) before the new sections are created and announced? Either that, or allow for adjustments to be made after petitions are ruled on, so that each section ends up the same size (+/- 1 team). 3AA once again has 10 teams, and it will stay at 10 for the next 2 years, because none of these teams are coops. But sections like 1AA and the new 2AA which nominally have 9 teams now, could end up with 8 or even 7 after petitions are heard.


As for the changes in 3AA themselves...they're odd, but not brutal. Losing some natural rivalries (CDH-STA, Woodbury-East Ridge). Burnsville loses one perennial roadblock to the Tourney (Edina) only to potentially pick up another (STA). The net difference strengthens the section (Burnsville+Jefferson > CDH+Woodbury). Surprised Hastings wasn't shifted to 1AA.

If it were up to me (and if keeping STA in 3AA was required), I would have brought Prior Lake into 3AA instead of Jefferson. Lakers are a South of a River school, Jaguars much more of a West Metro team. I would have sent ER to 4AA along with Woodbury, and put Hastings in 1AA. Shifting Irondale from 4AA into 5AA would make the balance work.

[Joe2015]

[/quote]

Why can't they require petitions to be be made (and ruled upon) before the new sections are created and announced? Either that, or allow for adjustments to be made after petitions are ruled on, so that each section ends up the same size (+/- 1 team). 3AA once again has 10 teams, and it will stay at 10 for the next 2 years, because none of these teams are coops. But sections like 1AA and the new 2AA which nominally have 9 teams now, could end up with 8 or even 7 after petitions are heard.
[/quote]

Agreed, seems like they should wait until teams either opt up or down, then do the sections

[hockeydad]

According to the MSHSL website:

There are no appeals to the placements. There are three ways these could change:
A school drops an activity.
A new school adds an activity.
A cooperative agreement is formed or dissolved.
If your school or team is not doing one of the above, you will play in the assigned section for the next two years. There are no appeals.

The part about cooperative sponsorship could affect a few placements, since they could go down from AA to A by dropping a school.

[MrBoDangles]

Still wondering how MAML moved down with nearly 2000 students?

[notTONIGHT]

According to the MSHSL website:

There are no appeals to the placements. There are three ways these could change:
A school drops an activity.
A new school adds an activity.
A cooperative agreement is formed or dissolved.
If your school or team is not doing one of the above, you will play in the assigned section for the next two years. There are no appeals.

The part about cooperative sponsorship could affect a few placements, since they could go down from AA to A by dropping a school.

Is that a policy change from years past? I know New Ulm Sleepy Eye was slotted to be a double A school but "petitioned" down the last several times there were section reassignments.

[nu2hockey]

This is not a new policy..New Ulm previously
co-oped with 5 schools ... Two of the schools never had any hockey players(Springfield and MVL) they dropped those from their co-op which dropped their numbers.

[LSQRANK]

I'm not sure why people are saying the geography for the new Sections 2AA and 6AA doesn't make sense...

http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/googlemap15.asp

If you click on Hockey, Boys and go to AA, you can clearly see the geographical division.

That being said, it seems like Section 6AA got the shorter end of the stick with stronger teams outside of their "top 3" compared to 2AA. [/img]

Guys, this sounds too much like a full-blown GIS project. I'd bet the MSHSL has not thought about (or much) how to use tools available to make an informed policy decision such as redistricting these teams into sections that make both geographical and competitive sense. Below are some links to a couple of maps that might give a better picture of the lay of the land. It would be nice to get registered hockey play data for these areas.

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... e_2015.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... o_2015.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... r_2015.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... h_2015.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... d_2015.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... Murray.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... Angels.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... SL/CDH.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... Family.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... istian.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... cademy.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... SL/spa.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... hedral.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... rshall.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... ourdes.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... nihaha.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... idence.pdf

http://www.aerogeomatics.com/aerosys/so ... oGrace.pdf

[YearbookWontClose]

I have absolutely no problem with all of those teams being in 6A, but Sauk Rapids got moved out with the realignment. What I am saying is that if they're going to move a team out at least have it be a team that could potentially make a game at the X interesting because I don't see Sauk doing that in the coming years or any other team in the section and that Sartell would make the most sense of the competitive 6A teams. But I definitely agree that the rivalries around St. Cloud have become more tense with section implications being involved.

oh yes i definitely agree. I don't believe Sauk Rapids or Apollo will be very strong in the next couple years but I think that Sartell will be tough again next year and would make a much more competitive game at the X then any current 5A team. To be honest, there just isn't that much talent in that region of the state for class A teams.

Will be on the weaker side for a year or two, but then will probably have some of the stronger A teams for a while after that.

Apollo probably will combine with somebody after next year because they only had 23 kids on the roster this year and are possibly getting no new incoming freshmen this year. So after this year's class of juniors graduates I would guess that they might just make one big team with Tech and Apollo in 8AA. I think Cathedral and Sartell are going to be the teams to reckon with in the St. Cloud are in the coming years other than Apollo next year. That's why I think Sartell moving to 5A would have made more sense. 5A went from being the most scary single A sections (Hermantown, Cathedral, Rogers) to having no one tourney worthy after the last realignment.

[HShockeywatcher]

I'm not sure why people are saying the geography for the new Sections 2AA and 6AA doesn't make sense...

http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/googlemap15.asp

If you click on Hockey, Boys and go to AA, you can clearly see the geographical division.

That being said, it seems like Section 6AA got the shorter end of the stick with stronger teams outside of their "top 3" compared to 2AA. [/img]

"makes sense" and "section divisions can clearly be seen" are two very different things in most people's eyes. Yes, divisions can clearly be seen and that is something that would be difficult to argue with. What most people are saying is that lines could have been drawn better.

Why can't they require petitions to be be made (and ruled upon) before the new sections are created and announced? Either that, or allow for adjustments to be made after petitions are ruled on, so that each section ends up the same size (+/- 1 team). 3AA once again has 10 teams, and it will stay at 10 for the next 2 years, because none of these teams are coops. But sections like 1AA and the new 2AA which nominally have 9 teams now, could end up with 8 or even 7 after petitions are heard.

Agree 100%. The idea that we end up with things like 2AA this year with 7 teams and a 1st round bye for Edina is less than ideal. Doing sections after all the changes is what makes the most sense.

[goldy313]

You can't petition down now, see hockeydads post.

Last cycle was a bit unique as two schools dropped hockey entirely, later New Ulm and LeSeuer picked up the dropped programs as co-ops, the MSHSL put New Ulm and LeSeuer in 2AA, both schools petitioned to go down to A and it was granted. The alternative was the schools dropped the co-ops and kids were left with no place to play.

Looking at all the AA co-ops that are made up entirely of what would be A schools (Marshall, LeSeuer, Dodge County) I think the MSHSL needs to reexamine how they count enrollment, 1 player from 1 school shouldn't mean they count the entire enrollment, maybe just the boys in that school. If the goal is participation then putting up detriments to participation seems to be counter productive to me. After all if Lourdes gets to draw from a student population of over 4000 and remain in A why does Marshall get punished for allowing a kid from Tracy to play?