AA school fielding an additional A team

[HockeyDad41]

Could it work for AA teams who have larger programs (or just want to) to field an A team in addition to their AA team? We were talking about the practice of HS programs cutting seniors in favor of underclassmen and JV teams that aren't finding meaningful competition at that level and the idea came up.

[BSUBeaver]

No, it would be possible, but not "fair" (lack of a better term). Part of the reason there is AA and A is due to the number of kids a school has to pick from to put a team together. If you start allowing AA schools to field both AA and A teams, what is to say they don't stack their A team to make a run at a State Title?

[Slap Shot]

No, it would be possible, but not "fair" (lack of a better term). Part of the reason there is AA and A is due to the number of kids a school has to pick from to put a team together. If you start allowing AA schools to field both AA and A teams, what is to say they don't stack their A team to make a run at a State Title?

No AA team is going to stack an A team at the expense of their AA team. They'd be bigger pariahs than Hermantown.

It's in interesting concept to think about what Edina, Tonka or Wayzata could do by putting together a roster from their Jr Gold A, JV and Bantam AA teams and having them play an A schedule.

That said I wouldn't like this idea at all.

[bodyup88]

Interesting thought but isn't that what Junior Gold is for?

[InThePipes]

Interesting thought but isn't that what Junior Gold is for?

Yes, exactly

[7TIMECHAMPS]

Sounds similar to the current youth system.

[blueline_6]

What, so we can congratulate Edina on winning both the AA and A High School Tourneys? This already sounds boring.

[jeffpv]

This does bring up an interesting thought exercise. Could Edina's (or Maple Grove's, or Minnetonka's, etc) Junior Gold team win Class A state?

[green4]

This does bring up an interesting thought exercise. Could Edina's (or Maple Grove's, or Minnetonka's, etc) Junior Gold team win Class A state?

I don't know about Junior Gold, but this system seems basically the same as the current youth system. Warroad won this year, but beat Edina in the Semi finals and OMG in the finals. The two years before Edina won bantam class A. So I don't know about Junior gold teams, but with this system, these big deep program have shown to be in the thick of it.

[7TIMECHAMPS]

This does bring up an interesting thought exercise. Could Edina's (or Maple Grove's, or Minnetonka's, etc) Junior Gold team win Class A state?

Edina (or other large metro associations) could likely put together a JV/Junior Gold team that would certainly have a chance. Their Bantam A and PeeWee A teams both went to state this year in youth and were competitive. OMG's Bantam A team lost in overtime in the state championship game. This would be their second group or what would have been the "B" team back in the day. I don't think we have to wonder. We can just look to the youth. I can't think of any reason this wouldn't continue into High School. Unless private schools are getting all of the "A" players.

[HockeyDad41]

If JV programs are developmental and whose purpose is to get those next level players ready for the varsity, then how much development is actually occurring when you win every game and win by 5+ goals? (This was pretty much the Genesis of the discussion.)

No doubt the larger AA programs would benefit from something like this. JV squad would benefit from a more competitive schedule and the experience gained would almost certainly make for a stronger AA team.

So then what happens to the JV squad at these schools? A lot of kids who might be heading to JG could play JV? Bantam AA standouts move up?

We all agreed that this will probably never happen. EVER. We all concluded that the possibility of large AA schools bringing home both the AA and A trophy would likely make this kind of discussion a non-starter.

[StanleyCup55]

Edina JV would be at class A state every single year! I dislike this idea. Class A should be about giving additional teams a chance to play at state that can’t ever compete with the big schools. Allowing JV teams would pretty much eliminate that and bring us back to the single class era. Would it improve the quality of the class A tourney, yes but that shouldn’t be what the class A tourney should be about. Thought it was about the kids. Seems it’s more about how exciting it can be for the fans.

I like the idea of class A being the smallest 64 schools and everyone else AA. Seems the most fair and logical to me. Forget who mentioned that on here but it’s a brilliant idea.