Tier 1 Hockey in Minnesota, is it coming or already here?

[elliott70]

The kids and parents from whom I talked to say it is a great experience. The Tier I is going on at the same time and the play isn't that much different outside of the fact the Tier I teams it is apparent that they have been together 325 days and played 120 games,with their systems but the individual talent is there at both levels, and scouts from everywhere are at all the games, from what I have been told by people that have been there.

Who's scouting peewee and bantam kids?

I don't know? you'd have to ask Nick Oliver from Roseau, didn't he sign with St Cloud before he even played 1 HS game? when did they start looking at him?

Have you seen the form Nick signed?
Yes, when did 'they' start looking at him?

I am not trying to argue with you or prove a point.
But the facts are simple - there are just too many good players at age 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 , & 20 at 100'S of different venues for college scouts/coaches to be worried about looking at 11, 12 , 13 & 14 year-olds in any sort of serious way. Not to mention NCAA restrictions.

[PMC07]

Who's scouting peewee and bantam kids?

I don't know? you'd have to ask Nick Oliver from Roseau, didn't he sign with St Cloud before he even played 1 HS game? when did they start looking at him?

Have you seen the form Nick signed?
Yes, when did 'they' start looking at him?

I am not trying to argue with you or prove a point.
But the facts are simple - there are just too many good players at age 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 , & 20 at 100'S of different venues for college scouts/coaches to be worried about looking at 11, 12 , 13 & 14 year-olds in any sort of serious way. Not to mention NCAA restrictions.

I agree with you on one point and am not trying to argue either, I'm not driving the 11 and 12 peewee thing but to say 15 or 16' Bantam ages aren't being looked at I'm sorry, I disagree, I understand verbal commitments vs signing but I have read letters from some kids that performed very well at the national festivals. Major colleges including UND are taking verbals from 16 year olds, they just took one from a kid in the NDTP program. and midget hockey in Canada is HS age, every year in Manitoba they have the Directors Cup for 14 year olds "major bantams" and then hold the WHL draft, I don't agree with it and it is getting to young, but it IS happening at 15 and 16 and I don't believe it will stop.
No I didn't see nick Oliver's paper and you can back out of a verbal, but truth be told if he verbally committed before he played one HS game, which everyone up there says he did, and I believe those Hockey people not to be exaggerators, if so then someone talked to him or was looked at pretty young. And with every parent in the world thinking their kids are better than they really are and they see 15 or 16 year old verbally committing they will keep looking at every possibly way to get one up, which there is no easy answer.

[elliott70]

I agree 16 and 15 year old kids are lookied at by college guys.
14's could be looked at assuming they are at the right grade level.
But the NCAA rules are very complicated and very enforceable.
And they detail how and WHEN contacts can be made.
For the most part the college cannot contact freshman and sophmores and even juniors.
The student-player (family) can initiate a contact.
So if I call Lucia and say my 8th grader wants to come to the U and play hockey, he had better tell me he can't talk to me.
If my kids in 9th grade and I call he may say great, but agian he cannot make the contact.
He may know a lot about my kid but technically he cannot look/evaluate him until he is a 9th grader.
And then the contacts are restricted.

I am no where neqar an expert on the 400 page NCAA rule book, but I know a lot of college people and going to the USA Hockey bantam nationals is not the best use of their resources.

Midgets, juniors, high school events, those 16, 17 year old kids are what they want. The 15's - they can get the list from USA Hockey and then start watching them.
Remember they are on a budget and have restrictions on who can do what. The good-old boy thing is out there but they ahve to be careful.
You know they have to be certified to be recruiters for the school.

[elliott70]

I agree with you on one point and am not trying to argue either, I'm not driving the 11 and 12 peewee thing but to say 15 or 16' Bantam ages aren't being looked at I'm sorry, I disagree,

At the USA Hockey national bantam tourney you will find some 15's - those born betwenn Jan 1 93 and the April date of the tourney.
There will be no 16's.
However, some of these kids at 14 will probably be eligible for evaluating.
So I will give you that.

[PMC07]

I agree with you on one point and am not trying to argue either, I'm not driving the 11 and 12 peewee thing but to say 15 or 16' Bantam ages aren't being looked at I'm sorry, I disagree,

At the USA Hockey national bantam tourney you will find some 15's - those born between Jan 1 93 and the April date of the tourney.
There will be no 16's.
However, some of these kids at 14 will probably be eligible for evaluating.
So I will give you that.

Last comment, what threw me for a loop, I'm not just talking about NCAA people watching kids young, I was on the bench up in Warroad a few years back in a BTA game, when the game ended a guy caught our top player in the tunnel after the game, gave him his card , got his phone number, talked to him, ect,ect,ect. . he was a Canadian Jr scout for some team. It happened so fast nobody seen it coming, blew me away, thats when I realized the whole recruiting game had changed, the kid was 14, thank you and end of story.

[greybeard58]

When you saw Jefferson play at the Tier II Nationals Mn Hockey was using the Sept 1 birth date and the year used made all Mn teams 4 months younger than the other USA Hockey affiliates. USA Hockey switched to the July 1 birthday and Minn then moved back 2 months. iN 1995 till 2002 Mn Hockey sent teams to the Tier I tournament and in 1999 and 2000 actually had 2 teams each year because of one being a host team. When USA Hockey went back to the Jan 1 birth date they also changes the birth year and now Mn Hockey is 6 months older. Having talked with some parents that traveled to the national tournaments while it was an interesting experience the over all cost was not really worth it. Up until the last team in 2002 all previous teams made it to the cross over play on Saturday and one made it to the Championship game.
You have to remember this is a tournament that starts on a Wednesday and check in is a day earlier and you will play wed,thurs, and Fri. with the cross over game on saturday and champioship game on sunday.

[High Flyer]

Personally, we all know I am pro Tier 1 but the need for it in Minnesota may not exist entirely, although the option is what I'm for.

BUT

Why not have a sanctioned Minnesota Hockey Tier 1 AAA birth year spring/summer league? Forget showcase and all the other wannabe AAA programs, let them have summer AA for the second tier of players want to have fun and keep playing hockey, nothing wrong with that.
Introduce an actual statewide program that has 8 or so teams.
3 in the cities, 1 in Moorhead, 1 up-North, 1 in Duluth, 1 in St Cloud, 1 down South. Play a home and away and have an end up summer tournament. If the teams are strong enough, which they will be, eventually every spring/summer AAA in the country will fly here for a summer vacation and play hockey against TOP end kids.

In this fashion you would build some solid competition on an elite level in the state and still allow the hometown winter in the same capacity.

Just a thought, not sure if it would work but a concept.

The sytem for Tier 1 hockey in Minnesota is basicly already in place and would be real easey to create:

1) Start doing "select 14" tryouts in the spring, just like the select 15, through the spring festival.
2) After the spring festival, reduce the number of District select team members to 9F, 5D, 2 goalies. The other 3F, 1D and 1G are still team members, but become alternates/practices players.
3) Create regional off season training sites in each district with district select players & alternates training together during the months of June, July & Aug. (NO GAMES!!!)
4) Create a league during Sept-Oct., with each district select teams, practicing during the week and 2 game series vs. other distrct teams on Sat.
5) The last weekend of Nov., have a league tournament, seeding teams based on league performance, with the winner of the tournament advancing to a playoff round robin in March vs. SSM for MN Tier 1 state title, with winner advancing to the Tier 1 nationals.

[elliott70]

Personally, we all know I am pro Tier 1 but the need for it in Minnesota may not exist entirely, although the option is what I'm for.

BUT

Why not have a sanctioned Minnesota Hockey Tier 1 AAA birth year spring/summer league? Forget showcase and all the other wannabe AAA programs, let them have summer AA for the second tier of players want to have fun and keep playing hockey, nothing wrong with that.
Introduce an actual statewide program that has 8 or so teams.
3 in the cities, 1 in Moorhead, 1 up-North, 1 in Duluth, 1 in St Cloud, 1 down South. Play a home and away and have an end up summer tournament. If the teams are strong enough, which they will be, eventually every spring/summer AAA in the country will fly here for a summer vacation and play hockey against TOP end kids.

In this fashion you would build some solid competition on an elite level in the state and still allow the hometown winter in the same capacity.

Just a thought, not sure if it would work but a concept.

The sytem for Tier 1 hockey in Minnesota is basicly already in place and would be real easey to create:

1) Start doing "select 14" tryouts in the spring, just like the select 15, through the spring festival.
2) After the spring festival, reduce the number of District select team members to 9F, 5D, 2 goalies. The other 3F, 1D and 1G are still team members, but become alternates/practices players.
3) Create regional off season training sites in each district with district select players & alternates training together during the months of June, July & Aug. (NO GAMES!!!)
4) Create a league during Sept-Oct., with each district select teams, practicing during the week and 2 game series vs. other distrct teams on Sat.
5) The last weekend of Nov., have a league tournament, seeding teams based on league performance, with the winner of the tournament advancing to a playoff round robin in March vs. SSM for MN Tier 1 state title, with winner advancing to the Tier 1 nationals.

Nice idea.

[Tenoverpar]

Who are the Minnesota Mission???

According to the jacket I saw on a gentleman yesterday in Home Depot,
they are Tier 1 AAA. I didn't think we had Tier 1 AAA classification anywhere in Minnesota.

[justlivin]

Not sure how they got the classification of Tier 1 but they are a new team this year 95' birth year kids from all over southern MN and south metro. Mission Hockey and a few others are sponsoring them. They won the St. Criox classic this weekend beating The Edge 8-4 in champ. Haven't played Machine, Blades, or Icemen yet but they will get some great comp. in the Independent AAA classic May 15-18