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As far as the FL concerns: the head coach has sent the word out that U12 players should stay in U12. It's my understanding that if there was a U14 in FL the same would go for them also, but there isn't. So do you ship the kids to White Bear or get them in the program. Tough call I say?

A lot of factors but number 1 is probably total number of girls at each level. Starting with high school. If the FL High School has 30 skaters, grades 10-12, trying out for the high school team they could go with two high school teams, without cutting girls during high school hockey, and leave the 8th and 9th graders to play 14U. If they don't have 30 skaters trying out they will want to dip into the 14U pool. They probably shouldn't but that's what history tells us. If they don't have enough high school skaters another option is no JV team and let the 8th and 9th graders stay together as the 14U team. In my opinion the high school coach should leave the youth hockey eligible players to play youth hockey if there are sufficient numbers.

Another wrench is that all organizations have rising and falling numbers year to year so what makes sense one year may make no sense at all the next year.

The biggest driver is recruiting 4-5-6 year old girls to mite hockey. 30 new girls this year for the FL youth association and some of the problems, questions and confusion go away in the future. Registration numbers are in for most of the state. How many new mite girls at FL this fall?

I believe there is a solid number of mites this year and a talented group to boot. As far as the HS goes, I believe there are not enough 14U eligible girls to make up a FL team, so they are opting to play at the HS level. As stated, it would be better for those girls to play association hockey for sure, they will mostly play JV, but there is not enough of them. There could be one or two from the bunch who may crack the varsity lineup, but no superstars. If they didn't move up the JV would need to be eliminated for a season, which is not that big a deal I guess. Question remains, if those girls didn't move up and opted to play 14U instead of JV where would they play since there is not enough bodies in FL for a team? Do they just find a program in the area small enough that they need bodies? I guess these parents believe it's a better option to head to the HS. I know the head coach and he is not "pulling up" anyone. It's the individuals decision.

A HS coach can only offer players the opportunity to play for the JV/Varsity, it is ultimately the players choice where they choose to go. It is never black and white as to which is best for all players. In the system I am most familiar with very few players choose to remain at the U14 level if given the chance to play JV/Varsity as a 9th grader.

In our HS, 9th graders and younger are forbidden from playing either JV or Varsity.

Probably rare but awesome. You have enough girls in the community to field a varsity and JV team without fleecing the 14U team/s. And, the coach has decided to let these girls play out their high school years without losing their spot to a 8th or 9th grader which is cool. It's likely they have some strong 14U players, that are deserving of varsity, which probably doesn't make everyone happy.

Edina?
Minnetonka?

They're a couple with the numbers to accomplish that.

there are very few varsity programs that haven't had 9th graders on their rosters. That includes Edina, Minnetonka, Stillwater, White Bear Lake and Roseville which usually carry at least one. I don't think Minnetonka had any last year but about 3-4 the year before.

I believe Mtka had 4-5 freshmen on the Varsity roster last year. All were very deserving, and played a lot of minutes...

So, who's sinbin talking about? Generally the younger girls are better players than the older ones as girls hockey development is moving twice as fast as the boys. This would require a HS coach really sticking to their guns but ultimately that is the goal of all organizations. Or, would be the goal if they had sufficient numbers.

I believe Mtka moved up 4 frosh last season. It looked like 3 of them played a lot and 1 was 3rd line or so.

I think it is hard for alot of associations to let these U12 and U14 girls go but often the players aren't always challenged enough at this level or there aren't enough players to field a competitive team. They shouldn't make a hard and fast rule to not take these girls and should let the individual associations and players make the decisions.