The Tourney has reached its peak

[Winter is Coming]

It's all down hill from here.

It was a good run.

The game has just overrun what it was meant to be. Too expensive. Lack of community identity. Not enough interest from casual sports fans. No more coliseum. I hope the mercantilists and progressives are happy. I hope you enjoy your lakeville north, Eden praire, edina, Eagan semis. I sure as hell won't be watching. Richass south and west suburbia will be the only competitive areas from here on out.

Sorry if this was incomprehensible. I'm just depressed we've pissed away a golden treasure that our state once had. The downhill slide started with the move to two classes and its reached its zenith today.

I'm going to drink my last grain belt. Pass out. And enjoy all the memories this sweet sport and tournament has given me in my short life. Wish it would have lasted longer.

It is how life goes. The people who used to carve things into stones said the same thing when paper came along and those book printer people said the same thing when you can now get an electronic book on an Ipad. Things change and evolve. Hockey is spreading out around the country (who would have thought that Florida or Texas would have decent hockey but now they do) and will concentrate around places where the oppertunity to play hockey is teh greatest. Luvurne is proof of that. They did not become interested in hockey when Sioux Falls got a jr team there. When the Jr teams came to town so did year around ice so Luvurne kids had the oppertunity to play hockey year around and the kids that wanted to are now doing that. If you want your community to have good hockey you will need tohave the oppertunity for the kids who want to play year around to be able to, you will need to have parents who support them and you will need to have kids who want to work hard enough to "make it". This is the circle of life. The tourney will continue. Those sleeper teams will probalby not rise and shine like they used to at either level since teams like Hermantown and Luverne are here and are going to stay here. The quality of play will continue to improve as the kids who are willing to make the sacrafices needed to play hockey do so. Those kids who want to play for fun will be able to and those kids who are too lazy or distracted by today's "stuff" will be able to play but won't be moving on to play at a higher level. Those really good kids on those outlying teams will be leaving for greener pastures at a very high rate in the coming years, it has started now.