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According the the mshls website they are going to start the process pretty soon. As far as enrollments are concerned Mahtomedi, Alexandria, Saint Thomas Academy, Rogers, and New Prague are all on the bubble when it comes to A or AA. Any thoughts as to anybody who will opt up?

Can't imagine them keeping those 4 teams in 6AA after all the crap they took this year. Yes, team strengths fluctuate, but those four will be strong a lot of the time and another perfect storm year like this could happen again.

Section assignment are now posted. Doesn't look like anything changed. Section 6AA stays the same but added Holy Family. Looks like Noel Rahn has chosen to move up to AA starting next year.

Not really surprising if you look at where the decision makers are from. Don't really think they are looking for talent balance. No one on the committee was really a 6AA supporter.

Why are st Paul saints back in AA?

love2skate wrote:Section assignment are now posted. Doesn't look like anything changed. Section 6AA stays the same but added Holy Family. Looks like Noel Rahn has chosen to move up to AA starting next year.

Not really surprising if you look at where the decision makers are from. Don't really think they are looking for talent balance. No one on the committee was really a 6AA supporter.

Respect to Holy Family for having the balls to opt up as a private school. It's simply a shame that they are up but STA and Breck aren't.

wblhcky24 wrote:Why are st Paul saints back in AA?

The combined enrollment of the four schools in this coop is listed at 1,311. I was surprised by this, also.

St Michael-Albertville to 7AA? Yep, at 1,314 students.

As for the "why didn't they do something about 6AA" thing, the criteria is laid out very simply: "Move as few schools as possible". Unless there is a school or schools in the same geographic area whose enrollment changed (move to AA or to A), the criteria states to keep them where they are. They don't really care how strong or weak a section is, was, or will be. They never did.

Lee

Did any teams go from AA to A?

Already set. St. Thomas will stay at class A

hshockeyfan53 wrote:According the the mshls website they are going to start the process pretty soon. As far as enrollments are concerned Mahtomedi, Alexandria, Saint Thomas Academy, Rogers, and New Prague are all on the bubble when it comes to A or AA. Any thoughts as to anybody who will opt up?

noflybys wrote:Already set. St. Thomas will stay at class A

Yeah, their AD announced that a week or two ago.

There was a rumor floating around saying STA would opt up if they took State this year, but I didn't drink the Kool Aid. I am glad I didn't.

No surprise here, hockey fans... Maybe after next year?

wblhcky24 wrote:Did any teams go from AA to A?

From what I read, only Henry Sibley made the switch from AA to A.

PuckU126 wrote:

wblhcky24 wrote:Did any teams go from AA to A?

From what I read, only Henry Sibley made the switch from AA to A.

Looks like Northern Lakes has moved from 6A to 8AA, also Detroit Lakes from 6A to 8A. Guess 6A was just too strong had to move a few teams.

Where can I read/see all of this?

Section 1AA: NO CHANGES

Section 2AA:
Add: St. Peter/LeSueur-Henderson/LeCenter/Montgomery-Lonsdale
- St. Peter/L-S/L/M-L moved to 2AA from 1A

Section 3AA:
Subtract: Henry Sibley
- Henry Sibley has moved down to Class A, Section 4

Section 4AA:
Add: St. Paul Saints
- St. Paul Saints moves up from Section 4A but this is how it was listed earlier in the season last year too and it got changed somehow

Section 5AA: NO CHANGES

Section 6AA:
Add: Holy Family Catholic
- Holy Family Catholic moves up from Section 2A. They must have opted up because their enrollment is only in the middle 500's.

Section 7AA:
Add: St. Michael-Albertville
- St. Michael-Albertville moved up from Section 5A because their enrollment has increased to 1310

Section 8AA:
Add: Northern Lakes
- Northern Lakes is listed as a Class AA school again. This is probably subject to change again if one or more of the co-op schools do not have any participating players.

Section 1A:
Subtract: St. Peter/LeSueur-Henderson/L/ML
- see Section 2AA

Section 2A:
Add: Minnehaha Academy
- Minnehaha Academy moved over to 2A from 4A

Subtract: Holy Family Catholic
- See Section 6AA

Section 3A: NO CHANGES

Section 4A:
Add: Henry Sibley
- See Section 3AA

Subtract: Minnehaha Academy
- See Section 2A

Subtract: St. Paul Saints
- See Section 4AA

Section 5A:
Subtract: St. Michael-Albertville
- See Section 7AA

Section 6A:
Add NEW TEAM: Breckenridge/Wahpeton (ND)
- Breckenridge, MN is listed as the host school

Subtract: Detroit Lakes
- Detroit Lakes is moving to Section 8A

Subtract: Northern Lakes
- See Section 8AA

Section 7A: NO CHANGES

Section 8A:
Add: Detroit Lakes
- Detroit Lakes is moving over from 6A

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I don't get why Andover is not in Section 5

I expected a lot more to change, I'm rather suprised.

Someone explain to me how St. Peter/L-S/L/M-L moved to 2AA from 1A could go to 2AA? they are more of a 1AA school by geography aren't they?

STA is a joke, and the Vanelli's article in the PP on friday confirmed it. Yes greg, there is more to life than A and AA, but thats not the point. Way to dodge the question yet again.

You are taking it away from the boys, the chance to play on a level playing field.

BOO to you Vanelli's, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Bruce Plante put it the best, STA's 4th line center could be Hermantown's First line center.

mnpuckster wrote:Bruce Plante put it the best, STA's 4th line center could be Hermantown's First line center.

Yea, I know what your saying. I saw Lucia talking to the parents of STA's 4th line center. Also heard he was offered this weekend....

Park Rapids should opt down to Jr. Gold

I know how to find the MSHSL page with enrollments of all of the high schools; is there a page anywhere of enrollments listed chronologically by size?

mnpuckster wrote:STA is a joke, and the Vanelli's article in the PP on friday confirmed it. Yes greg, there is more to life than A and AA, but thats not the point. Way to dodge the question yet again.

You are taking it away from the boys, the chance to play on a level playing field.

BOO to you Vanelli's, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Bruce Plante put it the best, STA's 4th line center could be Hermantown's First line center.

Do you have a link to this article?

Chronologically? Do you mean by grade?

expected some movement with section 6AA. But it will not be as strong next year as it was this year. But I thought Wayzata might have moved to 5AA.

GordonBombay99 wrote:I expected a lot more to change, I'm rather suprised.

The feeling I got this weekend talking to a couple of people was because football will change drastically in 2012 there was nothing real big to happen this year. Wrestling might/probably will go back to 2 classes in the next year as well. So some big changes are coming but aren't here yet.

Also as far as hockey is concerend, with Ken Pauley as the head of the coaches association little would change there as well. There is some concern that something needs to be done to make class A more equitable....maybe using ice availability as a factor because unlike a gym not everyone has one for the 2 month summer period where the MSHSL allows coaches to work with the kids. For the most part the MSHSL acts with the coaches association recomendations on changes and for now the development mentality is the way they're going.

16 schools were allowed to opt down, not all have hockey and all or nearly all were in Minneapolis or St. Paul. Funding is becoming an issue, say your school offers wrestling (as an example only) and it costs $100 to sign up, due to budget cuts the price goes to $200 for the next year and participation drops. The wrestling boosters decide to fund all of the costs of the program but then you have to join the wrestling boosters for $300, yet the booster club says it's "free". Is it? and is it legal or ethical? Stuff like this is starting to creep into high school sports.

I wouldn't expect Wahpeton/Breckenridge to play in MN. THey've been listed in a MN section before and always have played in ND.

I will never understand the MSHSL's affinity with putting Detroit Lakes in section 8. Stupid comes to mind as a word to describe it. Section 8 really doesn't need them, and section 6 is more geographical for them in my opinion.

The MSHSL really doesn't have an advocate for hockey on it's board. If you look through the years, basketball and football people make most of the decisions that effect hockey. The hockey tournament pays the majority of their bills, and that is all that concerns them. They really don't care about kids going to Jrs or Ann Arbor or improving the game. The only time a change will occur is when the cash cow (state tournament) would begin to loose revenue. Over half of the schools that vote on hockey matters, don't even field a team, yet they determine what is best for hockey.