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Anyone have any insight at what been happening at Cretin? Seems like a once proud program (ala Holy Angels) has an aging coach reluctant to change. Record of 41-30-8 the past 3 season and early exits in Sections. From the outside looking in the St Paul hockey kids from Nativity, St Joe's, St Marks and HC and are going to different high schools for better coaching and education. Now it's impacting the bottom line of the income statement.

Gotta ask about the elephant in the room, is Johnny Pohl the answer?

hondo98 wrote:Anyone have any insight at what been happening at Cretin? Seems like a once proud program (ala Holy Angels) has an aging coach reluctant to change. Record of 41-30-8 the past 3 season and early exits in Sections. From the outside looking in the St Paul hockey kids from Nativity, St Joe's, St Marks and HC and are going to different high schools for better coaching and education. Now it's impacting the bottom line of the income statement.

Gotta ask about the elephant in the room, is Johnny Pohl the answer?

Not sure about your topic, but AHA is still a proud program......

I don't see John leaving his current position to take over the boys at the moment.

hondo98 wrote:Anyone have any insight at what been happening at Cretin? Seems like a once proud program (ala Holy Angels) has an aging coach reluctant to change. Record of 41-30-8 the past 3 season and early exits in Sections. From the outside looking in the St Paul hockey kids from Nativity, St Joe's, St Marks and HC and are going to different high schools for better coaching and education. Now it's impacting the bottom line of the income statement.

Gotta ask about the elephant in the room, is Johnny Pohl the answer?

Hondo, where are kids going instead of Cretin? Highland Central youth association has always been the primary feeder for Cretin hockey. I know a few go to St. Thomas but I can't see many of those kids going public (Highland High, etc.)

I agree though, they seem to have the talent to get better results than they end up with.

I think that Cretin is about where they have always been, a respectable program that's never been great. Now I know they won the championship several years back. That was a better than average Cretin team, and they made the most of their opportunities. But most years that team isn't good enough to go that far.

They may have made the section final a number of times, but they don't have a lot of tournament appearances. Their current section is respectable, but for many years they were in section 4 when it was a weaker section. So i don't think they've fallen off at all.

Holy Angels, now there is a program that has lost most of it's luster, even if they're still proud.

ESPG I think you're right, they are an average team and raised the bar when they won State in '06. Thought they were close to becoming a consistent Top 10 team and would get the Roseville or Woodbury kids versus HM or STA. But from what I've seen the past few years is that the coaches don't care or have no clue on what to do with what they have.

The coaching staff does the best with what they have, CDH is not a destination for high end, year round', hockey players. They get the lunch bucket supporting cast. They don't have a group of top end kids coming in every year like BSM, HILL, STA, etc...they have what they have and get what they get. The current SOPH group had 10 contributing Varsity players this year, the current Freshman group might have 1 next year.

Would a changing of the guard help, I'd find it hard to imagine that anyone would argue against it, it could be time, but when you are picked to finish 6th in your conference and you win it, it's hard to consider any changes are forthcoming, despite the dismal section play and lack of perceived success. Success is in the eye of the beholder and perhaps those who matter aren't judging at all.

They definitely have never had the same influx of talent of the HM, Benilde, STA, etc. I think CDH was hoping they would turn a corner with the state title and a state semifinal appearance a few years later, but they seemed to have taken a step back the last couple of years.

This years team had a lot of upside. Taking Edina to OT, winning a subpar but competitive SEC. However, multiple people on this board commented that there were games this year where CDH did not show up. The consistency wasn't there. You didn't know which team you were going to get. And I think that is on the coaching. It is the coaches job to make sure their team shows up to each and every game. And it seems they did a poor job of that this year. 1 game might be a fluke. But consecutive first round losses in sections might be a trend.

CDH is a football and baseball school. Obviously kids go there for that whole academic thing too but it's never been revered for it's hockey program. At least in my mind that is...