Did they decide not to play girls' youth hockey this year?

InigoMontoya · Post by **InigoMontoya** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 6:22 am

Nothing interesting happening with the girls this year? Or have we fallen to the adage, if you don't have anything nice to say...

pepperpot · Post by **pepperpot** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 10:19 am

They're all still in Europe battling the Czechs and eating borscht.

jg2112 · Post by **jg2112** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 4:39 pm

I'll bite.

Disclaimer: I know quite a bit of what's going on in MN Girls' hockey, though my family lives in District 2 so that's mainly my focus.

At the U12 level so far, D2 appears loaded and will probably be a three-team race between Highland, Forest Lake and Stillwater. The Rangers defeated Mounds View/Irondale 14-0 last Sunday morning, and Stillwater defeated Roseville 10-0 last Saturday night. Forest Lake and Highland tied 1-1 last Friday.

The next tier appears to have Mahtomedi (with wins over MV/I and WBL), NE Metro, and White Bear Lake. MV/I and Roseville will likely be the bottom two teams in the District.

zambonidriver · Post by **zambonidriver** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 9:34 am

Saw NE metro, White Bear, Forest lake, and Rochester all are improved Forest Lake, Brainerd and Andover are the teams to beat. Stillwater, Wayzata, EP, Mtka, Edina green should all in the coversation.

cheddar · Post by **cheddar** » Thu Nov 06, 2014 9:57 pm

Since you asked, Highland wasn't able to field a whole u8 team this year and the u8 age girls ended up doing evaluations with the mites. Too bad because they used to have two rather large u8 teams.

zambonidriver · Post by **zambonidriver** » Fri Nov 07, 2014 7:59 am

[quote="pepperpot"]They're all still in Europe battling the Czechs and eating borscht.[/I thought Borscht was Russian]

InigoMontoya · Post by **InigoMontoya** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 6:51 am

Looks like the early battle for the D6 lead took place in Shakopee last night.

Nevertoomuchhockey · Post by **Nevertoomuchhockey** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 2:24 pm

Apparently every girl and team we were chattering about moved up to jv and/or varsity?
My daughter is playing a last season at 12u, and the climate surrounding 12s and 14s (at least in the north metro) is apathetic at best. I honestly fear for the future of girls youth hockey (especially disappearing 14s teams.)

Is this a long term or short term issue? How can teams and programs consistently fielding state tourney contenders end up scrapping for enough girls to field ANY team, let alone an A team? I don't have enough first hand knowledge to know if it's an all over numbers issue, or an issue of those numbers playing high school, boys, Tier 1, all of the above??

massalsa · Post by **massalsa** » Tue Dec 16, 2014 3:31 pm

No doubt! This board has been dead for weeks! I look every day to see if SOMETHING is happening on here but it is crickets every single day. No one even ripped on the LPH post!

It looks like Minnetonka is ranked MUCH higher this year in u12A. Is that purely the "Nicholson" effect? Has she taken them from pretenders to contenders or has everyone improved in Tonka?

Edina? Who is up and coming U12 2nd year players? Looks like the EHS girls Varsity team has a decent chunk of 9th/10th graders...were they u14 eligible and made the leap? How are there 7th & 8th grade classes looking? Will there be no room for years to come on Varsity for the younger kids?

Mound Westonka u12 from last year must be playing HS or something...not much to read about there.

I think that there are a couple of girls that are playing Peewee this year. Any girls worth watching? I heard that Mashuga is playing in Anoka. Is it Kedzie Malone that is playing for Armstrong Cooper? I heard that Lily Deliandis is playing for Edina Peewee A. Anyone else?

Olivia Mobley is not playing for SLP PWAA but instead playing Varsity for SLPHS. She is an impressive scorer.

What about the East side? Any up and comers to mention over there?

zooomx · Post by **zooomx** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 7:30 am

Girls Hockey is a bit more fickle than boys. To maintain decent numbers on the girls side it takes a consistent and dynamic recruitment effort every year. If you are unable to field an A and B team at each level, you are going to experience drama.

Co-ops have hurt girls hockey. It is typically a short term solution to a long term problem. Co-ops help solve numbers and strengthen a program for the 3-4 years after the merger, but typically the number of new skaters entering the merged program goes down before it goes up due to longer drives and drama.

On top of that you have many programs that are completely dominated by the boys side and the girls program is basically pushed aside.

All that being said, I feel fortunate that girls hockey is alive, well and growing in our community. Great Girls Director, who understands the recruitment side of it. Great support by the board. Sent some U10's down to the cakeeater tourney and surprised a few city folk who thought we shouldn't have been in the tourney.

InigoMontoya · Post by **InigoMontoya** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 9:32 am

How can teams and programs consistently fielding state tourney contenders end up scrapping for enough girls to field ANY team, let alone an A team? I don't have enough first hand knowledge to know if it's an all over numbers issue, or an issue of those numbers playing high school, boys, Tier 1, all of the above??

I think Hopkins is a good example - ranked #18 in LPH, but have to coop to play 12A. Salsa?

ShakestheClown · Post by **ShakestheClown** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 1:02 pm

I can only speak for my daughter's association, but the co-op for boys and girls wasn't because our program hurting, but because the other program which was hurting for numbers. My daughter's 12A team has 16 skaters and two of them are from the other city.

As far as numbers go, our program is pretty healthy considering we are a class A high school program. It's to the credit of great recruiting efforts that starts with the high school coaches on down.

Nevertoomuchhockey · Post by **Nevertoomuchhockey** » Wed Dec 17, 2014 1:21 pm

Off the top of my head from 2013-14 12uA, Roseau, Duluth, WBL - all state entries without a team at this level 2014-15.

*edit - sorry WBL is fielding A.

goaliedad31 · Post by **goaliedad31** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 6:46 am

Off the top of my head from 2013-14 12uA, Roseau, Duluth, WBL - all state entries without a team at this level 2014-15.

*edit - sorry WBL is fielding A.

Please explain. All these teams have a 12A team

zambonidriver · Post by **zambonidriver** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:09 am

From what i have seen this year the u-12's are very competitive anybody can beat anybody on a given night. Minnetonka is really good. NE metro is much improved. Cottage grove is really good. Mahtomedi is improved so is White Bear. Apple valley has suprised, Rosemont will be super next year.Forest Lake played St. Paul, Edina and Minnetonka on consecutive days and went 2-1. Warroad came down and had success.

zooomx · Post by **zooomx** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:37 am

ShakestheClown wrote:I can only speak for my daughter's association, but the co-op for boys and girls wasn't because our program hurting, but because the other program which was hurting for numbers. My daughter's 12A team has 16 skaters and two of them are from the other city.

As far as numbers go, our program is pretty healthy considering we are a class A high school program. It's to the credit of great recruiting efforts that starts with the high school coaches on down.

I guess my question is more geared towards the struggling girls programs that jump into a co-op versus doing the heavy lifting to grow the girls game at home. What I hear out on the street is that girls high school hockey is struggling with numbers all over. The struggle begins at the inability or the apathy that exists when it comes to recruiting hard at Mites and U8's for girl players.

jg2112 · Post by **jg2112** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:52 am

zambonidriver wrote:From what i have seen this year the u-12's are very competitive anybody can beat anybody on a given night. Minnetonka is really good. NE metro is much improved. Cottage grove is really good. Mahtomedi is improved so is White Bear. Apple valley has suprised, Rosemont will be super next year.Forest Lake played St. Paul, Edina and Minnetonka on consecutive days and went 2-1. Warroad came down and had success.

A few other fantastic U12A teams are Andover (who have done a great job building their program and finding girls to add to the teams) and Eagan. The state tournament should be rather good this year.

skateittillyouloseit · Thu Dec 18, 2014 10:51 am

massalsa wrote:
I think that there are a couple of girls that are playing Peewee this year. Any girls worth watching? I heard that Mashuga is playing in Anoka. Is it Kedzie Malone that is playing for Armstrong Cooper? I heard that Lily Deliandis is playing for Edina Peewee A. Anyone else?

Olivia Mobley is not playing for SLP PWAA but instead playing Varsity for SLPHS. She is an impressive scorer.

Anoka PWA has two girls, watched them beat a AA Rogers team last weekend.

jg2112 · Post by **jg2112** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 11:35 am

skateittillyouloseit wrote:
massalsa wrote:
I think that there are a couple of girls that are playing Peewee this year. Any girls worth watching? I heard that Mashuga is playing in Anoka. Is it Kedzie Malone that is playing for Armstrong Cooper? I heard that Lily Deliandis is playing for Edina Peewee A. Anyone else?

Olivia Mobley is not playing for SLP PWAA but instead playing Varsity for SLPHS. She is an impressive scorer.
Anoka PWA has two girls, watched them beat a AA Rogers team last weekend.

Roseville has a very good female PeeWee A player.

If you also look to the MN Made Choice League, there are girls playing in their Squirt and Checking (Super) Leagues, and all of them are good players.

Nevertoomuchhockey · Post by **Nevertoomuchhockey** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 12:58 pm

goaliedad31 wrote:Off the top of my head from 2013-14 12uA, Roseau, Duluth, WBL - all state entries without a team at this level 2014-15.

*edit - sorry WBL is fielding A.

Please explain. All these teams have a 12A team

According to MN Hockey, neither state entry team has an A level team at 12s this year. I only compared last years state tourney teams to this years list. I'd be curious to see where else A level teams dropped off. And why...

massalsa · Post by **massalsa** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 5:31 pm

InigoMontoya wrote:
How can teams and programs consistently fielding state tourney contenders end up scrapping for enough girls to field ANY team, let alone an A team? I don't have enough first hand knowledge to know if it's an all over numbers issue, or an issue of those numbers playing high school, boys, Tier 1, all of the above??
I think Hopkins is a good example - ranked #18 in LPH, but have to coop to play 12A. Salsa?

At least in the case of Hopkins they HAVE to co-op. Last season Hopkins had a co-op with SLP and had 1 u12B team. Zero u14 teams. I think just two u10 teams. I believe that there were maybe 4 or 5 Hopkins school kids on that u12 team. There were 4 girls on the Peewee A team. 3 of those girls are playing HS this year. 2 at Hopkins (I believe they both are playing a combo of V & JV) and 1 is playing JV at Benilde. The other PWA girl is playing PWA again this season. There was a girl last year (7th grader) who made the PWB team and ended up playing JV at HHS.

This season there is 1 girl at PWA and I believe that there are a total of 4 7th grade girls playing in the district. In the WHOLE DISTRICT!!! Of the remaining girls there are 2 that are playing u12A and the other girl is attending Blake. the rest are SLP girls (which might mean BSM/Blake/Breck too).

The HHS team had no cuts from JV and have a total of just over 30 girls playing hockey. I believe that SLP has just a Varsity team.

Sort of amazing that Hopkins is able to continue to contend with the big "girls" in the Lake Conference year in and year out. After semi disappointing results in the pre conference schedule the HS team has a win vs Wayzata (like 243 girls teams) and a tie vs #1 EP at their rink (many girls teams) in the first 2 conference games. Tonight is a home game against Edina (also flush with girls teams across all levels). We will see how they do for the rest of the conference schedule and into the sectional. Minnetonka will be tough as well and they have a huge # of girls teams too.

Seems like there might be an opportunity or two for some younger girls that want to play in the Lake Conference (arguably the best conference in the country) if they decide to open enroll or move to District 270. This year there are 4 team USA girls playing in conference after last years 5. I am guessing that there will be 4 or 5 next year and beyond when looking at the talent in the sophomore and freshman classes at Edina, Hopkins, and others.

zooomx · Post by **zooomx** » Thu Dec 18, 2014 11:58 pm

Nevertoomuchhockey wrote:
goaliedad31 wrote:Off the top of my head from 2013-14 12uA, Roseau, Duluth, WBL - all state entries without a team at this level 2014-15.

*edit - sorry WBL is fielding A.

Please explain. All these teams have a 12A team
According to MN Hockey, neither state entry team has an A level team at 12s this year. I only compared last years state tourney teams to this years list. I'd be curious to see where else A level teams dropped off. And why...

The MN hockey listing of girls teams is not accurate. There are no district 16 teams listed, for example, which explains the absence of Roseau.

InigoMontoya · Post by **InigoMontoya** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 9:44 am

Does the SLopkins co-op lead to the eventual co-op of the high school programs?

jg2112 · Post by **jg2112** » Fri Dec 19, 2014 9:55 am

InigoMontoya wrote:Does the SLopkins co-op lead to the eventual co-op of the high school programs?

The same question is being asked of the soon to be permanent Mounds View / Irondale arrangement. Looking at their District results at U10 and U12 level so far this year, that might not even be good enough to stay competitive in the future.

massalsa · Post by **massalsa** » Mon Dec 22, 2014 4:54 pm

InigoMontoya wrote:Does the SLopkins co-op lead to the eventual co-op of the high school programs?

I am certainly NOT in the know on that question but it a case could definitely be made for that combo. The pipeline is rumored to be a little better at the u10 and 1st year u12 levels. The cupboard is not completely bare...there are advantages and disadvantages to smaller #s. Ask the pile of girls that were cut from Edina as Jr's and Sr's this year (that is what I heard...no official confirmation that is the case) as it appears to be a team with many contributing significantly from the Freshman/Sophomore classes. There were ZERO cuts at Hopkins this year and I believe that there is one Sr that is playing both 3rd/4th line Varsity and JV.

On the pro combo side of the argument there are a couple of 7th graders at both schools that are pretty decent that could grow into very nice Varsity players (and maybe nice college players as well).

Grace Bizal started playing Varsity at Hopkins as an 8th grader (2x USA 18 player and 2015 BC commit). Corbin Boyd started playing Varsity in 7th (2015 MSU Mankato commit). I think in both of their cases they would not have gotten a sniff in 7th or 8th at Edina/Tonka/Wayzata. They may or may not have grown as much as players...who knows? I do not believe that there are ANY 7th graders on V/JV rosters in the Lake Conference and very few 8th graders or u14 eligible players that are allowed to tryout at Wayzata or Tonka.

Thoughts?

HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

Did they decide not to play girls' youth hockey this year?

Did they decide not to play girls' youth hockey this year?

u12

u12's

Re: u12's