HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

Now I know this place has officially dropped into the doldrums. Not a single thread on the Fargo Squirt International where a few years ago there would be a couple of pages on the topic. It's not like the tournament has gotten any smaller, it's now 3 weekends long with a 32 team C bracket, an 80 team B bracket, and a 72 team A bracket. It's bigger than ever yet not a word on here or on YHH about the games or what is going on.

The C bracket was played 2 weekends ago and Moorhead White took home the title over Edina Black. Last weekend the B tournament was won by the St. Boniface Seals out of Winnipeg over Weyburn, SK.

The A bracket starts this Friday, who is the odds on favorite to take home the big prize? Any sleepers out there who will burst onto the scene? I remember a couple of years ago the Minneapolis Storm had their coming out party in this tournament by making the finals to alot of people's surprise. That group is now the corp of one of the top ranked Pee Wee AA teams in the state.

Don't forget the girls. They played the first week of January.

You are right. My daughter would be very upset with me for such a glaring ommission. In U10A action, Edina over Andover in the finals of a 16 team tourney. The scoreboard does not want to cooperate with me right now so I cannot get the results for the U10B, U12A, and U12B brackets. If you were there, please report.

Girls Results:

12A
1 Andover
2 Eden Prairie
3 Shakopee
4 Eagan

12B
1 Devils Lake
2 Edina White
3 Fargo Freeze Gray
4 Winnipeg Rockets

10A
1 Edina
2 Andover
3 Eden Prairie
4 Alexandria

10B
1 Fort Garry Flyers
2 North East Eagles
3 Shakopee Red
4 Orono-Westonka Red

http://www.fargohockey.org/page/show/15 ... -schedules

I am kind of disappointed. I click over to YHH this morning while enjoying my morning coffee expecting to see some sort of writeup on this tournament, instead...nothing. YHH used to have people on the ground in Fargo covering this thing. A year ago there were, I think, 5 articles on this tournament including one about the B side. Maybe a conflict is getting in the way since YHH now has their own big Squirt tournament? Wouldn't want to promote something that is not your own content. This has all the feelings of ESPN's treatment of the NHL, or the Big Ten.

Too bad because the crew over there used to do a top notch job of bringing us the news about the biggest Squirt tournament in the world. I don't know, maybe I am overreacting since there is an awful lot going on in the hockey world right now and they're getting pulled in a lot of different directions but that isn't much different than any other year.

I'll also note that some of the posters here chased Tony off this site about a year ago. Since he left I have noticed the amount of activity here drop dramatically. Look, if you are going to chase somebody off at least stick around here to keep this thing going. It's like a morgue around here now.

SCBlueLiner wrote:I am kind of disappointed. I click over to YHH this morning while enjoying my morning coffee expecting to see some sort of writeup on this tournament, instead...nothing. YHH used to have people on the ground in Fargo covering this thing. A year ago there were, I think, 5 articles on this tournament including one about the B side. Maybe a conflict is getting in the way since YHH now has their own big Squirt tournament? Wouldn't want to promote something that is not your own content. This has all the feelings of ESPN's treatment of the NHL, or the Big Ten.

Too bad because the crew over there used to do a top notch job of bringing us the news about the biggest Squirt tournament in the world. I don't know, maybe I am overreacting since there is an awful lot going on in the hockey world right now and they're getting pulled in a lot of different directions but that isn't much different than any other year.

I'll also note that some of the posters here chased Tony off this site about a year ago. Since he left I have noticed the amount of activity here drop dramatically. Look, if you are going to chase somebody off at least stick around here to keep this thing going. It's like a morgue around here now.

I think YHH is focusing upon PeeWee, Bantam and U12 Regions occurring this weekend. Being honest - that site has featured many of those players for years and I think it's appropriate that they feature those tournaments, as those players are ones he's incredibly familiar with.

To bad Fargo has tourny same weekend as regions in Mn. I know five familys that have kids playing in both. Two are from FL. I'm sure there are many more.

maybe since they have their own squirt tourney and have gotten into the tourney business it would be like covering the competition:)

Personally I've seen a huge downslide in the way tournaments are run today versus in the past (yes Fargo Squirt is a prime example) In the past, winter hockey tournaments was typically left up to associations to run and the guys promoting the "checkbook hockey" side were putting on tournaments in the spring, summer and fall. Now you are seeing these two compete against one another in the winter. Yes folks YHH is in the business of making money off tournaments so lets just all get use to it. Others will follow that I can guarantee you

There are so many tournaments every weekend in the winter that associations have to get more creative on how they promote and run them otherwise they may be designated as a 2nd, 3rd tier tournament.

No it's not about keeping stats or naming player of games (which I personally think is absolutely worthless). It's about putting out a great product, making sure the refs understand why there there, treating the kids like rock stars and yes fair seedings. Every tournament who doesn't use either Lets Play Hockey or YHH rankings to seed their tournaments is doing themselves (and the kids) a huge injustice.

Competition should be healthy but the question is "what are associations going to do to compete against this freight train roaring into town?"Or should associations choose not fight the battle but instead just partner with them? Let them run the tournament and they in turn pay the association a spiff?

Fargo does everything you just described. It's one of, if not the most fun tournament a kid will attend. My kid still remembers going to Fargo years later. The tournament committee does a thorough job of getting background info on the teams in order to seed them properly. I noticed this year the B bracket was subdivided even further into a "Field of 64" and "B Elite" in order to maintain competitive balance. I think that association does a very good job of putting on a well run tournament.

I've been to many winter and summer tournaments. Honestly, as far as I'm concerned it's many of the associations that put out bad tournaments. The cost is often times lower (though when you tack on the gate fees the cost gets over $1,000 which is an awful lot to pay for 3 games) than summer tournaments but some associations are willing to accept any team in order to fill out the field, change schedules on you multiple times, cut tournament sizes down from 4 to 3 games, and give you crappy game times. Summer tournaments are a business, we all know that, and they know they need to run a well organized, competitive tournament with a decent schedule or people won't come back. I think some associations should take a cue from them and start putting in some effort. Now saying that, personally, I wouldn't enter any team I am involved with in some of the traveling "series" tournaments like the ones that are put on at the Super Rink in the winter.

Sorry Yes, I just disagree on your assessment of Fargo Squirt.

SCBlueliner- I do agree that overall Fargo is one of the best run tournaments. I was being more general about what these associations can do to compete against the non associations who now run tournaments in the winter. And what can these associations do to make the experience better for everyone.

With that, even Fargo seemed to fall flat over the past couple years when it comes to up to date information on their website. I'd also like to see them get in the business of streaming games and/or live scoring. As noted, I could care less about player of the games or individual stats. That information only has value to the top parents and a goalie dad. But what else can we share with associations to make their product better? It's not about cost. Lets all agree we will pay what we have to pay. But if you were running a tournament in the winter and you were having to compete against other associations and a powerful marketing machine like YHH, what would you do? Or do you just form a partnership with them? I leaning towards partnering with them, give them a cut and use their resources to make our product better.

I thought Fargo did a good job of updating scores. I preferred the score reporting engine they used the past several years to the one this year but the bottom line is I could find out from my phone who won and lost. Live scoring is tough, so is streaming. There are a ton of games and different locations involved with that tournament. I sometimes think they recruit any army to pull it all off.

The margins on running a tournament that gives you a decent return as a fundraiser are already tight. Tough to partner with an outside entity as it will only increase the cost of the tournament. This game is expensive enough already, I believe we need to keep costs down wherever we can, tournament fees being one area.

The amount of coverage we provided last weekend for Regionals should speak for itself. People in 11 rinks, pics from 6 and over 2,000 tweets and
retweets.

The Fargo International moved their event back a week, which ultimately is on top of our biggest coverage weekend of the year. We wish it were the previous weekend where we cover districts...that weekend made for two huge coverage weekends back to back for us.

YHH has plenty of competing factors for our own Squirt Tournament...Fargo is not one of them. Covering that tournament is great for our site (there are
several great Squirt teams that collide up there every year...that is what we
live for). We simply did not have the manpower. That said, we retweeted
and talked with dozens of people up there all weekend.

On another topic, but somewhat related. YHH provides a lot of very rich
content. Content that takes us to the rink almost on a daily basis all year long. If you read other material in this town. Keep in mind most of it is written from the office or worse, it is not written very often.

To our supporters, thank you.

To our anonymous detractors, we thank you, too.

Wasn't detracting YHH. In my OP I clearly stated I figured you guys were busy and stretched very thin. Also commended you on your prior years' coverage and was hoping to see more this year. As it is, your explanation for not being able to cover the event is perfectly understandable. Also commented on how I didn't like some of the criticism your site took here in the past, now look at this place. Now, I most likely came off as negative with my post, re-reading it I can see how you could come to that conclusion but it wasn't meant that way. I was coming more from the angle of disappointment, bewilderment, and misunderstanding. Anyways, nice to see you back on the forum, let's make a habit of it.

SCBlueLiner wrote:Now I know this place has officially dropped into the doldrums. Not a single thread on the Fargo Squirt International where a few years ago there would be a couple of pages on the topic. It's not like the tournament has gotten any smaller, it's now 3 weekends long with a 32 team C bracket, an 80 team B bracket, and a 72 team A bracket. It's bigger than ever yet not a word on here or on YHH about the games or what is going on.

The C bracket was played 2 weekends ago and Moorhead White took home the title over Edina Black. Last weekend the B tournament was won by the St. Boniface Seals out of Winnipeg over Weyburn, SK.

The A bracket starts this Friday, who is the odds on favorite to take home the big prize? Any sleepers out there who will burst onto the scene? I remember a couple of years ago the Minneapolis Storm had their coming out party in this tournament by making the finals to alot of people's surprise. That group is now the corp of one of the top ranked Pee Wee AA teams in the state.

I still remember approximately 6 years ago my son playing in the championship game against EP and guess who single handedly beat us - the current number 11 on the EP high school team. It has been a lot of fun watching him and so many other great kids throughout the years and now seeing them in high school brings back lots of good memories. It really does go by too fast so enjoy every minute of it.

SC,

Thanks for the kind words. I just want people on here to know how much we appreciate the support and how hard we are working to get them great content.

Last weekend was like a blizzard and we only have so many plows.

As a side note, I called the Andover Coach personally and apologized that we missed their one shining moment - felt bad we missed the final four this year. Andover beats Rochester Red in one semifinal and Edina Green beats OMG in the other and of course Anover beats Edina Green for the title.

Note: #1 Andover and #2 OMG never played an official game this year. Andover won the Moose (where a lot of good teams were this year) and Fargo. OMG won the Squirtacular (another event that attracted 9 of the 10 YHH top 10 teams).

As I noted earlier. Associations need to stand up and look around the way others are putting on tournaments (especially some AAA programs and YHH)...If I was an association, I'd definitely make a phone call to YHH and see how a partnership could work. Whatever revenue they lose as a result of sharing it with YHH they may be able to pick up in other ways (sponsors, gate, streaming). To me, leveraging the marketing and resources YHH now has is a no brainer. I don't blame associations. Board members are volunteers and only have 2-3 hours a months to get together and tackle a lot of topics. If they outsource the tournaments they could in turn focus their time in other areas inside their associations that needs more attention.