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The Hawks two state championships have both been against private schools. 2007 Duluth Marshall and of course today against Breck. Any questions?

Remember, if you loose say little , and if you win say less!

mulefarm wrote:Remember, if you loose say little , and if you win say less!

And if you go to public school, you constantly misspell lose.

hermantown2000 wrote:The Hawks two state championships have both been against private schools. 2007 Duluth Marshall and of course today against Breck. Any questions?

Yes, how many times they get beat by a private school then complain about it?

Why not give a little credit when due, great team.

Sparlimb wrote:

mulefarm wrote:Remember, if you loose say little , and if you win say less!

And if you go to public school, you constantly misspell lose.

Good advice no matter how you spell it.

duluth dave wrote:Why not give a little credit when due, great team.

Probably because their coach is bitter and s***s on everyone else when they won.

duluth dave wrote:Why not give a little credit when due, great team.

Play AA and they will get all the credit they deserve

They play a rough schedule year after year and do very well, why not opt up? Someone please explain that?

Maybe its because there a small school- and won't have this type of team always. Personally I think Duluth Marshall made a mistake opting up and might not be in tournament for a very long time.

duluth dave wrote:Maybe its because there a small school- and won't have this type of team always. Personally I think Duluth Marshall made a mistake opting up and might not be in tournament for a very long time.

Marshall got the stones to opt up along with all the others who do and are respected

Hermantown is a fine team with fine players, opt up and end the argument

Watched the post game press conference and pretty easy to determine who is a better ambassador of the game and who you should want a kid to play for.

WendyClark wrote:

duluth dave wrote:Maybe its because there a small school- and won't have this type of team always. Personally I think Duluth Marshall made a mistake opting up and might not be in tournament for a very long time.

Marshall got the stones to opt up along with all the others who do and are respected

Hermantown is a fine team with fine players, opt up and end the argument

Ouch!! Hermantown Hawks get called out. Seems the state of hockey getting tired of Hermantown beating up on the little guys....

http://youtu.be/M2HQIC4ZMAo

kniven wrote:

WendyClark wrote:

duluth dave wrote:Maybe its because there a small school- and won't have this type of team always. Personally I think Duluth Marshall made a mistake opting up and might not be in tournament for a very long time.

Marshall got the stones to opt up along with all the others who do and are respected

Hermantown is a fine team with fine players, opt up and end the argument

Ouch!! Hermantown Hawks get called out. Seems the state of hockey getting tired of Hermantown beating up on the little guys....

http://youtu.be/M2HQIC4ZMAo

Getting Nanne to call them out in public was one thing, but McGraw? Now that's impressive.

The Hawk players deserve a ton of credit for being talented and working their butts off to have such a great season. Great job, boys!

And Plante deserves nothing but raspberries for letting his ego get in the way of these kids having a chance to win the AA title. Those players deserved better.

Hopefully next year will be the end of their A run. When they move to AA they will get to state some years and get beat in the 7AA semis some years, but they will see the world won't end if they're not in the state title game every year.

I look forward to finally watching an East-Hermantown game and cheering for the Hawks when they take on an Edina or EP at state.

I think some people get there kicks watching big schools beat up on smaller ones

An honest question.........if you looked at the past few performance of the Hermantown teams at the youth level is it really such a no brainer that they would move up? Granted, they play AA at the youth levels.......but their teams have been very middle of the pack in recent years.

Is it really as black and white for the future that everyone makes it out to be?

Yes, it is a no-brainer. I get that you're asking an honest question, but this "middle of the pack" idea has been used by Hermantonians as an excuse for a while. My response to that would be "Should Hermantown wait to opt up until they are top 3 in AA every year?"

Here's a list of the teams the Hermantown bantam AA team beat this season:
#2 Edina, #3 Blaine, #6 Eden Prairie, Elk River, Grand Rapids, Duluth Lakers, Stillwater, #14 Moorhead, #12 Brainerd, and they tied #5 Wayzata.

They played Edina, Wayzata, EP, and Tonka a total of 12 times. They played a total of 2 Class A teams.

These bantams would still be the #2 seed in 7AA, behind an outstanding #8 Cloquet team they lost to 3-2. How good does Hermantown have to be to move up? Should Grand Rapids be preparing the paper work to opt down to A soon because their bantam team really struggled this year?

What would Hermantown's record have been had they played an A schedule this year? Virginia has an excellent bantam A team, so good that if you take out the huge metro programs' "A" teams out the rankings and look at the programs who will play A in high school, Virginia was the #4 ranked team in A, behind Orono, Princeton, and EGF.

What happened when Hermantown played Virginia? Hermantown beat them 9-3! This Hermantown team would still be dominating Class A and would outscore their six playoff opponents 52-6 like they did in HS this year. What's the point of them continuing to kick butt in A? Isn't this why McGraw and Nanne called them out publicly this year?

In bantams, Hermantown is able to beat the Edinas, EPs, and Wayzata, but all of these programs will lose top players to private schools each year, and Hermantown will not. (It's only happened once, according to Plante)

If Hermantown is good enough to play AA at the youth levels, then why not in HS? Hermantonians say they don't play A at youth because they wouldn't get games against good enough competiton. That's fine, but why is the A competition at HS good enough for them to play? If they want to play the best competition, then shouldn't they go to AA?

Hermantown plays AA in youth and has a AA heavy HS schedule. This means that the longest stretch of A games any of these kids will ever play is in the Class A playoffs. Do they play all of these top AA teams for nine years just so they will be ready for the "challenge" of the A playoffs?

Maybe I'm deluding myself, but I can't see any way Hermantown stays in A after this season. They return a ton of talent and have plenty of bantam talent coming in, so they will be heavy favorites to win A again. I think Plante declares this is his last season, Hermantown declares to opt up, and Hermantown leaves A as champion again. I could be wrong.

There is no doubt in my mind Hermantown losing in the title game 6 times in a row has had a major psychological effect, and contributed to them staying in A well past their welcome. Had they won, say, 3 or 4 of those title games I have little doubt they would have moved up. Bruce Plante had the attitude of "why should we move up, we can't even win the single A title?!". Hermantown will win another 2 or 3 titles before the heat is just too great and they opt up. They're following the STA blueprint in every way. Until they win 4 out of 5 titles, have loaded the trophy case, and know to a certainty that they will compete for the foreseeable future in AA, they're not going anywhere.

Hermantown is nothing but a bunch of posers. Give me a real reason for them not to move up. And not because they have a down year now and then. They complain about privates then beat their chest about all of their A victories? Check your ego Plante, it's not all about winning A trophies. You've got the kids brain washed into thinking beating up on small programs is an accomplishment. Have fun with that. No one up north respects you at all and won't until you grow a few and start playing AA. What a legacy. Too bad it doesn't mean anything. Time for Plante to galup to the glue factory and replace him with someone who has a set.

pepperpot wrote:Hermantown is nothing but a bunch of posers. Give me a real reason for them not to move up. And not because they have a down year now and then. They complain about privates then beat their chest about all of their A victories? Check your ego Plante, it's not all about winning A trophies. You've got the kids brain washed into thinking beating up on small programs is an accomplishment. Have fun with that. No one up north respects you at all and won't until you grow a few and start playing AA. What a legacy. Too bad it doesn't mean anything. Time for Plante to galup to the glue factory and replace him with someone who has a set.

Spot On!!

If there's cries for H-Town to move up to AA, it certainly isn't at the X during the games.

Easily majority of the crowd. Doesn't surprise me against Breck, but did surprise me vs. SPA.

Personally, I don't think the cries for Hermantown to move up would be as much if Plante didn't run his gums for all the years he did about privates, particularly STA.

Doc Holliday wrote:If there's cries for H-Town to move up to AA, it certainly isn't at the X during the games.

Easily majority of the crowd. Doesn't surprise me against Breck, but did surprise me vs. SPA.

Personally, I don't think the cries for Hermantown to move up would be as much if Plante didn't run his gums for all the years he did about privates, particularly STA.

I disagree. When you are in the A title game 7 years in a row it is time. When your program acts very much like a private in drawing great talent, it is a testament to your program, but also a message that maybe it is time to move up. When all your youth teams play and compete well at AA, it is time to move up. I never listened to Plante bash the private schools so don't consider that at all in forming my opinion.

Mite-dad wrote:I disagree. When you are in the A title game 7 years in a row it is time. When your program acts very much like a private in drawing great talent, it is a testament to your program, but also a message that maybe it is time to move up. When all your youth teams play and compete well at AA, it is time to move up. I never listened to Plante bash the private schools so don't consider that at all in forming my opinion.

I agree with everything you said; I just think the calls from casual fans would be less.

I think the "recruiting" bit is a little old. Many of the top public schools recruit. They just use a different name for it and call it "open enrollment"

Look inside Edina, Lakeville North, Grand Rapids. How many of those kids played on their towns squirt teams growing up? I'm sure many did but I'm also pretty sure some of the "top end" kids didn't.

I personally would love to see Hermantown move up to AA. It would instantly create another great rivalry in this state (Duluth East versus Hermantown)

yesiplayedhockey wrote:I think the "recruiting" bit is a little old. Many of the top public schools recruit. They just use a different name for it and call it "open enrollment"

Look inside Edina, Lakeville North, Grand Rapids. How many of those kids played on their towns squirt teams growing up? I'm sure many did but I'm also pretty sure some of the "top end" kids didn't.

I personally would love to see Hermantown move up to AA. It would instantly create another great rivalry in this state (Duluth East versus Hermantown)

Honestly I don't even know if Hermantown actively recruits. But when they built a great program, they attract talent from a large metro area that has a hockey tradition. All the schools you mentioned play at the highest level. Herm should follow suit. Why wouldn't they want to???

What about a rule that requires the A Champion to move up to AA for the following year? That team could move back to A after the year, or (as may be the case with a Hermantown), they could decide to stay, especially if they have some success during their AA year. If there is concern that this result is too harsh, perhaps require a team to switch if it is in the A Championship game two years in a row, and wins it at least once.

If the purpose of A is to give a greater number of teams a chance to win a title, this rule would seem to fit with that sentiment.

Now, better hockey minds than mine--blast away as to why this is a dumb idea.