MSHSL Oct 1st Meeting (Boys Hockey Season Fate)

[Puckguy19]

Do you mind divulging your source? At least what industry/agency he/she works in? Will ice arenas be shut down?

It would have to go to another level for ice arenas to be shut down; but the trend is not positive. I believe we could see rinks shuttered from Thanksgiving through January if we don't flatten and reverse the curve.

I respectfully disagree. There's no way parents will allow ice arenas to be shut down. They would file multiple lawsuits to force them open.

I think the most likely outcome is that practices and games will take place in empty arenas, with no fans. Parents / fans will have to stream the games. Not sure how high schools will cover that in the budget....

I think its great to disagree, I hope you are right. As for parents not allowing ice arenas to shut down, I tend to disagree. Most are run by municipalities or are privately held. If the state, county or local jurisdiction shut them down, parents can sue all day long, but their chances of being successful are slim to none.

[goldy313]

Meh, we don’t shut down school districts for 49 students positive with the flu in a district as large as Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan but 49 is far too many with Covid like symptoms in October!

[InThePipes]

Meh, we don’t shut down school districts for 49 students positive with the flu in a district as large as Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan but 49 is far too many with Covid like symptoms in October!

I noticed that they cancelled a Breck FB game last evening not because multiple players tested positive, not because even a single player tested positive, not even because a player had a confirmed exposure to someone who tested positive...nope, cancelled because of a "possible exposure of one of our student-athletes to a COVID-19 case". There must be more to the story here, right?

[jg2112]

So....

The current report looking at 10/4 to 10/18 is based on an average of 1,307 infections per day from 10/4 to 10/17. The report next Thursday will be based on an average of 1,521 infections per day from 10/11 to 10/25.

With today's number of 3,021 infections, the report on 11/12 will have an average of 1,956 infections per day.

That's a 50% increase in 2 weeks. Who's going to let fans into ice rinks, basketball courts and wrestling arenas with this uncontrolled viral spread?

Nothing to say but protect yourself and think of others. This winter is going to be terrible for many people.

[goldy313]

Meh, we don’t shut down school districts for 49 students positive with the flu in a district as large as Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan but 49 is far too many with Covid like symptoms in October!

I noticed that they cancelled a Breck FB game last evening not because multiple players tested positive, not because even a single player tested positive, not even because a player had a confirmed exposure to someone who tested positive...nope, cancelled because of a "possible exposure of one of our student-athletes to a COVID-19 case". There must be more to the story here, right?

I was officiating a football game earlier this year and one team was missing 16 kids. According to the coach...,, Everyday the kids have to fill out a health questionnaire. If any of the answers are affirmative (a cough, fever over 99.8, tightness in the chest, loss of taste, etc) then the kid can not practice until the symptoms have been resolved for 10 days or has a negative Covid test. While I get the reasoning, every kid has a cold by October. That means you have a cough. The nearest Covid testing place was 30 minutes away and they were not testing for just a cough. No kid who was tested ended up testing positive.

Covid is a serious issue to some, many others.....maybe up to 50% have no symptoms. We are playing whack a mole here.

I live an icing call from Iowa. A local football team was shuttered because one players sister tested positive at the University of Iowa. She had been home the weekend prior and may have exposed her brother. So they shut down the whole team for a week. Crazy.

All that said Mayo just suspended elective surgery in Eau Claire. They have 200+ employees there out due to symptoms or contact tracing and are bringing in healthcare workers from Scottsdale Arizona to help out. These are people missing who might be taking care of you or loved one for Covid or any other health problem. No matter your healthcare system this is the reality we are facing. The people laughing at the Dakotas and Wisconsin had little understanding of a virus and that we would be next.

[BodyShots]

Meh, we don’t shut down school districts for 49 students positive with the flu in a district as large as Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan but 49 is far too many with Covid like symptoms in October!

I noticed that they cancelled a Breck FB game last evening not because multiple players tested positive, not because even a single player tested positive, not even because a player had a confirmed exposure to someone who tested positive...nope, cancelled because of a "possible exposure of one of our student-athletes to a COVID-19 case". There must be more to the story here, right?

I was officiating a football game earlier this year and one team was missing 16 kids. According to the coach...,, Everyday the kids have to fill out a health questionnaire. If any of the answers are affirmative (a cough, fever over 99.8, tightness in the chest, loss of taste, etc) then the kid can not practice until the symptoms have been resolved for 10 days or has a negative Covid test. While I get the reasoning, every kid has a cold by October. That means you have a cough. The nearest Covid testing place was 30 minutes away and they were not testing for just a cough. No kid who was tested ended up testing positive.

Covid is a serious issue to some, many others.....maybe up to 50% have no symptoms. We are playing whack a mole here.

I live an icing call from Iowa. A local football team was shuttered because one players sister tested positive at the University of Iowa. She had been home the weekend prior and may have exposed her brother. So they shut down the whole team for a week. Crazy.

All that said Mayo just suspended elective surgery in Eau Claire. They have 200+ employees there out due to symptoms or contact tracing and are bringing in healthcare workers from Scottsdale Arizona to help out. These are people missing who might be taking care of you or loved one for Covid or any other health problem. No matter your healthcare system this is the reality we are facing. The people laughing at the Dakotas and Wisconsin had little understanding of a virus and that we would be next.

Now your comments are making more sense.....

[goldy313]

Yea yea yea.....

I am old enough to remember when it was not politically incorrect to, for teams from Section 1 to sing......


.....I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray, Hooray! To live and die in Dixieland I’ll take my stand, to live and die in Dixie. Away, Away, Away done South in Dixie!

Of course we are no longer allowed to sing this due to politics.

[Duluth_Topper]

Superior Senior High is going to distance learning and now are pushing the winter seasons.
https://www.fox21online.com/2020/11/04/ ... athletics/

They also play several Duluth Area teams with their 1st game against Grand Rapid.
https://www.wisconsinprephockey.net/sch ... son=697293

Cloquet is also switching to distance learning.
https://www.wdio.com/coronavirus/cloque ... ?cat=10335

Bay View Elementry (Proctor) and Duluth Marshall currently have all the kids at home and not in the schools.

[jg2112]

This week's update is now out:

https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases ... school.pdf

Keep in mind - this report is based upon an average of 1,521 infections per day from 10/11 to 10/25.

The relevant statistics: 72 of 87 counties are recommended to send their high schoolers home for distance learning.

34 of 87 counties are recommended to send all their students to distance learning. Also, keep in mind that ICUs are already near capacity based on these infection rates.

What do we have to look forward to? The report on 11/12 will have an average of 1,956 infections per day, or, an increase of about 28% from this report. The report on 11/19 will be based on the time frame from 10/26 to 11/8. Including today's record total of 3,956 cases, the 11 days in the range average 2,825 cases per day so far. That would be an 86% increase over today's reporting period, and I shudder to think not only what that PDF will look like, but also, the situation in our state's ICU beds.

Stay safe everyone.

[lakescountrylife]

Yea yea yea.....

I am old enough to remember when it was not politically incorrect to, for teams from Section 1 to sing......


.....I wish I was in Dixie, Hooray, Hooray! To live and die in Dixieland I’ll take my stand, to live and die in Dixie. Away, Away, Away done South in Dixie!

Of course we are no longer allowed to sing this due to politics.

“The song is considered racist because of the imagery it invokes and time period it gained popularity, exactly when the Southern states seceded. "Dixie" was written in New York, by a native of Ohio, Daniel Decatur Emmett, as a minstrel song, which were primarily written to be performed by white actors in blackface.”

Goldy...... #BeBest

[Duluthguy]

The Duluth district has paused all activities/athletics through December 13th due to a “sharp rise” in local COVID rates.

[blueblood]

Any 218’ers think this decision will lead to players open enrolling to Cloquet, Marshall, Hermantown or other schools in the northland?

[Duluthguy]

Any 218’ers think this decision will lead to players open enrolling to Cloquet, Marshall, Hermantown or other schools in the northland?

Anything’s possible. I’d also wonder what Prictor, Hermantown, and Marshall will do. The COVID rates are the same there, but My hunch is they’re less likely to pause activities.

[Wise Old Man]

Any 218’ers think this decision will lead to players open enrolling to Cloquet, Marshall, Hermantown or other schools in the northland?

I believe Marshall has already had a slight increase in numbers due to the Duluth public schools starting online at middle and high school. However, strictly from an athletics standpoint, I don’t think a player can open-enroll now and still be varsity eligible this season, can they?

[jg2112]

Any 218’ers think this decision will lead to players open enrolling to Cloquet, Marshall, Hermantown or other schools in the northland?

The state of the world in 2020. How frivolous.

[blueblood]

jg - imagine you’re a senior in HS and you can’t play unless you move. What would you do?

[jg2112]

jg - imagine you’re a senior in HS and you can’t play unless you move. What would you do?

Unless I move schools or unless I move my house?

If I'm a senior I can't move schools without losing eligibility. I suppose I could ask my parents to divorce and buy an apartment?

And moving house? I would never have asked my parents to buy a new house just so I can avoid a 3-week pause in winter hockey.

This is all so silly. We're living through a pandemic and trying to ignore how to stop it. I get how this is hard for kids, I really do. I have 3 of them suffering through this, 2 of them multi-sport varsity athletes. But games aren't this important.

[Wise Old Man]

jg - imagine you’re a senior in HS and you can’t play unless you move. What would you do?

blueblood....but wouldn't they (player & family) have to physically move into the new school district to be immediately eligible this season? If so, I doubt anyone is transferring now. At least for winter sports.

This situation is getting more frustrating every day. I genuinely don't want my kids to lose a significant part of the season, or worse, the rest of it. And, I'm sure it is a truly horrible thing for senior athletes and their families (as well as those in theater or robotics or other extra-curriculars) to be going through. I know a number of players and families who are in that boat.

The truly sad part is this was all predicted as far back as June. But, because a significant portion of our country chose to ignore the experts and not do the things we were asked to do by those experts (mainly due to the politicization of the virus), we're now in for a true "Covid winter of our discontent"...to steal Dan Barreiro's line. Over 400 doctors from all over the state just signed a letter to Walz asking him to aggressively dial things back. I doubt what Walz chose to do today will make any kind of significant difference compared to what the doctors requested.

When I heard about the Duluth public schools pausing athletics and extra-curriculars this afternoon, I reached out to a physician I know from the local Covid taskforce in the Duluth area to see what their thoughts were. This person (who is a current hockey parent) stated that if it were up to them, they would be pausing all youth and high school sports for at least a month and probably until as long as Feb. 1st.

This doctor said the Duluth ERs are full and patients with significant but not life-threatening issues are either having to wait for as long as 6 hours to be seen or, being sent as far as the Twin Cities to receive treatment. And, this doctor has had to prescribe 5 or 6 cardiac MRI's on high school aged athletes who tested positive with symptoms and recovered just in the last 3 weeks to ensure they hadn't suffered any heart damage (apparently this is the newest guidance for teens who are athletes). This doctor is very concerned about the possible (emphasis on possible) long-term side effects as they simply don't know enough yet.

Yes, I realize that to my many detractors in this thread that what I'm saying this doctor told me is simply reiterating my main arguments from the last 5 months. I actually just found out a couple of days ago via a mutual friend that this doctor was a member of the taskforce. Which is why I just reached out to this person today. My doubters here will likely dismiss this as just another attempt down a different path to try to make my case. All I can say is that, prior to this conversation I had never felt afraid of the virus. But, when the doc said that masks are only about 50-60% effective, especially indoors where there are large amounts of virus, combined with the level of genuine concern in their voice as they described the situation, things began to feel as "real" as I've felt since this started. So, for those that choose to not believe, that is obviously your right but, I know what I heard today and things are truly in a bad spot. At least in the Duluth area. Time will tell what our future holds but time is definitely not on our side and nor are the numbers relating to the virus. Be smart and be safe everyone.

[O-townClown]

High School hockey is obviously in turbulence right now. Looking forward into the next few years the opportunity to play in college will as well.

SUNYAC is off for the season. RIT just announced not letting their teams play this season even though Atlantic Hockey is moving forward. NCAA extending additional eligibility.

A lot of compression on the already scarce college opportunities.

[InThePipes]

And it seems like every time I check Twitter, there's another school board voting to postpone youth athletics for weeks/months (Duluth, Bloomington, St. Peter, etc.).

[jg2112]

And it seems like every time I check Twitter, there's another school board voting to postpone youth athletics for weeks/months (Duluth, Bloomington, St. Peter, etc.).

Yeah. Check out this tool:

https://jwolfson.shinyapps.io/school_openings/

You can view the data through school districts as well as counties.

Hennepin County now up to 78.1 cases per 10,000 people. Ramsey at 78.3. Other than Edina and EP, it's hard to find any school districts under the "send all your kids to distance learning" threshold of 50 per 10,000.

[elliott70]

And it seems like every time I check Twitter, there's another school board voting to postpone youth athletics for weeks/months (Duluth, Bloomington, St. Peter, etc.).

Yeah. Check out this tool:

https://jwolfson.shinyapps.io/school_openings/

You can view the data through school districts as well as counties.

Hennepin County now up to 78.1 cases per 10,000 people. Ramsey at 78.3. Other than Edina and EP, it's hard to find any school districts under the "send all your kids to distance learning" threshold of 50 per 10,000.

Hennepin and Ramsey are being punished for their recent voting error.
Just a joke...

[WestMetro]

Let’s look at some positives:

Bantam Elite league was a big success again in Aug and Sept

Private tournaments and leagues are still flourishing . There has been big growth in three on three leagues in the metro with more kids at home distance-learning and having some spare time during the day when ice time is available

The Upper Midwest HS Elite League just completed a very successful and uninterrupted season. I believe the only two teams that had to cancel any games were SSM and USA-17s if I recall correctly . Really enjoyable hockey by kids that hustle 100% , provided a good sense of well needed normalcy.

The boys and girls high school Bridge preseason league is off and running . Saw a great Andover Edina girls game Monday night. Bsm has several good games this week.

Good foresight by several people to see the need for this and the flexibility it provides, and ongoing administration . Visit Loren Nelson’s Legacy.Hockey site and twitter feed if you haven’t already for schedules, update and commentary . And find streaming for many games at Pete Waggoners MnHockey.tv , he has really stepped up this year to invest in many more cameras at many more rinks

It wouldn’t surprise me to see more and more teams joining up soon.

Minnesota Department of health has not mentioned hockey incidents in any of its recent reports or press conferences that I’m aware of. And there were no rink changes announced by the governor yesterday

[HockeyStorm]

Good to see there is still some hockey being played with a common sense approach despite all the madness about cases and people constantly feeling the need to inject their opinion.

[InThePipes]

And it seems like every time I check Twitter, there's another school board voting to postpone youth athletics for weeks/months (Duluth, Bloomington, St. Peter, etc.).

Do these developments cause MHCA, MN Hockey or MSHSL to change their course for the upcoming season?