D8 next year

[hockeyguy11]

Who is going to be strong and some predictions as well.

[cmf]

Woodbury and Eagan are both very powerful.both Lakeville teams will be decent. Rochester will be okay. Sibley B's last year won the regular season and they were mostly first years. They will be okay if everyone stays but I doubt it.

[HShockey2180]

Rochester ok? Rochester is going to have only 1 A team, which means they are combining the best kids from South and the best kids from North and they will play together on one team...they will be better than ok, i wouldn't be surprised if they win the district. Especially considering how good North did last year without the best kids from South

[Sioux Fan]

Rochester Youth Hockey.

How do you plan to fill 4 high school teams with one Bantam A team.

I expect the world bantam championship must be the ultimate goal of all young aspiring high school players in Rochester.

I think in observing the high schools the past few years the players that fll the voids would benefit quite a bit by playing A hockey as pee wees and bantams and getting better and filling the needs of the high school programs. I am sure if the so called hockey experts would leave it up to the kids they would find the guys in their junior highs and grade schools to fill the roster/ if your development program is an upside down triangle you get the kind of high school hockey that we have had the past few years

[Pucknutz69]

Don't get me started on this again. I think we would be good if we got the best kids from every surronding community and put them on on A team. I got one namen for you Taylor Funk from.........Winona. He played a year of high school then went and played a year with Rochester North. Yes they drove to Rochester for every practice and game. How many more are there from towns without a large hockey association? and now they are putting the top kids on one team. It's not how hard your team trains or plays it's how many you get to chose from at tryouts. I commend Lakeville for using a level playing field and keeping the kids that are heading south on the south.

#1 - Woodbury = returning 12 players
#2 - Rochester = if this is the summer team I have seen around they will be alright.
#3 - Cottage Grove - 9 returning, big.
#4 - Eagan
#5 - Lakeville N
#6 - Lakeville S

[mrslasher]

Sioux Fan, its been discussed before, most people I think would agree that Rochester is making a big mistake. The problem is the board is currently occupied by parents who's sons juuust so happen to be moving from PeeWee to Bantam, aaand those same board members are the coaches. Slash and burn mentality just so those parent can gave glory through their kids supposed championship run. Many people cannot stand and do not support the current makeup of the youth hockey board.

Regarding last year, Funk was the only kid from out of town on either team. Next year he'll be playing for Lourdes I believe.

[HShockey2180]

I agree with mrslasher, the board is filled with parents who are determined to have their kids play on the "A" team, but assuming all the returning bantam A players from North and South last year and the top players from the B1 team who did very well, assuming they all play A's, not much room will be left for first years moving up to bantams. Politics has far to much impact on Rochester hockey, and i disagree with the way the board is running things, but i still think they will have a good A team. IMO

[jackstraw]

Roch's No. team last year was substantially down from previous year's and the So. team was very average. Where Roch. No. used to throw 3 VERY strong lines at you , last year it was 2 with a weak 3rd line. People will say that there were bantam eligible player's on HS team's and that would be correct. That problem won't change, it will get worse. Trying to field 4 HS team's with 2 A team's creates diluted HS team's and therefore a need to pull up the best Bantam's. This is a vicious cycle that won't get better. Also remember that last year your neighbor's to the West (Dodge Co.) had a better A Pee Wee team than the almighty Roch.

[mrslasher]

Keep in mind jackstraw, Rochester North was coached by one of the very board members we speak about, in fact he was the President elect...without naming names, he has for years put his very average 'center' kid on every shift of every game with the best 1-2 players on the team, it was part of the reason for the North's downfall in fact as I see it. Last years team was definately better than the previous years talent that didn't even make it out of districts. The failures as you see can mainly fall on the coach/president/parent situation there.

[nitch1992]

There is politics in all youth sports and for that matter High School sports. This isn't something that is unique to Rochester. I'm not sure how many of you are from Rochester and for that matter closely involved in the Rochester Youth Hockey Program. I don't know that you can blame the level of play at the high school level on those folks running the youth program. First off just because you have a community of 80-90 thousand does not mean you have the talent pool to put infinite numbers of A teams or great high school teams on the ice. The population grwoth in Rochester has not affected the number of kids participating in a lot of youth sports other than maybe soccer. You can look at all of the other sport programs in Rochester and you see some of the same things happening. I also know from experience that a program can lose as many kids due to being outmatched (getting beat every 3 out of 4 games) as they can due to them not playing at a certain level. If you look at what the Rochester Pee Wee teams did last year it would give you an indication as to the talent level at that age group. The Pee Wee A District team finished 4th in Districts, finished 3rd in the District Tournament and went on to Regions (got beat their first two games). The Pee Wee A Tournament team was what .500, the Pee Wee B teams didn't fair much better. Just because a kid signed up for hockey does not mean he has the ability or even wants to play at the A level. Also, allowing all kids to play at the A level does not ensure that they are going to get better. Some kids do regress There are some people that say Rochester should have 3 or 4 A teams to develop kids for the 4 high school teams. Doing that does not mean you will have 4 good high school teams. You are more than likely going to end up with 4 mediocre A teams that would get beat the majority of the time. Also, regarding the comment that Dodge County had a better Pee Wee A team than the almighty Roch.. If you look at the Dodge County program they had an A team at the Pee Wee level and all other levels had nothing more than a B team. The reason for this is because they had a very talented group of kids at this age level. Were they a better team than the Rochester Pee Wee A team, not sure that is the case. The were a very good team. They beat Rochester during the regular season and finished 3rd in the District. As mentioned before Rochester finished 4th in the District and beat Dodge County in the District Tournament.

Bottom line is ask your son/daughter if they are having fun. If they say yes then why not leave it at that. Most kids know at what level they should be playing it's the parents that have a hard time accepting where their son/daughter ends up playing.

[hockeyguy11]

i posted this topic on how d8 will be next year and whos goin to be strong. can we stop talking about rochester and go do it somewhere else plz

[havefun09]

1. woodburry
2. roachester
3. this ones a big upset lakeville south
4.cottage grove
5. eagen
6. rosemount
7. lakeville north
8. sibley area

[lakevillesouthBantamA]

3. this ones a big upset lakeville south

no it aint ;)

i would think it would be a dissapointment to have anything less with a 4th ranked peewee A team most of last season

what team were you on last year?