2008 MN Selects Tournament

[GR3343]

ok all the best players are on the fire.. so were having a tournament with all the runner ups to be the best is that better?

I think all he was eluding to is the fact that a small group of players are prejudiced against not because of where they live, but because of where they play.

If a kid lives in the state boundary of Minnesota, he should be afforded the same option of trying out for a select/super/15's/16's/whatever irregardless of where they play. How do players from Shattuck get judged? Minnesota or home?

There are kids that play in Detroit in the winter but will find there way to national 16 camp through the southwest/southeast/wherever because mom and dad live in Arizona or California or wherever (example).

Why the prejudice here?

This is a fine arguement, with one exception. There are no tryouts for Elite Classic, SuperSeries or MN Selects. The players are(at least where I'm from)contacted and offered a spot based on a coach's recommendation or after having been seen by the actual coach of whichever squad. So if you play in Wisconsin, your odds of being seen by a Minnesota coach are limited.

[watchdog]

i have nothing against the wisconsin fire. its just the cockiness that the guy used. ill tell ya what their is more than enough talent in the state of minnesota to make a good super series and selects tourney.

[Snappedshot]

Watchdog - I feel the same way. He has a point but the delivery was poor thus the message wasn't well received.

[Tenoverpar]

GR3343, great reply. Excellent points and makes perfect sense.
Watchdog, agree completely, but these kids are Minnesotans.
Snapped, sorry the delivery wasn't to your expectations just trying to see the big picture (me).

[watchdog]

i know their minnesota kids well atleast most of them and i have no idea why they cant play makes no sense to me. what im saying is theirs plenty of talent left in minnesota to fill these teams. i have seen very few weak players in these tournys those involved do a great job to put together a good field.

[topshelf3]

Not sure what all the fuss is about they FIRE kids not being able to play in the MN Advanced 15 tournament... A number of them did last year and they can this year... Not a big deal. IF they live in MN and pay USA dues which they do then they play.

[watchdog]

were talking about selects and superseries

[topshelf3]

thanks for the clarification WD

[Pens4]

why the attitude towards the Fire kids do you not like them for some
reason or another. Do you prefer to play some patsies so you can try
and call yourself something you are not and that isn't really fair to do
to the kids. Oh well have fun at the selects we will be at the Chi Town
Shuffle in Chicago playing against some of the best summer AAA teams.
Why doesn't somebody in the North put together a team ? I have never
heard of a team that anybody is talking about like Honeybaked by the way
that is from Northern Minnesota. I also have heard allot about a couple
of teams in the cities that if you are not ready to play will blow your doors
OFF.. sounds like the Northern Wannabees better step it's game up.. Play
the big Dogs and prove you are as good as you think you are... Do not
use the baseball excuse this is a hockey forum... Keep at it you may catch
up to the other 49 states that are developing the kids by playing the best
and toughest competiton they can find and winning at it. It's called earning
the right to know if you are good or is it the Northern think you are good

5thgraders...Obviously you have a lot of passion for the AAA deal. I actually think it is the only viable option in many of the cities that you probably see during the season. You mentioned a team like Honeybaked or little Cesare's or Compuware. Have you seen youth teams in the Detroit area? Where elese could they play good team. Ask any of those parents and they would kill to have the competion we have in MN and the affordability.

Its great that you think this is the best route for your kid...BUT when you start abusing the heart and sole of MN hockey tradition it just shows ignorance and that you probably never played in the state. My kids play in Eden Prairie and I would put our schedule up against anyone in the counrty. Edina, Burnsville, Minnetonka too. You might want to take a step back with your self-proclaimed big dog comment. This state offers too many hockey moments to be trash talked.

[MoreCowBell]

All I can say to the talent level of Minnesota Hockey compared Tier 1 hockey. Coon Rapids #1 Pee Wee team in the state at the time vs. 96 Fire (1 to 2 yrs. younger) with the Fire winning 2-0, now tell me how good is Minnesota hockey really is when the top team in Minnesota gets beat by a team quite a bit younger. When are people from Minnesota going to get over their arrogance and admit that the rest of the country is producing some pretty good hockey players outside the state of hockey.

[greybeard58]

How many players from the fire are actually from Minnesota?

[cutanddrive]

All I can say to the talent level of Minnesota Hockey compared Tier 1 hockey. Coon Rapids #1 Pee Wee team in the state at the time vs. 96 Fire (1 to 2 yrs. younger) with the Fire winning 2-0, now tell me how good is Minnesota hockey really is when the top team in Minnesota gets beat by a team quite a bit younger. When are people from Minnesota going to get over their arrogance and admit that the rest of the country is producing some pretty good hockey players outside the state of hockey.

Last time I checked the CR PW team was made up of kids that all resided in their school district. A better comparison would be an "all star" team of kids from the whole mn hockey district CR is in, not just the school district they are in - and then play your Fire. Do you really think the results would be the same?

[Tenoverpar]

cutanddrive- As long as that "all star" team was 96 birth year players, I'd say the Fire 96's would be just fine. Considering they were able to take a team with 95's and 94's. (didn't someone say in another post that the 96 Fire has several of Bernie's 96 Machine on it?) If you want to compare association PWA to Tier 1 AAA, you'd have to matchup CR with the 94 Fire.
Same age level kids on the roster I believe.

[bernie007]

cutanddrive- As long as that "all star" team was 96 birth year players, I'd say the Fire 96's would be just fine. Considering they were able to take a team with 95's and 94's. (didn't someone say in another post that the 96 Fire has several of Bernie's 96 Machine on it?) If you want to compare association PWA to Tier 1 AAA, you'd have to matchup CR with the 94 Fire.
Same age level kids on the roster I believe.

I do not only agree
I am convinced you know what you are talking about Tenoverpar you
really do and I mean REALLY do get it Congrats to the best student of
the game on this entire hockey forum you can be on my Team anytime
anyplace you are going to go places with knowledge that goes way beyond
what some of these other pretenders are talking about.

[cutanddrive]

[quote="Tenoverpar"]cutanddrive- As long as that "all star" team was 96 birth year players, I'd say the Fire 96's would be just fine.

Going to the mn hockey edirectory I see the teams in CR district

District 10

Andover
Anoka
Becker/Big Lake
Blaine
Braham
Cambridge/Isanti
Centennial
Champlin-Park
Chisago Lakes
Coon Rapids
Elk River
Hinckley
Mora
North Branch
Pine City
Princeton
Rogers
Sauk Rapids
Spring Lake Park
St. Cloud
St. Francis

I would think a person could find some first year A Pw 96's that could possibly compete. Heck, maybe there's a few Machine/Fire caliber players out there in that district.

[My_Kid_Loves_Hockey]

Oh well have fun at the selects we will be at the Chi Town
Shuffle in Chicago playing against some of the best summer AAA teams.

The selects are March 27th-March 30th is St. Cloud correct? Same weekend as the Super Series?

I found on the web that the Bresy Chi-Town Shuffle is April 18th-20th.

I believe also that the Detroit Honeybaked, Compuware, Little Cesars etc are teams they play all winter on or do they select new ones for the summer?

I guess if your player is going to one of these deals, you take it for what it should be... A FUN EXPERIENCE FOR THEM!

[gilmour]

My Kid Loves Hockey, you are correct...they are the same weekend and yes the dates of the Chi Town tourney are correct. The 98 MN Icemen are going to Chicago.

[Tenoverpar]

Bernie007, nice 4th post buddy. Do you have anything worth the conversation or just insults?

CR, you are absolutely right, there are PLENTY of kids in EVERY district that are better than or as good as any Fire/Machine/whoever and if brought together as a team would easily compete with any AAA team anywhere. But that would mean all of the local ego's would have to go out the door. THe kid that's a first line stud on CR may be a 3rd line grinder on that team, can daddy handle it????

[watchdog]

you dont need to talk about how good the fire really is compared to minnesota AAA teams look at the summer record. the fire cant even compete in the meltdown invite. the fire would win one game and thats about it. at the 95 level they probley wouldnt even win that

[Pens4]

"MoreCowBell" said All I can say to the talent level of Minnesota Hockey compared Tier 1 hockey. Coon Rapids #1 Pee Wee team in the state at the time vs. 96 Fire (1 to 2 yrs. younger) with the Fire winning 2-0, now tell me how good is Minnesota hockey really is when the top team in Minnesota gets beat by a team quite a bit younger. When are people from Minnesota going to get over their arrogance and admit that the rest of the country is producing some pretty good hockey players outside the state of hockey.

You're missing the point...when was it said that there are no good players outside the state of MN? The comment was that no other place in the country has such a high density of solid competition...or a program that families with average means can play at a high level. If being proud of that is arrogance than so be it.

[MoreCowBell]

you dont need to talk about how good the fire really is compared to minnesota AAA teams look at the summer record. the fire cant even compete in the meltdown invite. the fire would win one game and thats about it. at the 95 level they probley wouldnt even win that

The Meltdown invite is after the season, the team is resolved so we won't know if they can win more than one game, wait a minute hmmmmm. since most of the 96 Fire play on the Machine, they might just win more than one game. Care to revise your prediction.

[watchdog]

no because the 96 machine wouldnt beat anyone at the 95 or 94 level in which their playing against in peewee hockey. the diffrence is their playing against associations now with a hand picked team. doesnt mean much to people who know hockey. i have to say it is impressive for a 96 age group to beat the top peewee team in the state. although i think the machine are impressive in the summer their not blowing teams off the ice.

[hockeyfantasy]

Pens4 needs a reality check. "we will be at Chi Town Shuffle in Chicago....." WOW!!!!! Anyone that takes their kid out of their own school sports program because they think they are better than everyone, needs to take a reality pill. Did you know that sniffing that much Elmers Glue causes serious brain damage?

[Pens4]

Pens4 needs a reality check. "we will be at Chi Town Shuffle in Chicago....." WOW!!!!! Anyone that takes their kid out of their own school sports program because they think they are better than everyone, needs to take a reality pill. Did you know that sniffing that much Elmers Glue causes serious brain damage?

What are you talking about? What school program?

[My_Kid_Loves_Hockey]

Pens4 needs a reality check. "we will be at Chi Town Shuffle in Chicago....." WOW!!!!! Anyone that takes their kid out of their own school sports program because they think they are better than everyone, needs to take a reality pill. Did you know that sniffing that much Elmers Glue causes serious brain damage? Laughing

Having your kid miss a day of school means you need to have reality check?

How many kids have missed a day to go to an out of town tournament?