District 15 Scores

[slow feet no hands guy]

Update level and scores please!

[defense]

Update level and scores please!

Any predictions?????

[slow feet no hands guy]

Moorhead 7
Prairie Center 0

Brainerd 2
Fergus Falls 1


Alex 8
Wadena 1

Detroit Lakes 6
Pequot Lakes 2

[GopherPuckPlayer]

Moorhead 7
Prairie Center 0

Brainerd 2
Fergus Falls 1


Alex 8
Wadena 1

Detroit Lakes 6
Pequot Lakes 2

Who did LF play? I thought it was suppose to be Fergus? Or did they get a bye?

[GopherPuckPlayer]

Well not sure who Little Falls played last night, but I was told they won 6-0.

[defense]

Moorhead 7
Prairie Center 0

Brainerd 2
Fergus Falls 1


Alex 8
Wadena 1

Detroit Lakes 6
Pequot Lakes 2

Who did LF play? I thought it was suppose to be Fergus? Or did they get a bye?

The scores posted are Peewee a.
Did Little Falls have a peewee A team this year. They are not in this tournement.
Actually the Peewee A scores as reported on the district web sight have DL winning 5-0, and Alex winning 12-0....

[Mite-dad]

LF does not have an A team this year. Reason was we had 20 kids. Not enough for an A and B team, and really too many for one team. We are currently playing in the PW B District in Sauk Centre. We could have had one large A team or one large B team. Those were our options. We chose to play B hockey because half of our kids were inexperienced players and would have been overwhelmed in A hockey. That was our conundrum this year. It was a tough decision but ultimately we chose the B option. We had 4 lines and rotated. Three lines went to each game, one stayed home. That way every kid got a nearly equal amount of ice time.

[slow feet no hands guy]

Moorhead 5
Brainerd 1

Alex 2
Detroit Lakes 1

Pequot Lakes ?
over Wadena

Brainerd 7
Pequot Lakes 1

Fergus Falls 4
Detroit Lakes 1

Sunday
Moorhead vs Alexandria for Regional 1 and 2 seeds.
Brainerd vs Fergus Falls for Regional 3 seed.

[GopherPuckPlayer]

LF does not have an A team this year. Reason was we had 20 kids. Not enough for an A and B team, and really too many for one team. We are currently playing in the PW B District in Sauk Centre. We could have had one large A team or one large B team. Those were our options. We chose to play B hockey because half of our kids were inexperienced players and would have been overwhelmed in A hockey. That was our conundrum this year. It was a tough decision but ultimately we chose the B option. We had 4 lines and rotated. Three lines went to each game, one stayed home. That way every kid got a nearly equal amount of ice time.

Heard that some of the parents weren't to happy with this, but I like the idea, equal time, gives more opportunity to develop. Example of this, most of the kids on the Bantam B team this year, some have learned more from the coaches this year, then through their entire young hockey career.

[defense]

LF does not have an A team this year. Reason was we had 20 kids. Not enough for an A and B team, and really too many for one team. We are currently playing in the PW B District in Sauk Centre. We could have had one large A team or one large B team. Those were our options. We chose to play B hockey because half of our kids were inexperienced players and would have been overwhelmed in A hockey. That was our conundrum this year. It was a tough decision but ultimately we chose the B option. We had 4 lines and rotated. Three lines went to each game, one stayed home. That way every kid got a nearly equal amount of ice time.

Heard that some of the parents weren't to happy with this, but I like the idea, equal time, gives more opportunity to develop. Example of this, most of the kids on the Bantam B team this year, some have learned more from the coaches this year, then through their entire young hockey career.

And that's all that matters. One year can do a boatload of good in a program. So they are only playing "b" level hockey. Garret Raboin played "b" hockey, he seems just fine. Good luck to Little Falls in the future.
PS
This isn't the first time they have had only one team, I think just a few years ago they did this too didn't they???
I don't think it will be too many years before a certain "Falls" team from west of Little Falls will be in a similar position, numbers are a problem not only in schools....
Anyone have updates to the Bantam A tournement??

[ivycreek]

Any results fron Sunday?

[slow feet no hands guy]

PWA
Championship
Moorhead 5
Alexandria 3

3rd Place
Brainerd 7
Fergus Falls 3


BA
Championship
Moorhead 5
Brainerd 2

3rd Place
Fergus 7?
DL 1?

PWB
Championship
Little Falls 2
Brainerd 0

[KICKED-IN-THE-PRIVATES]

LF does not have an A team this year. Reason was we had 20 kids. Not enough for an A and B team, and really too many for one team. We are currently playing in the PW B District in Sauk Centre. We could have had one large A team or one large B team. Those were our options. We chose to play B hockey because half of our kids were inexperienced players and would have been overwhelmed in A hockey. That was our conundrum this year. It was a tough decision but ultimately we chose the B option. We had 4 lines and rotated. Three lines went to each game, one stayed home. That way every kid got a nearly equal amount of ice time.

Heard that some of the parents weren't to happy with this, but I like the idea, equal time, gives more opportunity to develop. Example of this, most of the kids on the Bantam B team this year, some have learned more from the coaches this year, then through their entire young hockey career.[/quote
Which part were they not happy with? The fact that they played "B" hockey and had a fun year? I don't get some people. Did they want to bring 4 lines to every game? Did they want two teams with an experienced goalie and 9 skaters on one team and an enexperienced goalie and 10 skaters on another? Hope no one gets sick, hurt, or quits a team. And who was going to coach the other team? Did any of these "unhappy people" step-up and say "I'll coach a team?" I hope that these parents weren't actually "unhappy", just disappointed in our total # of players. I have to wonder if these unhappy parents still feel the same way now that their child got to experience winning a district tournament??

[Player's Dad]

I'm a fairly new hockey parent and the District 15 B1 tourney was my first time at a District event. I heard a lot of "buzz" about Little Falls there and it appeared that it was not about the size of their team, but rather their transparency in playing at the B level.

By definition, B hockey should be for the 2nd tier kids from a community. A Hockey should be for the top kids. From what I heard, it appeared that the team on the ice at the Districts was not representative of the teams that Little Falls sent to games over the course of the season. This seemed to bother most of the other teams. Where those top players played during the season seemed to also be a question no one got ansewered in Sauk Centre.

Whether they rotated teams during the season really doesn't matter if they bring their top talent level kids to a B tournament. Those top 7-10 kids are really A players. It appeared also that those top two lines played almost exclusively at the District Tournament meaning the LF B players were relegated to the bench. When you consider that the other teams at the District B tournament represent player talent #15-30 from most associations and LF played with their top 10 kids you can see why other communities get angry over this.

District 15 has communities like Wadena and Sauk Centre playing A hockey and a strong historical team (they have been to the High School State Tourney for the past five seasons) like LF playing only B is somewhat of a "Sandbagging" issue.

Again, I'm pretty new to this, however, the team that LF put on the ice in the District 15 tourney would have competed fine with most of the District 15 A teams. In my opinion, playing their top A level kids at a B level tournament was a dis-service to all the teams that played by the rules and brought their B team.

[Mite-dad]

I'm a fairly new hockey parent and the District 15 B1 tourney was my first time at a District event. I heard a lot of "buzz" about Little Falls there and it appeared that it was not about the size of their team, but rather their transparency in playing at the B level.

By definition, B hockey should be for the 2nd tier kids from a community. A Hockey should be for the top kids. From what I heard, it appeared that the team on the ice at the Districts was not representative of the teams that Little Falls sent to games over the course of the season. This seemed to bother most of the other teams. Where those top players played during the season seemed to also be a question no one got ansewered in Sauk Centre.

Whether they rotated teams during the season really doesn't matter if they bring their top talent level kids to a B tournament. Those top 7-10 kids are really A players. It appeared also that those top two lines played almost exclusively at the District Tournament meaning the LF B players were relegated to the bench. When you consider that the other teams at the District B tournament represent player talent #15-30 from most associations and LF played with their top 10 kids you can see why other communities get angry over this.

District 15 has communities like Wadena and Sauk Centre playing A hockey and a strong historical team (they have been to the High School State Tourney for the past five seasons) like LF playing only B is somewhat of a "Sandbagging" issue.

Again, I'm pretty new to this, however, the team that LF put on the ice in the District 15 tourney would have competed fine with most of the District 15 A teams. In my opinion, playing their top A level kids at a B level tournament was a dis-service to all the teams that played by the rules and brought their B team.

I understand completely the frustration that parents from other associations may have felt at the district tournament. But from my viewing, LF ran 3 lines throughout the tournament. In fact, I think it was a key that helped them to win the championship as Brainerd may have run out of gas running just two lines. The fact is, with the awkward number of kids we had, we had to choose between playing A or B hockey with one BIG team. IMVHO, we have one average A line, one average B1 line, one B2 line and 1 C line. This is how the coach organized the team. He set up 4 lines according to ability. So if that A line didn't play against your team during the regular season, it was because it was there game "off". The other 3 lines were there at your game. As I said earlier, we rotated 3 lines to each game so the whole team was never at a single game until districts. It was decided at the beginning of the season that playing time for all lines would be equal throughout the regular season but come tournament time, the top lines would get more time. Parents agreed to this. I know some folks don't agree with "shortening the bench", but the top three lines all contributed in the tournament and the 4th line also saw some playing time.

By playing A hockey w/ B2 and C level players, its questionable if those lower skilled kids can improve at all in game situations. When we were hashing out what level we would play at, the opinions of other associations were of no concern. We wanted what would be best for the development of the players we had.

LF has a history of dealing w/ a low number of kids in hockey. Socio-economic realities (Morrison Co. has real issues) and competition w/ other sports for athletes is a struggle here. That's why we have 5 freshmen playing varsity hockey. A successful high school run here has not led to a huge influx of kids in youth hockey.

LF winning the district tournament was not "cheating" as some pathetic fans were screaming. LF lost twice to Alexandria and split with Brainerd during the regular season. LF kids really started playing well towards the end of the year and came into the tournament on a roll. The key, I think, was that B1 level line really improved at the end of the year.

IMVHO again, I think at any given game, Brainerd, Alexandria or Moorhead could beat LF with the same kids on the ice. My question is, why don't communities have more than 1 A team? Obviously, if LF should have played A hockey, then other B teams would also be competitive playing A hockey. Why not? I think the reason is that parents and players want to have success and increase the development potential of their kids. And that is the same reason we played B hockey. It wasn't so we would have a stacked team to win districts.

Annnnnyyyyyywwwwaaaayyyyyy, I know I didn't satisfy all the critics. The good news is that next year we should have enough kids to play A and B hockey. So all the other associations can get their revenge next year.

[flyingV]

I wish District 15 would dictate that if community only has 1 team, it should play A. If it has 2, it should play 1 A and 1 B. This has always varied from year to year and some towns switch up. The district 15 teams (with exception of Moorhead, who with their numbers always will have A, B, and maybe C teams,) are all fairly competitve with each other. If they would all just plan to do the same thing year in year out it would be more balanced and competitive.

[Mite-dad]

I wish District 15 would dictate that if community only has 1 team, it should play A. If it has 2, it should play 1 A and 1 B. This has always varied from year to year and some towns switch up. The district 15 teams (with exception of Moorhead, who with their numbers always will have A, B, and maybe C teams,) are all fairly competitve with each other. If they would all just plan to do the same thing year in year out it would be more balanced and competitive.

I totally (and respectfully) disagree. The problem with doing that is if you don't have kids that have the skills to compete, then you will gain little by being thrashed every weekend. What the kids learn to do is backcheck and stand in the defensive zone and try to defend their goal. Its a small victory to just get the puck into the neutral zone. They have little to no success breaking into the offensive zone. IMO, associations should decide based on the talent they have.

[Zebos]

So if that A line didn't play against your team during the regular season, it was because it was there game "off". The other 3 lines were there at your game.

I have no problem with LF fielding a B team and no A team. The district makes the rules and as long as they are followed then there is nothing anyone can do about it. Prairie Centre did it last year and won districts.

One rumors going around at districts was that some of the kids on the PWB roster played bantams during the year. Did any of the kids that played in B1 districts play in any bantam games during the season?

[defense]

I'm a fairly new hockey parent and the District 15 B1 tourney was my first time at a District event. I heard a lot of "buzz" about Little Falls there and it appeared that it was not about the size of their team, but rather their transparency in playing at the B level.

By definition, B hockey should be for the 2nd tier kids from a community. A Hockey should be for the top kids. From what I heard, it appeared that the team on the ice at the Districts was not representative of the teams that Little Falls sent to games over the course of the season. This seemed to bother most of the other teams. Where those top players played during the season seemed to also be a question no one got ansewered in Sauk Centre.

Whether they rotated teams during the season really doesn't matter if they bring their top talent level kids to a B tournament. Those top 7-10 kids are really A players. It appeared also that those top two lines played almost exclusively at the District Tournament meaning the LF B players were relegated to the bench. When you consider that the other teams at the District B tournament represent player talent #15-30 from most associations and LF played with their top 10 kids you can see why other communities get angry over this.

District 15 has communities like Wadena and Sauk Centre playing A hockey and a strong historical team (they have been to the High School State Tourney for the past five seasons) like LF playing only B is somewhat of a "Sandbagging" issue.

Again, I'm pretty new to this, however, the team that LF put on the ice in the District 15 tourney would have competed fine with most of the District 15 A teams. In my opinion, playing their top A level kids at a B level tournament was a dis-service to all the teams that played by the rules and brought their B team.

Forget the "buzz" and forget what you maybe thought you knew about Little Falls hockey.
First off, this issue has been up before, I'm sure of it. I know for a fact that district 15 had the rule saying that only one team in a program means they have to compete in the A tournement and A district. They must have changed it at some point back to this way, because they had this format, then changed to A team rule, now back to this. A few things on the A team rule: programs with low numbers and one team often times played B teams in the regular season. B teams from stronger programs often times routed the one team from the lesser program, then those teams were expected to play an A tournement. We're talking say, DL or Fergus against Benson or Sauk Centre......orrrrrr...Little Falls.
Wich brings me to Little Falls. As much success as Little Falls has had the last 5 years, truth is 7 or 8 years ago, Little Falls had some decent games against Wadena, or Sauk Centre, or Benson...... Little Falls rode the talent of a few completely AWESOME players to 5 straight section championships. Ben Hanowski and Jared Festler are now playing for and hopefully helping St. Cloud State to some deep run into the NCAA tournement. I'm not saying that Little Falls is not gaining momentum in hockey, they likely are. I'm also not saying that only 2 players made a championship team....what I am saying is that those two players likely had a huge influence on their teamates growing up. What I am also saying is that "historically", Little Falls is NOT a strong program, they're not even an old program. Anyone who has been around traveling hockey for 10 years even is lying to themselves if they think that Little Falls is strong enough to perrenially field an A team that will even try to compete...much less have thoughts about moving beyond districts.

I am not trying to rip Little Falls down here. I hope they do continue to grow. I don't know how it is anymore, but when I played, the Little Falls players were about the most respectable team we played. Great sportsmanship. And I come from one of Little Falls' chief rivals.

Now, in the near future I know that this same issue will be taken up at numerouse other programs around the district and likely state. Numbers are down, declining enrollment is going to and already is leading to declining numbers in hockey. My stance would be completely different if this was happening in Brainerd, or Alexandria, Detroit Lakes or Fergus Falls. In the future it likely will, and though at this point I think it will be sad to see any of those teams not have an A team, it may be just the way it is.

[Mite-dad]

No PW players played a second of bantam hockey.

[Zebos]

No PW players played a second of bantam hockey.

Glad to hear it.

How is #19 from LF PWB? Did he play again after Friday's game?

He went hard to the net and, from my angle, it looked like he caught the post pretty hard.

[Mite-dad]

Didn't play the rest of the weekend. Concussion.

[KICKED-IN-THE-PRIVATES]

I wish District 15 would dictate that if community only has 1 team, it should play A. If it has 2, it should play 1 A and 1 B. This has always varied from year to year and some towns switch up. The district 15 teams (with exception of Moorhead, who with their numbers always will have A, B, and maybe C teams,) are all fairly competitve with each other. If they would all just plan to do the same thing year in year out it would be more balanced and competitive.

You are so far off on this, it is crazy... This is youth hockey, not varsity hockey. Are Little Falls kids (or wadena, sauk centre, M/B, DL, Long Prairie) expected to compete with the Moorhead's, Brainerd's, and St. Cloud's of the world year-in Year-out at an A level? NO. The pure numbers game say this is unrealistic. That's why the Minnesota State High School League set up AA and A varsity levels. The fact that some associations have decided they need to always play "A" Hockey is their own mistake. You have to realistically judge your own talent. Hockey is suppose to be fun. What fun is it to get your head beat in every Game? I could see you point if LF beat everyone in the Pee-Wee tourny 8 -0 etc, you may of had a point. But that was not the case. 6-3 over a good alex team and 2-0 over Brainerd sounds like very competitive games. Isn't that what we want?

Since we are making proposal's to district 15, how about we go by enrollment. Say... for every 500 students you have in grades 9-12, you have that many A Teams and the rest would play B's. For example:
Brainerd 1964 Students 3 A Teams
MoorHead 1527 3 A Teams
Alex 1278 2 A Teams
Northern Lakes 1185 2 A Teams
Apollo 1165 2 A Teams (St. Cloud Youth Hockey would have 5)
Willmar 1119 2 A Teams
Sartell 885 1 A Team
Little Falls 854 1 A Team
Fergus Falls 814 1 A Team
D.L. 785 1 A Team
LP/SC 760 1 A Team
M/B 583 1 A Team
Wadena 458 1 A Team

Brainerd has 1500 more kids than Wadena and that's going to garner a level playing field? What do they do at the youth baseball levels? They have AA and AAA. Flying V get a clue....

[defense]

I wish District 15 would dictate that if community only has 1 team, it should play A. If it has 2, it should play 1 A and 1 B. This has always varied from year to year and some towns switch up. The district 15 teams (with exception of Moorhead, who with their numbers always will have A, B, and maybe C teams,) are all fairly competitve with each other. If they would all just plan to do the same thing year in year out it would be more balanced and competitive.

You are so far off on this, it is crazy... This is youth hockey, not varsity hockey. Are Little Falls kids (or wadena, sauk centre, M/B, DL, Long Prairie) expected to compete with the Moorhead's, Brainerd's, and St. Cloud's of the world year-in Year-out at an A level? NO. The pure numbers game say this is unrealistic. That's why the Minnesota State High School League set up AA and A varsity levels. The fact that some associations have decided they need to always play "A" Hockey is their own mistake. You have to realistically judge your own talent. Hockey is suppose to be fun. What fun is it to get your head beat in every Game? I could see you point if LF beat everyone in the Pee-Wee tourny 8 -0 etc, you may of had a point. But that was not the case. 6-3 over a good alex team and 2-0 over Brainerd sounds like very competitive games. Isn't that what we want?

Since we are making proposal's to district 15, how about we go by enrollment. Say... for every 500 students you have in grades 9-12, you have that many A Teams and the rest would play B's. For example:
Brainerd 1964 Students 3 A Teams
MoorHead 1527 3 A Teams
Alex 1278 2 A Teams
Northern Lakes 1185 2 A Teams
Apollo 1165 2 A Teams (St. Cloud Youth Hockey would have 5)
Willmar 1119 2 A Teams
Sartell 885 1 A Team
Little Falls 854 1 A Team
Fergus Falls 814 1 A Team
D.L. 785 1 A Team
LP/SC 760 1 A Team
M/B 583 1 A Team
Wadena 458 1 A Team

Brainerd has 1500 more kids than Wadena and that's going to garner a level playing field? What do they do at the youth baseball levels? They have AA and AAA. Flying V get a clue....

Ummmm.....Sartell, St. Cloud, Willmar, ...not in district 15.

[KICKED-IN-THE-PRIVATES]

You are so far off on this, it is crazy... This is youth hockey, not varsity hockey. Are Little Falls kids (or wadena, sauk centre, M/B, DL, Long Prairie) expected to compete with the Moorhead's, Brainerd's, and St. Cloud's of the world year-in Year-out at an A level? NO. The pure numbers game say this is unrealistic. That's why the Minnesota State High School League set up AA and A varsity levels. The fact that some associations have decided they need to always play "A" Hockey is their own mistake. You have to realistically judge your own talent. Hockey is suppose to be fun. What fun is it to get your head beat in every Game? I could see you point if LF beat everyone in the Pee-Wee tourny 8 -0 etc, you may of had a point. But that was not the case. 6-3 over a good alex team and 2-0 over Brainerd sounds like very competitive games. Isn't that what we want?

Since we are making proposal's to district 15, how about we go by enrollment. Say... for every 500 students you have in grades 9-12, you have that many A Teams and the rest would play B's. For example:
Brainerd 1964 Students 3 A Teams
MoorHead 1527 3 A Teams
Alex 1278 2 A Teams
Northern Lakes 1185 2 A Teams
Apollo 1165 2 A Teams (St. Cloud Youth Hockey would have 5)
Willmar 1119 2 A Teams
Sartell 885 1 A Team
Little Falls 854 1 A Team
Fergus Falls 814 1 A Team
D.L. 785 1 A Team
LP/SC 760 1 A Team
M/B 583 1 A Team
Wadena 458 1 A Team

Brainerd has 1500 more kids than Wadena and that's going to garner a level playing field? What do they do at the youth baseball levels? They have AA and AAA. Flying V get a clue....[/quote]

Ummmm.....Sartell, St. Cloud, Willmar, ...not in district 15.[/quote]

I know they're not, but their common opponents, and section opponents at the varsity level.... I was just using them to show the enrollment differences.....