HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

thinkb4engaging wrote:Do not think it is Davis except for his not being able or willing to make changes in their association. Everyone in Wayzata blames Davis or the private schools, they have losts of very, very good players in Mites and Squirts. They have good coaches. Unfortunately, the player development group and folks in "power" are listening to the wrong people (and not listening to their true bosses- their parents) when is comes to the structure of their program. Until you have more boys playing A hockey (2 teams an A1 and A2) they will only help a small percentage of their players reach their potential. Who cares if you come in 1st in 2nd at the B level. That would only be great if they have two(2) A teams in place, but not when you are holding back kids and only having 10% of your players play A hockey at each level. Could go on and on........................lot's and lot's of players are becoming the best B players in STATE. It is a shame.

Listen to parents? IMHO that would be the worst thing you could do. Theres no need to reinvent the wheel, just copy what a succesful similar sized program does. Like Edina. How many A teams do they have?

Neutron:

WOW-your memory is short. Just because you have 5-6 great players in the pipeline, you think your ASSOCIATION program is great. How many years did I hear about Gilles being on the chopping block? They have not been a perennial powerhouse for a long time. What has been done over there in the past ten years? Yes, great tradition but not much happened over there until last year. Did not Benilde beat them in the playoffs a couple years ago. Just wait and see what happens to Gilles if you do not have a good showing in STATE. They are in the same boat as Wayzata and should expand their A teams. They used to have two(2) A teams in their glory days when it was East and West. More kids developed at a higher level in those days.

Two A teams for Wayzata smells trouble. There is no way the A2 team would be competitive enough at the Bantam A level. Bantam B1 hockey is much different than Bantam A, you cannot have an average B1 hockey player playing Bantam A, it would not work.

Hockey Guy:

Since associations like Wayzata and Edina have not had the foresight to start this process at Squirts and Pee Wees, I agree all of a sudden at Bantams it would be a tougher road. But the Wayzata class at Bantams would be more competitive than you think if given the opportunity and good coaching. They would play a A2 schedule similar to the Rochester Bantam A2
team. Rochester has fiqured it out since they need to feed four(4) high school teams. But since it is about winning a championship at the Wayzata B11 level, this will not happen. Again shame on them!

rickwardo44 wrote:wayzata is in trouble this year and they may have trouble with the class a teams on their schedule

I think Wayzata will surprise a lot of teams. They have some talent bubbling up (juniors and sophomores) and if they can make the squad, they should be throwing more pucks into the net. Wayzata lost a lot of one goal games to some very good teams last year. It isn't going to take much to get them over the hump.

hockeyguy99 wrote:Two A teams for Wayzata smells trouble. There is no way the A2 team would be competitive enough at the Bantam A level. Bantam B1 hockey is much different than Bantam A, you cannot have an average B1 hockey player playing Bantam A, it would not work.

Hockeyguy, Why wouldn't it work? Lakeville does it and their competitive. Wayzata could have 2 equal A teams. They could do this at All their levels, Squirts & PeeWee's. It just sounds like that Wayzata is afraid of losing. Doing 2 A teams your giving more kids to develop at the A level. They should give it a try and see. Its about development.

Your top end players would not be playing with other highly skilled players and that would hurt your high school program in the long run. The only possitive I can see from having two A teams is a great JV team.

hockeyguy99 wrote:Your top end players would not be playing with other highly skilled players and that would hurt your high school program in the long run. The only possitive I can see from having two A teams is a great JV team.

The whole point is that the association is big enough and has enough top end players to support two A teams. If they were to adopt an A1 A2 format the people on each team would be the same. The only thing that would change would be instead of playing a B1 schedule the A2 team would be playing an A schedule.

Hockeyguy:

This is easily solved with an A1 and A2 team. No questions asked.



hockeyguy99 wrote:
Your top end players would not be playing with other highly skilled players and that would hurt your high school program in the long run. The only possitive I can see from having two A teams is a great JV team.

I wanted to bring this thread back up and find out what kind of team Wayzata is going to bring to the 2008 season? I know last year was relatively disappointing...will this year be better?

HOFam'r wrote:I wanted to bring this thread back up and find out what kind of team Wayzata is going to bring to the 2008 season? I know last year was relatively disappointing...will this year be better?

Granted it was only a scrimmage and I don't know who the coaches were throwing out on the ice but I did not see the level of play from Wayzata as I did from Edina or Rosemount in the one game I saw them play.

WayOutWest wrote:

rickwardo44 wrote:wayzata is in trouble this year and they may have trouble with the class a teams on their schedule

I think Wayzata will surprise a lot of teams. They have some talent bubbling up (juniors and sophomores) and if they can make the squad, they should be throwing more pucks into the net. Wayzata lost a lot of one goal games to some very good teams last year. It isn't going to take much to get them over the hump.

They may have lost one goal games because they had one of the best goalies in the state.

HOFam'r wrote:I wanted to bring this thread back up and find out what kind of team Wayzata is going to bring to the 2008 season? I know last year was relatively disappointing...will this year be better?

Reflect back, how did the core group of kids that made this year's team perform at Pee Wees and Bantams. Take away one of the best goalies in the state and I would think Wayzata will be good but not great.

breakout wrote:

HOFam'r wrote:I wanted to bring this thread back up and find out what kind of team Wayzata is going to bring to the 2008 season? I know last year was relatively disappointing...will this year be better?

Reflect back, how did the core group of kids that made this year's team perform at Pee Wees and Bantams. Take away one of the best goalies in the state and I would think Wayzata will be good but not great.

I saw their Bantam team a couple years ago and you are right...they were ok...but not great. If I remember right they don't have alot of flash on their team and while always solid defensively I am thinking they might have trouble scoring???

Wayzata has 12 lettermen returning to play varsity, but again no scorers. An ok Goalie, great D, no offense. I see lots of last year all over again.

Does anyone have a roster for Wayzata?

This is the roster submitted to the Minnesota State High School League

http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/schoolactpag ... school=478

Varsity Roster
# Name Pos Grade

1 Ty Simcoe G 11
2 Grant Fahnhorst* D 12
4 Lucas Whelan D 10
5 Mike Onken D 12
6 Tyler Vint* W 12
7 Tom Ranney W 12
8 Matt Straate W 11
9 Billy Soule C 11
10 Matt Batinich W 12
11 Eric Lee W 12
12 Brett Felling C 12
15 Ryan Wehrs W 12
16 Chad Schwarze W 12
19 Bryan Talus C 12
20 Kevin Blackley C 11
21 Max Mohagen W 12
22 Dan Raquet D 11
23 Travis Smith D 12
24 Colin Dempsey D 12
25 David Russ D 11
30 Alex Clayton G 10

TooManyEagles wrote:Wayzata has 12 lettermen returning to play varsity, but again no scorers. An ok Goalie, great D, no offense. I see lots of last year all over again.

If they have a weakness, it is bringing back too many senior forwards who have trouble finding the net. I was expecting an infusion of younger talent, up front, but most the returning seniors made the squad again. If last year is any indication, they'll struggle to light the lamp again, but the D should keep them close against most everyone. Who knows? Perhaps a scorer, or two, will surface, this year?

WayOutWest wrote:

TooManyEagles wrote:Wayzata has 12 lettermen returning to play varsity, but again no scorers. An ok Goalie, great D, no offense. I see lots of last year all over again.

If they have a weakness, it is bringing back too many senior forwards who have trouble finding the net. I was expecting an infusion of younger talent, up front, but most the returning seniors made the squad again. If last year is any indication, they'll struggle to light the lamp again, but the D should keep them close against most everyone. Who knows? Perhaps a scorer, or two, will surface, this year?

Is fahnhorst their best defensemen?

Yes.

HOFam'r wrote:

WayOutWest wrote:

TooManyEagles wrote:Wayzata has 12 lettermen returning to play varsity, but again no scorers. An ok Goalie, great D, no offense. I see lots of last year all over again.

If they have a weakness, it is bringing back too many senior forwards who have trouble finding the net. I was expecting an infusion of younger talent, up front, but most the returning seniors made the squad again. If last year is any indication, they'll struggle to light the lamp again, but the D should keep them close against most everyone. Who knows? Perhaps a scorer, or two, will surface, this year?

Is fahnhorst their best defensemen?

Fahnhorst is their BIGGEST defenseman. That being said, he may be their least skilled.

If in fact Fahnhorst is their best defenseman, he had 1 point playing in the elite league. The point was an assist according to their website. Trouble for Wayzata, perhaps.

This should be an interesting year to observe. Nineteen skaters - WOW. Coach Davis typically plays two lines and two sets of defense. That leaves a lot of kids on the bench. What is Davis thinking?

The best defenseman this year, so far, has been Lucas Whelan, a Sophomore. Two senior defensemen are out: one recovering from an injury and the other is ineligible for several games.

Last year, Wayzata only scored 61 goals in 26 games. Their opponents scored 75 and that was with Joe Howe on the team. As a team they their a plus/minus of -14. So much for a great defense! The two top returning scorers are: Schwarze – 10 g; and, Lee 11 g.

Roger Rutten, JV coach for the past several years, was moved up to be the assistant Varsity coach. Rutten is a tough, in your face, no non-sense coach. He won’t take any snipping from 3rd and 4th liners.

Wayzata's schedule is tough.

Prediction:

1. Team will win only 3 of its first 15 games

toomanystitches-

The only thing that you wrote that has any degree of accuracy is the fact that Davis took 19 skaters and the goals for Swarze and Lee. Beyond that your facts are far froma ccurate.

toomanystitches wrote:........
1. Team will win only 3 of its first 15 games
2. Dissension among players (mainly those on the bench) will destroy team unity
3. Five to six players will be kicked off the team by January 1

Question : How many of those "toomanystitches" were in the head region?