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Looks like fargo, Grand Forks, and Thunder bay are sending 2 or more "A" teams. I know their total association numbers are less than Edina, WBL and Wayzata. They may not win it, but they are giving more kids a chance to play "A".

hockeyfantasy wrote:Thanks "townclown" for helping me understand the Wisc Fire teams. I think I have a better handle on it. No, I don't have a 10 year old kid on Edina squirts (I was just using it as an example). Now, the big question: Why would you have your kid play for the Fire when he's already in an organization? For instance,, why would I move my kid from Edina (wherever) squirt(bantam etc.) from my organization to Fire?

One boy played Squirt A for Edina last year and rather than play Squirt A again he is playing Fire hockey because he is USA Hockey Pee Wee age. Other kids may be attracted to the Fire because their community doesn't field teams as strong as Eden Prairie, Edina, Wayzata, or whoever you want to name as having great youth hockey. Still others want a leg up by playing the toughest competition possible. And a few more probably like the idea of competing for a national championship - EVEN THOUGH IT ISN'T AS BIG OF A DEAL AS WINNING THE MINNESOTA TOURNAMENT. (Remember, if you are a kid in Eastview you probably won't win the latter so joining the Fire gives you a chance to win something.)

As you can see there are a lot of reasons one could choose the Fire over their community. Obviously a lot of kids have.

Since when was winning a state / national championship the only reason that a kid plays hockey? I get frustrated watching a kid leave Eastview, where the kid lives and where his friends go to school, because they don't win enough games. If the kid is so good, stick around and make the team better.

I know this has nothing to do with the Fargo tournament, it just irks me!

Winning the State Championship is everything - But I think it make all the hard work pay off.

Friends, hotels trips are cool. But the bottom line is winning.

At Squirts?????

So if your 10 year old kid doesn't win, he is failing, right? Pretty good attitude to have for a bunch of KIDS that are playing the game for fun.

sorno82 wrote:Looks like fargo, Grand Forks, and Thunder bay are sending 2 or more "A" teams. I know their total association numbers are less than Edina, WBL and Wayzata. They may not win it, but they are giving more kids a chance to play "A".

You are right, total numbers are less than Edina, WBL, or Wayzata but the Fargo Angels feed the Fargo Shanley High School (private) program
Fargo Raiders are from within the Fargo North High School boundries
Fargo Flyers are from within the Fargo South High School boundries. Apprently they do have two Squirt A teams, more like an A and a B1. In a few years they will probably have to break a chunck off the Flyers domain as they are building a 3rd high school in Fargo.
You could almost consider Fargo sending 5 Squirt As as West Fargo is also in the field and some of the games are played that the West Fargo High School arena (Veterans) as well as the arenas in Moorhead.

Grand Forks has two associations that field one A team each:
Grand Forks Blues
Grand Forks Supras
Not sure how their boundries are defined.

Maybe not at Squirts - PeeWees and Bantams for sure. Maybe shouldn't have commeneted on this forum - I thought is was about PW's and up...

Hands down, this may be one of the best tourneys in the U.S. at any age group. Where else can a city get 90 teams to play? The coordination of the tourney alone must be monstrous as well as finding volunteers to run everything. The kids have a GREAT time, exchange a TON of pins, meet players from all over the nation/canada and play some outstanding hockey!!!! If you have never been to this tourney, it is well worth the trip to Fargo.

I understand why Fargo and Grand Forks do what they do. The ND cities chose to have multiple highschools with smaller graduating classes than the super sized Twin Cities area high schools. I remember Fargo having 300-400 sized graduating classes, whereas many supersized twin cities high schools have as many as 900-1000.

You end up giving more kids time and freedom to develop and where they may lose as many games as they win when they are younger. These large Twin Cities associations have panic attacks if any of their A teams lose a couple of games over the year. Fargo has not produced as much high end talent as some of these associations, but part of that has to do with the location of Moorhead and some parents choosing to live there vs. Fargo.

Since our team the Carolina Junior Hurricanes was mentioned as a team that maybe should not have been allowed to enter the Fargo Squirt Tournament, I feel compelled to respond.

First of all WE HAD THE BEST TIME !!!! Met the nicest people on the planet and played some great competition and we also WON the "A" bracket 3 championship!!!!! The players the coaches the parents and everyone we met were top notch.

You all were great, clean and respectful competitors.

And we certainly belonged in this tournament. The 2 games we lost were close (the 3 goal blown lead in the 3rd period was a killer) But again WE BELONGED HERE and proved it on the ice. All of the kids we played against were good clean players who treated our boys with respect.

This tournament was everything we had hoped it would be and it also showcased the fine people of the Fargo/Moorhead area.

Thank you and its good to let a few outsiders in once in a while. You may get surprised