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The Duluth schoolboard has recommended that Duluth go to two high schools: East and Denfeld. Central will be closed. That means that the two remaining Duluth schools will have sufficient enrollment to be AA. This should allow Anoka to be moved out of Section 7AA in the near future.

What's wrong with Anoka being in the section?

greenway1969 wrote:The Duluth schoolboard has recommended that Duluth go to two high schools: East and Denfeld. Central will be closed. That means that the two remaining Duluth schools will have sufficient enrollment to be AA. This should allow Anoka to be moved out of Section 7AA in the near future.

Or Forest Lake.

Will that be in affect for next year?

Two Duluth schools will bring more balance, I'd like to see Denfeld in the tourney sometime.

As far as sections, they're all kinda messed up. Why, for example, is (outer metro) Rogers in Section 5AA with Blaine, Coon Rapids and Centennial, but neighboring towns Anoka and Andover are in 7AA?

I know the sections can never be perfect with all the yearly community/school changes, but I wonder if some of these people making decisions are on crack.

George Blanda wrote:Will that be in affect for next year?

http://www.duluth.k12.mn.us/KK_Pages/Ho ... LRFP1.html:

We are a long way from any major changes such as building new schools or consolidating schools. The earliest parents, students and staff would begin to see such changes would be a little over two years from now in the fall of 2009, and any option would take about 5-6 years to fully implement.

cake-eater wrote:Two Duluth schools will bring more balance, I'd like to see Denfeld in the tourney sometime.

As far as sections, they're all kinda messed up. Why, for example, is (outer metro) Rogers in Section 5AA with Blaine, Coon Rapids and Centennial, but neighboring towns Anoka and Andover are in 7AA?

I know the sections can never be perfect with all the yearly community/school changes, but I wonder if some of these people making decisions are on crack.

I know......... kinda like Buffalo being in 8AA ?? things don't always fit right.
But it does spread out some metro teams with the northern teams which maybe forces them to schedule section games so they can have a better idea come seeding time??? who knows!

Two years from now the sections will all be different anyway.

Just imagine if they put all of Duluth (minus Marshall) in to one school.
That team would be very close to the top every year.

Plus, some of the kids that might not get to play would move to other schools like Hermantown, Proctor, Marshall, or Cloquet and make those teams better.

It would make the whole area a stronger force for years to come.

nstars4ever wrote: Just imagine if they put all of Duluth (minus Marshall) in to one school.
That team would be very close to the top every year.

Plus, some of the kids that might not get to play would move to other schools like Hermantown, Proctor, Marshall, or Cloquet and make those teams better.

It would make the whole area a stronger force for years to come.

Not necessarily. While Denfeld has definitely turned their program around the past couple of years under Coach Smalley, Central probably has no more than 3 kids who would have cracked any one other than Proctors' Varsity roster in your examples. So you are basically talking about combining the Denfeld and East program for your scenario. Talk about a gasoline and matches combination! Holy cow! IMHO, I think the impact on the overall level of hockey in the Twin Ports area would be marginal at best. With the "East vs. West" dynamics of Duluth schools, I really doubt that you would see a single Duluth team be as dominating as you believe. While I'm sure kids just wanna play hockey, the behind the scenes posturing for spots could make for one hell of a soap opera. Man, the battle for the Coaches job alone would make for interesting viewing.

The school board really seems to be leaning towards the idea of two high schools: Denfeld and East. East High School would move to the current Ordean Middle School with Denfeld High School remaining in the same building. In reality it's going to still be Denfeld hockey only now they will be AA. Central has a diminishing program and they don't have much coming up through the ranks of Pee Wee's or Bantam's. Since the squad will likely land in section 7AA it is grim to believe the new Denfeld school will have any better of a chance reaching the state tournament, if not a worse chance.

On the news tonight they said the new East High School will have 15% low-income students where as the new Denfeld High School would have 45% low-income students. Hockey is expensive and with that large of a percentage being low-income in the Denfeld school district.. The hockey program doesn't have much of a bright future.

Awesome.....now get Hermantown and Duluth Marshall to go AA and section 7AA would be a blast to watch year in and year out.

fkahckyprofessor20 wrote:The school board really seems to be leaning towards the idea of two high schools: Denfeld and East. East High School would move to the current Ordean Middle School with Denfeld High School remaining in the same building. In reality it's going to still be Denfeld hockey only now they will be AA. Central has a diminishing program and they don't have much coming up through the ranks of Pee Wee's or Bantam's. Since the squad will likely land in section 7AA it is grim to believe the new Denfeld school will have any better of a chance reaching the state tournament, if not a worse chance.

On the news tonight they said the new East High School will have 15% low-income students where as the new Denfeld High School would have 45% low-income students. Hockey is expensive and with that large of a percentage being low-income in the Denfeld school district.. The hockey program doesn't have much of a bright future.

What isn't being mentioned (especially those who are gnashing their teeth over the proposed closing of Central) is that having an East/Denfeld set up would actually narrow the disparity between the "Rich East" and the "Poor Denfeld". Right now 46% of the kids at Denfeld are low-income. This would decrease to 44%. At East, 12% are low-income. This would increase to 15%. The new configuration would help, not hurt, Denfeld.

I don't see closing Central having much if any impact on either East or Denfeld's hockey teams, certainly not East.

Lee

northwoods oldtimer wrote:Awesome.....now get Hermantown and Duluth Marshall to go AA and section 7AA would be a blast to watch year in and year out.

What???

7AA has been fantastic, especially the last 2 semi-final Saturdays. 7AA has always been great and always will be. Not saying Marshall and Hermantown wouldn't add to the fun, cuz they would. But not complaining here.

These have been shown before, but the sections are all geographic:
A:
http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/googlemap.as ... 0&dclass=A
AA:
http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/googlemap.as ... &dclass=AA

Hey Freaky Flyer it has no doubt been good. It would just be nce to allow the fine folks from the metro cidiot to enjoy the heated battles of sectional play along some better geographical boundry. No sense having Anoka and the elks in 7AA when D-Marshal and Hermantown could easily play up and allow the previously mentioned clubs a chance to restore their rivalry amidst the northern metroplex.

This will do a couple things. It will put the few kids from Central that were good on a more competitive team, and it will take a bunch of kids out of a sport. All in all, probably not that big of a deal.

No matter how you look at it, any time a school closes, that's 40 fewer kids playing HS hockey.

I see no good in that. If ecomonics and demographics call for a school to close, so be it but it isnt good for hockey. Just more kids done with the sport after bantams is all it means.

Now , if we could forget about high school hockey and play association hockey thru the high school years...............