Good youth program equals good HS program?

[hocmom]

Mankato East's HS team has one of the worst records in the area while Mankato West could very well be the best team in Southern MN.

All of these players come out of the same youth program.

Interesting?

[SMNHockey22]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that most of the talented players to come out of the youth hockey program in recent years have gone to West. but I could be wrong

[HockeyDad2016]

Sounds logical........I say what he said.

[hocmom]

Sounds logical........I say what he said.

I guess maybe I didn't get my point across that clearly.

Does the fact that East is not doing well point to a weak youth program? If you wander over the the high school portion of this forum you will find much finger pointing...the fact that the High School team isn't doing well MUST be the fault of the youth program. I think a good youth program is obviously very important...but not a cure all.

I am finding that natural ability means a whole bunch. Some years you have a group of kids that is tops...other years not so much. We can all point to a year or two that our high school had a great program...went to state or almost... many times it was just a really solid group of kids passing through the program.

When a program does poorly we cast around looking for blame. We put effort into fixing things that are not broken.

[O-townClown]

I am finding that natural ability means a whole bunch. Some years you have a group of kids that is tops...other years not so much. We can all point to a year or two that our high school had a great program...went to state or almost... many times it was just a really solid group of kids passing through the program.

True, but this is why numbers are so important. The top associations have 100 kids in each birthyear. If you pick a HS team with 5-10 you will obviously end up with the kids that had a lot of natural ability. If you only have 20 kids in each birthyear you really are hoping to catch a winning lottery ticket.

I was not blessed with an inordinate amount of talent. My hard work got me nowhere. Hard work PLUS talent? Now you're talking.

At the youth level you see programs like Centennial, Wayzata, Eden Prairie, and Edina consistently ranked. The success isn't in giving birth to kids with more talent, it is in having scores turn out to play and letting those compete for spots on travel teams and Varsity.

[GoldenBear]

Not in Wayzata, two state tournament appearances in the last 55 plus years. Incredible. Yes, people will say they are supporting Benilde, Blake, Breck, Providence, Totino Grace....still, pretty pathetic, just an excuse. I do feel there will be a change starting in the next two years based on many changes that were implemented at the youth level the past few years. We will see.