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Coming back to the JGA level has been a wild ride. The Metro Hcokey Leeague is a very organized, enthusiastic, and supportive group of individuals that believe in Junior Gold players. If it wasn't for this dedicated group, these kids would have nothing. It has been a privelage and an honor to be apart of this great league and I look forward to the coming years.

I have been quiet all season with a few things to say about teams in the league and state. I will give some comments about teams that left an impression:

1. Edina - Congrats on another State title. Your team is very strong and has a lot of talented players. Your team is lead by great leadership. However, you had the talent but there was no need for the penalty issues that caused some drama. Either way, you had a great season.
2. Burnsville - Great year. After being away from the tournament for 6 years, nice comeback.
3. Wayzata - Great season and winning the MHL title. #9 is a beast. Thanks to the Fan Band for the hat for my son.
4. EP - Your fans have the best one liners that didn't make any sense. Funny but annoying.
5. Elk River - See below.
6. Grand Rapids - not much to say, only seen you once and you beat us.
7. Lakeville - Thank you for a fun and exciting season
8. Duluth - I am still 0 -10 against you but my time will come. Coach, see you in Brainerd on the golf course.
In no particular order:
Minnetonka - What a rivalry we are creating. Thank you for the games and support. I like the sweatshirt.
White Bear lake - Mallard, great to see you again and had many laughs
Stillwater - Sorry, don't know the coaches. Team was fine
Wessy Boys - Coach, way to keep up the Wes Barrett legacy
All other teams - I enjoyed meeting the coaches and some of the players. Honestly, didn't have any issues with any team.

Elk River - Prior to the State tournament, I would have been against your team, parents, and community. Your fans are very supportive but players don't need to be sworn at or spit on during a game. I am over that issue. Come State tourney time, your team was the most improved team on the ice. I will catch some slack for saying this but, the way your team handled themselves, I was VERY IMPRESSED. Truly, by looking at the penalties in the games and playing hockey, you were the more composed and in control team. You deserve the consolation championship trophy, you earned it based off playing hockey and not using your months. I was happy to see that the hype leading up to the game with Edina was a great hockey game. What happened at Regionals has been dealt with and we move on. Kids will never be able to control coaches or parents. All parents need to remember that this is a kids game, not theirs. On that, I wish you good luck in your futures. Side note, to the kid that sounds like Ric Flair on the ice, really?

As I stated before, this year was great, I look forward to next year, especially the Duluth tournament.

Finally, Spongebob and crew, Nice job on winning the JGB Championship.

21Troll

Final note from Ginger Kid about the 2009-2010 season....
If you didnt have fun, you wernt expierienceing Junior Gold

^^^^ I've been looking for you on here all year long!!! I finally found it great recap , it was the best season of hockey I've ever been involved in! Can't wait until next yr!!

First of all, Congratulations to Edina. You guys have an awesome team. You are clearly the most talented team in JGA.

What a great hockey tournament! We had super competition, drama and controversy.

The ER vs. Edina match up was right out of the WWF. The Evil Empire (ER) takes on the defenders of human rights – The Edina Hornets. Didn’t you just love the crazy and insane posts on this subject? While accusations flew back and forth (few if any from the players) I just had to laugh. I guess Edina forgot about the penalty they took in the Minnetonka Tournament for using racial slurs. This stuff was right out of central casting. Edina wins the game despite taking 10 more penalties than ER. You are left scratching you head, “who really is the Evil Empire?”

The underdog Blaze come out and smoke Wayzata 6-2, a team that averaged giving up only 1.15 goals per game and than battle Edina in an overtime thriller. Burnsville had an outstanding tournament. They played hard, fast and capitalized on opponents mistakes. The players and coaches are a class act. It was impressive to see the Blaze’s side of the arena filled with so many fans.

How about Wayzata? Coming into the tournament they are missing three senior veteran players. One was the leading scorer and the other two were a defensive pairing. Wayzata played five defenseman for the season and this left three for the Ship. Forwards, who hadn’t played D since being Peewees, were rotating back to take play defense. Needless to say, they were no match for the speedy Burnsville squad. In the first period of the EP game Wayzata losses another defenseman to a game misconduct penalty. Looking at his decimated bench the coach says, “OK…next five.” So the game went, every remaining player, playing every position. What was fun to watch was how the kids did this on the fly…”I got right wing, I’ll take D, you take the face-off” and on and on. It wasn’t pretty, but Wayzata managed a victory over a very good EP team on OT.

Thank you guys for making this such a memorable tournament!

I'd like to congratulate Grand Rapids on a nice season!! & the cake on a championship, we'll be seeing the hornutts for many more years to come.

This was our first year with Jr Gold and it was a pleasant surprise. We were told when we talking to people about the program that it was "not good hockey". That basically a kid needed to have a couple of courses on bar fighting under his belt prior to going on the ice or he was gonna get killed. To be fair, our boy was a fighter in Bantams and is a decent sized kid so we were not really worried about it. I had not seen a Jr Gold game until we got him into it but had seen Midgets and etc in another state that we moved from so was hopeful.

He signed up for a team "up north" and made it and played this season. He had a ball. Said it was the most fun that he has ever had playing hockey. Has told his buddies around school that they really screwed up playing HS hockey since he got to practice less, play more and cash the same sized game check that they did after each game. RIght now the questions are about whether or not he will even bother to try out for HS hockey next year since he wants to play "J Gold".

Granted the year did not end like we were hoping but I suppose for all but one team that is what is said. We saw lots of great hockey. Were surprised about how fast the game is at that level. Were very surprised at how big and fast those kids from north of the border are (first trip up there his team had 4 or 5 kids get hurt, 2 were not able to come back), and about the level of team play that goes on when you do not have a "superstar" on your team to be the center of attention. We were very very pleasantly surprised at the quality, level of fun, and the general over all high level of kid associated with Jr Gold hockey. The people who were telling us to look out and not do it obviously were not familiar with today's Jr Gold.

All in all, thanks for the great but slightly frustrating year. As a 10th grader he will be back and now has a goal in mind for next year.

NPC:

Sounds like your from Duluth, where they know 2 things about HS hockey:

1) If you're not from East, your nothing (sorry Marshall school and Hermantown)
2) See rule 1

So, you probably figured out that Butch and Ginny are some of the best hockey people you will ever meet.

JGA is a great fratenity of people like Butch, Smith (Edina), the Wright's (Tonka), Sammy (Wayzata), Randy (Wessy), Mallard (WBL), and many others.

Not everyone can play varsity HS. But then again, not every hockey player gets to experience the FUN of JGA!

P.S. - How much fun is it for 4th liner on varsity that plays 3 shifts a game and make ZERO contribution....

Good to hear your son had a blast. I truly believe Junior Gold hockey is the most fun playing hockey you can have. Less practicing and more games. It's laid back but still very good hockey, and a great place to compete without having to worry about whether or not your not going to play the next day.

I have to agree with everything that has been said here. THis past season was amazing. I got to a private school in St. Paul (despite living in EP), where I played JV for 2 years. It was fun to play for my school, but never really amounted to anything. When my season junior year ended, I knew that I would not be playing varsity as a senior, so I started to look forward to JGA as a senior. This allowed me to take time off during the summer between junior and senior year, time I used to go to Australia as a foreign exchanged student. I would never have been able to do that if I had the crazy idea in my head that I could make 4th line varsity the next year. I took it easy and it payed off. It was great to be back on a team where player development wasn't the number one priority. It was nice to see kids from the 3rd or 4th line step up when a 1st line player was injured, instead of the JV coaches pulling someone down from varsity. During games, I found that JGA wasn't just thugs trying to fight. Talking with any of the players from Lakeville was always fun, Tonka's captains were all really cool, WBL players were nice, and so on. Hell, the Edina players I met at the all star game were all really nice. I'll miss: chirping, out of town tournaments, games after 9, practices once a week, kickin' it in the locker room, watching 13 on EP go bar down, playing Edina, playing in State, fans with stupid one liners, over active parents, etc. Hopefully club hockey at BC next year is as fun. Probably not though. Gotta love JGA. Thanks guys, Cheers.