ND Pride

Exactly, the person who made that post had the screen name jloos and used, I believe Homer Simpson as their avator. I think I copied it and put it somewhere but I remember it clearly. Assuming you are the same person as the one using the Homer Simpson trademark - I think you claimed to be a law student. I thought to myself - wow - this guy is a law student and is making these kinds of accusations on a message board. Knowing that it was a gross distortion I was quite troubled about it but figured sometimes the best way to deal with that kind of trash is to ignore it. What prompted me to dredge it up was the same kind of statements this current jloos makes about a group of youth hockey parents - e.g. that most of them or half of them are (fill in the blank with your favorite vindictive term). jloos seems to draw conclusions about people or groups of people based on insufficient data. That may not be a problem until he says things about groups that are untrue. Part of the problem here is how message boards provide a venue that makes it difficult for people to censure their own thoughts. Note how he (jloos) has edited his previous post to take out the low brow language - and then, actually does a nice job or qualifying his experience in criticizing the parent - tying it specifically to his experiences in hockey. My problem here is with the way jloos and the previous person using the jloos screen name draw incorrect conclusions about individuals or groups of kids/people from insufficient data. His final comments are a kick as well - the condescending citation of Swift. Oh well, I guess he needed to get in one final jab. There are lots of other people who are aware of that drug use slam - lots of them. Maybe his memory will come back on this one. I recall the next post after his was from Jack Mickelson and then Mickelson talked about who he respected on the team that jloos inaccurately described.

Maybe. But the point here is that jloos is naming specific people, including a parent - and continually using very negative language to describe them. Now, just because someone uses a screen name that appears to be a real name does not mean that it is in fact their real name. We had a situation on another thread where a person used another persons name and made comments that were out of character for the person whose name they used. (This is beginning to sound like double talk). I think the point being made by specifics is that a poster on the message board has an advantage as they can say negative things about real people but the readers of the post do not know the true source of the criticism-since the poster's identity is not shared. The analogy of an ambush comes to mind where there are attackers hiding behind trees shooting at you and you cannot see them to effectively defend yourself. Public figures and so forth are typically fair game but dragging private individuals into the mud is, in my code of ethics, not a good thing to do. As long as I am at it let me share another one of jloos's posts from a year or so ago. In a high school thread he described a high school team as having most of their players as drug users. I think the thread is not accessible now or I would go back and quote it. It disappointed me a great deal to see that kind of a post on a public message board. As an adult, I knew all of the players on the team to whom he generalized. His statement was wrong. Jloos says that he does not criticize high school kids. Well, he made a serious error when he made that statement about a group of high school students. At the time I let that statement go without challenge, I wish I had challenged it back then because he is still pushing his negativity. My hope is that he would stop attacking people and intentionally or unintentionally hurting their reputations. We have had enough of this on siouxsports.com.

There is a lot of negativity here that keeps coming out again and again in your posts. Some people you dislike (hate?) because of experiences in the past. Experiences that seem to trouble you deeply as you can't seem to let them go. I'd like to put some kind of positive face on this because I really think that all of this bashing is bad form. It is not necessary. I don't think it accomplishes anything - maybe some catharsis from previous hurts? It does seem to polarize people and fill the message board with negativity. Rather than see people move on and become better people you seem to relish using the same negative language to typify them, even when you wish them a better future. Maybe I can offer some sort of positive perspective on this. The people that you are ripping are not what you say they are to many other people - in the past or now. That is your experience but it is not the experience of everyone else. The people that you think were classless back when you were in youth hockey may well have grown up - you really don't know but you are still calling them names years later. Maybe you need to take a look at the way you are viewing the world. We live in a great state with a terrific D-1 hockey team, lots of people of all ethnic backgrounds, and religious beliefs. Maybe you could connect with one of those religious traditions and find some way to release all of this negativity so you are not maligning so many people in a public forum like this.

There is some misinformation on this board regarding recruiting. The Sioux wanted Danny Irmen but were unable to get him. Hakstol was in charge of that situation and apparently could not pull it off. The details of these situations will never be known by more than a few people who were directly involved and most of it is best left unsaid.

South is deep on defense and Galt leads that crew. Based on his performance in the Elite I league, not to mention the last high school season, he is the top defenseman. You may pick South's top four "d" on your team but my pick, after Galt, would be Andy Petersen of Grafton. He was the top rated defenseman in the 1988 group for the USA Hockey National Festival Select 14s, 15s and 16s. A different set of coaches rated these kids each year so that is as "objective" as you can get as an indicator of player quality.

Well, I think South has more depth than Grafton - plus I think sometimes Grafton does better on the road - oddly enough. South 4-2 is a wild guess. Central/WF - I am going to go with an OT tie 2-2. Right now everybody loves WF but I think it will be a close game. I don't know enough about EGF to guess that one. And Jamestown will beat Century 4-0.

Shanley beat Wahpeton 6-3 according to the Wahpeton paper - Fargo Forum had it as a 6-0 game.

I've heard from a better source that the rumor is false. It would be a great place to play hockey, however. If he could get picked up by a junior A team it would be an easier move than transferring to Red River.

There is some information missing in your logical chain. Mihulka, Wesigarber, Galt and both Campbells play with teams that allow them to show their skills. North is very short on depth and that makes it a tough experience for a good player because there is not enough support. Given the fact that moving is very difficult - unless both parents quit their jobs, sell their house, buy a new house, get new jobs etc, etc. It has nothing to do with the other players you mention - it is actually easier to go to juniors if there is a team that wants you than to have your parents sell their house and get different jobs. Cedar Rapids of the USHL has some interest in him so given all of the facts it would make more sense to go juniors (USHL or NAHL). These other players have made their choices to stay - that is the right thing for them - just because they are good/great players and choose not to play juniors their senior year does not mean - following your logic, that all other players of similar ability should do the same. All you need to understand this situation are a few empirical facts and less abstract logic.

I've heard from a better source that the rumor is false. It would be a great place to play hockey, however. If he could get picked up by a junior A team it would be an easier move than transferring to Red River.

It is easier to transfer within the same school district than to transfer to another community due to various residence requirements - parental employment, primary residence, etc. It is highly unlikely that a player will transfer from one community to another. Nick Krebsbach transferred from Minot to Grand Forks Red River a few years back but I believe his dad had previously owned a property in Grand Forks that made the transfer work. In the case of Danny Irmen moving from North to Red River his dad rented an apartment in GF, they sold their home in Fargo and his mom moved into a condo in Fargo. I highly doubt that you will see a transfer between towns because of the NDHSAA rules that make it difficult. In summary, I assume it would be possible for Alex Simonson but very very difficult for Tyler Klein because of those rules. Anyone else have a handle on those transfer rules? They might be on the NDHSAA site.

By continuing to use the name of a real person as his screen name. Not everyone who reads this thread goes back to see who RGriggs says he really is (presumably not RGriggs). They see that screen name and assume it is that actual person. It is unethical to use another person's name and lead others to believe that you are that person. Presumably, this member is continuing to do that.

It is one thing to make evaluative statements about what players do on the ice and quite another to make "low brow" comments about a parent. If you have those sorts of feelings they are best kept to yourself. If this message board is going to sink to the level where a parent of a player is typified with such low class language then I think we are in sad shape. If that type of comment is fair then I can tell you that there are plenty of negative things that could be said about parents of players from all of the WCHA teams - including some current Sioux players. In my opinion to sink to that level is not what a high quality message board such as Siouxsports is all about.

That would be my question as well. Whatever the definition, it is total speculation as to where these kids will end up. I would say that it is far too early to make that kind of determination. I could provide a number of things that each kid needs to work on, to move up in the world of hockey, based on what I have seen from them so far this year but I don't think that is a good thing to do on a message board. They are in a good program and have excellent coaching, especially with Mark Bry - a former Mr. Hockey and Junior "A" defenseman. If they have the work ethic and improve they should have a future beyond high school hockey.

That's a fair analysis. I have seen Red River and Grafton once - Red River is deeper than I thought and are physically tough to play. Grafton, on the other hand, is quick, moves the puck well. It should be interesting when they meet. Red River will have to stay out of the box or Grafton's power play will give them a lot of trouble. I don't know about Central rated fourth. The middle group is a mess to figure out. It will take a few more games to see who really has some talent. Minot could make the biggest move in terms of improvement if they get good coaching.

I said I would come up with a ranking after the weekend's games are over. That is risky business this early in the season. Let's start this way - I will divide up the East Region into tiers. Tier I includes three teams who are, at this time, in a class by themselves: Fargo South, Red River, and Grafton. If we were to rate them I would have to put South first since they beat Red River and then Grafton third (The Grafton/South game was postponed otherwise we might have a different ranking). The second tier would include West Fargo, North, Grand Forks Central and Shanley. When doing any kind of rating and analysis the group in the middle is the hardest to rank. This is especially true early in the season and we did have some games postponed that would have helped with the ranking. At this time I am not going to try and rank the middle group except to put them all together - for now. The third tier contains Jamestown and Wahpeton. I did not expect Jamestown to struggle this much as they have some good forwards. I have not seen them play yet so I do not know what their specific problem(s) are (e.g. goal tending, defense, team play, etc, etc, some combination). Out west my ranking, in this order is Minot, Williston, Devils Lake, Bismarck High, Dickinson, Century, Hazen-Beulah, Mandan, and Bottineau. I am sure I have irritated someone by rating their favorite team lower than their own belief. At the risk of being more irritating, but just for the fun of it, here is an overall state ranking. The top six teams in the East right now, are the top six teams in the state. I can't sort out the rankings, for now, after 1) South, 2) Red River, and 3) Grafton. Grand Forks Central beat Minot so you can't rate Central lower than Minot, at this time. I see Central in the middle tier of the East - remember Shanley beat Central. So I am sure Minot would beat some of those second tier teams but I am not going to guess as to which ones they would beat. By mid December we should know a lot more about the middle tier of the EDC and also more about Minot. Right now Williston does not appear to be a factor in the state unless they improve a lot. Hopefully we can have some fun with this stuff. Good luck to all of the teams east and west.

Thomas Campbell, Paul Campbell and Ryan Mohagen were playing on the first line in the North game. Second line was Tanner Anderson, Tanner Hills, and Zach Miller. Maybe Gillen's site has an error. Sometimes the game sheets are written poorly and he can't read them very well. That has already happened this year (illegible game sheets). The guys in the box need to have pens that work in the cold and they need to print clearly. I've seen some real slop on those game sheets.

Anyone have any high school scores tonight? I guess West Fargo beat Jamestown 7-1 I think and Grafton beat Bismarck High 6-1, Central beat Farmington - was it 2 to 1. Any other scores out there?

Hey guys, this should be an interesting high school hockey season. Hopefully we can keep these discussions as friendly as possible. Here is one positive thought: Last year Team North Dakota had a nice run at the Chicago Showcase - I think this year will be even better - can't wait to see seniors like Marc Mihulka, Paul Weisgarber, Eric Galt, Thomas Campbell, Paul Campbell, Nick Klenow, Andrew Peterson, David Spies, Jake Delisle, Andy Dittus etc, etc all on the same team. I see Jordan Willert and Mario Lamoureux each picked up a goal this weekend for Tri-City.

Great and thanks for the link. The only problem is that the site, and online rule book, is only available to subscribers. So really, the link does not do anyone any good - without a membership password. If you have access to the site how about reading it and enlightening all of us on their statement on the conditions that lead to the awarding of a penalty shot.

QB Eagles #7 I think bochamp has some problems with using a website. First he started 3 new high school threads because he does not know how to use the system and also seems to have trouble understanding what other members are posting.

Yes, I already know that. I have been to tons of EDC and State games and have seen refs from all over the state. Do you seriously think that I meant that all of the refs are from Grand Forks for those events? If that is the case then you have some serious cognitive problems. Did you understand my point? Obviously not. Let me try and re-state it: When you have a pool of refs from across the state for these sorts of events then you should match them so that refs that have the appearance of a conflict of interest are not doing those games. For example, refs should not do games that their kids are in. Refs should not do games for schools that employ them. Maybe you should focus on trying to understand what is being written rather than providing some sort of childish remark.

Discussing the ref thing is really a can of worms. You hear it in other sports too -complaints about the local refs being biased and sometimes it is even against the local team. An administrator for the North Dakota Amateur Hockey Association did a study a few years ago and found that the worst place to be a home team was Fargo - in bantam hockey - because they had more calls against them there than at away games. Hard to interpret those results in a clear fashion. In addition, I had a number of Grand Forks people (parents, former players, various coaches) make negative comments about the calls made by a Grand Forks ref in a game involving an out of town high school team. There are refs in every town that should not be refs or at least should not work certain games. As I pointed out in an earlier post - the way to deal with this is to get refs that are not associated with a particular team. That can be hard to do because there is a limit on the number of refs but at least for EDC and State games it is important to get neutral refs.

Yea those guys are alright but I think the Jake Brown kid from Red river is the best out of all of them. I'm not saying hes the best player in the state, but hes close.