ND Pride

You are right on that, other than those three teams there is not much else to look at. Elite II has lost several potential players as several 89 birthyears are going to Omaha to play for the AAA Energy team. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are right on that, other than those three teams there is not much else to look at. Elite II has lost several potential players as several 89 birthyears are going to Omaha to play for the AAA Energy team.

Sounds like a prank. Kessel has been working out with the Gophers most of the summer. Talked to Danny Irmen a couple days ago and there was no mention of anything crazy like that.

#1siouxfan22 - I figured I would do the Grand Forks schools and then South and Grafton. I think I will put together a short summary of the remaining schools, maybe in one post. One other thing, the Elite II roster is not yet set so it is not available. They are still working on filling a couple of positions. I know that Trevor Anderson of South, and Tyler Klein of North are on the team. It will be mostly ND kids I think.

Here is a look at what Fargo South brings to the table, on paper, for the 05-06 season. Junior Sean Deichert returns and should be their top goalie. He participated in the USA Hockey Select 17 Festival in July and is one of the goalies on the Great Plains Elite I roster. He only played in 4 high school games last season and will have to prove himself. On defense Erick Galt returns after posting 34 points last season. He is a high energy defenseman who gets things done. Will be playing on the Elite I team this fall along with South forward Grant Larson. South returns their top five scorers from last season. South only lost two defensemen to graduation and returns five (Wurden, Metz-although Metz is apparently leaving to play with the Omaha AAA Energy, Olson, Jorgensen, and Spriggs) who had significant playing time. In addition, Trevor Anderson of West Fargo transfered to South as did Select 17 participant Kris Graalum, who came from Shanley. South should be able to craft a solid defense out of those eight d-men. On offense South returns leading scorer Paul Weisgarber who is recovering from knee surgery but will be ready for the Fall Elite league. Paul is supported by Adam Campbell (34 pts), Grant Larson (27 pts), Josh Ramberg (20 pts) Ian Powers (19 pts), and Jake McDougall (10 pts). Add the incoming bantams and South has a lot of resources. The key will be keeping injury free, team chemistry, and solid goal tending. On paper South should be the team to beat in North Dakota. Of course, the game is not played on paper and the team that puts the best run together in the Regional and State Tournaments will be the next state champs.

Well, Minnesota has kids that are advanced to the team without tryouts so it would seem logical to have that channel for ND as well. In North Dakota, the kids who go to the Select Festivals take part in an all-state open tryout so, in that sense, they have already proven that they are the top players at the tryout. In addition, once on the Select team they compete within that team for spots at the national Festival. Essentially, they have already gone through two levels of competition to make the team. Additional tryouts within North Dakota would be redundant given the current structure and number of spots provided for North Dakota kids on the Elite I team. In fact, almost all of the North Dakota kids on the Elite I roster advanced without a tryout. Of note too, is the fact that all three of these players were on a very successfull Elite II team last year.

Exactly - playing good competition is one part of the puzzle of development - that is why many eastern ND teams want to play as many Minnesota teams as they can. Often the best athletes in some communities are not playing hockey - but why? - my earlier post on the Grand Forks schools provides some persepective on that. A big part of it is UND and the culture of hockey that develops around a top line D-I program. Some of their graduates who played hockey stay and have families and their kids play - they help coach and the kids get a good experience. Many other cities simply do not have that culture and will never have it. It is a great challenge to develop an identification with hockey when basketball is the sport with tradition (or football - or whatever). It is also a little tough to be an outdoor rink rat in Dickinson - but take a look at their track teams - often outstanding. Culture is the key. Those who wish to develop strong youth programs need to be change agents in order to get their sport to develop. It is a tough job in some areas especially given the cost of hockey as a sport.

Last year it was nearly all ND kids except for Jordy Christian and Foss of Moorhead high. I know that they are still looking to fill a spot or two. The Elite II is not affiliated at all with the Elite I league so it is harder to find information. I will try and get their current roster and post it for you. The Elite II draws mainly, but not exclusively, from the kids who made the North Dakota USA Hockey Select 16 (1989 birth year) team last spring and then the Select 17 (1988 birth year) team members who are not seniors. Generally speaking, the seniors to be who made it to the USA Hockey National Festival for North Dakota are automatic picks to Elite I (Weisgarber, Klenow, Monson).

I think it was a year or two ago that the high school thread was shut down because the quality of the posts began to sink. It is nice to have a place to discuss North Dakota high school hockey and I would encourage all participants to keep the discussion at a mature level.

Here is an overview of Grafton for 2005-06 based on returning players. As suggested by several contributors on this board, Grafton should challenge for the top spot in the state. First of all, they return their top goalie - Tony Kringstad who had a 92.5% save percentage and 2.29 GAA. In addition, he has plenty of big game experience from last season. Up front (with Jordan Willert going to juniors), they have the top two returning scorers in the state in Paul (52 pts) and Thomas Campbell (45 points). The Campbells are creative playmakers with excellent speed and skill. Junior Zach Miller (30 pts.) also returns so there is plenty of firepower to go with the solid goaltending. Other returing forwards include Anderson (18 pts.), Hills (14 pts.), Flaten (14 pts.) to name just a few. On defense, Andy Peterson returns and should be at full speed after shoulder surgery. Peterson was a USA Hockey National Festival participant every year except this one (because of the surgery) and is one of the best defensemen in the state. Jordan Feltman and Tom McCann also return on defense. The Spoilers have a solid foundation that should take them a long way. A few more solid defensemen and Grafton could be playing for the championship in Engelstad at the end of the season.

I do not know of any Red River players that attracted enough interest to get a spot on a USHL or NAHL team this year. There was some talk about Indianapolis being interested in Jake Vigen but he was not drafted by them and there is no mention of their current roster on their website. As you pointed out, there were no real standouts on that Red River team. Other North Dakota kids that generated interest include Charlie Bair with Bismarck and Ostenrude of Grafton who was drafted by Bismarck. Sam Aide was drafted by Bozeman and Jordan Willert made the 25 man roster at Tri-City. Other than that I do not know of any other kids that are moving on to juniors. Stadstad of Central tried out for Lincoln but did not make the team. Kids that were drafted still have to make the team. If anyone else knows something share it. There is a lot more interest in the upcoming seniors and kids who were at the Select 17 Festival than there was for the group that graduated - other than Jake Marto.

It can be interesting to have a discussion if attention is paid to the facts. Grand Forks has obviously built the strongest tradition over time. However, they did not dominate hockey at every level in the 2004-05 season. The term dominate can be also be used in many ways. Is a one goal victory domination or is it the simple fact of winning regardless of the margin. For the high school hockey season in 2005-06 an arm chair review of the returning players would suggest that the teams to watch are Grafton and South in the East and Minot in the West. Of course, the real test is the regular season games then EDC and State. Who will improve the most? Which coaches will get the most out of their players? Injuries and defections to juniors will also impact the final season. It should be an interesting season.

It is early and things could change but it might be easiest to look at the East and West separately. In the east, on paper, I think South looks good and so does Grafton. Both Grand Forks schools have graduated a lot of key players. Objectively, at this point South and Grafton return more key players on paper so I think they would be the preseason favorites. In the West, Minot returns enough players to be the team to beat. The Bismarck schools are not as strong on paper as they were last year. Overall, the whole state, for the most part, is going to be down in terms of team quality although there are some excellent individual players returning.

I do not think that 2006 will be much better. There are a couple of teams with some depth and that is it. There are good players but they are spread around the state. In fact, 2006 could be worse than this past year for quality. I hope I am wrong on that.

I don't know if he would be interested but from what I have seen the past few years in the North Dakota Select program, especially his handling of the North Dakota 88s a couple of years ago at Tier II Nationals my vote would go to Mark Bry. If I were hiring a head hockey coach I would sign him in a heartbeat.

I would have to agree with you on that.

Back in 2001 or 2002 I was in Edmonton at a big AAA hockey tournament in the summer and the Winnipeg Junior Jets major peewees, the top AAA team in Manitoba, was playing the Minnesota Blades. Jonathon Toews scored a goal and the announcer pronounced his name Toes (as in - toes on your feet). An individual came down to the box and told the announcer, "The name is pronounced Taves - get it right, you will be hearing it a lot." He was right - the kid picked up about 5 points in the game.

Projecting out to the next 20 years based on youth hockey today? How about this, after the next 5 years a southside school will not even make it to state. Sound stupid? It is. But when another high school is built on the southside it could spread the talent out so much that no one has the critical mass. Throw in Shanley and you have 3 southside schools competing for talent if another public is added. If you want to create castles in the sky the scenarios are unlimited. This post is presented tongue in cheek - my point - let the kids play the game today. These far off speculations are goofy. Parents get job transfers and leave town - taking their kids with them (sometimes), some top kids leave early for juniors, etc , etc. Oh, and I don't live in Grand Forks but have many great friends there - as well as in Grafton, Bismarck, etc.

I have trouble seeing how someone would think that if they really studied the historical facts and knew the orientation of the administrators in the different eras. Back when they were looking at hockey they had a different President and a different athletic director. The cast of characters has changed dramatically so I see no link between not getting D-1 hockey back when Bob Entzion (AD)/Jim Ozbun (Pres) tried and what is happening in the Gene Taylor (AD)/Joe Chapman (Pres) era.

Walski moved to Fargo as a bantam (before he attended North High).