Chewey

Which school has the strongest team coming back? I think Minot will be down in the west but it does not seem to matter at state, in the last 13 years or so, even if they do have a good team. Which team do people think will win it this next year? I would have to say Fargo North or Central but I could be way off base too.

It's not necessary that the west play the east to get better. The top west teams choke; it's that simple. The west (at least Minot) did just fine against the east in the mid to late 80's and in the 90's and there was no north/south division play then. I agree that the number of games should be expanded. I think the west should be allowed to play the Canadian teams from Sask and Manitoba like we used to do back in the 80's. Even the bantams, pee wee's etc would play teams from Canada. The Canadian teams are better competition that either the east or SEction 8 teams. The state tournament should be moved to Minot or Bismarck every third year. Of course, the new arena probably makes that even less likely than before when eastern arrogance dictated that it always be held in G.F. Hockey is the only sport where the state tournament is not rotated and that is b.s. The provincial nature of the east is obvious still. The simple truth is that Minot especially should stop choking at state. They beat the best of the east and SEction 8 consistently during the regular season and choke at state. That is a mindset and it is, in part, coaching.

Is the nickname controversy impacting the request to move to D-1 at all? One would think the NC00 clowns would have to make the move contingent on changing the name. God, what a bunch of knobs.

Leave it to morons like this columnist to interpose rascist allegations again and drag out the same old trite and hackneyed soapbox "talking points" that have caused most people to assign 0 credibility to such types in the past. I thought that a newspaper reporter was to report facts rather than foam at the mouth with personal biases that no one wants to hear about.

Competition plays a big part. I think that ND is, like another poster said, comparable to MN Section 8. When I played H.S. hockey in Minot in the early and mid 80's, we had a lot more Canadian competition and we were not restricted so much with our number of games as they are now. We played the Notre Dame Hounds, Weyburn, EStevan and many other towns, some of which are now in the SJHL like the N.D. Hounds. Personally, I'd take that competition over anything MN has to offer. It seems as though this does not happen now. Also, in MN more kids are one sport only kids. In ND, one has the hockey player who is also the QB for the football team and runs track or plays baseball. Perhaps this has something to do with it.

It has been said on this board that the WEst teams are not as deep as the East teams and that is why the West does not do as well at State. I think this is true for the most part except for Minot. Minot has been the hockey town of the West since hockey officially was introduced in the West in the late 60's and early 70's. When I played in the early and mid-80's, Minot was very competitive. In the late 80's and early 90's, Minot was even better. Minot has had some good coaches in Bruce Olson and Dean Blais. Samson was a good coach too but could not win state except for his first year with a bunch of kids that he and olson had coached before. Minot has had a lot of talent. Two years ago, they beat EGF, the GF schools and all the teams that they faced and choked at state. Over the years, they have beaten Warroad, Thief River Falls, Moorhead (I believe), Roseau (I believe), Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, etc. They have had the talent in that many of their guys like Tom Philion, Danny Hanson, Mike Hanson, Jarrod Olson, Matt Morelli, Ben Keup, Brian Haaland, Quinn Fylling, John Grubb, Jeff BRedahl, and a few others have played at the d-1 level. Pure and simple (especially during the Samson era post 1992), they do well in the regular season and have a lot of talent but choke at state. It is simply something mental and the kids in Minot have had the mental state for so long now that they do not know any different. It's too bad and I do not know what is going to cause the kids to overcome it but I hope that it happens sometime soon. I am from Minot and hate to see them choke every year. During the 80's and early 90's, Minot would most times get past the first round and take at least 3rd or 4th. A couple of times, 1989, 1985 and 1992 they were in the finals and won it in 1992. A minot team should have won it since 1992. I can think of 1993, 1994-95, 1997-98 and 2004-05 to name just a few teams that were really, really good and choked very seriously.

I think ND will be considered arrogant by that small cache of PCers who already think that and like-minded PCers who may not yet have heard of the story. The group would be small in any case. For the most part, normal people who work at jobs and pay bills and have common sense will validate what ND has done and is doing. Regardless of the self-righteousness of the PCers and irrespective of what they would try to guilt people into believing, the vast majority of citizens find PC language monitoring reprehensible and unacceptable. I think the NCAA will be portrayed as being ridiculous.

What ND players are the Sioux potentially looking at? It would seem that the ND coaches would have had a good chance to see Mikula and the Fargo/Grafton players. Any west players that are being looked at by ND?

What's wrong with the West? When I played for Minot in the early and mid-80's, we competed pretty well with the East and almost won state in 1985. Then, in the later 80's, Minot almost won state again a couple of times....1989 and 1990. Then, in 1992, a west team finally won state. Bismarck and Minot were the best teams in the state that year and had several eventual d-1 players. I don't understand the choking mentality out there. Minot has had good teams. What's going on?

Finally, some people with spines. I'm glad the vote was unanimous. A statement was shown to the NC00. Hopefully, this will get some national attention in the press. Has Scott Hennen done anything to apprize his friend, Sean Hannity, of this? I think this is just the sort of thing Hannity or Bill O'Reilly would really like.

The Usual Suspects: The odd President of SCSU, the neo-hippie knobs at the UWis and UofMN, "I can't act"Russell Means, "I could not make it in the real practice of law so I thought I'd teach" Jim Grijalva (sp?), etc.

Sioux 7>5 raises an excellent point. Let's use a name that is truly offensive. How about the "storming brown shirts"? Given that all of the fans and other people who support the nickname are Nazis anyway, according to the PC crowd, there should be no problem with this should there? How about the "Marauding White Lucifers"? This should fit well with the PC opinion of most whites anyway.

The people who oppose the nickname view, in a most twisted sense, that use of the nickname by mostly whites is a continuation of abuses that were perpetrated upon the native peoples. What it boils down to is that they don't like whitey using anything about their heritage, especially if whitey is making money off of symbols, etc. and they are not ..... but it is fully ok for them to refer to it and use it. Trademarks be damned. Such types are either bored or intellectually stagnant to super-impose abuse where none exists. If they say abuse exists and if they say something is abusive, it must be so and there is no room for debate or disagreement. If you do disagree or debate, you're ignorant or a rascist ..... or you're a Nazi. These are self-proclaimed "intellectuals"? Once, when I was at a gopher/sioux game in the TC, I stood right in the middle of the "protesters" and commenced my own counter-protest. Boy, it felt good to exercise my free speech rights regardless of the insults hurled for disagreeing with the PC police.

Phil Jackson is very strange. Just ask anyone from Williston or anyone who played with him in the late 60's at UND. He's basically a fully baked hippie throw back who barely acknowledges his ND connection. I guess I'm glad about this because he's such a knob. He'd probably be relegated to anonymity if not for Shaq, Kobe, Michael Jordan and Pippen (sp?)

No rambling prose at all. These days, I do not think English majors even know what constitutes prose. I speak as one who graduated in the late 80's. Too many of the English types are too busy protesting to know anything else. Perhaps they are working on their study of irony or symbolism? Of course, that presumption is overly sanguine.

That's the whole point. The only way to get anywhere is through legal action. The NCAA has no business doing what it did. Guilt felt by a few white people about something that no one living now ever did is now basis for doing anything. Maybe those who determine that "There are better things to be spending time and money on" or "let's just focus on education" should direct those arguments to the various professors and other leeches on the state dole who should be teaching .... gasp .... My tax dollars do not go for them to waste state resources on "protesting." They should be driven out into the private sector where they have to earn their keep and where they do not have time to fixate on faniciful issues such as this. Two hoots to them. The lawsuit is long overdue and the NC00 weenies will be feeling something warm trickling down their legs.

I guess I'd have to check with the PC police to see how I'm supposed to feel. After they give me the dictate, I'll let you know how they've told me to feel. BTW, how does one get a jersey from 1994 or 1995 with "North Dakota" only on it? I surmise that these jersies may be back in use and up for sale this fall/winter if the nickname fiasco is not resolved by then or unless some sort of court injunction against the NC00 is entered.

That's very well put, indeed.

If the name were changed, it would probably be criticized as too "Eurocentric." Asinine. The same PC clowns that say everyone is "Eurocentric" with everything are the first ones to criticize the usage of the Sioux nickname recognizing and honoring the PAST Sioux.

Mad as hell. Commence legal action against them. I can't imagine how the U could lose. This is truly outrageous. The monopoly status of the NC$$ will be its downfall, as one poster said.

I sure hope Minot actually gets beyond the consolation bracket this year. Minot has had some very good teams but there is a mental issue when they play the east for some reason in the state tournament. This started in 1993. In the mid, late 80's and early 90's, Minot did not seem to have the issue and were beating the east schools in the tournament. In 1992, the best teams in the state were from the west region, Minot, Bismarck and Jamestown. I think the only team that could compare to the 1992 Bismarck and Minot squads is this year's FArgo South squad. As I am from Minot, I would like to see them do something this year. I do not think the program has had too much intensity or focus since Bruce Olson left..1992 being the exception. Any ideas on which of this year's kids will probably play D-1 hockey? I think Galt and Weisgarber for sure, one or two kids from Grafton, probably 2 or 3 kids from Minot and the Jamestown goalie. Any others?