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High School Hockey in North Dakota


PHE

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Since we are officially into the offseason, I'm taking the liberty of starting a thread which covers a topic outside the boundry of UND hockey.

I'm curious as to what people think of the current state of high school hockey in North Dakota.

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EDC: Schneider (GFRR), Fuher (GFC)

WDA: Massen (BHS), Fylling (Minot), Sedevie (BHS)

This fall there will be more guys from the NDHSAA's Western Dakota Assocation than Eastern Dakota Conference. I don't think that's happened before.

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Sic,

Good point.  It looks like the West is starting to gain ground on the East.  I'm surprised there haven't been more D1 kids from Fargo.

On a previous thread you mentioned that you were partial to the May-Port Patriots.  Do you know anything about the club program they recently started?

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Upon further review:

"Newly opened in January 2000, The MayPort Community Center is an excellent indoor ice arena and activities center. Already, it has a busy schedule full of youth hockey, family and open skating, and adult hockey."

http://www.mayvilleportland.com/templat....reation

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MayPort did not have their ice system running this past year, thus had to depend on cold weather (of which there was little). Their junior gold club team was "weak", but, with lots of kids in the program, and the ice system running by this fall, they should improve in a few years. As far as entering the HS ranks, none of the smaller schools have had much of an impact on the HS leagues (Williston, Hazen). Although an occasional good player comes out of the west, the hockey hot bed still lies in GF, as it no doubt always will.

I think ND HS hockey was generally down this past year, evidenced by players normally in the JG ranks making the HS teams. As a result, the JG program was overall weaker than it has been for many years as well. Teams that used to be at the top of the JG ranks (Crosby, Minot), now struggle to get enough kids to have a team. With Minot's new arena, they'll be back in a few years, but small towns like Crosby, Rugby, etc, will likely be without hockey in a few years.

As far as future Sioux, I don't think we're going to see many coming from ND, except for those few that are good enough to make their way through the junior ranks. The best coaching beginning in the younger age groups still resides in GF.

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Here's one for you all.

Apparently Fargo Shanley is dropping out of their hockey co-op with West Fargo. They plan to have hockey all by themselves from now on.

WF will be hurt because I figured them to go to state in 2003. Yes, hockey in WF has come that far. I'm not so sure without the Shanley kids now though.

Shanley is serious too. They have hired former Fighting Sioux Rick and Frank Burggraf to coach the team.

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Every year I work a youth hockey tourney in Minneapolis and this year I got to see a ND select team.  The team was made up of 13 and 14 year olds from all over the state of ND.  In the game I worked they lost to a team from Madison, Wi 8-2.  The ND team was so overmatched in skills in comparison to the other five teams that I saw in their division.  I really hope that this wasn't a fair representation of ND hockey.  I'm from Jamestown and one day I would love to cheer for a guy from my hometown while he is wearing the ND sweater.

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With a few notable exceptions, HS hockey in NoDak really isn't a major deal for the state.  I watched a Central/Minot(?) game some time ago and wasn't really impressed by the overall skill level relative to most good Minnesota HS squads.

I think the trend of top-flight HS players going to the USHL, AWHL, etc. will continue and probably accelerate due to the increased visibility and better competition at those levels.  I think that's probably the only way UND and other schools will continue to recruit NoDaks for hockey programs.

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