2023-24 ND High School Hockey

[gfhockey]

6 minutes ago, sioux rube said:

Dilute the west even more when they come on board 

Well, tough !@#$ the Grand Forks teams have two schools both within enrollments less than total of one #MINot at school

[sioux rube]

12 minutes ago, gfhockey said:

Well, tough !@#$ the Grand Forks teams have two schools both within enrollments less than total of one #MINot at school

 Okie dokie. Did you stick your chest out and pound on it after posting this? There isn’t a town in the state like GF as far as hockey goes. Now go drink 

[sioux rube]

[Frozen4sioux]

16 hours ago, sioux rube said:

Dilute the west even more when they come on board 

It will. Dramatically. WDA as a whole is

But at the same time Minot fills a: Varsity team

JV team 

A Junior Gold team

and I was told there's still a significant number of kids that were told "no place to play, you're done with hockey."

That's a school board nightmare

But that only takes into account pure numbers and not where they proportionally live throughout the two districts.

 

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

4 minutes ago, Frozen4sioux said:

It will. Dramatically. WDA as a whole is

But at the same time Minot fills a: Varsity team

JV team 

A Junior Gold team

and I was told there's still a significant number of kids that were told "no place to play, you're done with hockey."

That's a school board nightmare

But that only takes into account pure numbers and not where they proportionally live throughout the two districts.

 

They attempted to put together a second Junior Gold team but couldn't get coaches and everything lined up. 

[The Sicatoka]

19 minutes ago, Frozen4sioux said:

But that only takes into account pure numbers and not where they proportionally live throughout the two districts.

That's how Davies got good fast.
Nearly all the South players lived below 32nd Ave in Fargo before Davies happened.
They fell into Davies territory.

South was left scrambling for players and thus the dawn of South-Shanley. 

I don't see that happening with Sheyenne when Horace decides to add hockey however.
The hockey kids live in Osgood subdivision (closer to Sheyenne) than Horace, at least for now. 

[sioux rube]

54 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

That's how Davies got good fast.
Nearly all the South players lived below 32nd Ave in Fargo before Davies happened.
They fell into Davies territory.

South was left scrambling for players and thus the dawn of South-Shanley. 

I don't see that happening with Sheyenne when Horace decides to add hockey however.
The hockey kids live in Osgood subdivision (closer to Sheyenne) than Horace, at least for now. 

Everyone knows about the fabulous Sunmart rink home of the Fargo Angels. I’ve heard they are building a new rink. Will it be located near Shanley?

[The Sicatoka]

5 minutes ago, sioux rube said:

Will it be located near Shanley?

Don't know, but there is space out there. 

[Frozen4sioux]

32 minutes ago, sioux rube said:

Everyone knows about the fabulous Sunmart rink home of the Fargo Angels. I’ve heard they are building a new rink. Will it be located near Shanley?

I thought the Angels had announced plans to fundraise for a rink somewhere in West Fargo close to the Lights area?

[AJS]

The new Angels rink will be part of this.

Fargo Parks Sports Center | Fargo Parks

[Johnny Five]

Program A doesn't cut, rarely has a player quit because they wanna be apart of a program, has a historic successful run...

Program B has kids cut, players choose to play JR gold instead (kids cut themselves), is always a solid WDA competitor and to their credit has 2 State Titles but it's rare...

Difference between the Bismarck Blizzard and the Minot Magicians is:

* One had an Olympian and the rest of the state didn't adapt (hard to adapt to a top 3 all time player)...the state did adapt once she was gone oddly enough but the damage had been done.

*Minot is still chasing the East like the rest of the WDA so nobody complains about them.

In talking to ADs in the past, they're more concerned with participation - keeping kids in sports - than winning.  And at the end of the day, I suppose there's really nothing wrong with that.  We all want to grow the game, right?  And ultimately a large majority of these kids we wanna see playing men's league someday and coaching and getting their kids involved in the game like the other 99% of us...So yes, it'll water down the west even more, but that happened on the girls side as well and the rest of the state was emphatic about it and now, in Bismarck, it is more difficult to make a 10UA or 12UA team than it is a HS team where it is a participation sport.

REGARDLESS of that...Word on the street is that the meeting last night was a "not ready next year yet" vibe.  

[Johnny Five]

When Legacy split, there was a group of parents who pursued the school board and ADs to give kids who go to Legacy an opportunity to play the sport.  There was enough kids, and kids were tired of playing for other schools.  In fact, the way the lines were, some Legacy kids would be in Math class together and one would be a Demon and one would be a Patriot.  At the end of the day, it took away a legit chance for CHS to be legit state title contenders last season and probably this year as well.  But more kids are playing...  

Now on the flip side there were Demon and Patriots fighting the split of Legacy - and it got quite ugly between the 3 groups.

Not sure if that's happening in Minot or not...fighting against it or for it....I've been told by a few people up north that their are kids/families that just love the Junior Gold for whatever reason and want nothing to do with HS hockey.  

[Wilbur]

South-Shanley vs. Sheyenne was a good game tonight.  South scored three goals in the first half of the first period and then Sheyenne just took over.  4-3 final.  EDC will be a log jam this season. 

 

[Johnny Five]

Century and Minot with a good old fashioned "who has the ball last" 7-6 game, CHS wins it.  Last 2 games on PSP Network have been 6-5 and 7-6.  

[sioux rube]

12 hours ago, Wilbur said:

South-Shanley vs. Sheyenne was a good game tonight.  South scored three goals in the first half of the first period and then Sheyenne just took over.  4-3 final.  EDC will be a log jam this season. 

 

Yep it’s going to be fun to see who gets to state from the east 

[sioux rube]

[Johnny Five]

There's been some serious shootouts this year.  Watched the EGF/GFC game on KROX feed, what a tilt that was.  No love lost there, that's for sure.  

[Wilbur]

Watched Grafton and Sheyenne.  Looks like Grafton has a refrigeration issue on their rink.  Either dead pipe or a big air pocket in the pipe under the concrete. 

[Johnny Five]

Girls hockey: Jamestown beats Minot 1-0 and Willy 1-0 on a Western swing.  Sorlie 70/70 on saves for the weekend.  She a great story…

[Johnny Five]

Some good games to follow the next 3 days:

Minot at Legacy.  A rematch of last year's WDA championship.  3 horse race with Century at the top of the WDA.  Should be a tight game and there's a bit of bad blood between the 2 (tonight, streamed on PSP and BEK).

RR at Davies.  Saw Davies tossed up 9 on WF Tuesday. (tonight).

Central at Sheyenne.  Should be a great game.  GFC dumped South 4-1 Tuesday while Sheyenne lost a battle to North 1-0.  (Friday).

North at Davies.  (Saturday)

EGF at RR (Saturday).  EGF and GFC last week was highly entertaining.  

------------

The girls is a hot mess, which I guess is a good thing.  After a month of play I'd say it's North, West Fargo and Mandan in the top 3.  After that, it is quite honestly a shitshow on any given night and there really are no guaranteed wins.  And with a statewide league and basically every game on the schedule counting, there's no room for nights off.     

[sioux rube]

On 12/10/2023 at 7:02 AM, Johnny Five said:

Girls hockey: Jamestown beats Minot 1-0 and Willy 1-0 on a Western swing.  Sorlie 70/70 on saves for the weekend.  She a great story…

Whenever I see her at the rink I call her the Wall. Then she turns a bit red. Very humble young lady. Amazing this is only her third year in net 

[sioux rube]

[Brim006]

On 12/2/2023 at 7:23 AM, Johnny Five said:

I think sometimes the "Legacy screwed BHS" stuff comes from.....for a long time the old coaching staff was trying to convince administration to CO-OP Legacy kids with BHS kids because the numbers were skewed in CHS favor.  So essentially those guys wanted the same CO-OP that eventually came with the Legacy-Bismarck girls program when that started.  

And at that time...they weren't wrong.  That is until there were 40 hockey players sitting in the hallways of Legacy and had enough to start a team.

I'd love to rip on BHS but I won't do that.  Hats off to the kids and families who stuck it out.  There's been so much crying, whining, quitting and transferring from adults the last 3 years it really did screw the program.  Much respect to those who are playing just to play the game we love, even though it won't be much fun this season.  

Bismarck is growing north, and a lot of hockey families are living north for whatever reason.  I think if people say playing time opportunities in the future as being important, perhaps some people will head south.  There's 700ish kids in the Bismarck Youth program one would think that would be sufficient for 3 HS teams.  

I think you're correct in thinking things will level out or get better for BHS eventually. The city is growing, the youth program is growing, and playing time or making a team at all will be important which will naturally even things out a little better.

There will always be growing pains when expanding teams with the same amount of kids. The only unknown is how bad it will be and how long it will last. I'd expect it to get better assuming the youth programs continue to produce more and more kids to better populate the rosters of all 3 teams. 

Question....with Shiloh and St Mary's growing so fast, do those kids have a choice on which team they go to or are they auto set with a team? That might be a bigger factor than most realize too?

[Frozen4sioux]

7 hours ago, Brim006 said:

I

Question....with Shiloh and St Mary's growing so fast, do those kids have a choice on which team they go to or are they auto set with a team? That might be a bigger factor than most realize too?

It was completely based upon what district the family lived in for which program they fed into.

When Legacy hockey came online, in order to quell some of the pissing and moaning, BPS made St. Marys sign a Boys hockey co-op agreement with BHS so now for.

St. Marys Boys they go to BHS  now ... (some where even forced from Century after playing varsity and sent to BHS, with no option of being grandfathered. Some chose to leave St Marys and just enroll in their public school district, be it Century or Legacy) 

Also note the St. MARYS Girls are co-oped to Century

So a St Marys family if they happen to live in the Legacy school district, lets say they have 2 boys and 2 Girls:

could have a Girl attending SMHS playing on the Century Girls Hockey team.

A Boy attending SMHS and playing on the Bismarck High Boys Hockey team.

They could also and have a sibling boy and girl that if those kids did not attend St Marys and attended their Public school of Legacy...

They would also have a BOY playing on the Legacy Boys hockey team 

and a GIRL playing on the Legacy-Bismarck Girls Hockey team!

 

Confused?... now take those scenarios and try plan or map out  the balance of kids coming up out of the youth program....

What you get is short term misery and very difficult situations.. that are now playing out at BHS, and the Girls teams and the youth program Girls teams.

Oh... and

Shiloh kids just still feed to the their district they reside in, so again classmates playing for different teams against each orher is still a possibility. (Granted there are very few  Shiloh kids who play high school hockey... very very few)

Will it all work out.... I hope so.

 

[Johnny Five]

Hahaha.  I need A cocktail after reading that.