The past year has been a great year for Pete.  His baseball team won state 12AAA state baseball tournament in Apple Valley, his football team won an all metro all star football tournament in Minnetonka and to cap it off, his hockey team won the state tournament on his home ice at Braemar Arena. Most kids would kill for just a chance to be in those shoes for one chance at glory…Pete had all three. Athletically, Peter easily qualifies for this award, he is a great hockey player…but what stood out most to YHH was how comfortable he is in the spotlight or when times got tough.  He is a pressure player who plays all sports under complete control, but especially hockey.  He rushes the puck extremely well for a defenseman…but he is most dangerous when he has the puck at the point with just a second or two of free time.  There he can hurt you with his brawn (has a shot stronger than his dad’s vocabulary), his brains (holds the puck with confidence), or his skill (he will pass it to an open teammate for a sure scoring chance). His favorite part about hockey is the speed and contact of the game (especially in the checking game).

Legendary Edina PeeWee AA coach, Jeff Johnson said of Tabor, “Peter leads by example both on the ice and and off.  He is a better kid than he is a hockey player. A total treat to have coached the past two seasons.”

Pete’s favorite players are Steven Stamkos and Bobby Ryan. When he’s hungry, he loves the Mac and Cheese at Noodles and Company.  When not playing hockey Pete loves playing football.  When not throwing touchdown passes,  he also likes to go fishing and hanging out with friends. In the classroom Pete scores about as well as he does on the ice, maintaining nearly an A average.

Congratulations to Peter Tabor on a great season of sports.  Good luck on many more.

YHH saw Gavin Hain play a few times this season and every time we saw him we left with an even stronger impression than the time before. His friends call him Curly, for obvious reasons, Gavin has a spectacular set of golden locks. Our first impression of Gavin was not his hair, it was his size.  Our second impression was his drive to win. And the final impression we left with is his shot. The speed of which he can get it off and the anxiety it causes opposing goalies. Hockey-wise, Gavin has a very bright future.

Speaking to his coach, Roger Mishke this year, Roger said, “besides his obvious physical talents, Gavin’s competitiveness drives the other players to be better.  For example, he works so hard during our practices, the other kids can’t afford to take a drill off!” Mishke went on to give Gavin the highest compliment of all, “I’ll say this about Gavin, I’d hate to be the coach on the other team when Gavin’s shift comes up…” When asked why he loves playing hockey Gavin simply said, “I love everything about it, the competition and playing on a winning team with my friends.”

Besides enjoying hockey, Gavin is also active in many other sports and activities.  In the Summer, Gavin plays U15 Soccer in Grand Rapids as well as tournament Golf and tournament Tennis. Between all of that, he loves water skiing and wake boarding.

His favorite professional player is Patrick Kane and his favorite college players are Nick Bjugstad and Kyle Rau. He told us his ideal meal would be, “…a really good steak, potatoes, home-made macarroni and cheese and for dessert – cheesecake.”

Carrying a GPA near 3.9, Gavin is a great student – an amazing feat considering he also loves to Snowmobile and Duck Hunt in his “free time”.  YHH is honored to have Gavin as a finalist for the Wiz Wyatt Player of the Year Award.

YHH has seen Tyler play a few times the past two seasons.  Tyler had the game winning goal in the state semifinals versus Eden Prairie last year as the only first year player on a team of all second years.  This year we saw him early in the season score goal after goal against top metro teams.  At this point we knew Watkins was a special player.  But what cemented his spot high on our list is after every metro team returned from the north, we’d get a call or text asking if we’d seen “this #8 kid from Hermantown play?” We caught up to Tyler at the Minnesota Super Series to catch a glimpse of him at the end of the season and not much has changed.  Tyler had a hat trick, some posts, a crossbar and about 45 new fans from the west side of the metro area.

Besides being a great hockey player, Tyler is probably a better student than he is player. He has a 3.74 GPA at school. And if that isn’t impressive enough, he also plays U15 Lacrosse in Hermantown, and Football and Golf for his school.

Tyler’s favorite part of hockey is “being part of a team and the challenge of competition.” His favorite player is Steven Stamkos. When at the dinner table, Tyler likes pasta with red sauce and/or black bean and rice burritos. When not playing hockey, Tyler loves to hang out with family, play other sports, and ride jet skis.

We are really excited to have Tyler Watkins on our list of finalists for the Wiz Wyattt Player of the Year Award.

YHH has seen Clayton play a number of times the past few years.  He’s played for the ’99 Fire and  Machine Orange at the Tier I level and for Edina the last two associations seasons.  A physical specimen, Clayton is a great skater with a great shot and uncanny balance when being contested either in open ice or in the corners. He is a really fun player to watch, mostly because he’s the type of player that just takes over the game.  One night while watching his team play this year, a little brother from the opposing team approached me and said, “mister, do you know who number 9 is, he’s really good?” To which I replied, “that’s Clayton Phillips and yes, he is really good.”

Most would agree that Clayton was the best player on the best team in the state (in case you missed it, Clayton’s team went undefeated this year in Minnesota, going 55-0). There were times when he could score at will versus any team or like we saw in the state championship game vs. Wayzata, he scored to help put another team away that thought they may have a chance. Edina PeeWee AA coach, Jeff Johnson said of Clayton, “…he is a tireless worker both in the off-season and during practice. Clayton was so much fun to coach the past two seasons because I knew how hard he would work in practice…”

When asked why he loves hockey so much, Clayton responded, “I love hanging out with my friends and scoring goals…” His favorite player is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. His favorite food is the Dairy Queen Cookie Dough Blizzard.
When not playing hockey, Clayton loves to waterski. He has been involved with the Twin Cities River Rats Water Ski Show Team for a number of years with weekly performances.  He can slalom ski, wakeboard and barefoot waterski (at 40 mph).

Congratulations to Clayton and his teammates for a great season.  Great players like Clayton are the reason we made an award like this to recognize their great talent and hard work.

YHH first saw Jack Olsen as a puck rushing defenseman for his Squirt team a few years back.  Besides some of the obvious positives of his game: fast, versatile and great instincts, Jack was a leader.  At 10 years old, he played the game with great maturity.  As a first year PeeWee, he played on one of the top three teams in the state.  And again this year, his team was ranked number two in the state almost the entire season. This year the Cougars won three tournaments including the Burnsville, New Hope, and District 8 tournaments and came one game away from the State Tournament losing to Minnetonka in the East Regional.

What stands out most about Jack’s game different than most players in the state is his ability to lead.  Jack is not a vocal rah-rah leader, he leads by example.  Playing hard on every shift, wether it is the first shift of the game or when the game is on the line.  We also noticed that Jack’s brain is always working…sometimes encouraging his team’s goalie or positioning a player during a face off.  Jack sometimes looked like a respected extension of the coaching staff. Like any good defenseman, Jack’s favorite part of hockey is “making an outlet pass that leads to a goal”  or “scoring (a goal) off of an (end to end) rush.”

In the off-season Jack is one of the best leadoff hitters in the state.  An impossible out with great speed and great baseball instincts, Jack can also pitch and play shortstop to help his team win. In addition to playing Baseball and Hockey, Jack likes to play basketball and hang out with friends.

His favorite player is Ryan Suter from the Minnesota Wild.  Like most seventh graders, he says pizza is his favorite food. Speaking of grades, Jack boasts a 3.9 GPA at McGuire Middle School in Lakeville.

YHH is ecstatic to have such an outstanding young man on our list of finalists for the Wiz Wyatt Player of the Year Award.