Section 7A sees the return of Hermantown this year and the Hawks return will re-kindle the 5 mile rivalry with Duluth Marshall come playoff time.  Since Marshall has no Minnesota Hockey association, it can only recruit players from nearby associations.  Duluth East provides a good chunk of those players; but Hermantown does not.

In the past, YHH has joked about Hermantown and Marshall stealing players from each other and from the Duluth area; but the Hermantown Association has maintained a steady stream of players to the Hawks’ varsity and has successfully funneled most of their players to the high school.  The Hawks last three bantam AA/A teams (2010-2011, 2011-2012, and 2012-2013) all stayed with the Hawks Varsity with few exceptions.  Last season the Hermantown Association had 43 bantam players and that generally means 20 or so players will move to the high school this fall.  The varsity coaches are quick to point out Hawk player has the same zip code.

Last season’s Hawks Varsity team had 8-seniors, 8-juniors and 4-sophmores.   That means next fall’s varsity is likely to look likely to have a similar balance (8-8-4).  There are exceptions, talent will rise faster and some players will develop earlier.  But there is some merit in doing this 8-8-4 balance.  It keeps the kids interested in the high school program at the lower levels by optimizing each kid’s chance to play hockey on an association’s varsity team.  The Hermantown Association has produced roughly 20 second year bantam players each year.

The varsity roster reflects this.  In the past four seasons, a total of seventeen sophmores were on the Hawk varsity rosters.  That is an average of 4 a year and every year Hermantown has gone to the state tourney

00242.  D11 (#5 Light Blue) Brendan Baker (5’11″/145lbs/L/Hermantown Bantam AA)-Baker is one of those Hawks with a lot of “potential”.  He has the size and strength and utilizes his body well, he also has that burst of speed that can beat a defenseman at the opponent’s blue line.  Making St. Cloud should be a confidence booster for Baker, doing well at St. Cloud can only help his hockey options.  He will certainly contend for the Hawks’ varsity in the fall.

00243.  D11 (#21 Light Blue) Lukas Dow (5’7″/140lbs/L/Duluth East Bantam AA)-Dow is listed in Section 7A because he has listed Duluth Marshall as his school on the select 15 roster headed for St. Cloud.  In the Bantam AA State Tourney last March, Dow (and his linemates Ash Altmann and Shay Donovan) dominated the play whenever they hit the ice.  Dow was key in setting up plays (or himself) by making split second evaluations of the game situation and moderating his play according.  In D11’s opening 8-5 win over D5 at the Festival, Dow scored a hat trick and added two assists to notch 5 of the 8 D11 goals.  A good all-around player, Dow is sure to get some national attention at the Select 15 camp.  His problem will be to get by Hermantown next March.

00244.  D11 (#27 Light Blue) Cole Koepke (5’9″/150lbs/L/Hermantown Bantam AA)-Koepke is a bigger forward who plays a solid game; but it is his strength in his skates that is impressive.  Often he would tie up an opponent’s defenseman in the slot area and would not be moved.  A good shot with good all-around play, his making the St. Cloud trip should give him a solid shot at the Hawks’ Varsity in the fall.  He can only gain at the June camp.

00245.  D11 (#18 Light Blue) Matthew Valure (5’8″/150lbs/L/Hermantown Bantam AA)-Valure is a first year bantam and YHH noticed him at the Peewee A State Tourney in Alex in March 2012.  Not that it was hard, he scored twice in the opening minutes of the first game and led his team to a runner-up trophy.  At the Festival he continued to grow and improve his game.  A bigger forward, more wing type then center, Valure will need to make a splash at St. Cloud to move up this year.

It may not matter, Valure has the talent.  He is not going away.
00246.  D12 (#11 Royal Blue) Taylor Lantz (5’5″/120/R/Greenway Bantam A)-Lantz make look smaller on the ice, but is a great skater with good acceleration and strong in his skates.  He has the ability to work into a defense and maintain control of the puck.  With the Raider’s varsity losing their top scorers, Lantz is will likely play Iron Range Conference and Independent foes next fall.  The trip to St. Cloud has already gotten him notice on the range.

But to a Minnesota hockey fan, mention Greenway and they go back immediately to the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when the single state hockey crown was decided in front of packed arenas and on state wide television.  Few may know the games were taped and distributed on a nationwide basis and replayed in all sorts of places like Newport News, Virginia where it could be watched on a Sunday morning.  The 1968 Championship was won by Greenway and watched in Newport News.

Greenway won their last state hockey title in 1992.  That was before the privates took over and started to dominate the state tourney (winning 17 of the 30 titles in the last 15 years).  The Raiders made it back to the state in the early 2000’s but didn’t win.

Greenway has managed to hang on to hockey at the high school level and this year had both bantam A and peewee A teams in the North Regionals.  Lantz’s NOW ranked #8 Raider almost made it to the State Tourney.  They lost to Thief River Falls 3-2 in the game for the North Region’s #2 seed to the state tourney.  The quality of their youth program is going up.

Part of their success is that most hockey people like to play at least once at their home arena in Coleraine.  Youth teams from all over the state love the Grand Rapids-Greenway-Hibbing circuit since it is an hour drive on 169 with all the old arenas and they know at Greenway they just play hockey.

But another part of their success to be is just around the corner at Nashwauk.
Greenway hockey is actually an amalgamation of three towns (Coleraine, Nashwauk, and Keewatin).  Some would argue Bovey is part of that.  Basically the Raiders’ territory is everything between Grand Rapids and Hibbing.  Hence the varsity team flies under the name of Greenway/Nash-Kee.

After years of scrutiny via the federal government regulations (today tax payers especially teaparty taxpayers can now understand what that means) Essar Steel will open production in mid-2014.  At least half of their yearly iron ore pellet production capacity (3.5 million tons) has been placed under long term contract.  Essar estimates they have nearly 2 billion metric tons of ore reserves at their facility.  That means at current production rates, they have 100’s of years of production.  And that means the Greenway/Nash-Kee area will grow and have long term sustainable growth.  And so will Raider hockey.

Basically Section 8AA hockey is at the whim of the North Dakota oil fields.  There are people in Minnesota that want to ignore the effects, but as soon as the North Dakota infrastructure (streets, roads, housing, etc) that make towns near the oil fields more viable for families, a lot of Northwestern Minnesotans will move out of towns like Warroad, Crookston, Hallock, Bagley, Bemidji and Thief River Falls.

Some are already working there, spending two weeks and coming back home.  It can’t be stopped and North Dakota will boom and boom more as a energy producer and a financial giant.  North Dakota will become the primary source of good paying jobs in the region and North Dakota will be the financial center of the upper Midwest.

Simply put, North Dakota and its financial institutions already have more money than it can use inside North Dakota and has been building a financial base over the past five years outside the state.  Businesses in Minneapolis are going to North (and South) Dakota for loans.  Meanwhile, Minnesota’s debt continues to grow.

This becomes important for Section 8AA hockey.  There is that the four 8AA high schools (Moorhead, Brainerd, Bemidji, and Roseau) in Section 8AA.  They will be hit by loss of people including families, the basic building block of youth hockey and high school hockey.

After having good years in the 2009-2010 seasons, both Bemidji and Roseau youth programs have struggled in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons.  Their population growth starting turning negative around 2010..

Since the Minnesota State High School league just allocates teams to sections regardless of geographical location, the remaining Section 8AA teams (six teams) being added to Section 8AA come from the mid-state.  The days of the top four seeds going to Bemidji, Roseau, and Brainerd are nearing an end.  This year, River Lakes, a resurging Buffalo program, St. Cloud Tech and a young MAML team with players from its peewee A 2012 state tourney team will be starting to play high school hockey.  These schools are the principle threats.

00213.  D5 (#8 Purple) Connor Beltz (5′ 11″/150lbs/L/River Lakes Bantam AA)-Something started to happen in the River Lakes program in the 2011-2012 season, their peewee A team played competitively as the season ended.  The River Lakes’ Association peewee A team, after a slow start, strung some impressive wins together from mid-December to the end of January including a late season 2-1 win over St. Cloud.

This year’s peewee AA team made it to the South Regional and had a good tourney but failed to advance.  Eight of the peewee A’s from the 2011-2012 team played on the Stars bantam AA hockey team last season that posted a .500 record.  Beltz was one of the team leaders.

River Lakes Varsity is somewhat unique.  They are a combined association of towns a 30 minute drive south of St. Cloud.  The Varsity has two home arenas; Paynesville and New Richmond and split their home games between the two arenas.  They play in the Central Lakes Conference and have struggle over the past 5 years usually finishing eighth or ninth in the nine team league.

The varsity team graduates 10 players this year including 7 of the Stars top 10 scorers.  That leaves lots of openings for Beltz to make the varsity and a good showing at St. Cloud will make it hard to keep him off the varsity as a ninth grader next year.  But he is a first year bantam.  With the core of last year’s bantam AA team returning plus some good peewee AA players moving to bantams, River Lakes could make a run and end up next March in the state tourney with Beltz on the team.  For Beltz, only good things can happen at St. Cloud.

00217.  D5 (#46 Purple) Blake Habisch (5′ 5″/135/R/Buffalo Bantam AA)-Buffalo was one of the two dominant D5 associations five years ago.  The other was Mound/Westonka.  The two associations dominated D5 with the peewee A and bantam A titles always being decided who won the games the two associations played.  That started to end for the Bison a year or so before St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids joined D5; and Mound/Westonka and Crow River left for D3.  Those were good moves and has improved D3, D10, and D5 to the point where teams in the three leagues competitive well with each other.

But the Bison Association is still struggling with numbers.  Their Bantam AA team made the South Regional and their Bantam B team made the state tourney; good signs that the association has quality.  But like Luverne, both teams made it there skating only two lines (10 forwards on the roster), which meant that opposing coaches could match up unless you could do what Luverne did-go to single substitutions and rotate with the defense.

At the Varsity level, Buffalo skates in the Mississippi 8 conference that last year was the “Mississippi 5” since only five high schools played in the conference played hockey.  The Bison had a .500 season and will lose only five players (including their top three scorers).  Habish is a first year bantam and will be a ninth grader next year.  The number of next season’s Buffalo bantams will not grow, but remain around thirty skaters.  That plus the small number of seniors leaving the varsity will work against him.  Habish, making the select camp, has to be a plus, but a good St. Cloud camp could push him to varsity in the fall.

00248.  D15 (#27 Maroon) Jack Fahrendorf (5’10″/145lbs/L/Moorhead Bantam AA)-Somehow, YHH got the vibes that some Moorhead fans didn’t like the “Spuds” nickname.  They shouldn’t feel that way, it makes most fans remember their teams, the Spuds.

Moorhead made the Class AA tourney the last three years and posted a combined 3-5 state tourney record.  The Spuds highest finish at the state tourney was fourth in 2012; last year they won the consolation title beating Eastview 5-2.  They lose eight seniors from last March’s State Tourney team including three of their top four scorers.

This fall, players from the 2010-2011 state tourney Moorhead peewee A team starts to hit the varsity.  Codee Brace and Pat O’Connor made the varsity last year.  O’Connor, a 6’ ninth grader last year, played defense (24 games) and scored 5 points.  Faherndorf and nine other members of the 2012-2013 bantam AA state tourney team will be moving up.  Moorhead Association has a nice balance to the transition from bantam AA and should be strong in the coming seasons.  Their pipeline is kept nicely stocked by their association and with the city bordering North Dakota, one would think the Spuds should do well.

The Spuds problems are potentially only a few years out when the full impact of North Dakota oil hits and a family realizes they can get move 10 miles, take the Minnesota tax money they will save to make house payments, improve their standard of living, and not leave the area.

For Fahrendorf, St. Cloud is a positive.  He is a hard skating forward not afraid to take the puck out of melee along the boards.  He has a nice skating stride for a taller player (5’10”).   A good St. Cloud showing will improve on his chances to make the varsity team in the fall and he will get national attention.
00249.  D16 (#29 Gold) Brandon Lund (5’6″/145lbs/L/Roseau Bantam AA)-Where most of the Section 8AA varsity teams get hit with losing their top scorers next fall, the Roseau varsity does not.  The Rams lose nine players of last season’s varsity.  It is a varsity team that has gone two and out the last three years in Section 8AA; but it is also the team that will have the core of the Roseau Association’s 2010 Peewee A state championship playing as juniors.

The next two seasons are the years for those peewee state champs to shine on the Ram Varsity and most of them are there.  The Roseau peewee AA/A teams in 2010-2011, 2011-2012, and 2012-2013 have struggled-that puts the load on the current squad.  Last season’s Roseau peewee AA team was NOW ranked seventh of the eight Section 8AA high school associations teams; the Rams were only ranked ahead of Buffalo.

Another goal scorer, Lund posted 6 points (3 goals and 3 assists) in D16’s three Festival games.  But Lund needs a good St. Cloud camp and some national attention.  The Roseau Varsity will be focused on the returning players next fall.

00252.  D16 (#9 Gold) Bryden Stoskopf (5’6″/115lbs/R/Roseau Bantam AA)- Stoskopf situation is the same as Lund’s.  Stoskopf is one of those players with a quick acceleration.  It seems like it takes Stoskopf less than two strides to go from 0 to 60.  He is an aggressive player.  But the peewee champs from 2010 should dominate the Roseau Varsity.  Stoskopf also need to have a positive St. Cloud camp.

00250.  D16 (#12 Gold) Joshua Lusby (5’10”/160lbs/R/Bemidji Bantam AA)- Bemidji Association placed two forwards in the top 100 (and placed 4 out of the 6 Lumberjacks on the D16 team).  One could argue the wave good players from their 2010-2011 peewee A team is going through the system and that “wave” is about to hit the varsity.

The Lumberjacks lose few players from the varsity for next fall’s team, but they lose their #1 and #2 scorers (who scored 30 of the 55 Lumberjack goals scored last season).  That is good news for the high scoring Lusby.

Lusby skaters bigger than his size and at 5’10” he is not exactly small.  Once he gets his shoulders square and pointed at the net, he is just hard to take off the puck.  He will get the shot off.  At the Festival, Lusby scored a hat trick in D16’s 7-2 win over D4 and notched another goal in the pool championship win over D3 5-4.  In their 6-5 win over D15 in Friday’s pool opener, YHH had Lusby down for two assists.

A good St. Cloud camp can help Lusby, but it is more of an opportunity to demonstrate his skills on the national stage.

00253.  D16 (#34 Gold) Brady Tatro (5’10″/152/R/Bemidji Bantam AA)-Tatro and Roseau’s Stoskopf were often on the ice together for D16’s three game sweep at the Festival.  They were not to top goal scorers, but they played well often tying up opponents in their end of the ice.

Tatro works hard checking in the opponents’ zone and often banged the puck on the net or towards the end boards to kept the action in front of the opponents’ net.

The potential problem with Section 8A is the potential loss of the smaller schools in the northwest corner of the state (Bagley/Fosston, Red Lake Falls, Lake of the Woods, and Kittson Central).  Kittson Central is in the very northwest corner of the state.  Its population has been declining steadily since 1950 and they have under 4500 residents in the county today.  That will drop as the oil fields take off and with it the ability for Kittson Central to field a hockey team.

Lake of the Woods (or LOW) and Red Lake Falls are in the same boat, except they are under 4,000 residents.  Bagley and Thief River Falls have county populations around 10,000 and may stabilize and grow but the real oil rush has not hit home yet.

Section 8A should see some changes two years from now.

00251.  D16 (#23 Gold) Lucas Magnusson (5’8″/120/L/Thief River Falls Bantam A)-The Prowlers Varsity team made it to the Class A state tourney two of the past three years.  The two state tourney teams were heavily senior and junior dominated and last year’s team that failed to make state graduated eight players pushing the Prowler graduates to over 30 players in the past three years.  What is left on the varsity is six returning seniors and three returning juniors plus five tenth graders (ninth graders in the 2012-2013 season).

The door is open for Magnusson.

Magnusson looks lanky on the ice and at his height and weight he should be; but he is an “eyes out”player; rarely looking away from the action and always positioning to the flow of the puck.  He should be focused on gaining national attention at the St. Cloud Camp.

00254.  D16 (#16 Gold) Beau Wilmer (5’7″/125lbs/R/Warroad Bantam A)-The past few years, the Warroad varsity has had a so-so season and made a run in Section 8A to come close to get the Class A State Tourney at XCEL.  They were usually beaten by East Grand Forks or Thief River Falls.  Last season’s varsity team had a good season, but could not get by East Grand Forks in the finals losing 2-0.

With East Grand Forks having a number of good players starting to play high school, that is not a good sign for the Warriors.

Wilmer is another lanky forward with good skills and an aggressive game.  His going to St. Cloud is a bonus to the Warrior program, this year they had six HP players (including HP-16 players and varsity leading scorers Kobe Bender and Jared Bethune).  Warroad varsity will lose ten players this year, but keep their top scorers.

The Warrior’s bantam A team struggled in D16 last season finishing last; but a 5-3 win over archrival Roseau in January helped ease the pain.  Wilmer was a first year bantam and an eighth grader last season.  The association needs somebody like Wilmer at the bantam A level, so a good St. Cloud camp will really help him.

00233.  D9 (#10 Navy) Samuel Shrout (5’5″/149/R/Shattuck-Shrout scored 50 points for the Sabres bantam AAA national runner-up team last season.  Playing as an eighth grader last season he is likely to return to the bantam AAA team next season.  Shrout plays smart has an impressive back checking game, and is a good scorer.  For him, the chance for national attention has to be his focus.  He originally comes from Southlake, Texas.