Nine of the 20 players on the Section 3 come from a single Minnesota school district, 196.  Five come from a single association, Woodbury, but go to two different varsity programs Woodbury and East Ridge.  Four go to a private school, Cretin Derham Hall.  That leaves two slots and they were filled by two Section 3A players; Toby Sengvongxay from Luverne and Jared Pederson from Litchfield Dassel Cokato.  That makes Section 3 one of the weirdest sections, paring varsity programs from the far southwest corner of the state with varsity programs from the west bank of the St. Croix river.  It also means that for 3A players to participate, they have to drive 400-500 hundred miles round trip.  At current gas prices, that is $100 bill-no wonder the local bank Friday casually said $100 bills were getting popular. 

But the numbers match, 3A matches 3AA.  Such is life when participating in multiclass sports.

The nine School District 196 players come from three 196 high schools, Rosemount, Eagan, and Eastview.  Four Rosemount players made the roster, Chad Hinkle, Blake Storholm, Brandon Menne, and Garret Jagoe.  Storholm played for District 8’s Select 15 team last summer and made the trip to St. Cloud.

All four players skated on the Rosemount’s NOW ranked #15 Bantam AA team along with another HP-16 select, Dylan McDonald this past winter.  All of those five players plus another HP-16 select, Jared Mickelson, led the Irish to the third place game in the 2011 State Peewee A Tourney played at Bloomington where the Irish lost to Wayzata (whose peewee A team leaders are now playing on the HP-16 Section 6 team.

In early December of the 2010-2011, the Rosemount peewee A team beat Wayzata 6-5.  It doesn’t matter who won, but those two teams played one of the best peewee games ever played.  This Friday, in one of those moments where fate steps in, Section 3 opens quarterfinal play against Section 6 in the second game of the day (5:45 PM start time at the PIC).  Key players from those two teams will play again on the same sheet of ice they played on in early December 2010.

The second School District 196 varsity program, Eagan, placed three players on the Section 3 team; Spencer Roth, Ben Raymond, and goalie Jared Manzella.  Roth played for the District 8 Select 15 team last summer.  Roth and goalie Manzella played on the Eagan Varsity team last winter.

The third School District 196 varsity program, Eastview placed two players on the Section 3 roster, Keith Muehlbauer and goalie Zach Driscoll.  Both played for the Eastview Varsity last winter that went to the Class AA State Tourney losing to Moorhead 5-2 in the consolation championship game.  Driscoll had a 12-4-1 in the regular season for the Lightning with a GAA of 1.87 and started the state quarterfinal game.  Both Muehlbauer and Driscoll played for the District 8 Select 15 team last summer; both made the top 100 going to St. Cloud.

Woodbury Varsity place two players on the Section 3 team; Sasha Choporov and Jared Markeson.  Choporov played for varsity last winter and was one of the top scorers for the Royals.  Markeson played for the Woodbury Bantam AA team that almost upended the Edina Bantam AA team in final game for a state tourney berth at the East Regionals this past March.  Choporov played on the District 8 Select 15 team last summer.

Three East Ridge players made the team, Derek Hammer, Kevin Donohue, and Jack Dwyer.  Hammer and Dwyer were YHH top peewee picks in 2011.  Hammer and Donohue played for the District 8 Select 15 team last season and made the trip to St. Cloud as part of the top 100.  All three players played a full season on the East Ridge Varsity team.  Hammer led the Ridge in scoring, but that is no surprise.  He had a good Select 15 tryout especially early in the process.  Donohue is a actually a product of the Cottage Grove Association but plays for East Ridge.  The Ridge shares ice with Cottage Grove.

The two class 3A players are Toby Sengvongxay from Luverne and Jared Pederson from Litchfield/Dassel/Cokato.  Sengvongxay played last winter on the Luverne Varsity and played for the District 4 Select 15 team last summer, making the trip to St. Cloud.  Pederson played for the LDC Bantam A team that made a late season run that came close to making the bantam A state tourney, finally losing to Hutchinson 5-2 in the South Regional.

Cretin Derham Hall has four players on the Section 3 team, Sam Wackman, Jack Kemper, Logan English, and Ryan Smith.   English spent last winter playing for the varsity team.  The other three played for the Cretin JV.  English and Wackman also played on the Cretin Varsity Lacrosse team.

The Section 6 team is loaded with players from two rival varsity programs that will be competing to get to the Class AA State Tourney for the next three years.  Benilde-St. Margaret has five players on this year’s Section 6 team; their archrival, Wayzata, had seven.  What is remarkable about all that is the Wayzata high school coaches have done a “good job” (love using that phrase with educators).  Seriously, the Trojan brain trust has to be commended for keeping their players engaged in the Wayzata program.

The Red Knights Ben Newhouse, Peter Heimbold, Chase Jungels, Mark Kaske, and William Duda are back.  They all played for Benilde Varsity last winter; last summer Newhouse, Jungels and Kaske played for the District 6 Select 15 team and Heimbold played for the District 3 Select 15 team.  All four made the trip to St. Cloud as part of the top 100 players.  With the Red Knights top scorers graduating, next year this group will be a significant part of the success of the BSM season.  But to get to state, they will have to beat Wayzata, a team that will be led by the seven players also on the Section 6 team.

Wayzata’s Alex Stevens, Jacob Moelk, Matthew Freytag, William Duma, Max Zimmer, John Fetrow, and goalie Jens Vaughan Ahrens all made the Section 6 team.    All of them, except Duma, played for Wayzata in the State Class AA Tourney in March.  Freytag, a 10th grader, led the Trojans in scoring; Zimmer, a 9th grader was the #3 scorer.  All of them except Fetrow played for District 3’s Select 15 team last summer.  All of the select 15 players made the trip to St. Cloud as part of the top 100 players.

In a quirk of fate or in what should be expected, the same six players were all part of the Wayzata peewee A team at the 2010 State Tourney in Faribault.  That team lost to Edina in the semifinals, an Edina team led by Newhouse, Jungels, and Kaske.

The combined Wayzata/Benilde-St. Margaret Varsity programs form a juggernaut that allows only 8 spots left on the roster to be filled by the remaining 17 Section 6A/6AA varsity programs.  The 6A teams managed to place only two players on the roster, Zach Tarczon from Fergus Falls and Brandon Bissett from St. Cloud Apollo.

Bissett was one of six 9th graders on Apollo’s Class A State Tourney team this past March.  He played a full season for Apollo.  Bissett also played for the District 5 Select 15’s last summer and made the trip (back home) to St. Cloud as a top 100 player.  Tarczon was the #4 scorer for the Otters; he played the for District 15’s Select 15 and made the trip to St. Cloud.

Two Eden Prairie Eagles took spots on the Section 6 team, Marc Sullivan and Michael Graham.  Both players played for the District 6 Select 15’s last summer, Sullivan made the trip to St. Cloud as a forward.  This year, he made the HP-16 Section 6 team as a defenseman.  Graham was a top scorer on the Eagles varsity team and Sullivan played solid defense.

Pieter vonSteinbergs and goalie Jacob Berger from Minnetonka made the team.  Both played for the Skipper’s Varsity last winter.  Jacob Berger posted an 8-1 record and a GAA of 1.82; vonSteinbergs played a full season for the Skippers.

Will Garin, Holy Family, and Matthew Hines, Hopkins, complete the roster.  Garin and Hines played for the District 3 Select 15’s and both made it to St. Cloud.  Last season was Garin’s second on the Holy Family Varsity.  He was a 9th grader last season and posted 63 points in his two seasons at Holy Family.  Hines completed his second season on the Royals Varsity team.  He has played in all 50 regular season games for Hopkins as a 9th and 10th grader.

This Section team draws from an area the size of the old Region 7 back in the 50’s and 60’s.  Things change and then they don’t change.  The old Region 7 went from Forest Lake north to International Falls, west to Grand Rapids and east to Grand Maris.  So does the Section 7 team, but it is a little broader in the south, covering St. Francis and Elk River.  Unlike Section 8, the Section 7 team has only three players from a Class A Varsity programs (Duluth Marshall, Hibbing, and Duluth Denfeld).  Seventeen of the 20 players are from 7 Class AA programs.

This sectional team is composed of 20 players from 10 of the 18 Varsity programs that make up the Section 7A and Section 7AA.  The representation is spread.  This year, Elk River leads placing 4 players on this year’s team, Dylan Bouten, Noah Hallbeck, Alex Schwab, and Benjamin Johnson.  Bouten, Hallbeck, and Johnson all played on the Elk Varsity.  Hallbeck, Bouten and Schwab played on District 10’s Select 15 team last summer; Hallbeck made it to St. Cloud as a top 100 player.

Three Cloquet players made the Section 7 team; Koby Bender, Kyle Klatt, and Jack Kuhlman.  All three played most of the last season on the Lumberjacks’ Varsity team that was upended by Duluth East in the 3-0 in the Section 7AA semifinals.  All three players played on District 11’s Select 15 team last year.  Bender and Klatt ended up going to St. Cloud as part of the top 100.  Bender played well for the Lumberjacks fitting in with a high powered offense that had seven players that averaged a point or more a game.

Duluth East placed three players on the Section 8 team; Oliver Trachsel, Nichoas Altmann, and Brian Bunten.  Altmann and Bunten made the trip to the Class AA high school state tourney a month ago.  Trachsel played defense for District 11’s Select 15 team last year.  With the Hounds top goal scorers graduating this year, Altmann and Bunten should figure strongly in East’s success next year, especially with some strong forwards coming off the Hounds’ bantam AA state runner-up team.  The bantam AA championship game story can be read at:

http://www.youthhockeyhub.com/edina-aas-sweep-the-doubleheader/

Gunnar Harris, Alex Adams, and Jonah Bischoff from Grand Rapids made the Section 7 team.  Bischoff was the Thunderhawks #5 scorer as a 9th grader last year.  All three players played on District 12’s Select 15 team last summer.  Bischoff and Adams made the top 100 and the trip to St. Cloud.  Bischoff made one of the top plays as a peewee A for the Rapids in a 2011 state tourney game played at Bloomington.  Against Elk River, Bischoff took a hard shot from the top of the right faceoff and keep on coming.  He put his own rebound in the net from the left side edge of the crease.  Unfortunately that was BC (before camera), but here at YHH we can still see that kid with the #2 jersey just skating hard.  Adams played on that peewee team for the Rapids; Ben Johnson and Alex Schwab played for the Elks.  Rapids won 5-3.

Three Class A Varsity programs are represented; Nathan Sepp/Duluth Marshall, Cody Budisalovich/Denfeld, and goalie Isiah Dilley/Hibbing.  Sepp played on the District 11 Select 15 team last summer and played defense for the Hilltoppers in the Class A State Tourney this past March.  Budisalovich played last season for the Hunters in their chase for a Class A State Tourney berth.  They lost to Sepp and Duluth Marshall in the Section 7A championship game 3-2.

Isiah Dilley has played the last two years on the Hibbing Varsity team.  He played for District 12’s Select 15 team last summer and made the trip to St. Cloud as one of the top 100 players in the state.  St. Francis’ Darion Hanson is the second goalie on the Section 7 team.  Hanson started all 25 of St. Francis’s regular season games posting a 16-9 record and a GAA of 3.44.

Two Andover players made the Section 7 team, Dylan Holt and Zach Sitarz.  Holt and Sitarz led the Andover peewee A team to the 2010 state tourney consolation title played at Faribault.  Sitarz was one of YHH’s 2010 top peewee pick that year.  They beat Orono 6-4 in the consolation game.  Maddie Rooney was in the net for the Huskies; she was also a 2010 top peewee A pick.  She is a HP-16 goalie for Section 5 (girls) team this year.  Sitarz played for the District 10 Select 15 team last summer and made it to St. Cloud.  He played for the Andover Varsity last winter.

St. Michael/Albertville has one representative on the Section 7 team; something that is likely to change in the future.  Logan Nelson played for the District 5 Select 15 team last summer and led the STMA junior varsity in scoring putting 48 points on the board.  If the Knights can keep all the kids, they will be good.  The Knights have plenty of talent in their pipeline coming from bantam AA and peewee AA state tourney teams this past year.

The Section 8 team this year is heavily loaded with Varsity players; 18 of the 20 players coming from varsity programs.  What is surprising is that 13 of the18 players are from Class A varsities.  The bigger and usually stronger, Class AA varsity programs ended up placing only five players on the team, three from Bemidji, one from Moorhead, and one from Brainerd.  Three Class A varsity teams, East Grand Forks, Thief River Falls, and Warroad placed four players each on the Section 8 team along with one player from Crookston.  Class AA varsity teams or programs failing to put a player on the Section 8 team this year are Roseau, St. Cloud Tech, Moorhead, MAML, Buffalo, and River Lakes.  But like a “wave”, in two or three years that should change and shift to Brainerd, MAML, St. Cloud and River Lakes if what is happening at the peewee AA/A holds true.

Only two of the players selected did not play varsity last winter, Jon Richards played bantam A for Detroit Lakes and Rockford Copiskey played bantam AA for Bemidji.  Richards, a forward, played on the District 15 Select 15 team last summer and made it to St. Cloud as part of the top 100 players selected.  He led the NOW ranked #9 Detroit Lakes bantam A team to a fourth place finish in the bantam A state tourney winning the #2 West seed.  Copiskey led Bemidji’s Bantam AA team to a NOW #10 ranking and a late season run that failed to make the state out of the north regional, but came close.

East Grand Forks, Bemidji, Thief River Falls, and Warroad all placed four players on the Section 8 team.  East Grand Forks four players, Tye Ausmus, Trevor Selk, Grant Loven, and Tanner Tweten were on District 16’s Select 15 last year; all made the top 100 and went to St. Cloud.  Two other Green Wave players, Reed Corbid and Samuel Larson, also made the top 100 last year.  All six players (9th and 10th graders) played EGF Varsity last year and were instrumental in driving the Green Wave to the Class A State Tourney Semifinals before losing to St. Thomas Academy.  With STA moving to Class AA, the vacuum left in Class A by the Cadets are likely to be filled by the Green Wave over the next three seasons unless one or two of these six are picked off by the NTDS program.

Thief River Falls Varsity placed four players, Michael Johnson, Ethan Johnson, Wyatt Ortloff, and Zeb Nelson on the Section 8 team.  Johnson and Nelson played on the Select 15 District 16 team last year.  All four players had full seasons playing last winter on the Prowler’s Varsity team that was eliminated from the chase to the Class A tourney this past season by EGF (1-0 in Section 8A semifinals).

Lucas Jaycox, Kobe Roth, Jared Bethune, and 6’3” tall goalie Alexander Burke are the Warroad players that made the team.  Jaycox, Roth, and Bethune all played on last summer’s Select 15 team.  Roth and Bethune made the trip to St. Cloud as part of the top 100 Minnesota players.  Bethune and Roth were the #1 and #2 scorers for the Warriors last season.  Warroad beat Thief River Falls 1-0 in Section 8A semifinals and lost to EGF 2-0 in their championship game ending their bid to go to state last year.

The core of the Section 8 team this year is the core of the three Class A high school teams that will battle each other the next two years to go to state.

Bemidji has three varsity players on the Section 8 team in addition to bantam AA player, Copiskey.  Erik Fitzgerald, Jacob Leitner, and goalie Grant Tharaldson all made the team.  All three played for the Lumberjack Varsity team last season.  Leitner played for last summer’s District 16 Select 15 team.

Alexander Mehnert played defense for the Moorhead Varsity last season and played for the Spuds in the Class AA State Tourney this past March.  Mehnert played for the District 15 Select 15 team and made it to St. Cloud.

Crookston’s Douglas Larson played for District 16’s Select 15 team last summer and was among the top goal scorers for the Pirates Varsity team last winter.  Brainerd’s Adam Fischer played for District 15’s Select 15 team last summer and played on the Brainerd Varsity team last winter.