One of the largest youth hockey associations in the state, Osseo/Maple Grove, is considering splitting.  The Osseo/Maple Grove Youth Hockey Association that serves two Twin Cities northwestern suburbs, Osseo and Maple Grove, will be doing a study this summer to decide.  There exists within OMGYH a desire to split forming two associations, Maple Grove Association and Osseo Association.  One could argue that desire reflects a shift in population and a shift in hockey interests in the northwestern suburbs.  This corner of YHH thinks that the study is a good thing for OMGHA to do. The association serves a growing area and the study results should help in future planning regardless of outcome.

Behind the OMGHA potential split, there is another story and it helps explain what is great about Minnesota Hockey (the organization) and District 3.  They are not involved in the OMGHA decision and yet they are.  Minnesota Hockey is not telling the association what decision to make.  That is left to the people involved.  They are telling OMGHA, via guidelines, how to form an association if there is a split.  Minnesota Hockey and District 3 leave the decision to the hockey association, high schools involved, and the communities involved and generally only ask that the final solution be stable, timely (to accommodate District 3 scheduling), and to allow for all kids to participate.

Simply put, Minnesota Hockey recognizes the local hockey association board members and its policies decide the fate of local high school participation in hockey and they recognize the community supports the association and high schools by providing and maintaining facilities needed.  Baseball, soccer, or football requires only a field and a ball to play the sport and do not need a rigorous cooperation among associations, high schools, and cities.  Hockey needs indoor ice.  It has to work high schools and local communities or the sport does not grow or stabilize in a local area.  Minnesota Hockey approach works because it recognizes local interests have to go through some tough initial planning to sustain interest in the sport as things change and with it local interests change.

OMGHA Struggles start with ISD 279

OMGYH is starts with a simple idea, but quickly blossoms into involving the whole of the northwestern Twin Cities suburbs from Wayzata to Rogers to Champlin Park to Fridley to Columbia Heights to the Robbindales (Armstrong and Cooper).  These separate entities get involved because each has a stake in the final decision.  From the OMGHA prospective, change is driven by shifts in their population and hockey interests.  Most hockey associations outside the Twin Cities have the same perspective when they see the changes coming, but their decision process usually involves one association, one high school and one city.  In the Twin Cities, most associations have more complex situations that address multiple high school, cities and associations.  Each solution is usually unique.  Certainly OMGHA faces an unique complex situation in serving their area of the Twin Cities.

There are three high schools directly involved in a potential split; Maple Grove, Osseo, and Park Center (Brooklyn Park/Brooklyn Center) even though Park Center is not served by the OMGHA association.  Maple Grove, Osseo, and Park Center are part of the same school district, ISD 279.  The three high schools are aligned east to west in the northwestern Twin City Suburbs with Maple Grove on the west, Osseo in the center, and Park Center on the east.  Because Park Center is part of ISD 279, North Metro Youth Hockey association and other high schools get involved.

Park Center last fielded a boys hockey team as part of a combination of high schools called North Metro in the 2011-2012 season.  The North Metro boys varsity no longer exists; but the North Metro girls varsity does. 

In their last season, the North Metro Boys Varsity was a combination of Park Center, Fridley, and Columbia Heights high schools and used the Brooklyn Park arena as home ice.  Fridley and Columbia Heights lost indoor ice when the Columbia Heights Arena closed 10 years ago but hockey at the youth level remains.  Fridley High School, last season, combined with Robinsdale Cooper; but Cooper is facing fewer numbers even with Fridley players added in.  Cooper may have to combine with Robbinsdale Armstrong in the coming 2014-2015 season.  That could leave Fridley out.  Fridley and Columbia Heights high schools no longer plays hockey, but their kids do.

ISD 279 is not the only school district involved.  Champlin Park High School sits on the border of Brooklyn Park and Champlin (hence the name Champlin Park) and its hockey association is named after the high school, Champlin Park.  The high school also serves Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Dayton as well as Champlin.  The school district covers most of the west side of the Mississippi River from the Interstate 694 bridge to Dayton (about 22 miles).  The cities of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center have high schools in two different school districts.

Student population shifts affect OMGHA high schools and ISD 279 policy changes can cause school boundaries to change.  ISD 279 is one of the largest school districts in the state and they constantly try to balance school attendance among the three high schools (Maple Grove, Osseo, and Park Center) as they see shifts in student numbers.  The population shifts of all four principal cities (Maple Grove, Osseo, Brooklyn Park, and Brooklyn Center) will shift school boundary lines.  Each city’s geographical boundaries are constant, ISD 279 boundaries are constant, but each high school’s boundaries constantly shift.  Shifts in school boundaries are not only driven by changes in student enrollment.  They also occur for change of policy reasons.  Currently ISD 279 is considering shifting high school boundaries based on the idea of “creating a transformational system change to ensure equitable student achievement”.

Not just high schools, but cities

Cities have a say in this whole process.  They are governments who have committed city funding to build and support arenas.  Associations have agreements with the cities that commit the association to use the ice.  In return the cities give the association priority on winter ice hours.  As a result, the kids can go to practices locally from 5PM to 10PM every winter week day and can practice all day on Saturday and Sunday.    

Cities provide the ice arenas, but geographically the cities comprising the northwest suburbs do not map to the high schools in ISD 279 with the same name.  City populations and school populations do not match.  Two of the principal cities involved in OMGHA’s process have grown since 2000.  Maple Grove’s population has increased from 51,000 to 64,000 since 2000 and Brooklyn Park has grown from 55,000 to 77,000.  Osseo has flat lined at 3,000 since 2000, and Brooklyn Center has grown modestly to 31,000.

But here is the kicker.  ISD 279 also includes parts of the other cities outside the principal four cities it serves.  A part of Rogers is included in Maple Grove High School’s boundary along with Cochran and Dayton.  ISD 279 includes parts of Plymouth (Wazata and Robbinsdale) inside its south boundary.

Maple Grove, Osseo, and Brooklyn Park each has two sheets of ice within their city boundaries.  Maple Grove and Osseo cities give winter priority (best hours) to their high schools and the OMGYH association, Brooklyn Park gives winter priority to North Metro Youth Hockey association, North Metro girls varsity, and Totino-Grace High School.  Bluntly stated, proponents of an OMGHA split cannot tell Brooklyn Park how to manage their facilities and the association can’t say that Osseo should partner with Park Center and use the Brooklyn Park rinks even if Osseo agrees.  Brooklyn Park city and North Metro association would have to be involved. 

North Metro Youth Hockey Association

Some within the OMGHA feel that Osseo youth hockey could be better served if it combined with North Metro; but how does North Metro feel?  First, North Metro serves not only Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, but Fridley and Columbia Heights.  The perception here is nobody is talking to the North Metro association about change.  The North Metro association is on the upswing and skated Bantam A and B2, peewee A, peewee B1, peewee B2 and peewee C in 2013-2014 in District 3.  YHH watched their peewee A play a number of times in 2013-2014 and were impressed with their forwards and goal tending.  The Pirates are becoming more competitive.

But the North Metro association has no high school focus for boy youth hockey players since Park Center and North Metro dropped hockey.  As a result, the players have choice when it comes to high school.  The NMYH truly serves the people of Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Fridley, and Columbia Heights.  It results in kids going on to play high school at Champlin Park (just north of Brooklyn Center), Spring Lake Park (east of the two Brooklyns and north of Fridley and Columbia Heights), Robbinsdale Cooper (west of Fridley and Brooklyn Center) and Totino-Grace (located in Fridley).  The question is does North Metro want to affiliate with Osseo and if so, what does that do to North Metro’s existing relationships?

It is a big deal     

OMGHA is struggling with change.  There is significant potential growth in the northwest corridor along Interstate 94.  This could be accelerated if Minnesota State Highway 610 (now connected to 169 in the west) is completed connecting to Interstate 94.  Mn 610 goes right through the center of ISD 279 and will open development in northwestern suburbs in the coming years.

In overall numbers currently, OMGHA is already one of the largest associations in the state.  Last season the association fielded 61 youth and girls teams (8 peewee teams).  The fact that the association is addressing their future by doing a study this summer is a good thing.

Split proponents started at the OMGHA board level with a proposal that is now in the study phase.  The proposal starts as something simple.  Maple Grove supporters want to form a Maple Grove association to better support the Maple Grove High School.  They point out that 77% of the kids playing in the OMGHA are going to Maple Grove high school.  After the study, they may not split.

But there are problems if they do.  One is a split with Osseo could end any relationship that Maple Grove has when it comes to priority hours in the winter with Osseo’s (the city) two rinks.  How would Maple Grove sustain its current size and grow if 77% of the current participants were jammed into two rinks assuming a separate Osseo association would control priority winter hours over the two Osseo rinks for its own use unless they can find hours at Rogers’ new rink.  Hopefully those doing the study will also define the consequences if the association does nothing.

Some feel that Osseo youth hockey could be better served if it combined with North Metro.  Part of this thinking is driven by the fact that Park Center High School (playing as part of a North Metro combine) dropped hockey in at the end of the 2011-2012 season.  But that is not the issue.  North Metro is on its own path and has dibs on winter hours at Brooklyn Park’s two rinks.  An argument can be made that the NMYH better serves its community since it is not driven by a high school.  It would be wrong to think that North Metro can easily combine with Osseo and form a new hockey association

Minnesota Hockey

It is hard to explain why Minnesota Hockey (the organization) works when hockey in most states outside of Minnesota struggle.  The view here is that it works because Minnesota Hockey is a “blend of rules” that governs multiple and varied interests though out the state when it comes to youth hockey.  The “blend of rules” allow local youth hockey interests to derive local solutions.  Key to those rules is the fusion of youth hockey with local high schools and with local city politics.  The Minnesota Hockey approach works because those “blend of rules” recognize that things change and with it local interests change.

Contrast that with Organizational (or Tier I or AAA) hockey played in other states.  That level of hockey relies on funding from participants and privately sponsored groups which can disappear in one bad year.  The Organizational approach avoids the front end problems being addressed by an association like OMGHA.  An organization does not have to adapt to changes such as shifts in population, they just have to succeed by playing winning hockey.  Organization hockey reduces front end problem solving to a few people, but in the end it creates only short term solutions and little stability. 

The result to the potential split of one of the largest hockey associations in the Minnesota will ultimately be decided by the people involved locally.  After all, they will live with the solution.  Minnesota Hockey will only help facilitate any decision to support stability and growth.  That is why hockey succeeds in Minnesota.