Over the past 6 weeks over 1,000 kids have tried out and been evaluated during the CCM High Performance Program.  The process starts at the District level and then plays itself out at the HP Festival last weekend in Plymouth. At the conclusion of the Festival 102 players were selected to the Summer Camp Phase for a shot at a USA Hockey National Camp in July. Making it to St. Cloud is a watershed moment for a Minnesota 15 year old. Every top player in Minnesota takes part and to be considered a top 100 player is a great accomplishment for their 10 plus years of hard work.

In a three game festival with 240 players it is pretty easy to spot the easy choices. YHH selected 51 players that we felt were great during the festival or had such decorated careers, they could not be left off the list. Forty-six of those 51 were selected. Easy choices were Jaxon Nelson (Minnesota Commit), Gavin Hain (YHH Bantam Player of the Year), and Devlin McCabe (SPA). A few players wowed the fans this weekend...Landon Langenbrunner, Blake McLaughlin, and K'Andre Miller were outstanding in all three games.

Others earned their way onto the St. Cloud with great individual play...Josh Long from Stillwater, Garrett Freeman form Sartell and Jackson Wille converted on their opportunity with great play and scoring a lot of goals that the committee had to take them.

A few players that were locks on our list of 51 mysteriously missed the camp despite great play and performance. Jack Cusey, Peter Harrington, Ty Linnerooth, Zach Sjelin, and Bjorn Swanson all played well enough in Plymouth that we thought they were shoe ins to be at SCSU in June. At the end of the day, not making the camp will provide great motivation for these players. Check back in a year or two, we won't be surprised to see these names apart of this program.