As the early 2000s gave way to the millennium’s second decade, there were no hushed complaints about the Blake hockey program playing in Class 1A.

There were virtually no rumblings or grumblings from hockey’s old guard. As long as the Bears remained a relative non-factor outside of their Excelsior-based bubble, the warbling wail from purists was held silent. 

Nevertheless, Blake moved up.  

“Moving up from a single-A to double-AA, especially in the way that we did, meaning we didn’t go to five straight Class 1A state tournaments or state championships,” Bears head coach Greg May said last fall before the season started. “A lot of critics would say, ‘why are they moving up when they were 13-14 the year before?’,” May said. 

In a purely competitive sense, the program’s intensity is derived from its head coach. May is an avid golfer, dedicated to a sport that taps into the part of the brain that competes with itself and thrives on surgical focus and constant challenges. May said that his and the program’s ambition drive mirror each other. 

“If I’m playing anything, I want to play the best,” May said. “If I’m playing you in ping-pong (and) you beat me ten straight times, I want to play you the eleventh time. I want to play the best.”

As a program that said goodbye to six seniors from the last season of Class 1A competition, the Bears welcomed 14 underclassmen to their roster for 2017-2018, including four ninth-graders. Two of those freshmen, Tristan Broz and Joe Miller, combined for 34 goals and 89 total points in their first high school campaigns. Miller is verbally committed to Minnesota.

May, who made a Class 2A state tournament run with Farmington during the 2015-2016 season, said that the Bears are being patient with their young players, focused on developing a consistency that belies visions of sustained success. 

“I’m a very process-oriented person, not a results-oriented person,” May explained. “I talk to our players all the time (about that), and I think they’ve bought into that. We’re pretty realistic as far as that goes.”

Part of that process includes letting the players define their identity, as well as that of the team’s. 

“I have my own core values that we set for our team, and then we have the ‘Blake Brand,’” May said, adding that he asks his team how they want to be perceived and viewed by fans and opponents alike. 

“When opposing teams walk into your rink, they say when (they) play Blake, we’re gonna get x, y, or z,” May said. "Or when a fan comes and watches, and they think back on Blake this year, (they think) Blake was this type of team.

According to May, the Blake core values are;  (to be) disciplined, professional, humble, relentless, and leaders. These values are naturally established when you have a player for four years as opposed to three, May said. 

“When we get here guys in ninth grade, it helps because it’s an extra year instead of having them come in as a sophomore, even if that means they grind it out through (junior varsity) or a swing line,” May said. “It’s just one extra year they’re under your wing, hearing your philosophies, living under your core values.”  

On its face, the Bears’ record of 16-9-1 last season is a bright start for a program new to the highest level of high school hockey in Minnesota. However, beneath the 16 wins included losses to teams that had no business staying with the Bears talent-wise.
 
“Probably what I learned most from year one in AA is that we needed a better schedule,” May said last fall before the season started. “We found out quickly that when we played the premier AA teams, it took us a period-and-a-half to realize that we’re supposed to be on the ice with them.”
  
With the current section alignments, Blake is not suddenly going to find itself perfectly comfortable during games at the 2A level, and even less so when the Section 6-2A playoffs roll around.

“On paper, you’ve got Edina, Wayzata, and Cretin-Derham Hall, and Benilde-St. Margaret's,” May said. "You’ve got (teams) like Holy Angels that are kind of on the rise. It’s very deep.”

May wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“It’s not supposed to be easy to get to the state tournament,” May said. “It’s supposed to mean something when you get there.”