All NORTH final got to love it

[Dock Boy]

The north teams taken it to the city boys this year. I think the big thing has been the physical style of hockey that the northern boys play. GO NORTH old time hockey with home town boys. NO RECRUITING.

[vern]

Yeah, I agree! I'm not a fan of the 2 tier system, but it's good to see a few small schools are still playing and beating the big boys. Just like the old days when the small northern schools beat up on the giants like Bloomington, Edina, Burnsville etc.

[Team Otter]

Go GR!

[papabear]

No recruiting? Are you saying Saint Thomas, and hill Murray recruit? Or maybe Edina?

Well I remember the Jon Casey controversy in 1980 when he transfered to rapids from Greenway.

[Dock Boy]

I have played hockey of the my life and yes these teams recruit. In my younger days I played in a hockey tournament called Super Series. A good friend of mine played for Detroit Lakes he got recruited to play for the Breck school. He went to Breck won the state tournament a few years back and then went on to play for MSU. It does happen.

[Wapiti]

Don't get me wrong here because I've always loved teams from outstate MN versus the "cities" teams and always will. The recruiting that takes place isn't just happening in the metro! With open enrollment some hockey programs put feelers out there to see if they can convince any ringers to play for them. One example that comes to mind, how do you think Wyatt Smith ended up in Warroad back in the day...hometown, Thief River Falls.

[setterguy]

Doesn't Warroad have a guy from Finland on their team? Plus I think there are a couple kids on the Warroad team from other cities that DO have a hockey program. I don't blame them, more exposure, and a chance to play in the big game.

[Hooked On a Feeling]

Quote:

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The north teams taken it to the city boys this year. I think the big thing has been the physical style of hockey that the northern boys play. GO NORTH old time hockey with home town boys. NO RECRUITING.

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I played in the 80's and we found out that I Falls recruited a guy from Canada to join their squad. And I believe that Duluth Marshall has a player who transferred this season from Eveleth, North and South both recruit!

[papabear]

The important thing to remember here is that the tournament comes down to four schools from the North. After seeing so many of these schools have to play a school from the cities or near the cities just to make it out of the sections.

[IFallsRon]

This was a great day for hockey north of the Brainerd Parallel.

International Falls has always had a number of kids who were birthed in the Fort Frances hospital due to the suspect nature of the Falls hospital. Many others were birthed in Virginia, Hibbing and even Duluth.

Falls won state in 1972. A player on the '73 third-place team grew up in the Fort, moved across the river for high school and played on the first hockey teams at St. Scholastica. Some years later a kid named Anders Anderson (sp) moved to the Falls through what was a bantam program international exchange. Anders later played at UMD about the same time the Mason brothers (Bob, Olympian and now Gophers goalie coach and Bill, referee in this weekend's tournament as well as WCHA) played in the multi-OT NCAA tournament game.

To say that an import has ever helped any team from the north is talk. Anyone with any knowledge of the game knows that twin cities private schools "recruit" and have access to kids who sacrifice playing with their buddies for would-be success. Same thing goes for the league in Michigan that sucks the life out of kids, promising them scholarships.

[winter_grizz]

Public schools!!!

[Team Otter]

Grand Rapids struggled last night and Roseau capitalized. I think it's safe to say the better team won last night despite the other discussion taking place within this thread.

[papabear]

Awesome tournament, Burnsville's comeback will be remembered for awhile, An all north final four, the roseau coach and player losing a family member in Iraq, these are the things that have made this an awesome tournament.

[Team Otter]

You got it.

[fishyguy]

As one of those hated private school, city boys, I have to say that outside of seeing my boys come back to defend their big school title from last year, this all northern final was the next best thing. Brought back the days of growing up watching the tournaments in the 80's when I was a kid.

On the other topic that was addressed in this thread. Isn't the State High School League trying to restructure the transfer rules due to the recruiting and jumping of schools purely for athletic reasons? If the same talk wasn't going on in the public schools there would be no reason for MSHSL to take this action.