City hockey’s future gets blast from past: “Many who played in or remember the glory days of hockey in the Minneapolis public schools are trying to build it back up by, among other things, recruiting more young city athletes to the sport.”
Having played at my local park these past 7 years of living in Longfellow, I’ve seen and played against some really good young kids that end up playing at Minnehaha Academy or Holy Angels. So the talent is here, but the kids need a reason to stay, and hopefully this new attention being given to the sport will help.
“Old Minneapolis hockey was really park center hockey,” Bergford said. “You played with your friends at the neighborhood park, and a road game was going to the park a few blocks over. Now you have the big hockey associations and a road game is driving 20 miles across town.
“I think one of the ways to get Minneapolis back into the scene is to go back to those parks, get kids playing again and build out from there.”
Beginning with the 2006-07 season, players from the seven Minneapolis public high schools have been combined to make two teams: Edison, Roosevelt and South make up the East; Henry, North, Southwest and Washburn make up the West.
Tom Younghans is in his first season as West’s coach. Younghans, who grew up in St. Paul, played for the Gophers, the North Stars and the New York Rangers. He has been involved in youth hockey in Wayzata and Eden Prairie for more than 20 years and believes the key will be to get city kids excited about playing high school hockey in the public school system.
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