Excellent point.
 
I think another key point is that the HS infrastructures are quite
different.
 
In the east, the strongest programs in the HS infrastructures have
traditionally been private prep schools.  One characteristic of prep schools
is that they're not particularly community oriented; the players at the prep
schools come from a very widely dispersed geography.  If a school is located
in Exeter, New Hampshire or Deerfield, Mass.,  it may have few, or even no
students from Exeter or Deerfield. So there's not a particularly strong
association betwen the school and the town in which it is located.  Another
class of strong programs in the eastern (at least Massachusetts and Rhode
Island) hockey are the parochial schools.  The student body isn't so widely
disperesed as in the prep schools, but it still doesn't represent a
community.  Wins and losses are not reported on the front page of any home
town newpaper.
 
I have a different impression of Minnesota.  Since my impression has been
formed from a distance, it may be all wrong, and I'd appreciate feedback
from Minnesotans.  In Minnesota, I have the feeling that the strongest
programs are the public schools.  So there's a much closer link between the
community and the school hockey teams.  The hockey team is an important part
of the local culture.  The communities, not just the schools, think of "our"
hockey team.  I think an interesting parallel may be with Indiana and
basketball, as exemplified in the movie "Hoosiers."
 
I think that if there is only one "our" university, there is pressure on the
in-state heroes to go to that university, and for that university to recruit
from "our" high schools.  In Minnesota there is -- I think some would argue
was --  one dominant "our" university.
 
Today, though, there may be more than one "our" university, and high school
heroes are now less reluctant to venture out of state.
 
Clay
 
 
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rowe, Thomas [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, April 19, 1999 10:21 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      All Minn hockey
>
> You can't really compare basketball with hockey that way.  For a window of
> time, Minnesota had a tremendous HS hockey infrastructure combined with a
> big-name successful homestate hockey team.  I know the East also had a
> great
> infrastructure, but there are a whole bunch of big-name teams in the same
> area looking for the same talent - relatively speaking, Minnesota was
> isolated.  Hence, for a time, they made the idea work.  I never liked it
> much, but I'm not a Minnesotan.  I seriously doubt they could continue to
> make it work with all the college programs in Minnesota (and elsewhere)
> trying to draw from the same pool.  That is, times have changed.  Et Vive
> La
> Change, eh?
>
>
> Tom Rowe                                          [log in to unmask]
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