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St. Louis Hopes to Join Illinois, Wisconsin at 19U Event Next Season

By Jason L. Young - Special to USAHockey.com, 03/20/15, 9:45AM MDT

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Only Illinois and Wisconsin teams competed in the Central division 19U tournament in 2014 and 2015.

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. -- For the past two years, the 19U girls’ division at the Central District Tier I Kohlman Cup had little suspense going into the tournament.

The Central District includes the state champions of Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri. The fourth participant is “Midwest,” which includes teams from Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.

But in 2014 and 2015, only Illinois and Wisconsin fielded teams. This year the Chicago Mission won the title with two wins over the Madison Capitols — a 2-1 double overtime victory in the opener and a title-clinching 3-0 shutout in the second game.

The Midwest team hasn’t fielded a 19U girls’ team for years. But Mark Hallemann, who coaches the 16U Lady Blues out of St. Louis, said he expects St. Louis to have a 19U team at next year’s district tournament.

“For St. Louis and the Midwest, we’ve always struggled with girls at the highest level,” Hallemann said. “There’s enough girls to have a 19U team, but there’s probably not enough girls to compete at this level at 19U.

“We have other girls’ teams that play Tier II, and we could bring those up and have those play as a Tier I team, but it just wouldn’t be competitive.”

It’s not as if St. Louis has no top players. But some of them have move to cities such as Chicago and Dallas to play at the 19U level, Hallemann said.

Patrick Johnson has seen some of the best female hockey players pass through Madison. His father, Mark Johnson, is the coach for the University of Wisconsin team, a national power that has had numerous Olympians on its roster. Still, the younger Johnson agrees with Hallemann. He would like to see more girls playing the sport so that more associations can remain competitive at the highest age level.

“Girls’ hockey is growing, but it still has some leaps to make,” Johnson said. “But that’s probably one of the things, there’s not enough girls that want to commit to a competitive level like this.”

The More the Merrier

Despite only having two teams compete in the 19U division, the Central Division will be well represented at the Toyota-USA Hockey National Championship in Green Bay, Wis., from March 26-30.

A total of four will compete. The Chicago Mission advanced by virtue of winning the district title and Team Wisconsin earned an automatic bid for hosting the event.

For the first time this year, four at-large teams were picked for the field, and the Central District had two of them. Johnson’s Capitols will make the short trip from Madison and the Chicago Young Americans also were chosen.

The same four programs will have teams in the 16U pool. Only the Young Americans and Team Wisconsin from the Central District made the 14U national tournament.

It Takes a Nation to Make 16U St. Louis Lady Blues

The 16U St. Louis Lady Blues struggled in the Central District tournament. They lost both games — 3-1 to the Madison Capitols and 2-1 to the regional champions Chicago Mission.

As the players came out of the locker room and said their goodbyes for the offseason, the scene seemed a bit more like a family reunion breaking up than a hockey team. That might have been because of the 19 players on the roster, only six live in St. Louis. The others come from across the nation to compete at youth hockey’s highest level because they don’t have local teams with which to compete.

During the season, the full team gets together twice a month. On one weekend the out-of-towners arrive for two practices. On another, they play in a tournament. Unlike some programs that require players to move to the city or live with local families, the Lady Blues allow out-of-area players to come in just for the two weekends.

The players hail from as far as North Dakota, but also from states such as Alabama, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Nebraska.

“We’re struggling getting girls to play 12 and 10U girls’ hockey because they can still play boys,” Hallemann said. “So that’s what feeds the funnel as the girls get older.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.


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