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Nope, open enrollment is alive and well, as long as there is room at the new school to accept incoming students from other districts. It is still against MSHSL rules, however, for coaches and other school staff to recruit athletes from other districts.
I agree that there are fewer opportunities for players to use a slap shot in the college game, but in the years where Minnesota's power play has been particularly deadly, the Gophers have had players who could fire bombs (Wall, Bozek, Jalosuo, Ramsey, McMillen). It is particularly effective if they can get one-timers on net.
I saw quite a bit of both players this past weekend, and I can tell you that SPU would never have made it to the final game, or possibly even the tournament, without these two. Phelps (the senior) was particularly dominant and a threat every time she was on the ice. Very skilled offensively, and averaged over two points a game over SPU's 30 games. Burke, the junior, seems more of the power forward type, and is very adept at carrying the puck in and around traffic. She averaged 1.7 PPG over her 27 games.
I saw quite a bit of both players this past weekend, and I can tell you that SPU would never have made it to the final game, or possibly even the tournament, without these two. Phelps (the senior) was particularly dominant and a threat every time she was on the ice. Very skilled offensively, and averaged over two points a game over SPU's 30 games. Burke, the junior, seems more of the power forward type, and is very adept at carrying the puck in and around traffic. She averaged 1.7 PPG over her 27 games.
There is, however, one big caveat, and that is these impressive numbers were built over SPU playing a pretty weak schedule. According to KRACH there were 38 teams that played a harder one. This leaves me to speculate that each will have a big adjustment to make when going up against D1 competition (as a junior, Burke will obviously have another year in high school to further develop her skills). But after going through the inevitable freshman adjustment process I do believe both will develop to become impact players for the Big Red. And perhaps most importantly I'm glad they won't be playing for that other team that also wears red just east of here.
You mean like Shattuck-St. Mary's?
But you can't blame the players (or their parents) for wanting to attend schools like Blake and a few others, which are on a par academically with some of the best New England prep schools. Go to one of these, excel in school and in hockey, and you have the entire universe of D1 hockey schools to choose from. All it takes is a healthy dose of athletic ability and smarts - plus lots of parents' money to fund the youth development years - and it becomes possible to attend and play for a school of your choosing. That's reality.
