Feature Story

---

Girls Elite League arrives

After six successful seasons of boys elite development, the Upper Midwest High School Elite League recently announced that it will begin operation of a Girls Elite League, commencing in the fall of 2008. The expansion of the Elite League to include a girls division is part of a new five-year agreement between the Upper Midwest High School Elite League and Nike Bauer Hockey. Nike Bauer will provide equipment for all players and will sponsor an NIT Tournament for both boys and girls under the new agreement.

Mark Duggan, CEO of Nike Bauer, noted, “The Upper Midwest High School Elite League has more than fulfilled its mission for boys’ hockey since its inception. We are happy to assist them in their interest to increase development of the elite level for girls as well.”

The new girls’ league will start out modestly in 2008 with three teams of the top high school girls in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. In addition, Shattuck-St. Mary’s top girls’ team will be the fourth league participant. The new director/commissioner will be Eric Johnson, former Minnesota high school and St. Cloud State standout. He is currently the girls’ varsity coach at Minnetonka High School — and will be giving up his boys’ Elite League head coaching position with Team Southeast to run the girls’ operations.

The girls’ teams will be in good hands. Minnesota high school and college legends, as well as Olympic and professional stars Jenny Potter, Natalie Darwitz and Winny Brodt, will be the head coaches and will bring other current Minnesota Whitecaps players in as assistants. The Whitecaps will also be league “partners” and provide assistance in practices as well as games.

In 2008, the league will run four consecutive weekends, from Oct. 4-26. Three games will be played per team each weekend, one on Saturday evening and two on Sunday. Practices will be minimal but will average one to two per week.

Teams will be formed in July; 35 girls have already been invited into the league based on their 2007-08 high school performance. The remaining 20-25 players will be selected from a pool of 60 in a final evaluation in July.

The Upper Midwest High School Elite League was formed in 2001 to help the top elite players reach their optimal development by the end of their high school competition. Sufficient games against elite players of similar abilities has been the model since inception. It will continue to be the model for both boys and girls.

“The girls program will operate basically the same as the boys,” Brodt said. “We want the girls to get that extra development that they seem to now be missing in their junior and senior years.”

Whitecaps players will be participating (suited up) in team practices to help push the pace and intensity of the high school players. There are also discussions in process that may include two Whitecaps players per team in a few of the early league games.

Elite League founder John Russo added that, “It was just time that the girls ‘get after’ that extra development just like the boys. They will get the same attention to detail that the boys do.”

The league expects to have large numbers of DI and DIII coaches at league games looking for prospects.

The girls program will likely be expanded in the second year to include more games and to bring in a wider variety of teams.

Let’s Play Hockey wants to publish your hockey stories. From tournament reports, to feature stories on teams, players or coaches, to opinion pieces on the game of hockey, Let’s Play Hockey accepts submissions from readers throughout the hockey community. To submit your hockey story and/or photo(s), e-mail us at editor@letsplayhockey.com.