Outshined Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Hopkins boys to play U.S. women's Olympic team Last update: December 5, 2009 - 10:37 AM Hopkins boys to play U.S. women's Olympic team The U.S. women's Olympic hockey team will play the Hopkins boys' varsity team at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Hopkins Pavilion. The game is the first in a three-game series the U.S. women's team will play against Minnesota boys' high school teams as they prepare for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver in February. The Olympians will play Eagan at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Eagan Civic Arena and Rochester Century on Jan. 22 at the Rochester Rec Center. The games will be played according to women's rules, meaning no checking will be allowed. Link Sounds like fun to me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeductiveNun Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 During the last winter olympics, they played either the Warroad or Roseau boys HS team, as well as the Crookston, MN high school team. The boys teams were not allowed to check during the games. The women's olympic team lost to both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiefjay Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 interesting, I would think with no checking the women would win those and quite handily. Wow, I'm not sure why I'm surprised but I am. Then again, Minn. Boys hockey is the best of the best in the state unlike here in Michigan. Let us know the scores after the games happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbpfan1231 Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 I had an argument a ways back when I lived in Connecticut saying that a decent boys high school team could beat the UCONN Huskies women's basketball team. I still think they could and if a boys High School hockey team can beat an olympic women's squad I think it helps my argument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delicious_bass Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 During the last winter olympics, they played either the Warroad or Roseau boys HS team, as well as the Crookston, MN high school team. The boys teams were not allowed to check during the games. The women's olympic team lost to both. It was Warroad and yes the boys won. I read quotes from the girls that they were really surprised by the speed and the strength of the boys and they had obvious trouble with it. If checking was allowed, even more advantage to the guys as one would expect. I remember thinking at that time and again now that neither side really has anything to gain from games like this. If the girls win, people will say an Olympic team should beat a high school team. If they lose, people will question the talent level of their game. For the boys its also a no-win. If they win, they just beat girls. If they lose, well, you know how that would go. I understand there is not a lot of competition around for the girls which makes it tough for them to train. I get the thinking behind these exhibitions, but I dont agree that its a good idea. Just seems to me there is not enough to gain and too much risk. The boys are bigger, stronger, faster, etc than what these girls are used to and it would be a waste to have one of them get injured in some exhibition game and miss out on the Olympics which is really the pinnacle of womens hockey. My $0.02 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irish Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 (edited) It was Warroad and yes the boys won. I read quotes from the girls that they were really surprised by the speed and the strength of the boys and they had obvious trouble with it. If checking was allowed, even more advantage to the guys as one would expect. I remember thinking at that time and again now that neither side really has anything to gain from games like this. If the girls win, people will say an Olympic team should beat a high school team. If they lose, people will question the talent level of their game. For the boys its also a no-win. If they win, they just beat girls. If they lose, well, you know how that would go. I understand there is not a lot of competition around for the girls which makes it tough for them to train. I get the thinking behind these exhibitions, but I dont agree that its a good idea. Just seems to me there is not enough to gain and too much risk. The boys are bigger, stronger, faster, etc than what these girls are used to and it would be a waste to have one of them get injured in some exhibition game and miss out on the Olympics which is really the pinnacle of womens hockey. My $0.02 I couldn't disagree more with this point of view, especially if you feel this way. I have coached and still do- soccer, basketball and baseball and am always in favor of exposing the team/kids to better competition as I think it's helps inprove their skills. I for one played up when I played sports and always felt that playing against better talent made me better and the same goes for the Women's Olympic team. Injuries are a part of sports and if they happened, so be it. I respect your 2 cents though. ETA: My son's favorite sport of the three I coach or have coached is soccer. He is currently 8 years old and because of his team moving up to U-10 I was given the choice of leaving him at U-8 or moving him up to U-10. I deicded to move him up when he was 7 years old and he was playing against kids much better than him but he held his own. Now in his 2nd year in U-10 that experience he gained last season has been very helpful as he fits right in and during one of two games this year, he was one of the better players on the field. He scored 3 goals this year, 1 of them a game-winner. I'm very happy, as he is, that I made the choice I did. Edited December 6, 2009 by irish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delicious_bass Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 I couldn't disagree more with this point of view, especially if you feel this way. I have coached and still do- soccer, basketball and baseball and am always in favor of exposing the team/kids to better competition as I think it's helps inprove their skills. I for one played up when I played sports and always felt that playing against better talent made me better and the same goes for the Women's Olympic team. Injuries are a part of sports and if they happened, so be it. I respect your 2 cents though. ETA: My son's favorite sport of the three I coach or have coached is soccer. He is currently 8 years old and because of his team moving up to U-10 I was given the choice of leaving him at U-8 or moving him up to U-10. I deicded to move him up when he was 7 years old and he was playing against kids much better than him but he held his own. Now in his 2nd year in U-10 that experience he gained last season has been very helpful as he fits right in and during one of two games this year, he was one of the better players on the field. He scored 3 goals this year, 1 of them a game-winner. I'm very happy, as he is, that I made the choice I did. With all due respect, you're talking about children in non-contact sports. The varsity boys are teenagers(in some cases full grown) and the Olympic gals are even older than that. And hockey is a contact sport. Even by disallowing checking in the games, you're treading on thin ice when you put the two against each other in a competitive situation. In addition to the injury risk, the benefits of competing against better competition may be trumped by the negative feedback they will endure. In a perfect world, people would recognize the gals are just trying to improve and they would leave it alone at that. We all know its not a perfect world, though, and people talk. These girls dont need to deal with people saying "Well, sure, you beat some high school kids. You're an Olympic team and you should." nor do they need to hear "You cant even beat a high school team." As I mentioned in my original post, I get what they're trying to do and I completely respect it. I just think the downside is bigger than the upside and thus its not really worth doing. These gals have reached the pinnacle of their sport and they deserve to be praised for that. What happens, though, is they end up putting themselves in a position where the detractors can take all the shots they want and that's not productive nor good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmarc117 Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 any boy on girl sporting event is a no-win situation for the boys. if the boys win, they shouldve anyways. if they lose, they lost to girls. if they get rough, they hurt girls. no upside imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbpfan1231 Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 any boy on girl sporting event is a no-win situation for the boys. if the boys win, they shouldve anyways. if they lose, they lost to girls. if they get rough, they hurt girls. no upside imo. Totally disagree... What if one of the chicks is hot (I know that is doubtful) and the boy gets to cop a feel during a game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yukon Cornelius Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 any boy on girl sporting event is a no-win situation for the boys. if the boys win, they shouldve anyways. if they lose, they lost to girls. if they get rough, they hurt girls. no upside imo. Totally disagree... What if one of the chicks is hot (I know that is doubtful) and the boy gets to cop a feel during a game? Just a hint you 2 it is not 1950 anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outshined Posted December 8, 2009 Author Share Posted December 8, 2009 interesting, I would think with no checking the women would win those and quite handily. Wow, I'm not sure why I'm surprised but I am. Then again, Minn. Boys hockey is the best of the best in the state unlike here in Michigan. Let us know the scores after the games happen. The Boys lost 3-2. Sound like it was a great game. http://www.mnhockeyhub.com/page/show_article/51962/39106 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muck Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 (edited) In HS, my freshman basketball team scrimmaged the girls varsity team over Christmas break. We won something like 60-15 and our girls team won the conference championship that year. *************************** Similar situation, except it was boys soccer vs. girls varsity volleyball ... raining too hard for the soccer team to practice and the coach was sick anyhow, so the girls volleyball team challenged the boys soccer team to a match. The boys won something like 15-6 / 15-2. Again, the girls won their conference that year. IIRC, at one point, we decided that we'd only serve, block and spike with our opposite hands. Edited December 8, 2009 by muck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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