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Minnesota Made Choice League still growing, developing great athletes

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Last Updated on Thursday, 17 January 2013 16:37

The Minnesota Made Choice League is having another great winter of development and competition for over 550 young athletes from around the metropolitan area. Now in its sixth season, the Choice League has grown rapidly, from having only one level and eight teams back in the winter of 2007-08, to having seven levels with 38 teams from Mites to Pee Wees.

The main draw is the emphasis on skill development that is amongst the best in the country for young hockey players and a highly competitive league where the ability level of the athletes from the top to bottom player is close, enabling the athletes to grow their game with similarly skilled players.

It’s interesting to look at the Bantam and PeeWee ranks in the state of Minnesota, where a number of those athletes that first participated in the Choice League six winters ago are dominating those levels of play and proving to be some of the best players in the State. Some of the key contributors for the Edinas, Prior Lakes, Wayzatas, Eden Prairies and Lakevilles of the world that have won or competed for state titles in the last winter or two got a good jump on their hockey career in Choice. Some of the top 1998, 1999 and 2000 birth years were at the inception of the now flourishing league.

Those first years helped lay the foundation for the league. Word spread about the Choice League’s repetitive devotion to hand skills, along with a full-ice focus on edge work, backwards skating and other technical training for creating great skaters and athletes who could really handle the puck. With the ability level being very close, it was easier to teach a lot of these skills. A heavy emphasis was also placed on maximizing the time spent on the ice to these skills. At a typical Choice practice you never see the athletes standing around. They are using their time efficiently and skating hard the majority of the time during the typical 80 or 90 minute practices. The high-quality practices and competitive games have led to the growth you see today.

The winter of 2012-13 has seen the addition of a Super Squirt Choice Checking League to go along with the regular Squirt Choice league, Pee Wee supplemental checking league and four levels of Mite hockey: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Rookies. The four-team Squirt Checking League has really caught the attention of the Minnesota hockey denizen. With checking now banned until Bantams in Minnesota, the league has been a great alternative to the argument on checking in youth hockey. With most of the athletes at the same size and with monthly checking clinics on proper technique provided by the staff at Minnesota Made, the athletes have really taken to playing the checking game at the right pace and within the rules. The growth of learning this essential trait to the game has been fun to watch.

With the season almost halfway over, Choice athletes are looking forward to the mid-season tournament on the weekend of January 18-21, and continue to get better every week with the skill development and practice plans that are handed out to coaches every week to keep a uniform training regimen in place for developing hand skills along with skating stride and technique.