EGF Bantams Well Represented at MN Advance 15 Festival

Be on the lookout for season recaps for all of the peewee and bantam teams. They will be coming in the next week or so. Here's a column about the MN Advance 15 Festival. Looks like the future Greenwave had a phenomenal showing.

Advance 15 festival

The Advanced 15 festival is tryout process which happens every spring for the top players in the State and it could lead them to the National Festival held annually in Rochester New York.

The process starts out with coaches nominating players to try out for the district team. There are 12 Districts in Minnesota and all 12 hold a tryout in various locations across the State. This year was for 1995 born players and the District 16 tryout had 50 players who are all Bantam aged players, although for various reasons some players opt up to play high school or junior varsity.

We had 8 EGF players (the most of any town in the district) that were nominated and got to try out for the District 16 team. The 8 included Gage Ausmus, Tommy Hajicek, Eddie Eades, Brandon Loven, Colton Poolman, Nathan Peltier, Tanner Lindstrom & Luke Beito. After the first weekend of tryouts all 8 EGF players made the first cut to be in the top 30. After a second weekend of tryout practices and scrimmages in Thief River Falls, they chose a team made up of 12 forwards, 6 defenseman and 2 goalies. We had 6 EGF players make the team (again the most in the district) and they got to go down to New Hope, Minnesota and participate in a tournament with the other 12 districts in the state. The 6 boys making the District 16 team included 3 Forwards Hajicek, Loven, Beito and 3 Defensemen, Ausmus, Peltier & Poolman. With 240 total players in New Hope there is a team of knowledgeable coaches and scouts who evaluate each and every player and they consult with the team’s coaches to pick the top 102 players to participate in the week long Minnesota Summer Advanced 15 festival in St. Cloud Minnesota June 12th to 17th. Brandon Loven, Gage Ausmus, Luke Beito & Tommy Hajicek all made it to the festival. In St. Cloud they have a daily schedule which includes a game, practice, lecture, team meeting, and a outside activity every day. During the 6 day event every participant is being evaluated on and off the ice by prominent College and High School coaches who are teamed with current and former college players who serve as coaches, counselors and role models for each team. At the end of the festival the evaluators will choose the top 12 forwards, 7 defenseman and 2 goalies to got USA Hockey’s National Festival in Rochester New York July 15th-21st.