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sailor . com Lake Conference Hockey • Thursday , December 12 , 2024 Page 3
Lake Conference hockey in 1960 and 2024
JOHN SHERMAN
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John Sherman is a sports editor for Sun Newspapers
My interest in Lake Conference hockey began long before I became a sportswriter with Sun Newspapers .
In 1960 , as a Washburn Elementary School student in Bloomington , I found out that the Bloomington High boys hockey team practiced every day at an outdoor rink at 99th Street and Penn Avenue , not far from a huge building known as The Old Junior High .
One afternoon in mid- December , I decided that I wanted to watch the Bloomington Bears practice . They were wearing green and white practice gear and skating a lot faster than I anticipated . The coach noticed me standing in a snowbank near the boards and asked if I would shag pucks that flew out of the rink .
“ Sure ,” I said . “ I can help any way you want .”
After practice was over , I noticed a broken stick laying in the snowbank south of the far-end goal . I took that stick into the warming house and asked the assistant coach if he wanted to take the stick back to the school .
“ That ’ s firewood , kid ,” he said . “ If you want it , you can keep it .”
I took the message to heart and had a collection of about 30 broken sticks by the middle of January . I patched them and used them to shoot pucks in to a small goal in my parents ’ basement .
As much as I wanted to , I couldn ’ t be at every Bloomington High practice that year . I had Bloomington Athletic Association ( BAA ) hockey Monday and Wednesday nights and BAA basketball Tuesday and Thursday nights . Since I had nothing going most weekends , I talked my dad into taking me to a Bloomington High hockey game . I think the venue was the
Golden Valley Ice Center and I think the opponent was Robbinsdale . Don ’ t ask me which team won . I don ’ t recall . But it was quite an experience for a boy my age . I particularly enjoyed the checking .
For a couple more years , I made it to high school practices , time permitting . A few of the players gave me tips on skating better and shooting harder . I used the lessons to score goals in BAA hockey , and I have to admit that I bragged to some of my teammates about “ helping the varsity .”
HIGH SCHOOL
My parents moved to Apple Valley in 1964 , my freshman year in school . The school I attended was
Rosemount High School . Unfortunately , the school did not have a hockey team . Had I stayed in Bloomington , I would have been one of the Bears , practicing outdoors at 99th and Penn .
I was able to get a ride to Bloomington one day and told the hockey coach , “ I wish I was back here .”
“ I wish you were , too ,” he said .
FORWARD TO 1972
My first assignment with Sun Newspapers was to cover high school football , cross country and soccer in the fall of 1972 . The fall season was fun , but what I really looked forward to was the start of hockey .
When the schedule came out , I noticed that
there would be six Lake Conference games every Saturday indoors at Braemar Arena in Edina .
Braemar was - and still is - a hockey palace with room for approximately 2,500 fans and seating on both sides of the arena and also behind the goals . There was a special crow ’ s nest about the rink for reporters and photographers above the goal at the north end of the building .
A typical game schedule on a Saturday started early and ended late . For the first few weeks , I stayed at Braemar for all six games .
Here is one schedule from that era that I found
See Sherman | Page 23
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