Mallards wrote:BHS and Cenral were ready and took it to Fargo South. A loss is a loss. Give some credit to a STONG TEAM EFFORT by BHS and Central. I don't see why you would discredit BHS or Cenral when they did in fact beat Fargo South. I was looking forward to a Fago South vs BHS game at State but South could not make it. Was this another wish washy Red River loss? South had alot of talent but could not make it to the championship game. Fargo South actions off the ice after the Red River loss during the State Tournanment shows no respect to the game. The peanut butter....mess was hard to believe. What a disappointment to read and hear about this at State. The Bruins players showed no respect to the game of hockey and the Ralph Engelstad Arena. What a way to end the 2008-09 season.
Honestly, once the season ended I talked to parents, and a couple of the kids from the team that both graduated and are currently on the team this year, and they pretty much summed up what I thought and knew about South's coaching staff. Maybe BHS and Central did have a strong team effort those games, but a majority of it was a conjoined effort of bad coaching, bad motivation, and a mixed effort by South.
You can dig up and look at what is posted in any of the three
Bismarck/South threads (quote linked here) for that game, most of them say the same thing, but here's my quote for you:
HockeyHigh wrote:Bismark wins a rather unimpressive game 5-2. Take this as excuses if you will, I'm just taken aback by South's coaching. South looked very, very underwhelming and were playing players that I have literally never even heard of. South didn't play Scott Buchholz and several of their best players weren't on the ice, even though they had to know that Bismarck would be coming to win a game. Seems very unreal that a coaching staff would do this. Bismark didn't impress me at all. They played a very simple dump and chase and whenever there was any pressure on them at all they just iced the puck.
Maybe it was a Christmas break that slowed the teams down, but that was not the game I was expecting. Congratulations to Bismarck, if that's the kind of competition that South is willing to put forth, I see Bismarck holding up the state championship trophy in February. South was doing so well, and they obviously changed something for the definite worst over the break.
I know I'm taking away from Bismarck's win, but I am seriously disappointed in Fargo South's performance, and don't think South's performance is how North Dakota should be represented.
And South/Bismarck were both undefeated at this point, that's sad.
I don't recall if I posted on the Central game, it wasn't nearly as bad as the Central game if I recall correctly, but I still believe the coaching staff of South was
still playing with their lines and playing Junior Varsity (4th liners) during the game which is incredibly bad for the team, it doesn't make players happy when they're getting shorted time in high school to players that shouldn't be on the ice during a close varsity game. Granted South clinched the EDC title already, there's no excuse to not play your best players and lose a game like that.
The Red River game had a lot of things happen, I thought South actually played well during that game, they just couldn't bury at all. They also seemed to lack a little spirit that they had during the EDC tournament. They almost seemed to expect to be in the championship game, I know their student section looked like it.
As for the peanut butter mess, I don't believe this was formally addressed at any point except for being closed or deleted so far, but I'll make that clear to everyone on the forum having heard it from the coach, players and parents with the exact same story, and I'm right:
South's players that actually played at state (1st, 2nd, 3rd liners) didn't do anything in the locker room, it was a sulky sullen mood that everyone gets after they lost something big. The JV players (4th line and below) went into the showers with a plastic jug of peanut butter (one of the foods South brought for their players to the rink, they generally bring a whole buffet of healthy fruits/carbs to eat) and were throwing it around, some of which got on the walls. Not a single one was a senior or a player that had actually had any significant time at state. The coach wasn't present because he was giving his players time to vent to themselves and let the team have their alone time, like any respectable coach should (this may be one bit of credit I will give to Benson and his staff). There was no property damage in the rink, none at all (peanut butter was only in shower, easily cleaned), and the peanut butter was promptly addressed, and completely cleaned by the team and the team alone the next morning. The Fargo Fool'em or any other paper for that matter had no right to put this in the paper other than to attempt to overreact to something or to ruin a school's reputation. I know of FAR worse things that have happened after teams lose at state (Red River, Central included, and is actually more common from them but they are there more) that have never been addressed in public view. Maybe it was just really bad damage control by South's coaching staff, as usual. Either way, the graduating class and most of South was the utmost respectable possible after losing a game like that, and feel in no way they should have received treatment like that, especially a newspaper article. That's shameful. Don't believe everything you read, that's just a bad thing to get accustomed to.
If you wanted to bash South for anything all year, you should have seen their warm-up for the Central/South game in the 3rd place game. I actually laughed through the entire thing.