The Girls 16 & Girls 17/18 programs are designed around high school sections instead of Minnesota Hockey districts. Each section forms one team from the age-appropriate players on their Class A & AA teams (ex: Section 1A/AA).
Players are frequently nominated by their high school coaches, but many sections host open tryouts. Players participate in the section tryouts for which high school team they play on (not where they live), where all players are evaluated for the section’s Spring Festival team.
Minnesota Hockey has expanded the girls' process to include players who are juniors in high school (HP 18s) and born in 2004. They will be invited to tryout and participate in the same process as the HP 17 (2005) players. This change is designed to provide players born late in the year, who may have been overlooked in the past due to the relative age effect, and still have high school eligibility with another development opportunity.
At the Spring Festival on April 22-24, the section teams will compete in three games against the top players from other sections at their age level at Plymouth Ice Center in Plymouth, MN. The top 54 players at each age level will be selected to compete again the following weekend on April 29-May 1 at the Final 54 Festival in Vadnais Heights, MN.
Then, players will be evaluated during the Final 54 Festival for the opportunity to advance to USA Hockey National Development Camp later in the summer.
Questions on the nomination process or tryout schedule should be directed to the appropriate Section GM.