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Today's Paper
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Starting Wednesday, 16 boys teams from every corner of Minnesota will gather at Xcel Energy Center for the Minnesota State Hockey Tournament, one of the most renowned amateur sporting events in the country.
As has been the case every year since 1992, Bloomington Kennedy will not be among the 16. The Eagles — once an every-year contender for a state tournament berth — will never have that opportunity again.
In 1987, Bloomington Kennedy won it all, but from that point on, it was a long, slow descent for the Eagles, who played their program’s final game on Feb. 19 at Aldrich Arena in Maplewood — a 13-1 loss to top-seeded Chisago Lakes in a first round Section 4A playoff game.
“It’s my last game in a Kennedy uniform ever. It’s pretty emotional,” Eagles goaltender Dominick Russell said after the final horn sounded. “We got stomped, but I had fun out there with the boys one last time.”
Bloomington Kennedy fielded a boys hockey team for 60 years. Included in those six decades were seven trips to the state tournament back in the one-class days, a state runner-up finish in 1984, and their lone state title three years later.
For much of the 1980s, Bloomington was a true hotbed of prep hockey in Minnesota, with one of the suburb’s two public schools — Kennedy on the east side and Jefferson on the west — playing in every state tournament of the decade. When they would face each other in the regular season twice a year, fans would be lined up in the cold outside Bloomington Ice Garden hours before the puck dropped with the hope of getting a few square inches of bleacher seating.
That 1987 Kennedy team avenged a regular-season loss to Greenway of Coleraine in the state semifinals, then ended Burnsville’s quest for a three-peat with a 4-1 win in the title game. Of the 20 players on the Eagles roster, seven of them went on to play Division I college hockey, with two more skating at the D-III level. Eagles captain Joe Decker played a notable role in Wisconsin’s 1990 NCAA title just a few years removed from high school.
With a massive new shopping mall under construction just a few miles from Kennedy High School, and the Minnesota North Stars playing NHL games in the neighborhood, East Bloomington seemed like the center of Minnesota at the time.
But changing demographics, and more families for whom hockey was either unfamiliar or unaffordable, or both, moving into the district meant a gradual decline in numbers for Kennedy youth hockey, which fed the high school program.
“Not as many kids playing hockey,” said Brandon Tveitbakk, who coached the Eagles in their final season. “There’s a lot of families that are moving in that are first-time English speakers. Hockey is likely not a sport where they move here from. Hockey’s new to a lot of these families, and it can be intimidating to try if you’ve never done it before.”
The Eagles made their last state tournament appearance in 1991, then saw a migration of young families move to further-flung suburbs, and schools such as Apple Valley, Blaine, Elk River, Eden Prairie claimed state titles over the next few decades. It’s worth noting, in fact, that four of the newer powerhouses in prep hockey — Rogers, Andover, Chanhassen and Maple Grove — are from outer-ring suburbs and didn’t have programs the last time Kennedy played a state tournament game.
“Hockey just seems to be moving out and out and out,” Tveitbakk said
The Eagles are far from the only team in the Twin Cities or other inner-ring suburbs to see things change. Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools play hockey in consolidated programs, as do Burnsville and Apple Valley. Richfield co-ops with a private school. Rochester John Marshall is part of a co-op, as well.
With open enrollment allowing players free movement, and with successful private schools such as Holy Angels in their neighborhood, the Kennedy player pool got progressively smaller over the past decade. Kennedy’s youth program was absorbed by Jefferson a few years ago, and starting next season, that will happen with the high school program, as well.
“Any (Kennedy) underclassmen this year will be eligible to play for Jefferson next season,” Tvietbakk said. “I’ve got a great relationship with the Jefferson staff, too, so I’ll be able to put in a word for our boys next year and hopefully have a little bit of a voice.”
Russell already has, ending his junior season with a 53-save effort in the loss to Chisago Lakes. Kennedy’s final campaign finished with a 1-24 record, and opponents put up double-digits in goals 10 times. But the goalie left the rink looking forward, not back.
On the ice after the game, he tipped his cap to senior Mason Biermaier, who scored early in the third period for the final goal in Kennedy hockey history.
“Going out and seeing one more goal in the third was fun, even down 12-0 or 10-0, whatever it was,” Russell said. His personal goal is one more year of high school hockey, even if it means wearing the powder blue of Kennedy’s crosstown rivals.
“I’d love to play for them next year, and if they’re open to having me, I’d love to be on the roster,” he said.
Smiles were harder to come by for other players, who — despite all of the lopsided losses — weren’t ready to see their season, or their program, come to an end.
Senior forward Tony Perkins huddled with five teammates at center ice for a group hug long after the handshakes were over and nearly everyone had left the rink. There were tears on the ice and outside the locker room as the Kennedy Eagles slung navy blue gear bags over their shoulders and prepared to catch a home-bound bus one final time.
“It’s a great honor. The guys in the penalty box were reminiscing about what a powerhouse Kennedy was, and it kind of puts into perspective how moving this whole season was, not only for us but for the whole program,” Perkins said. “I’m not ready to let go of this. I don’t know how I’m going to walk out of this rink tonight.”
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