And getting up at 3 am for rink time!
Years ago, Minnesota HS hockey was dominated by the rural schools up north. In the 60’s the suburban schools started building ice rinks. Since then the better teams are usually from the suburbs with the money for ice time, summer clinics, lots of young youth clubs that feed into the High Schools, etc.
Although shooting isn’t exactly cheap. $1000 for a reasonable entry level over and over shotgun. Each practice might be 100 clay pigeons ($20). Four Boxes of shells another $25.
Although I guess that is still a lot cheaper than hockey rink time?
That is why soccer is so widespread - it’s cheap and simple. I don’t care to watch soccer. I used to coach my daughter’s team though and had lots of fun with it. And the kids did too - anybody can play it and be useful on a team at the grade-school to Junior high level.
The population of Warroad is about 1,800. They've produced seven Olympic hockey players and five who have played in the NHL.
The best story involves Gigi Marvin -- a real cute babe who has played on the U.S. Women's National Team. She played on boys teams until she was 13, and describes an incident where she got into fight during a game with future NHL star T.J. Oshie. LMAO.