This year, the Roseville and Mahtomedi girls hockey teams combined to form a co-op. This co-op was created because neither team has enough players. 

The high school team, the Roseville/Mahtomedi Marauders, are led by head coach Craig Rosenthal. They now have around thirty-five players, split half and half between Roseville and Mahtomedi.

Although the teams were both short on skaters, a major reason the co-op was formed was because of the lack of goalies. Goalies are hard to come by, but now that there are double the number of players in the association, there are double the number of goalies. In order to combat this shortage, youth coaches are trying to get as many players as possible to try all the positions, including goalie. 

The Marauders practice at the Roseville Ice Arena and Oscar Johnson arena most of the time, as well as a few rinks in White Bear Lake. Mathomedi does not have a home rink. Although this is fortunate for the Roseville players, this means that the girls from Mahtomedi have to travel farther and have to leave school early. It also means the youth teams have to practice farther away most days because the high schoolers are at the Roseville arena. 

The girls on the teams have been enjoying their season so far. Sophomore Olivia Martin said, “I like it because you get to make friends from other schools. It feels like the same team as last year. It feels the same, good chemistry with everyone.” 

Coaches have been enjoying the merger as well. Rosenthal said, “Personally I have really enjoyed getting to know the players from Mahtomedi and have enjoyed combining the schools together.”

Youth teams down to 10U (10 and under) have combined too. 

Youth coach Chad Fuenffinger says that he has enjoyed coaching the combined team so far. He said, “Our team has not missed a beat in hanging out. I just had girls at my house from the team today. Our kids at the age of 10 just have fun playing together. They jumped right into being best friends.”

Rosenthal thinks the co-op will be around for a number of years in the future. He explains that girls hockey numbers are declining and it is becoming more difficult to find enough players for a varsity and a JV due to low numbers.

Fuenffinger thinks the co-op has been helping the teams. “It’s nice to have more people because you’re more likely to pull good players in a pool of 100 versus a pool of 50.”