Jake Hale, a rare Division I college prospect playing for a Minneapolis Public School program, carries the hopes of his city's surviving hockey scene.
Hale, a sophomore who verbally committed to Minnesota Duluth, provides a marquee name for the Minneapolis team, which is open to players from all seven public schools. While his former youth hockey teammates left in droves for private schools, Hale, who attends Southwest, chose a sense of loyalty over his own options.
"There was a ton" of pressure, said Hale, whose older brother Zack won a Class 2A state title with Benilde- St. Margaret's. "A lot of guys were hitting me up with texts in eighth grade, like, 'Where you going next year? You want to come check it out here?'
"It's kind of humbling getting all those people to contact you, so I can see why some guys leave, but it's just not worth it, in my opinion."
Hale is the first player at a Minneapolis Public School program to verbally commit to play Division I hockey since his coach, Joe Dziedzic, did the same in 1990.
"It's a testament to his character," said Dziedzic, who starred at Edison and later for the Gophers. "He could've gone to multiple schools and he stayed here."
Despite being by far the state's most populous city with 382,578 people, Minneapolis hasn't had a school win a state championship in 47 years and it's been 23 years since a city school made the state tournament (Edison). Of 16 players who attended city public schools while they skated with Hale on his Bantam Double-A team, 11 now play for private school programs this winter.
Hale's loyalty and success has Minneapolis hockey leadership hopeful more young players will stay, in numbers that would give the varsity program a better chance of ending postseason droughts.