Every year, the staff from Wisconsin Prep Hockey travels to Waupun for the Senior Class Tournament.

In addition to attending the annual WiPH post-mortem, we get a chance to spend most of Saturday at the Waupun Community Center watching the top players in the state perform at the annual senior event.

The afternoon and evening sessions give us a chance to see some of the players we've read and talked about, but might not have seen play. 

These players seldom disappoint.

The tournament is the first step at looking for players to perform for Team Wisconsin in the Minnesota CCM tournament, which will take place the weekend of April 26-28 in Plymouth, Minnesota.

But back to the SCT...

This tournament showcases the top talent in the state of Wisconsin, as evidenced by the following roll call:

• Eleven of the 14 seniors on the WHCA All-State First Team played in the tournament
• Seven of the eight finalists for the American Family Insurance/WHCA Player of the Year award were present

All in all, the group of players are the best performers in the state. 

As far as off-ice stuff?

My favorite part is getting the opportunity to chat with parents and players that I had not met before. We got a chance to spend some time at the hotel with John Barteck and Todd Tydrich, dads of Matt and Colton, respectively. And we also chatted for quite a while with senior Ben King of Tomah.

To show what a small world it is, I work with John's sister-in-law. How weird is that? 

We also sat down with old friend Tim Ahern and new friends J.P. Coppo and Kipp Karakas. It was very enjoyable getting to know them a little bit, while learning stuff about them and having them offer suggestions on how to improve WiPH. (And Tim's son Sean was there to make sure we didn't get into too much trouble!)

And I would be remiss if I left out the name Mollie Cook. The former Homestead manager sent emails with scoresheets for the games I was unable to attend and also went out on the ice after her Section 8's 12-1 loss to make sure WiPH had a pic of the winning Section 7 squad.

Thanks, Mollie, and best wishes for a great future in the sporting world. I would not be surprised if you became the general manager of an NHL team in the future.

And of course we can't leave out the food and beverage tent.

Run by volunteers, many of who have been here forever (Shawn Trainor, is that you?), these fine men and women keep the fans of the SCT full of food and beverage. Lots of great relationships begin in the food tent, and I don't mean that in a bad way.

The tournament is like a class reunion, and a great number of the families know each other and most look forward to this weekend.

That's the good stuff, but with that comes some downsides.

This year, some sectionals had a major decrease in the number of players trying out for the SCT. One sectional had to grab five alternates just to fill its roster of 17.

True, the tournament conflicts with spring break and the start of the spring sports season. Many players are torn in which choice to make.

Here's the way I look at it: baseball coaches should give players some leeway because after all, hockey coaches are lenient at the beginning of their seasons when football playoffs coincide with the start of the hockey season.

And you can go to spring break anytime. I didn't go to Florida in the spring until I was 29 years old. 

Daytona Beach, Cancun, and the Bahamas aren't going anywhere. You'll get several chances to go, but you will only have one chance to play in the senior tournament.

Plus, it can affect your future.

Suppose a player that is on the borderline between moving to the next level or not has a killer tournament and gets an offer to play juniors? You might not get that sitting in the Florida sun...

Bottom line, playing in the SCT could be the difference between playing more hockey or just moving on with your life. I respect both choices, but if you want to keep on playing, use the SCT stage to get noticed. There are plenty of scouts around looking for the next 'sleeper.'

It could be you!

(Special thanks to Tim Ebner for borrowing me his laptop when mine decided not to connect with the Interwebs, and thanks to Jon Schubert, who pinch-hit for Mike Cowan and found out what it takes to run a successful SCT.)