High School hockey coaches from around the state geared up for the new season with their annual Fall Clinic held at the Resch Center in Green Bay.  About 85 coaches attended the clinic on Saturday that featured presentations by Badger head coach Mike Eaves and Northern Michigan head coach Walt Kyle.
Following the clinic on Saturday most of the coaches attended the Badger-NMU game at the Resch Center.

Other speakers included division three coaches Mike Szkodzinski of Lawrence University and Tim Coughlin of defending national champion St. Norbert College in DePere.  Motivational speaker Bill Collar and concussion expert Jeanne Brown also appeared.

WHCA president Ryan Sarazin from Fond du Lac Goodrich High School was pleased with the weekend event.  "The WHCA was very excited to bring our Fall clinic to the Green Bay Area.  It was a unique opportunity to watch the Badgers play at the Resch Center.  Green Bay has been a city that has seen great hockey growth with the recent success of the Gamblers, St. Norbert College and the WIAA defending champion at Green Bay Notre Dame.  We had a great lineup of speakers and our clinic attendance was strong, it was a great way to get our season started."

With the 12-13 WIAA season just a couple of weeks away there was extensive talk of the possibility of a two tier state tournament in the near future.  The long held magic number of 96 schools has apparently been taken off the table by the WIAA.  Discussion of the potential new formats was a hot topic of conversation.  Finding the best solution to both grow hockey and open the state tournament doors for the small schools is the challenge.

High school teams will take to the ice on Monday, November 5th as the WIAA season begins.