Let's Play Hockey, the self-professed authority of high school hockey in Minnesota must be nuts.  Yes, I said nuts.  In their listing of the top girls hockey players in Minnesota Faribault senior Olivia Williamson is not even in the Honorable Mention Top Players list.  They are entitled to their opinion of course but in my humble opinion this is crazy.

Are they serious?  I realize Faribault is not a hockey power and not playing in a hockey power conference but isn't scoring a hockey puck a skill not everyone can master?  You still have to bury the puck in the net.  Isn't creating goals for your teammates a skill not everyone can master?

The number one thing coaches at all levels of sports say they look for in a "top player" is consistency.  Williamson is currently second in the state in points with 43 (the Minnesota Girls Hockey Hub does not have Saturday's Faribault win included in their statistics).  She is third in goals scored with 25.  Last season the senior heading to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island finished third in the state in scoring (as a junior) with 39 goals, tied for 8th in points with 60.  Her sophomore year she had 30 goals (tied for 22nd in terms of people, 13th best number) and 48 points (tied for 34th number of people again, 17th best number).  Brown has the oldest college women's hockey program in the country and is a Division One school.  Two MIAC bound ladies are on the list.  I am not saying they don't deserve the designation.  I'm trying to make the case that WIlliamson is a serious omission. A Division One hockey player should be on this list period.

Consistency, my friends at Let's Play Hockey.  Williamson has proven she can score (30 goals plus sophomore and junior seasons and probably this year also) and pass.  Of course if she can do those things she can probably skate pretty well too.  She is so strong with the puck.  You should probably watch these players before making your list.

How many current players in Minnesota have career numbers like this with several games left in the season.  Olivia Williamson has played in 144 games with 128 goals, 85 assists, 213 career points.  10 power play goals, 12 power play assists, 11 shorthanded goals, 2 shorthanded assists.

Not one player south of the Twin Cities made the list of top players.  Really?

Williamson was NOT EVEN AN HONORABLE MENTION. Junior Jesicca Boland of Northfield made the Honorable Mention list and is very deserving of the honor but she has 19 goals, 21 assists, 40 points last year.  This year Boland has 12 goals, 12 assists.  She has committed to play at Minnesota State Mankato.

Boland is the ONLY Big Nine player even listed on the Honorable Mention list.  Not another Big Nine player deserves to be on that list?

Four players from the Rochester Lourdes Eagles team are on the Honorable Mention list.  They are a very good team but this is a top players list.  Olivia Williamson would be the 4th best player on the Lourdes team? One of the Eagles listed is a goalie.

There is ONE GOALIE on the Top Players List.  Ten goalies listed on the Honorable Mention Top Players list.  Really?

Faribault senior MIkayla Bohner is tied for the third best win total in the state (10). She is 6th in goals against average 1.25 and 7th in save percentage .943.  Northfield Sophomore Maggie Malecha is 3rd in the state in save percentage and 9th in goals against average 1.45.  Malecha is 10th in wins with 8.

At minimum both those ladies should be on Honorable Mention list.  What else can you judge a goalie by other than these statistics?

Please Let's Play Hockey if you are going to have a list of top players in the state have the sense to list those in the top 10 or even 20 in the state in statistical categories that measure an individual's abilities.  I understand some competition levels may be different but if a player is good enough to play in a Division One program shouldn't they be one of the top players in the state?

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