John's Journal: River Lakes Girls Hockey Makes A Name For Itself

The term “River Lakes” could mean several things. It could be the catchphrase on advertisements about Minnesota’s great outdoors. It could be the name of a watercraft company. But people in the school communities of Rocori, Albany, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, St. John's Prep, Eden Valley-Watkins, New London-Spicer and Paynesville know exactly what River Lakes is. It’s their cooperative girls hockey team.

The River Lakes Stars qualified for this week’s Class A state tournament with a melded roster of players from five of those seven schools. This season there are no players from Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa or St. John's Prep, but the door is open to any girls who want to play hockey and live in any of those half-dozen plus one communities.

Seven schools, two rinks (in Richmond and Paynesville), all under the guidance of a head coach who is 25 years old. Andrew Marod is a Little Falls native and Bethel University graduate who was hired three seasons ago. His coaching experience was next to none.

In his first year the Stars finished 10-17-1, losing to Fergus Falls in the Section 6A title game. Last year they were 14-9-4, falling to Willmar for the section championship. The eighth-seeded team in the 2025 state tourney field, they fought hard before losing to top-seeded Dodge Center 2-0 in Wednesday’s state quarterfinals at Xcel Energy Center. Their season ended with a record of 14-14-1 after a 4-0 loss to Proctor/Hermantown in Thursday’s consolation bracket at TRIA Rink.

“It's worked out great,” said coach Andrew Marod. “The amount of life lessons I've learned, the amount of strategic planning lessons I've learned with a co-op. I think just with a co-op in general, everybody knows that they have to pitch in, and that's something that this community does really well.”

Marod had been hired to teach at Rocori when he was asked if he was also interested in coaching hockey. At the time of that question, he was helping out at a hockey camp, which was his first experience with any level of coaching.

“I had not coached before, even a little,” he said. “I was not overwhelmed, but when I got into it I was like, ‘Wow, this is a lot.’ But experience is a great teacher.”

Important Work In Warroad

For Wednesday’s Class A quarterfinal game against Marshall, Warroad coach David “Izzy” Marvin wore a white pullover with the Max Foundation logo over his heart.

Max Marvin, son of the coach, was a 2018 Warroad grad who took his own life when he was 19 years old. The Max Foundation was formed to help raise funds in order to support mental health programs for young people.

“I guess I can't speak to how it's affected everybody. We should cross our fingers that we're doing a good thing, and we believe we're doing good things,” the coach said Wednesday after the Warriors defeated Marshall 4-0. “Every once in a while we'll get a letter with some person saying it's really helped their son or their daughter. And those types of things are very gratifying.

“We work hard at it. … I know our team has embraced it and we support it quite a bit. I'm grateful for the people that donate and help out. Hockey was a big part of Max's life. And we're trying to make a difference. If we can help one family from going through what we've gone through, it'll be worth it.”

More information about the Max Foundation can be found at maxmarvinfoundation.org

Rosemount Makes History

The Rosemount girls hockey team, which came to the Class 2A state tournament as the seventh-seeded team in the eight-team field, pulled off the first surprise of the event with a 3-2 win over second-seeded Centennial/Spring Lake Park in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Irish will meet third-seeded Hill-Murray in Friday’s semifinals.

Centennial/Spring Lake Park defeated Rosemount 3-1 in the Irish’s first game this season (it was the second game for the Cougars).

“I think overall, we were not ready for that first game,” said Irish co-coach Jennifer Williams. “It was our first game of the year. The night before, we had dealt with a big injury and we were kind of scrambling to get into that game. We still came out and played the game that we were ready to play, it was the first game of the season and we knew we had a lot of work on. We knew that game would tell us exactly what we needed to work on.”

Rosemount had played at state three previous times (2011, 2023, 2024) but had not won a game until Thursday.

“We're pretty hard working, we’re a gritty team,” said senior Aubrey Hansen. “We knew going into this game that it was going to be a difficult one, but it was doable. We come into every game with a mindset of an underdog.”

The Dream Comes True

The girls hockey team from Marshall returned to state for the fourth time ever and first time since 2018. The Tigers’ other appearances were in 2007 and 2008.

This year, Marshall defeated New Ulm and Luverne to win the Section 3A championship. After losing to three-time defending champion Warroad 4-0 in Wednesday’s state quarterfinals, they beat Fergus Falls 3-2 in overtime in Thursday’s consolation bracket at TRIA Rink. The Tigers will face Proctor/Hermantown in the fifth-place game on Saturday.

The process of qualifying for a state tournament can be grueling, but the reward is immense, especially for a team that hasn’t been to the big show for a long time.

“When you're a little kid, you dream of this moment,” said Tigers senior Kendal Beernaert. “Even the chance to get to this tournament is insanely hard. So we're just really proud for getting this far.”

Sophomore goalie Lily Stelter called the experience of playing at Xcel Energy Center “amazing.”

“Stepping out onto the ice was just like, so surreal,” Lily said. “You just look out and you see the ice and you see all the people that have come to watch you. It's just like so fun. It's been such a great experience so far.”

--MSHSL staff member John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Bluesky at johnmilleamn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]