Merging Marauders

The new Roseville/Mahtomedi cooperative looks to make noise with skilled players from both sides.

Mahtomedi and Roseville girl’s hockey players have turned in their original school colors to represent the Roseville/Mahtomedi Marauders hockey co-op team in navy and silver for the 2022-23 season.

With decreasing numbers at the youth level, both programs were driven to the decision to co-op from 10U all the way to the high school level. Andrea Schmidt, Director of Athletics and Activities at Roseville, said Mahtomedi is a “good fit” for their existing program.

“Mahtomedi jumped to the top of the list right away,” Schmidt said. “The conversation started between our coach and I around Mahtomedi and what that would look like and then kind of gently reaching out to see how the next conversation would go.”

Former Roseville head coach and current Marauders head coach, Craig Rosenthal, said this is the decision their program needed. Roseville Area won girls state titles three times: in 1996, 1999 and 2010.

Roseville/Mahtomedi goaltender Lily Peterson and defender Lexi Jensen guard the net in front of Duluth's Jenna Horvat.  Photo by Hope Carlson

“I always try to look at the bigger picture and put things in perspective as to what’s best for girls hockey,” Rosenthal said. “For us that meant setting aside some Raider pride to give girls from both programs a better experience.”

Rosenthal, a 2002 Roseville graduate, grew up playing hockey. At the young age of 23, he began coaching the Mounds View JV girls hockey team and, 17 years later, Rosenthal finished his sixth season with the Raiders.

According to the Marauders home website, the team name was an effort to unify the two school names during a brainstorming session. Ma - for Mahtomedi, and Rauders - for Raiders.

“The key to co-oping and bringing two teams and communities together is having good people involved first and foremost. The hockey aspect of things will follow,” Rosenthal said.

These are not the only programs that have decided to co-op this year. In September, Faribault

announced a new girls hockey co-op with Burnsville High School, Bethlehem Academy and three smaller private schools located in the Twin Cities due to declining athletic participation. That co-op team is the Metro-South Phoenix.

Schmidt has noticed over the years that girls who are interested in hockey at an older age are not joining as often due to the new grown intensity of the game.

“For me, girls hockey is starting to become similar to the boys' side: you join early and you go all in or people think there's not a place for them in the hockey world. It becomes a very intense program at the start and it is limiting for kids.”

The new team began practicing with each other in the summer in order to develop a sense of community and team. Senior captain and former Mahtomedi defender, Lexi Jensen, has valued the importance of ‘welcoming everyone with open arms.’

“We’ve been working a lot on team bonding and meeting everybody,” Jensen said. “And I think it’s been going well. It’s a happy environment to be on the ice and seeing all the smiles.”

The team will consist of around 20 returning players from each team with the addition of incoming freshmen. The combination has accounted for seven captains, three from Mahtomedi, four from Roseville, making a ‘leadership group.’

“At the end of the day hockey is hockey,” Rosenthal said. “I know we are going to gel together well on the ice once we all get our basic systems down. The biggest thing is getting the girls to buy into the team and community we want to build.”

Marauder senior defender Shae Jakaboski is one of seven captains on this year's team.  Photo by Hope Carlson

One road bump in the co-op is the distance for after school practices. To make the driving time fair for both schools, coach Rosenthal is choosing to host practices half at Roseville Ice Arena and half at Polar Ice Arena.

“I know for some girls on the team it’s difficult to drive to Roseville by 3:00-3:15 from our school,” Jensen said. “There were parents and players that were skeptical on how that’s going to work out.”

Jensen is excited to be a part of a new era full of success but says she is sad to think about never saying ‘Zephyrs on 3’ again.

“I think anytime there's change, people get nervous. But our coaches and players have done an excellent job of team building and working together, so I’m optimistic that people are jumping in,” Schmidt said.

Rosenthal is looking to bolster his staff from last year with highly experienced assistant coaches Ryan Paitich, Meghan Lorence, goalie coach Amanda Leveille, and JV coach Allyson Reilly.

“We’re coming off one loss in the conference last year to Stillwater in the championship, so we are looking to build off last year's success, and I know many of the Mahtomedi girls are excited to compete and to be part of that culture,” Rosenthal said.

The Marauders played their first official games up north to start their inaugural season and returned home 0-2. They fell on Friday night to highly ranked Class A power Proctor/Hermantown, 6-0; then fell in overtime on Saturday to Duluth, 3-2. Still, with the combination of talent from both sides, Rosenthal is excited to see what these two schools can do as one team moving forward.

“I’m excited to watch everybody grow better as a teammate and as a player,” Jensen said. “We have a good foundation, great coaches, and we are ready to come together as a team to be successful.”