Prep notes

The Eden Prairie boys' hockey team won't be home for Christmas. In fact, it won't be home until Jan. 8, after playing its first 11 games on the road.

A third rink is being added to the Eden Prairie Community Center, along with other updates that have left the bleachers unavailable until the new year. Eagles coach Lee Smith found out about the renovations at the end of last season.

"We went to the [offseason] coaches meetings not knowing where we were going to be playing our home games,'' Smith said. "We were very thankful the coaches in the conference agreed to let us play all our games on the road at the start of the season so we could play our home games at the Community Center.

"Otherwise we could have been playing at Braemar or Chaska or Victoria. We didn't know.''

It's been so far, so good for the Eagles. They take a 3-0 record into tonight's game at Eastview. Smith said he has not set a goal for the number of victories he hopes the Eagles can pick up during the 11-game stretch.

"I just want us to be in position at the turn to still be in contention for the conference,'' Smith said. "If we go out and play with good energy, we can do that. To have those games at our rink in the second half to be meaningful is our No. 1 goal.''

While he said he feels playing at home is an advantage, Smith is confident his team won't be overwhelmed the next four weeks. "We've been lucky that, due to our strong youth program, these kids have been exposed to a lot of different things,'' Smith said. "They've gone to Moorhead; they've gone to Duluth. So that helps us.

"We'll find out a lot about ourselves through this month of December. It's not our most experienced team, so it will be interesting how we respond.''

The Stillwater girls' hockey team won its first Class 2A state championship last season, and it has started this season looking very much like the team to beat in 2008.

The Ponies are 8-0 and have shut out their past five opponents. For the season, they have outscored the opposition 32-7. Callie Dahl leads the team with 10 goals, followed by Allison Schwab with nine. Sophomore goaltender Marah Sobczak has four of the five shutouts.

Glencoe-Silver Lake senior running back Dustin Jurek had some extra incentive going into the Panthers' Class 4A state title football game.

"I have five family members [a cousin and four uncles] who are state champions,'' Jurek said. "I'm just carrying on the name. My four uncles won it at Silver Lake. My cousin won it for GSL that first year they won it [2000]."

Jurek is the first in the family with two state titles after GSL's victory over DeLaSalle.

After watching Eden Prairie quarterback Ryan Grant's nearly flawless performance in the Class 5A title game, most observers assumed the senior had played his last game at quarterback before being moved to linebacker next season by the Gophers. He isn't so sure.

"Last year I thought I'd probably move to defense because I didn't think I had the arm strength to be a Division I quarterback,'' Grant said. "But my arm is a lot stronger, and I've gotten a lot more comfortable with making reads.

"The game is slowing down for me now. At this point I feel if I changed positions, it would [take] a longer time to play at that level than if I stayed [at quarterback].''

The decision belongs to the Gophers coaches, but think of the possibilities: Bud Grant's grandson and Tim Brewster's son [Clint] battling for playing time in the coming years.