Tourney Time - by David La Vaque & L R Nelson (Paperback)

About the Book

Seventy-five years of big names and memorable games--chronicling the highs and lows, the memories, and the legends from the Minnesota boys' state high school tournament.

Book Synopsis

Seventy-five years of big names and memorable games--chronicling the highs and lows, the memories, and the legends from the Minnesota boys' state high school tournament.

Review Quotes

"It is the Stanley Cup, the World Series, and the Super Bowl, all rolled into one. You young men will go on from here and play in many other sports events, but you'll always remember the Minnesota High School Hockey Tournament as the best." Herb Brooks

"La Vaque and Nelson have produced the most amazing book about the boys' state high school hockey championship. Their countless hours of research results in a compelling and riveting walk down memory lane. Once you start paging through, you will not want to put it down. It is a fantastic history of the tournament and a must read." Lou Nanne, former NHL player and general manager and member of the US Hockey Hall of Fame

"I get chills reading this book. Some of my best memories as a hockey player are playing in the state tournament, and Loren and David do a great job recapturing those moments." T. J. Oshie, two-time Minnesota state champion with Warroad and 2018 Stanley Cup champion with the Washington Capitals

"The state tournament went from an event beloved by Minnesota's hockey cult in an old arena in St. Paul to a statewide preoccupation starting in 1969, when it moved to an NHL arena in Bloomington, and the magic of small vs. big--Warroad and Henry Boucha vs. the Edina assembly line of great players--took center stage. La Vaque and Nelson bring that drama alive with inside tales and repeat that superb work with so many other state tourney moments." Patrick Reusse, Star Tribune

About the Author

David La Vaque is a reporter for the Star Tribune and has been the newspaper's point person for high school hockey since 2010. He has covered the state tournament in its entirety each year, writing enterprise pieces on the sport and selecting the paper's All-Metro teams and Metro Player of the Year. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, he covered sports for the Minnesota Daily and his work has also appeared in such media as Athlon Sports Magazine, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CSN-Chicago, Duluth News Tribune, Miami Herald, Cleveland Plain Dealer, USA Junior Hockey Magazine, and US College Hockey Online Magazine, among others. He lives in Woodbury, Minnesota.
Loren Nelson is an author, freelance journalist, and photographer and the founder and president of Legacy.Hockey, Minnesota's number one resource for high school hockey's past, present, and future. A recipient of numerous state, regional, and national writing awards, he researched, wrote, and published a series on Minnesota's top 100 high school players as managing editor of the Minnesota Hockey Hub. He covered Stanley Cup runs as a beat writer for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Anaheim Ducks, and he has covered multiple Super Bowls, college football national championship games, golf major championships, and the World Series. Nelson lives in Excelsior, Minnesota.