Students chanting “cake eaters” or “daddy’s money” from the stands of the Grand Casino Arena (formerly Xcel Energy Center) are an annual tradition for the Edina hockey teams. With the program’s 18 state titles, 14 for boys and four for girls, state tournament appearances are inevitable. Edina hockey’s history consistently sets a high bar for teams to perform at their very best.

“The community has high expectations, and we have high expectations,” Edina Boys’ Hockey Assistant Coach Greg Aslakson said. “We have 14 state championships, which attributes a little bit to those expectations. Making the state tournament is great, but the gold standard is the state championship.”

With these past accomplishments, it seems like this year’s teams would feel immense pressure to exceed the bar set for them. But players, managers, and coaches are all working hard on and off the ice to play and be a part of the sport that they love.

“I think if it were to affect us, it would be in a positive way,” Senior girls’ hockey captain Cate McCoy said. McCoy added that the historical success of the hockey teams encourages players to work more closely.

Edina hockey tryouts have some of the biggest numbers across all of Minnesota’s high school hockey teams, with the boys’ tryouts having anywhere from 80 to 90 kids. Tryouts are four days long, eventually narrowing down to the 40 kids that make up varsity and junior varsity teams.

Now that rosters are finalized, both boys’ and girls’ teams are looking ahead to the season and striving for program goals.

“We already have expected and come across really strong talent from other teams, so we’re expecting every game to be a battle,” Edina Girls’ Hockey Varsity Assistant Coach Megan Arceneaux said. “But we’re expecting to put on a good fight against each and every team and hopefully come out ahead.”

In addition to team goals, players pursue their own goals to meet expectations.

“For each of them individually, they have goals that they really strive and work hard for,” Edina Girls’ varsity Manager Emmy Lewis said about the goal-setting she noticed among players. “Hockey culture in Edina is not like anything else.”

Junior Drew Botts made the varsity team this year after playing on JV last year. To him, one of the biggest differences between the two teams has been speed and physicality.

Even in his first season on varsity, he said he set high expectations and standards for both himself and his team.

“I want to win a championship,” he said. “I want to win as many games as possible. We’ve been going hard, with workouts throughout the summer, and we’ve been practicing hard [this season].”

The high standards set by the players themselves and the Edina community fuels the high-intensity environment while also creating lifelong friendships.

“I would say especially in Edina, [the culture] is so good because everyone plays their best against Edina, so it’s a really good game every time,” varsity sophomore Jia Morgan said. “It’s the best.”