Rock Ridge Public Schools is a school district based in Virginia, Minnesota and Eveleth, Minnesota. [1] It is assigned the designation of Independent School District (ISD) 2909 by the State of Minnesota. Following the 2022-2023 school year for Virginia Secondary and Eveleth-Gilbert High School they have been demolished. Virginia Secondary has been replaced with North Star Elementary.
Ground was broken for the new Rock Ridge High School on August 5, 2020. [2] It opened their doors in fall of 2023. Rock Ridge Superintendent Noel Schmidt claims this new school will be the most impressive school north of St. Cloud. The mascot for the district is a Wolverine.
To be torn down in fall of 2023
Virginia and Eveleth both have a rich hockey heritage dating to the turn of the Twentieth Century. Before consolidation, the Golden Bears & Blue Devils were regular and spirited Iron Range Conference and MSHSL Section 7A rivals. The January 2020 Virginia/MIB vs. Eveleth-Gilbert game was one of the most-viewed hockey games on the Iron Range. The Eveleth Hippodrome was at full capacity and over 3,000 people had viewed the game. The game was also the occasion of the unveiling of the Rock Ridge moniker, logo, and hockey jerseys.
The last hockey game played in Virginia's Miners Memorial arena before its demolition also ended up being the final matchup between the two teams before their merger. [6] At the time of the game, a Section 7A quarterfinal matchup played in front of a pandemic-limited crowd and many others viewing online on March 20, 2021, fans believed the two teams would have one more independent season, but subsequently the Rock Ridge school board voted on May 10, 2021, to make the consolidation effective in the 2021–2022 season. The program will be a cooperative that also includes the adjacent Mountain Iron-Buhl and Mesabi East school districts.
The first Essentia Health All-Star Boys' Hockey Game, featuring standouts from across the Arrowhead region, was played at the end of the season in 2020. Players from both Eveleth-Gilbert and Virginia/MIB played in the game including Elliot Van Orsdel, Will Troutwine, Nick Beaudette, and Gage Everson from Eveleth-Gilbert, and Ryan Scherf from Virginia/MIB. Jeff Torrel from Eveleth-Gilbert was the head coach for the White Team. In 2021 from Eveleth-Gilbert Brandon Lind, Kolton Bajda, and Nick Troutwine were selected. From Virginia/MIB Ian Kangas, Ryan Scherf, and Tom Nemanich made the team. The White Team was coached by Jeff Torrel, Paul Coombe, and Jared Anderson, all from Eveleth-Gilbert. Rock Ridge had their first ever season in 2022, and had four players selected: Dylan Hedley, Keegan Ruedebusch, Brennan Peterson, and Nick Troutwine. The blue team was coached by Ben Johnson, Ryan Cobby, and Evan Friedlieb, all from Rock Ridge.
Eveleth is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 3,493 at the 2020 census.
Virginia is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States, on the Mesabi Iron Range. With an economy heavily reliant on large-scale iron ore mining, Virginia is considered the Mesabi Range's commercial center. The population was 8,423 people at the 2020 census. Virginia is a part of the Duluth metropolitan area, and U.S. Highway 53 runs through town.
The Iron Range is collectively or individually a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Much of the ore-bearing region lies alongside the range of granite hills formed by the Giants Range batholith. These cherty iron ore deposits are Precambrian in the Vermilion Range and middle Precambrian in the Mesabi and Cuyuna ranges, all in Minnesota. The Gogebic Range in Wisconsin and the Marquette Iron Range and Menominee Range in Michigan have similar characteristics and are of similar age. Natural ores and concentrates were produced from 1848 until the mid-1950s, when taconites and jaspers were concentrated and pelletized, and started to become the major source of iron production.
USA Hockey is the national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United States and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Before June 1991, the organization was known as the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States (AHAUS).
Minnesota boys high school ice hockey is made up of multiple leagues and programs representing different associations. The two organizations associated with high school are the Minnesota State High School League and Minnesota Hockey. The Minnesota State High School League is a voluntary, nonprofit association of public and private schools with a history of service to Minnesota's high school youth since 1916. Minnesota Hockey, an affiliate of USA Hockey, is the governing body of youth and amateur hockey in Minnesota. Minnesota Hockey is governed by a board of directors and consists of approximately 140 community based associations who are formed into 12 districts.
John Edward Mayasich is an American former ice hockey player of Croatian descent. He was a member of the U.S. ice hockey team that won a silver medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics and a gold medal at the 1960 Winter Olympics. He also played for Team USA at the IIHF World Championships in 1958, 1961, 1962, 1966 and 1969. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1997.
The United States Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1973 with the goal of preserving the history of ice hockey in the United States while recognizing the extraordinary contributions of select players, coaches, administrators, officials and teams. It is located in Eveleth, Minnesota, an iron mining town in northern Minnesota.
Mark Thomas Pavelich was an American professional ice hockey forward who played 355 regular season games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars, and San Jose Sharks between 1981 and 1991. Pavelich was a member of the "Miracle on Ice" 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that won the gold medal.
Wayzata Public Schools is a public school district in the northwestern area of Hennepin County, Minnesota, U.S. serving all or part of the cities of Corcoran, Maple Grove, Medicine Lake, Medina, Minnetonka, Orono, Plymouth, and Wayzata.
Independent School District 196 is a K-12 public school district located in the south suburban Twin Cities, near both Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota.
Willard John Ikola is an American retired ice hockey player and high school boys' hockey coach. Born in Eveleth, Minnesota, a powerhouse in hockey he began playing hockey as a young boy, eventually going on to play in the 1956 Winter Olympics and coaching high school for over 30 years.
John Mariucci was an American ice hockey player, administrator and coach. Mariucci was born in Eveleth, Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota where he played for both the hockey and football teams. He was named an All-American in hockey in 1940. Mariucci was inducted into the inaugural 1973 class of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 1985.
Virginia High School, home of the Blue Devils, educated students grades 7–12 in Virginia, Minnesota, United States. It was a public high school with open enrollment located across from the Saint Louis County District Courthouse on scenic 5th Avenue. Virginia High School has a strong music department known for the Marching Blues, the school's marching band. The A Capella choir is directed by Matthew Krage. The high school also participates in Minnesota State High School League sports such as hockey, basketball, volleyball, tennis, football, track & field, cross country, baseball, swimming, golf, soccer and wrestling. Despite budget problems in the past decade due to declining enrollment, Virginia Secondary has had success in standardized state testing, graduation rates, and school pride. Enrollment has been at a slow decline for the last few decades but enrollment has been increasing in the lower grade levels, and open enrollment from neighboring districts has brought new students to the school. Students are unofficially divided into grades 7 & 8 and 9-12. The school day consists of 7 periods ranging from 51 to 52 minutes with 3 to 5 minutes passing time allowed. Other Wednesday, students get out of school an hour early to allow for faculty professional development meetings. Junior high students have a closed lunch period between 3rd and 4th hours while grades 9–12 enjoy an open lunch after 4th hour. It now has shut its doors along with Eveleth High School and has moved too Rock Ridge High School. They officially closed on May 31st 2024.
Wallace Daniel Grant was an American ice hockey player. Grant helped the University of Michigan win the first NCAA National Championship in 1948. He was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1987 and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1994.
The Quad Cities in the U.S. state of Minnesota are Virginia, Eveleth, Gilbert, and Mountain Iron in the Arrowhead Region, overlapping the Iron Range region, Duluth MN-WI MSA, and Saint Louis County.
Independent School District 2142 is a school district consisting of five schools in Saint Louis County, Minnesota. It is geographically the largest school District in Minnesota at just over 4,000 square miles.
The Ankeny Community School District is a public school district located in Polk County, Iowa and is 6 miles (9.7 km) from the capital city, Des Moines. Headquartered in Ankeny, the district is well known in Iowa for accomplishments in academics, athletics and activities. Ankeny Schools are accredited by North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (AdvancEd) and the Iowa Department of Education, and are part of the Central Iowa Metro League (CIML).
Elcor is a ghost town, or more properly, an extinct town, in the U.S. state of Minnesota that was inhabited between 1897 and 1956. It was built on the Mesabi Iron Range near the city of Gilbert in St. Louis County. Elcor was its own unincorporated community before it was abandoned and was never a neighborhood proper of the city of Gilbert. Not rating a figure in the national census, the people of Elcor were only generally considered to be citizens of Gilbert. The area where Elcor was located was annexed by Gilbert when its existing city boundaries were expanded after 1969.
Iron Trail Motors Event Center is an ice arena and Event Center located in the city of Virginia, Minnesota. It was completed in September 2021. The two-story building has a 120,000 square-foot total area and includes two ice rinks, fitness facilities and a 6,400-square-foot ballroom for weddings. It can also be used as a venue center for concerts. The arena offers skating lessons, open skating and open hockey. The arena is the home rink for the Rock Ridge Wolverines Hockey. The Rock Ridge Hockey Association coordinates the youth hockey program.
Eveleth-Gilbert High School (EGHS) was a public school located in Eveleth, Minnesota, United States. The high school was closed permanently at the end of the 2022-2023 school year & students we're transferred to the Rock Ridge Public Schools, District 2909.