WINONA, Minn. – Cotter High will field a varsity boys hockey team next season, the school announced. The team, comprising 10 players, will replace a junior varsity team from this year. Marty Raymond, who has 25 years of coaching experience, will head the Ramblers. “We hope to build this team into a contender in a short amount of time.” Raymond said. Without a goalie, the Ramblers will begin by borrowing goalies from their opponents, he said. For years Cotter had been a part of a hockey co-op with Winona High, but the relationship was dissolved at the request of an anonymous hockey donor. The Cotter girls varsity hockey team remains in a cooperative arrangement with Winona and La Crescent schools.
Going varsity. After an inaugural year in junior varsity competition, the Cotter boys team “graduates” to varsity.
Raymond. The Quebec-born Cotter boys coach most recently was head coach of a Hungarian club in the Austrian Hockey League. Earlier he was the long-time coach of the professional Bakersfield Condors in California.