The Fall Classic takes place September 18-21.

“This is a big honor for not only him but for New Ulm hockey,” Geoff Torzewski, New Ulm Hockey Operations Director said. “You are basically taking the top 40 skaters in the state in the 2010 [birthday] level. There are two teams from Minnesota that are going out to the tournament and he is one of 40 skaters. But that is from a pool of a lot of skaters.

“The way this works is that at the beginning of the tryouts called TCM High Performance, and that is from all of the districts in the state, we are in District 4 and District 4 got x amount of players that went up to the festival in Duluth. If they make the cut out of that, they went to the High Performance camp in St.Cloud. From there the top 40 skaters are selected for the USHL Fall Classic. The team is 40 of the best 2010s in the state of Minnesota.”

Haala was one of only two skaters from all of southern Minnesota who was selected. The other was from Rochester.

“The rest are a lot of metro players and then player from perennial hockey powers in Hermantown, Warroad. And it is good when you can get a player with Carsten’s ability and be able to showcase it for not only the state, but also for the USHL Fall Classic,” Torzewski said.

Haala, who will be a freshman at New Ulm Cathedral, has size as he is 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds.

“I was the General Manager of the High Performance team for the spring and I have watched Carsten for the last few years playing last year for the Bantam A team and previous to that he was on the PeeWee A team,” Torzewski said. “He was one of the high scorers for the PeeWee team two years ago — and I think that last year he had over 60 points for the Bantams.”

Haala’s Bantam coach, Brach Kraus, said that Haala is a player who loves the game and can put the puck in the net.

“Even when he is not playing or at practice, he is at open hockey constantly,” Kraus said. “He is on the ice a lot. He can out the puck in the net and he is also improving elsewhere. We worked with him last year in playing without the puck and as he figures that out, he is going to be a pretty complete player.”

Kraus said that Haala is a very fast player who is big for his age.

“And when you combine the two, he is tough to defend against,” Kraus said. “He is working on things to round out his game and he has strength on his skates — when he gets better on those edges it is going to be really tough to defend somebody with his speed and frame.”

Kraus said that Haala being selected is an honor.

“It is not very often that you have a player from New Ulm to be selected in the State of Hockey for this,” he said. “It is quite an accomplishment. Super proud of him and I hope he has fun and continues to learn from great coaches and players around him. Maybe he can bring some things back and teach us about some things too.”

Haala said that you have to put in the hard work and believe in yourself if you want to get to this level.

“I was surprised because I love hockey so much, so this was really big,” he said. “Now I want to find out how much I can push myself and I now may get watched more.”

And hockey is a passion of his.

“I play hockey almost 12 months a year,” Haala said. “I want to keep improving and keep believing in myself and knowing that I can do anything if I try. I think I need to work on my conditioning more and getting stronger.”

Haala said that he knows that it will be a great learning experience for him in Pittsburgh and that he really appreciates his coaches in Brach Kraus and Mike Peterson.

“They have really coached and pushed me through the season,” he said. “And even my teammates like Hunter Larson and Carson Uecker, who have also pushed me.”

Haala wanted to thank his teachers at New Ulm Cathedral, who have been supportive.

Haala’s grandmother, Lisa Besemer, said that there will be a contigent of New Ulm people in Pittsburgh watching Carsten.