Handoff: Add Minnesota Hockey Districts to the Youth-Post Map

For: the agent picking this up (Sonnet). Task: Add all Minnesota Hockey districts to the map in the Minnesota youth hockey post, with informative popups, a Leaflet layers toggle, and a new in-body districts table. The map currently only shows AAA clubs and the prep program — districts (the actual foundation of youth hockey here) are missing.

Target file: _posts/2026-06-08-minnesota-youth-hockey-explained-parent-guide.md Specifically: the mn-youth-map <script> block, plus a new table in the body and an update to the “12 districts” text if the verified count differs.

Do not remove or alter the existing AAA (orange #e8590c) or prep (purple #7048e8) markers. Districts are an additive third layer.

1. Get the data right first (do not trust a remembered list)

The district structure is administrative and is not on MyHockeyRankings. MHR is team/association-level (good for individual AAA/association team ratings and records) — it does not define districts or which associations belong to them. Sources, in priority order:

1. minnesotahockey.org/associations — the canonical list of districts and their member associations. Source of truth for the district list itself. (Note: this page sometimes returns 403 to automated fetches — if so, use web search against the domain, or fetch individual district sites below.)
2. Each district’s own website — e.g. minnesotahockeydistrict8.com — for region description, member-association roster, and often a coverage map.
3. MHR — optional only, if you want one team-level stat per district (e.g., highest-rated association team in that region). Not required for the core task.

⚠️ Verify before coding

• The district list is non-contiguous — the numbers skip (there is no District 7/13/14 in the current setup, etc.). Confirm exactly which numbers are active.
• Sources disagree between “12” and “13” districts. The post body currently states “12 districts” in two places (the “Layer 1” section and the at-a-glance table). Whatever the verified count is, make the map, the body prose, and the table all agree, and cite the source.
• Do not invent centroid coordinates from memory — geocode each district’s approximate geographic center from its actual member towns once you have the verified roster.

2. Per-district info to capture

For each district, gather:

• District number (e.g., “District 3”)
• Common region name (e.g., “East Metro / St. Paul suburbs”)
• Major towns / area covered
• Approx. number of member associations
• 2–3 notable member associations, each linked to its site
• Link to the district’s own website
• (Optional) a feeder high school or two from that region, to tie back to the companion HS post

3. Design decision (already decided): Option 1

Districts are areas, not points, so centroid pins are for geographic orientation only — the rich info lives in a table, not crammed into map popups.

• Map: one labeled centroid marker per district in a new color (use teal #0ca678), with a concise popup (district number + region name + town list + association count + district-site link).
• Layers toggle: wrap each category in an L.layerGroup and add L.control.layers(null, { 'Districts': ..., 'AAA clubs': ..., 'Prep': ... }) so users can switch layers on/off. 13 + 10 + 1 markers in one static view is too cluttered otherwise.
• Legend: extend the existing bottom-right legend div to add the teal “Minnesota Hockey district” swatch (keep the existing orange/purple entries).
• New body table: add a “Minnesota Hockey Districts at a Glance” table near the Layer 1 (Community Associations) section — number, region, major towns, # associations, notable associations (linked), district-site link. This table carries the substance; the map is orientation.

Not chosen (context, don’t do these): polygon/GeoJSON boundaries (no clean source published; high effort) and a second separate map (page weight). If a clean district-boundary GeoJSON happens to surface, flag it to the user before switching approaches.

4. Implementation notes

• Reuse the existing helper: marker(lat, lng, color, name, town, note) already in the script block. Add a color constant var DIST = '#0ca678';.
• Build three L.layerGroups (districts, AAA, prep), add each to the map, and pass them to L.control.layers. Move the existing AAA/prep markers into their layer groups rather than .addTo(map) individually.
• Keep popup HTML consistent with current markers: <strong> name, <br> town, <span style="font-size:0.92em"> note. District popups can also include the district-site link inside the note.
• Consider widening the initial map view / lowering the zoom slightly so all districts (which span the whole state, incl. far north and southeast) are visible on load. Current view is setView([45.4, -93.4], 7) — districts may warrant [46.3, -94.2], 6 or similar; verify all markers fit.
• Update the legend div.innerHTML to add the district row.

5. Citation / dating (required)

District counts and member-association numbers shift season to season, so source and date them:

• Add a source line to the Sources section citing minnesotahockey.org/associations (and any individual district sites used) for the district list and association counts.
• In the new districts table caption, note the data is current as of the 2025-26 season (consistent with the rest of the post).
• If you pull specific association counts per district, cite where each came from.

6. After the edit

• Re-run the project UTM audit (per .github/agents.md) even though no new CTAs are added — it’s cheap and the project rule calls for it after editing a post:

  grep -r 'xpress\.scout-elite\.com' _posts _pages _landing-pages _layouts index.md \
    --include="*.md" --include="*.html" -l | \
    xargs grep -l 'xpress\.scout-elite\.com' | \
    xargs grep -n 'xpress\.scout-elite\.com' | \
    grep -v 'utm_source\|include xpress-cta\|page\.slug\|page\.utm_campaign\|Log In\|nav-login\|xpress\.scout-elite\.com`\|agents\.md\|getting-started\|support\.md'
  

  (Known pre-existing benign hit: a lowercase “Log in” line in _posts/2026-05-01-scout-elite-performance-coaching-tools.md — not a conversion CTA, ignore it.)

• Sanity-check: every district marker has a working district-site link; map marker count = verified district count + existing 10 club/prep markers; body prose, table, and map all agree on the district count.

Quick reference: current map block shape (for orientation)

The existing script defines marker(lat, lng, color, name, town, note), two color constants (AAA, PREP), a programs array of marker(...) calls, a forEach that adds them to the map, and a bottom-right legend control. Extend this pattern — add the DIST constant, a districts array, layer groups, and the layers control; expand the legend. Keep everything else intact.