2023 MN High School Football season

[disco]

Hockey is the worst. Sid was right about it being a cult. My neighbor's kid, as a freshman, is the new backup varsity QB. But several times a week he's off to hockey practice.

Well, let's be fair. Sid didn't understand hockey or want to because it wasn't a thing in N. Minneapolis when he grew up. Hockey was more of a St. Paul thing, and Sid hated everything east of the river.

But he was right in his assessment of the sport. It's very cult-like.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

I am not a fan of the 'year-round' approach to sports. It is definitely one of the factors that have led to more specialization and fewer multi-sport athletes. JO Volleyball, AAU Basketball, free-style wrestling, etc. etc. etc.

something else I'm seeing more often that specifically impacts football: athletes who don't go out for football because they're worried about an injury that would impact their other season(s) - because they think "if I get hurt in football, and I can't play basketball or baseball, that will hurt my chances of getting a scholarship."

I wish there was a way to make sports more fun, and make it less about trying to get scholarships. I've had to bite my tongue more than once when parents start talking about how Bobby or Susie is going to get a scholarship. My head is thinking "you're living in Dreamland. Your kid just isn't that good." but if I say that out loud, then I'm the bad guy.

 

[disco]

I am not a fan of the 'year-round' approach to sports. It is definitely one of the factors that have led to more specialization and fewer multi-sport athletes. JO Volleyball, AAU Basketball, free-style wrestling, etc. etc. etc.

something else I'm seeing more often that specifically impacts football: athletes who don't go out for football because they're worried about an injury that would impact their other season(s) - because they think "if I get hurt in football, and I can't play basketball or baseball, that will hurt my chances of getting a scholarship."

It's pricing out less wealthy families too. The most extreme I've ever heard was a family I met that spent 46 grand for their two kids to play "elite" hockey in one year. They were 12 and 14 years old. Most of that was travel costs.

As for quitting football because of injury concern for other sports. I did know a couple guys who did that even 30 years ago but it wasn't the same as it is now.

 

[disco]

Another issue is that kids and parents are listening to these club/AAU etc. coaches who are telling them they HAVE to specialize (because these coaches need to keep the gravy train flowing.)

 

[MaxyJR1]

Spending is not the same as investing
99.9% of parents aren’t getting returns on their “investment”
At least not financially

They are investing in their kid’s childhood. Most understand that scholarships won’t come. They want the kids to have the best experience as a child. Unfortunately people can’t keep up with the Jone’s and others don’t prioritize spending so much

$225 for in-house basketball in my community.

 

[MaxyJR1]

It's MEA week. Most games this week are on Wednesday with some being played on Thursday. Seeding will be out by Friday with 6A being announced on a 10AM special prep sports extra.

9-Player to 5A will start playoffs on Tuesday (24th) and 6A playoffs start on Friday the 27th.
Section 5 6A seeding should be set as they are the only true round robin section. This section all plays their cross over games this week, so it will be interesting to see how they do. Maple Grove beat Centennial but lost to STMA and Champlin. Week 8 Cross overs in ()

1. Centennial 6-1 (Rosemount)
2. Maple Grove 5-2 (Minnetonka)
3. Anoka 5-2 (Wayzata)
4. St. Michael Albertville 4-3 (Mounds View)
5. Champlin Park 3-4 (Lakeville South)
6. Blaine 3-4 (Shakopee)
7. Coon Rapids 2-5 (Farmington)
8. Osseo 0-7 (White Bear Lake)

 

[Some guy]

They are investing in their kid’s childhood. Most understand that scholarships won’t come. They want the kids to have the best experience as a child. Unfortunately people can’t keep up with the Jone’s and others don’t prioritize spending so much

$225 for in-house basketball in my community.

It’s a bad investment because more kids are burning out and having mental health issues than are enjoying their parents

 

[Maverick_52]

Big Matchup in 5A as #2 ranked Rogers travels to #3 ranked Mankato West on Wednesday night. I think the only time these two teams have played each other has been in the state tournament.

 

[GopherRock]

I played in a very competitive conference of mostly class B schools. Two communities. Within two years after my graduation, it was three communities but still class B (the equivalent of a large 2A or smaller 3A team today).

Now? Same three communities are scraping by at class A.

There has been so much said and written about the iron range over the years (and deservedly so). Boom and mostly bust with the mining industry.

But what has happened in southern MN has been equally dramatic, perhaps even more so.

In the 60’s it may have been a family of 5 or six working 120 acres of farmland, with the need to continually run to town to buy hardware, jeans, groceries etc.

Now? It is a family of 3 working 1500 acres or more and ordering from Amazon.

I shrug every time I hear the question of what are we going to do about the iron range, as a much larger segment of Minnesota culture dies a continual slow death.

1956 Minnesota HS Basketball Districts

This list shows all MSHSL member schools that played basketball in 1956. And while it doesn't include the private schools (they wouldn't join until the 70s), Centennial, or St Michael-Albertville, a cursory look at the listings rather dramatically shows your point. Six or seven of the smaller towns, especially in Regions 1, 2, and 3 are 1 school district.

 

[disco]

They are investing in their kid’s childhood. Most understand that scholarships won’t come. They want the kids to have the best experience as a child. Unfortunately people can’t keep up with the Jone’s and others don’t prioritize spending so much

$225 for in-house basketball in my community.

Yep. I think it was $300 for rec here. Starting this year they do play other schools, so it's not technically house.

It was $700 just to try out for travel ball. If you were cut, you got $400 back and the other $300 paid for your fee to play rec. But that doesn't count uniforms, warmups, gear bags, travel costs, etc. It can add up quickly.

 

[disco]

1956 Minnesota HS Basketball Districts

This list shows all MSHSL member schools that played basketball in 1956. And while it doesn't include the private schools (they wouldn't join until the 70s), Centennial, or St Michael-Albertville, a cursory look at the listings rather dramatically shows your point. Six or seven of the smaller towns, especially in Regions 1, 2, and 3 are 1 school district.

That is fascinating. Thank you for sharing this.

Centennial opened two years later. Prior to that, kids in what became that district went to either White Bear Lake or Minneapolis Marshall.

STMA was created when the legislature changed the laws regarding independent school districts and needing to have a high school. That would have been late 60's early 70's. I think it was the last new ISD created because of that (not counting further consolidations later on to this day.)

 

[MplsGopher]

Wow Anoka 5-2. Assume that was the original school in that district and also that it has been some time since they’ve done something in football?

 

[Some guy]

Wow Anoka 5-2. Assume that was the original school in that district and also that it has been some time since they’ve done something in football?

Amazing how hiring a good experienced coach can flip a program.
Anoka and Eagan are good examples of programs that had fallen apart that are competitive again.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Amazing how hiring a good experienced coach can flip a program.
Anoka and Eagan are good examples of programs that had fallen apart that are competitive again.

Also helps to have the developing community of Ramsey and part of Andover in the draw area. It's interesting to see the cycle of community development and when the kids mature to HS. Ramsey opened a new Elementary in 2019.

They do have a really good coach and they have a lot of young talent. 9th grade RB. Their coach played for the Gophers as a TE and has coached high school FB for 23 years. Coached in MN, WI, and TX. Was at Jordan HS before Anoka. Jordan and Anoka were really struggling before he got there.

Seeds 3-7 in the Section were all pretty even. Centennial is a terrible match-up for all with their option offense. MG and STMA are only teams to match up with them.

Anoka was 4-0 against
Champlin Park (won by 13)
STMA (Won by 20)
Blaine (won by 2)
Coon Rapids (won by 6)

They got blown out by Centennial and MG.

At this point of the season STMA is probably the 3rd best team. They beat MG and have won 5 of 6 with a 19-6 loss to Centennial.

 

[swede2]

They are investing in their kid’s childhood. Most understand that scholarships won’t come. They want the kids to have the best experience as a child. Unfortunately people can’t keep up with the Jone’s and others don’t prioritize spending so much

$225 for in-house basketball in my community.

Best experiences? Where parents become nothing more than taxi drivers to kids? I know hockey families who don't take family vacations. That budget is used up sitting in hotels on winter weekends in Owatonna, St. Cloud, E.P., etc. I had a friend tell me about his kid playing a youth hockey game at 6pm on a Sunday 3 hours from home with school the next day. I'll quit yelling at clouds now....

 

[swede2]

It’s a bad investment because more kids are burning out and having mental health issues than are enjoying their parents

There's a great old South Park episode about this.

 

[disco]

Wow Anoka 5-2. Assume that was the original school in that district and also that it has been some time since they’ve done something in football?

In the early 90's when they just had the three high schools - Anoka, Blaine and Coon Rapids, all three were sports powerhouses. They were also the three largest schools in the state. I think the opening of Champlin Park siphoned off a lot from Anoka.

 

[disco]

Best experiences? Where parents become nothing more than taxi drivers to kids? I know hockey families who don't take family vacations. That budget is used up sitting in hotels on winter weekends in Owatonna, St. Cloud, E.P., etc. I had a friend tell me about his kid playing a youth hockey game at 6pm on a Sunday 3 hours from home with school the next day. I'll quit yelling at clouds now....

Youth tournaments regularly start on Fridays, meaning the kids miss school for them. In grade school and middle school.

 

[Maverick_52]

Anyone have any insight on Minnetonka? I know they lost their starting QB a few games into the season with a torn ACL, but I see they are still 6-1 with their only loss coming to Eden Prairie. They just put up 61 points on Buffalo last week. Seems impressive if they are playing with a backup QB.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Anyone have any insight on Minnetonka? I know they lost their starting QB a few games into the season with a torn ACL, but I see they are still 6-1 with their only loss coming to Eden Prairie. They just put up 61 points on Buffalo last week. Seems impressive if they are playing with a backup QB.

I think the state champ will be from these 4 schools.

Eden Prairie
Lakeville North
Lakeville South
Minnetonka

A list longer than 1 might be too long.

 

[disco]

I think the state champ will be from these 4 schools.

Eden Prairie
Lakeville North
Lakeville South
Minnetonka

A list longer than 1 might be too long.

Much as I dislike Eden Prairie, I don't know if anyone is going to beat them.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Updated HS FB rankings --note there were 12 voters this week --
(rank - team - 1st place votes - record - total points - change in ranking)

CLASS 6A

1. Eden Prairie (12) 7-0 120
2. Lakeville North 6-1 102 (#3 last wk)
3. Minnetonka 6-1 96 (#4 last wk)
4. Lakeville South 6-1 88 (#5 last wk)
5. Centennial 6-1 73 (tied #6 last wk)
6. Maple Grove 5-2 56 (#2 last wk)
7. Stillwater 5-2 26 (tied #6 last wk)
8. Anoka 5-2 25 (not rated)
9. Edina 4-3 20 (not rated)
10. Shakopee 4-3 18 (not rated)
(Rosemount, Buffalo and Woodbury fell out of the top 10)

CLASS 5A

1. Chanhassen (12) 7-0 120
2. Rogers 7-0 107
3. Mankato West 6-1 91
4. Alexandria 7-0 89
5. Andover 6-1 66 (#7 last wk)
6. St. Thomas Academy 6-1 65
7. Brainerd 6-1 45 (#8 last wk)
8. Robbinsdale Armstrong 6-1 33 (#9 last wk)
9. Bloomington Jefferson 6-1 22 (#10 last wk)
10. Sauk Rapids-Rice 6-1 18 (#5 last wk)

CLASS 4A

1. Becker (11) 7-0 119
2. Orono (1) 7-0 109
3, Hutchinson 5-2 77 (#5 last wk)
4. Bryon 6-1 74 (#6 last wk)
5. Kasson-Mantorville 6-1 60 (#7 last wk)
6. Mound-Westonka 6-1 52 (#8 last wk)
7. Rocori 5-2 45 (#9 last wk)
8. Detroit Lakes 6-1 35 (tied #10 last wk)
9. North Branch 6-1 30 (tied #10 last wk)
10. Princeton 6-1 27 (#3 last wk)
(Totino-Grace dropped out of top 10)

CLASS 3A

1. Stewartville (8) 7-0 116
2. Esko (4) 7-0 112
3. Annandale 7-0 95
4. Litchfield 6-1 77
5. Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 6-1 66
6. Minneapolis North 6-1 45 (#7 last wk)
7. Dassel-Cokato 6-1 42 (#6 last wk)
8. Waseca 6-1 41
9. Fairmont 6-1 32
10. Pequot Lakes 6-1 12

CLASS 2A

1. Barnesville (9) 7-0 116
2. Caledonia (2) 7-0 107
3. Eden Valley-Watkins 7-0 94
4. Jackson County Central 7-0 79
5. St. Agnes (1) 7-0 74
6. Barnum 7-0 51
7. Norwood Young America 7-0 49 (#8 last wk)
8. Cannon Falls 6-1 36 (#9 last wk)
9. Osakis 6-1 28 (#10 last wk)
10. Moose Lake-Willow River 6-1 10 (not rated)
(Chatfield fell out of top 10)

CLASS 1A

1. Minneota (10) 7-0 116
2. Fillmore Central (1) 7-0 107
3. Mahnomen/Waubun (1) 7-0 100
4. BOLD 6-1 77
5. Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 7-0 68
6. Ada-Borup-West 6-1 46
7. Bethlehem Academy 6-1 34 (#8 last wk)
8. Springfield 6-1 28 (not rated)
9. Upsala/Swanville 6-1 24
10. Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 6-1 16 (not rated)
(Mayer Lutheran and Sleepy Eye United fell out of top 10)

NINE-PLAYER

1. Mountain Iron-Buhl (11) 7-0 119
2. Fertile-Beltrami (1) 7-0 109
3. Nevis 7-0 92 (#4 last wk)
4. Ottertail Central 7-0 76 (#5 last wk)
5. Kingsland 7-0 70 (#6 last wk)
6. Cherry 6-1 66 (#3 last wk)
7. Hills-Beaver Creek 6-0 44
8. Ogilvie 6-1 30 (#9 last wk)
9. Leroy-Ostrander 6-1 28 (#8 last wk)
10. Edgerton 6-1 11 (not rated)
(Spring Grove fell out of top 10)

 

[Ope3]

The Rochester Century at Northfield game was Cancelled on Friday. It was not because of weather but due the tragic death of one of Century players, Davin Tukua, in a car accident the week prior.

Century High School cancels football game after tragic death of a student

The Century High School football game scheduled for this Friday against Northfield has been canceled. This is due to the death of student and football player Davin Tukua.

www.kaaltv.com

For the Section/District standings as a minor footnote it counts as a win for Northfield.

 

[MplsGopher]

You’d think being south of the Mississippi River instead of north of it, and thus being in an entirely different county, would have been plenty good enough justification for Champlin to have nothing at all to do with Anoka’s school district.

The oddities of Minnesota school district boundaries will never cease.

 

[fatgopher]

Anyone have any insight on Minnetonka? I know they lost their starting QB a few games into the season with a torn ACL, but I see they are still 6-1 with their only loss coming to Eden Prairie. They just put up 61 points on Buffalo last week. Seems impressive if they are playing with a backup QB.

Minnetonka has mostly played the season down their starting QB -AND- starting RB. Those two would have made the season and recent matchup with Eden Prairie more interesting, but EP is still the better roster overall IMO.

Milos Spasojevic is the QB and committed to Wisconsin as a preferred walk-on. Not sure if he was in the running as a scholarship offer pre-injury, but he looks the part at 6'3" with a cannon arm. In his junior football season he was limited as he was just coming off his first ACL injury. Solid baseball player too, which makes a second ACL injury senior year a real bummer.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Waseca and Fairmont play for the #1 Seed in Section 3 3A on Wednesday.
New Ulm and Marshall play to be #2 seed behind Hutch in section 2 4A.
Section 5 4A will not have a team over .500. It's possible the #1 seed has 3 wins.

The new cycle of games this year and next year really has some untraditional games being played.

Examples
5A
Mankato West playing Andover and Rogers
Bloomington Jefferson and Roch. JM
Cooper and Hastings
Waconia and Bemidji
New Prague and St. Cloud Tech

4A
Willmar plays Chisago Lake and Totino Grace
Kasson Mantorville playing Providence Academy and Breck
Winona playing Mound Westonka
Faribault playing St. Anthony Village, Concordia Academy, and Glencoe SL.

 

[MaxyJR1]

You’d think being south of the Mississippi River instead of north of it, and thus being in an entirely different county, would have been plenty good enough justification for Champlin to have nothing at all to do with Anika’s school district.

The oddities of Minnesota school district boundaries will never cease.

Champlin makes more sense as part of Osseo/Maple Grove/Park Center. It is odd to have a district cross a major river.

 

[Gopher 461]

Much as I dislike Eden Prairie, I don't know if anyone is going to beat them.

I've watched EP this year. Their front OL is massive and they have a number of RBs. Their QB is an accurate passer and an above average runner. EP is weak on the perimeter on defense and their intermediate pass defense, 10-20 yards, is suspect. I expect them to make the Final two come November.

 

[xyz1]

The also receiving votes teams in 5A include 6-1 Two Rivers (former Henry Sibley), which is a bit hard to grasp if you saw them win 5 games in 5 years between 2018 and 2022. The record is a bit illusory, as they were put into a district with three St. Paul and two Minneapolis schools and the result has been a string of blowouts against completely overmatched teams, but they are much improved as they have a very good new coach, a good junior class, and a really good sophomore class. This does show just how hard scheduling is - they tried to give them some relief and ended up going way too far.

 

[MNVCGUY]

I think the state champ will be from these 4 schools.

Eden Prairie
Lakeville North
Lakeville South
Minnetonka

A list longer than 1 might be too long.

Haven't seen EP or Minnetonka but was less than impressed with North and South during their matchups with a pretty mediocre Rosemount team this season.

Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out in terms of the pairings at 6A