2024 MN High School Football thread

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State of Football said:
Love Stillwater and Rocori. Different yet excellent stadiums. We dial in comparison to our Iowa neighbors. Especially in the West Des Moines Waukee areas.
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Yeah but how are there hockey arenas?
 

xyz1 said:
Based on my fairly close observation of one pretty successful metro area HS team over the past decade (and things may well be quite different in other communities), I'd respectfully disagree about the necessity of club baseball. With occasional exceptions for kids who are really gifted athletically, almost no one without at least some club background plays on the varsity at that school, and very few if any of the high end players at the school ever play American Legion. I know of one case where the coach discounted a rising senior's performance in Legion ball the previous summer by asking "can he hit varsity pitching?". Baseball may be the ultimate sport where you can't beat repetitions, and the club kids simply get more of them against better competition.
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xyz1 said:
The Kennedy thing is sad but inevitable. If you drive through East Bloomington it is quite apparent that this is not an area which economically can complete in today's insanely expensive youth hockey world.

Two Rivers-Mpls Southwest postponed to 10:00 Friday morning. Glad I'm not in charge of figuring out how to get refs to all the games they seem likely to reschedule.
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10 am on a friday
Word said:
Yeah but how are there hockey arenas?
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both are nice 😎
 



We have this conversation every year, but baseball and hockey tryouts are always right smack in the middle of the football season at the youth levels.

Baseball makes no sense to me. Why don’t they do it like every other sport in the spring after the kids have had a chance to grow and put in work for the offseason?

The association hockey season is great, it’s just too long. Tryouts for all age levels should happen at the end of October, not September. Unfortunately the older you get, the earlier they start. If anything, they should just extend the season a month later into the spring when most outdoor fields are still thawing out from the winter.

All that said, my son makes both sports work, but Football gets the shaft for hockey tryout week. His football coaches rightfully benched him last year for the week’s game because he had missed practice for hockey tryouts.

Even though they are by far his 2 favorite sports, if I made my son choose one sport or the other, he’d pick hockey without thinking twice. I can’t blame him for that choice either. At his first freshman football game last night, there were 2 structural knee injuries and a broken hand. It’s a brutal sport that most will never play after high school. He’ll be able to play hockey the rest of his healthy adult life.

Of the 80+ kids that play freshman football at his massive west metro school, I’d say about 10 are still playing hockey as well. Of those 10, I can think of only 1 that will sniff the Varsity Hockey team. The top players in both sports are not crossing over at these massive schools.
 


Hutch out early on GSL 14-0. Hutch is starting a freshman QB named Rostberg. That last name rings a bell for some reason.
 

MNVCGUY said:
As the parent of a high school baseball player I think a lot of that is driven by all the club teams that have popped up. Seems like there is a new one every time we turn around.

The specialization discussion is a really interesting one. As a parent there is a lot of pressure to do it because you don't want your kid to "fall behind" the kids that are getting the high level training. Although our son is only in baseball at the high school level I am all for the kids that are able to play multiple sports. There are a lot of unrealistic expectations out there that many parents have about just how good their kid is or what their prospects are at the next level.

In the grand scheme of things the nearly all players will be done when their high school career ends (at least in terms of college and pro prospects). For us, we want our son to have the best opportunity to keep playing as long as possible without going insane with the amount of money we are putting in. He is at a large metro school so the competition level is high due to the larger numbers.

It is a shame to see how much youth sports has changed over the years. Used to be about playing as many sports as you could with your friends. Not saying that has gone away entirely (especially in smaller towns) but even high school sports are becoming big business these days.
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Baseball is really weird at the public school level. The school teams are doing ZERO to develop talent. They the best association kids, play a few games, and call it good from grade 6 on.
In middle school the kids let the coaches know they aren't going to go to every practice or every gamed depending on their travel schedule.
 

Gold Vision said:
We have this conversation every year, but baseball and hockey tryouts are always right smack in the middle of the football season at the youth levels.

Baseball makes no sense to me. Why don’t they do it like every other sport in the spring after the kids have had a chance to grow and put in work for the offseason?

The association hockey season is great, it’s just too long. Tryouts for all age levels should happen at the end of October, not September. Unfortunately the older you get, the earlier they start. If anything, they should just extend the season a month later into the spring when most outdoor fields are still thawing out from the winter.

All that said, my son makes both sports work, but Football gets the shaft for hockey tryout week. His football coaches rightfully benched him last year for the week’s game because he had missed practice for hockey tryouts.

Even though they are by far his 2 favorite sports, if I made my son choose one sport or the other, he’d pick hockey without thinking twice. I can’t blame him for that choice either. At his first freshman football game last night, there were 2 structural knee injuries and a broken hand. It’s a brutal sport that most will never play after high school. He’ll be able to play hockey the rest of his healthy adult life.

Of the 80+ kids that play freshman football at his massive west metro school, I’d say about 10 are still playing hockey as well. Of those 10, I can think of only 1 that will sniff the Varsity Hockey team. The top players in both sports are not crossing over at these massive schools.
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Hockey even for 7 Year olds, is from September to late March, and that is the just the regular season. The plus side is no matter what your age, there will be a hockey league you can play in.
After high school, if you don't play college , you are done in football.
 




saintpaulguy said:
Baseball is really weird at the public school level. The school teams are doing ZERO to develop talent. They the best association kids, play a few games, and call it good from grade 6 on.
In middle school the kids let the coaches know they aren't going to go to every practice or every gamed depending on their travel schedule.
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The season is too short up here. The MSHSL can't or won't extend the season into the summer, so if it's a year with a lot of snow and cold, there isn't much baseball to be played when school is in session. No such restrictions on club ball.
 

disco said:
The season is too short up here. The MSHSL can't or won't extend the season into the summer, so if it's a year with a lot of snow and cold, there isn't much baseball to be played when school is in session. No such restrictions on club ball.
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Yeah, last year was a mess due to the snow. This season was messed up a fair amount by rain. The places that have domes have a big advantage from a practicing standpoint as even if they can't do everything at least they can get indoors and do quite a bit on a turf surface as opposed to a gym.

I get why they don't extend it into the summer though. Once the year is over much of the staff and many families get out of town.
 

The Austin football field is iconic and was a rocking place to be every Friday night for 50 years until the demographics changed and the program went very much south.
 

Wayzata beat Lakeville South and Lakeville North stomped Stillwater. I didn't expect either of these results.
 



disco said:
Wayzata beat Lakeville South and Lakeville North stomped Stillwater. I didn't expect either of these results.
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The Stillwater result should not be that surprising. If they've proven anything over the last few years, it's that they can beat up on the Eastern Metro but can't compete with the big boys outside their neighborhood.
 

Defending Champions Centennial cruises to a 42-0 win over Coon Rapids this morning. 35-0 at half.
 


MaxyJR1 said:
Defending Champions Centennial cruises to a 42-0 win over Coon Rapids this morning. 35-0 at half.
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We fought like mythical warriors and kept it close for 37 seconds before eventually succumbing to the constant pressure on both sides of the ball.

With the help of our inherent 3-point edge as the Home team, we managed to heroically escape the 45-0 humiliation that kids these days call "Getting The Donald".

Fight on, Cardinals!!!
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Hutch out early on GSL 14-0. Hutch is starting a freshman QB named Rostberg. That last name rings a bell for some reason.
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How is Hutch looking year? They lost a lot of gun power from last year. Cold Spring, lost last night.
 

Slim Tubby said:
We fought like mythical warriors and kept it close for 37 seconds before eventually succumbing to the constant pressure on both sides of the ball.

With the help of our inherent 3-point edge as the Home team, we managed to heroically escape the 45-0 humiliation that kids these days call "Getting The Donald".

Fight on, Cardinals!!!
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I bet against centennial due to losing everyone from last year. Looks like a long year for CR.
 

Rocori lost to DL, down both gopher commit Trout and their rb1 for the season. I believe hutch beat up on GSL Thursday
 


Tommyboy said:
They had two gopher commits? I think they had one. How is DL this year?
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It appears he is trying to say they are down their Gopher commit as well as their starting RB. The wording is a little confusing.
 

Some great 6A games with week. Let's see some predictions. Mine are in bold:

White Bear Lake @ Mounds View
Woodbury @ Stillwater
Coon Rapids @ Osseo
Centennial @ Blaine
Park of Cottage Grove @ Burnsville
Rochester Mayo @ Eagan
Roseville @ Eastview
Eden Prairie @ Edina
East Ridge @ Forest Lake
Buffalo @ Hopkins
Rosemount @ Lakeville North
Farmington @ Lakeville South
Champlin Park @ Maple Grove
Wayzata @ Minnetonka
Shakopee @ Prior Lake
Anoka @ St. Michael- Albertville
 

shocking news from SW MN:

Jackson County Central and Fairmont are good this year. Marshall opened up with a nice win over Jordan.

on the other hand, some usually good programs may be a little down this year, including Pipestone and Blue Earth Area.

there looks to be some solid teams in the smaller classes. I saw BOLD on Friday, and they have some talent. Their QB can run, throw and he's a PK with a big leg. Springfield looks to be strong again.

among the 9-man teams, Hills-Beaver Creek is bleepin' good. for a small district, they keep coming up with athletes. Mt Lake Area is hoping to rebound this year with a big senior class.
 

prespsguy said:
Some great 6A games with week. Let's see some predictions. Mine are in bold:

White Bear Lake @ Mounds View
Woodbury @ Stillwater
Coon Rapids @ Osseo
Centennial @ Blaine
Park of Cottage Grove @ Burnsville
Rochester Mayo @ Eagan
Roseville @ Eastview
Eden Prairie @ Edina
East Ridge @ Forest Lake
Buffalo @ Hopkins
Rosemount @ Lakeville North
Farmington @ Lakeville South
Champlin Park @ Maple Grove
Wayzata @ Minnetonka
Shakopee @ Prior Lake
Anoka @ St. Michael- Albertville
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Not sure I have a disagreement for any of the games.
 


Does anyone have any insight on how to purchase general admission tickets to the TCO Stadium games? I can't find anything on either team's sites which makes sense since its a neutral venue but I also don't see tickets mentioned on the TCO stadium website or anywhere else like the Hometown ticketing app.
 

prespsguy said:
Some great 6A games with week. Let's see some predictions. Mine are in bold:

White Bear Lake @ Mounds View
Woodbury @ Stillwater
Coon Rapids @ Osseo
Centennial @ Blaine
Park of Cottage Grove @ Burnsville
Rochester Mayo @ Eagan
Roseville @ Eastview
Eden Prairie @ Edina
East Ridge @ Forest Lake
Buffalo @ Hopkins
Rosemount @ Lakeville North
Farmington @ Lakeville South
Champlin Park @ Maple Grove
Wayzata @ Minnetonka
Shakopee @ Prior Lake
Anoka @ St. Michael- Albertville
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I watched Eastview play against Rosemount this week and it was just sad. That program used to be good, but those days are long gone. I don't think i've ever personally seen a worse HS football team.
 

tpbeight said:
I watched Eastview play against Rosemount this week and it was just sad. That program used to be good, but those days are long gone. I don't think i've ever personally seen a worse HS football team.
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Ohh there are definitely worse teams than Eastview but yeah it is frustrating how they just can't seem to find consistent success in football. Having two high schools in Apple Valley doesn't help but Lakeville has found a way to make it work.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Ohh there are definitely worse teams than Eastview but yeah it is frustrating how they just can't seem to find consistent success in football. Having two high schools in Apple Valley doesn't help but Lakeville has found a way to make it work.
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It's really 4 in the same district, including Eagan & Rosemount.
 

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