2025 Minnesota High School Football Thread

[MaxyJR1]

This was a very contentious issue in the school district for a long time. There were adequate facilities in both Winthrop and in Fairfax (especially) but local politics closed the Fairfax facility quite some time ago. The tax base in the district is almost entirely agricultural, there being very little commercial/industry and the housing has very little value. The demographics suggest the possibility the school may not exist before the bonds are paid off. In a nod to current political absurdity, GFW had to drop the "Thurderbirds" mascot and adopt "Firebirds" as their new mascot.

Not far from McLeod West where politics (more community pride) blew out the district a few years ago.

 

[Slim Tubby]

Sad to hear that about Long Prairie.

Here is my Small school rankings with some reasoning

AA
1. JCC - Haven't played as stiff of competition as some but still have the best player in MN...
2. Holdingford - #1 in QRF by a large margin - many AAA teams on schedule
3. Staples-Motley - Crazy Schedule so are and were runners up last year with most skill guys back
4. Pillager - Same Schedule as SM - Play each other Friday, 3 straight losses to SM coming in
5. Chatfield - Winning but not by the margins of teams in front of them or the competition level
6. Osakis - Only loss is to Holdingford - pair of wins over AAA teams
7. Goodhue - Best win is over 3-3 AAA Lake City
8. Moose lake-Willow River - Haven't played anyone - Best win over Rush City
9. Waterville-Elysian-Morristown - Best win is over Maple River
10. Aitkin

Class A
1. Minneota - no need to explain that one...
2. Mahnomen - Beneficiary of Springfields last game and just being SOLID for 30 years
3. Springfield - Not sure what the story was but last week went into overtime with a 1 win Sleepy eye team
4. Breckenridge - Hardest schedule in class A and blowing everyone out but Parkers Prairie
5. Cleveland - 6-0 team but not blowing anyone away and no "real" signature wins
6. Filmore Central - Same as Cleveland as far as quality wins go
7. Barnum - Only loss is to AA Moose Lake Willow River
8. Parkers Prairie-Only loss is to Breckenridge on the road - Wins over U.S.A, OTC
9. Red Lake County - Only loss was to Mahnomen - But no other competition
10. U.S.A - Blowing everyone out, Only loss is on road to Parkers Prairie

9P - I do not know much about 9P but this is what I come up with after looking through each teams schedules and results through 6 games

1. Kittson County
2. Hills Beaver Creek
3. Steven Argyle - Only loss was a by 2 @ KCC
4. Mabel-Canton
5. Mille Lacs
6. Red Rock Central
7. Wabasso
8. Cromwell - Lost to Mille Lacs
9. Hillcrest - Only team with winning record played is Ortonville, and they are suspect
10. Bertha Hewitt - Loss to Cromwell last week

Tons of excitement up this way for Pillager and S-M. I still think Holdingford is the team to beat in 2A but not without a fight.

 

[Random Guy 12]

Tons of excitement up this way for Pillager and S-M. I still think Holdingford is the team to beat in 2A but not without a fight.

Down here we have Chatfield @ Caledonia this week. Chatfield with a slight edge but game at Caledonia which is always tough. Caledonia lost season opener with a QB injury but can't be discounted here. Still a great program with one of the best coaches in the state. Triton and Rochester Lourdes are both right there as well in a pretty loaded section.

 

[mcrow47]

Yeah, McLeod County football is down. GSL and Hutch used to dominate. GSL been down nearly a decade at this point and this is the second year in a row where Hutch does not look like they are a serious contender to even get out of the section.

Granted in AAAA Becker is down, Rocori is down, Hutch is down....ect so many of the usual top contenders are down. Yeah, Rocori is 5-1 but they barely beat Hutch and Hutch isn't very good. They also barely beat Willmar who isn't very good. But they did beat a good Fergus Falls team so we will see but I don't think they're as good as some of the better teams in recent history.

But for Hutch and GSL it seems like numbers are way down. I heard GSL was barely able to fill a JV. Hutch used to have like 5 teams, Varsity, JV, C...ect. I don't think they had numbers to fill the usual number of teams. Plus Hutch is way down on size. Used to be the Tigers would line up a bunch a big kids and just maul teams into submission. They are quite the opposite now and struggling to find an identity.

We will see if Hutch rises again or goes the way of GSL and doesn't seem like they will get it back anytime soon.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Yeah, McLeod County football is down. GSL and Hutch used to dominate. GSL been down nearly a decade at this point and this is the second year in a row where Hutch does not look like they are a serious contender to even get out of the section.

Granted in AAAA Becker is down, Rocori is down, Hutch is down....ect so many of the usual top contenders are down. Yeah, Rocori is 5-1 but they barely beat Hutch and Hutch isn't very good. They also barely beat Willmar who isn't very good. But they did beat a good Fergus Falls team so we will see but I don't think they're as good as some of the better teams in recent history.

But for Hutch and GSL it seems like numbers are way down. I heard GSL was barely able to fill a JV. Hutch used to have like 5 teams, Varsity, JV, C...ect. I don't think they had numbers to fill the usual number of teams. Plus Hutch is way down on size. Used to be the Tigers would line up a bunch a big kids and just maul teams into submission. They are quite the opposite now and struggling to find an identity.

We will see if Hutch rises again or goes the way of GSL and doesn't seem like they will get it back anytime soon.

Marshall should walk that section. Still think Rocori is second best team. St. Peter should get 3 seed for section but they played all 3A schools. Rocori beat (4-2) Totino Grace and plays (3-3) Becker this week.

 

[mcrow47]

Marshall should walk that section. Still think Rocori is second best team. St. Peter should get 3 seed for section but they played all 3A schools. Rocori beat (4-2) Totino Grace and plays (3-3) Becker this week.

Yeah, Marshall is the clear favorite. Easily beat Hutch and Rocori.

Not sure what happened with Marshall but they used always play a lot of smaller schools and come into the playoffs with a nice record but never tested but this year they have a schedule that compares to what Hutch, Becker, and Rocori typically play. I always viewed playing down (and not even to good smaller school teams) didn't help them prep to play teams like Hutch but now seems like they're playing a tough schedule and winning too.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Yeah, Marshall is the clear favorite. Easily beat Hutch and Rocori.

Not sure what happened with Marshall but they used always play a lot of smaller schools and come into the playoffs with a nice record but never tested but this year they have a schedule that compares to what Hutch, Becker, and Rocori typically play. I always viewed playing down (and not even to good smaller school teams) didn't help them prep to play teams like Hutch but now seems like they're playing a tough schedule and winning too.

They finally fixed it with the new districts for the next 2 years. 5A and 4A have done a nice job of competitive balance for scheduling.

Marshall is too big and good for any of the teams or rivals they were still playing so they pushed them north playing all 4A opponents this cycle.

They grouped Albert Lea, Belle Plaine, Fairmont, TCU, Waseca, Worthington, Austin, New Ulm, and St. Peter together. All have been 3A or 4A for quite a few years and traditional Rivals or Opponents.

 

[Some guy]

Why don't the teams in this section (6-AA) schedule each other? They have decent proximity being within an hour or so of each other. They'd suffer some losses but only one team comes out in the end anyway. At least this season anyway they are missing out on the opportunity for some great games.

Because they don’t control their schedule

 

[Some guy]

Oh, I misunderstood you. LOL why does the MNSHL schedule the way they do? because they do what they want i guess... I did here some schedule committee member on the Rady Shaver podcast state they are trying to get each team to 4-4 each year, which is laughable be cause most schools are going to be drastically different from year to year. S-M was 0-9 in 2022 and in the AA championship game in 2024... Now tell me how you are setting up a schedule off last years results and you know who will be good or bad and have it be one size fits all. Doing it this way is how you have killed all most 100% of the rivalries in football.

If you really heard them say that that’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.

 

[Some guy]

They finally fixed it with the new districts for the next 2 years. 5A and 4A have done a nice job of competitive balance for scheduling.

Marshall is too big and good for any of the teams or rivals they were still playing so they pushed them north playing all 4A opponents this cycle.

They grouped Albert Lea, Belle Plaine, Fairmont, TCU, Waseca, Worthington, Austin, New Ulm, and St. Peter together. All have been 3A or 4A for quite a few years and traditional Rivals or Opponents.

It’s gotten better in spots but worse in spots


I will never understand why they made districts different things from sections.



Make the sections fair and geographic.
Play your section.
Crossover with other sections or other classes.
They want the districts because they make sense:
They want the sections because they make sense. How are they not the same thing?

 

[Random Guy 12]

Because they don’t control their schedule

Ya. Explained above. Teams in that section are split up between different districts. Its too bad.

 

[MaxyJR1]

It’s gotten better in spots but worse in spots


I will never understand why they made districts different things from sections.



Make the sections fair and geographic.
Play your section.
Crossover with other sections or other classes.
They want the districts because they make sense:
They want the sections because they make sense. How are they not the same thing?

I think the districts are simply a way to have control over what used to be conferences, so no one is left hanging.

At this point they probably could just go to section play and pair a couple sections up, from the same region, for cross over games.

For the most part the schedules make sense. It is interesting that Central (NYA) is in a district with Randolph, Kenyon-W. Goodhue, and Cannon Falls (AA) and they play St. Peter 4A in a cross over game.

Randolph is AA and was 9Man not long ago. Less than 15 years ago.

 

[disco]

I think the districts are simply a way to have control over what used to be conferences, so no one is left hanging.

At this point they probably could just go to section play and pair a couple sections up, from the same region, for cross over games.

For the most part the schedules make sense. It is interesting that Central (NYA) is in a district with Randolph, Kenyon-W. Goodhue, and Cannon Falls (AA) and they play St. Peter 4A in a cross over game.

Randolph is AA and was 9Man not long ago. Less than 15 years ago.

Agree. Section play makes so much more sense. Why add a level of bureaucracy.

Randolph was 9 man? I'm honestly shocked there was a 9 man program in the 7 county metro area that recently, if ever.

 

[mcrow47]

I think the districts are simply a way to have control over what used to be conferences, so no one is left hanging.

At this point they probably could just go to section play and pair a couple sections up, from the same region, for cross over games.

Yeah, that would be best. Just looking at AAAA not sure how you make it work pairing sections. Section 1, 7, & 8 are all pretty isolated within the class. 3 & 6 make sense and 4 & 5 makes sense.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Yeah, that would be best. Just looking at AAAA not sure how you make it work pairing sections. Section 1, 7, & 8 are all pretty isolated within the class. 3 & 6 make sense and 4 & 5 makes sense.

Probably with a 5A or 3A section.