All Things 2022 Minnesota High School Football Thread

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And Lakeville, like Wayzata, has a lot of development to come in the south part of the district. It's a very large district, stretching all the way to Elko-New Market.
 

Gophers_4life said:
That's too bad. Will always root against EP (and Wayzata), for the cowardly decision to not split the school and give more kids a chance to play/participate in extracurriculars.

Kudos to Lakeville district for making the right decision years ago.
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It’s more financially efficient to run one 2800 student high school than 2 1400

I only feel bad for the 7th best basketball player in every grade
 

Yeah, if your kid is top 5. Most parents' kids aren't those.

I prefer Bloomington district, for that reason. Anyway ...
 

discochris said:
As the previous poster wrote, EP is now basically a mature district
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I'm not going to waste my time arguing this, particularly because I'll likely be wrong.

But you can go on Redfin right now and find new construction houses for sale in EP.

Sure, you're not going to find whole farm fields that are being converted into new subdivisions. I agree that isn't happening in EP anymore.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Yeah, if your kid is top 5. Most parents' kids aren't those.

I prefer Bloomington district, for that reason. Anyway ...
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Yup. I wouldn’t want my kid at a 3000 student school… but I don’t fault communities for choosing that.

Wayzata way bigger than EP by population and is sitting at 1-2 right now. EP wins because of population and affluence but not just that.
 


Gophers_4life said:
That's too bad. Will always root against EP (and Wayzata), for the cowardly decision to not split the school and give more kids a chance to play/participate in extracurriculars.
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There are legitimate reasons to have a bigger school. And I'm not saying I necessarily prioritize them this way myself but here are a few.
Saves money to have one building (fewer custodians, administrators, etc. Bigger schools can offer more classes that smaller schools can't. Bigger schools can offer more activities.

I know you think those districts chose to have big schools so they can win at sports but I highly doubt that was the reason.
 

Word said:
There are legitimate reasons to have a bigger school. And I'm not saying I necessarily prioritize them this way myself but here are a few.
Saves money to have one building (fewer custodians, administrators, etc. Bigger schools can offer more classes that smaller schools can't. Bigger schools can offer more activities.

I know you think those districts chose to have big schools so they can win at sports but I highly doubt that was the reason.
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Mankato should only have one high school even though east and west have had success in team sports.
 

The City of Blaine is split between 3 school districts, yet Blaine HS is still the 3rd largest in the state. Yet the football program struggles. Centennial and Spring Lake park are better programs.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
The City of Blaine is split between 3 school districts, yet Blaine HS is still the 3rd largest in the state. Yet the football program struggles. Centennial and Spring Lake park are better programs.
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Spring Lake is not a better FB program than Blaine if they were in same classification. Not even close. Centennial is recent in being better, not historically, just last 5 or so years. Blaine HS has as many Coon Rapids kids as Blaine, just saying.
 



MaxyJR1 said:
The City of Blaine is split between 3 school districts, yet Blaine HS is still the 3rd largest in the state. Yet the football program struggles. Centennial and Spring Lake park are better programs.
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How many State championships has SLP or Centennial won? Blaine HS is superior in every way shape and form. It doesn’t mean the aforementioned are not good programs.
 


State of Football said:
How many State championships has SLP or Centennial won? Blaine HS is superior in every way shape and form. It doesn’t mean the aforementioned are not good programs.
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Blaine and Spring Lake Park each have 1 football state championship,
 

To Gophers_4Life-
Yeh, there are a few single-family lots still available in EP, a very few. I guess the question is why are Gopher Holers commenting on a decision that was probably made twenty years ago when some reasonable people looked at the future and made a decision. The same process occurred in the Lakeville area a few years back and a similar number of reasonable people decided to go with two high schools because of the projected population growth and growing household count way beyond the 65,000+/- in Ep. Why the controversy? EP has a winning tradition in football, but there are other team sports that don't have the same experience (eg soccer, volleyball, baseball, track and field.
 



Gopher 461 said:
To Gophers_4Life-
Yeh, there are a few single-family lots still available in EP, a very few. I guess the question is why are Gopher Holers commenting on a decision that was probably made twenty years ago when some reasonable people looked at the future and made a decision. The same process occurred in the Lakeville area a few years back and a similar number of reasonable people decided to go with two high schools because of the projected population growth and growing household count way beyond the 65,000+/- in Ep. Why the controversy? EP has a winning tradition in football, but there are other team sports that don't have the same experience (eg soccer, volleyball, baseball, track and field.
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Lakeville is not even half developed but I am not sure they would ever go to 3 high schools. I am not sure Rochester would ever go to 4 high schools. I could see John Marshall high school being replaced and moved to northwest Rochester where the growth is. That school is severely outdated.
 


Some guy said:
It’s more financially efficient to run one 2800 student high school than 2 1400

I only feel bad for the 7th best basketball player in every grade
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Honestly, as far as basketball goes, that's going to be an issue at every large, or even medium sized suburban school. With only 13-14 varsity spots, it doesn't matter much if the class size is 900 or 300, the odds of making the varsity basketball team is very small.

My son plays house league hoops (he's in 5th grade). He could play travel ball. I think I got into an argument here last year about this, but travel ball really, at this age, at least in Wayzata, is not a merit system - it's a money grab. As long as more kids go out, they add more teams - nobody gets cut. There are higher and lower end travel teams, but ultimately, if you are willing to pay, your kid will make a team.

It's not a money issue for us - I just want my kid to have fun and get some exercise and be part of a team. I have no expectations of him being some kind of basketball star (and I will not play the political games that are involved in all of that). He likes it, has fun, and that's what's important to us.
 

Shakopee is another district that might face the prospect of adding another High School. They actually tried years ago based on their population projections. The referendum failed and it turned that the projections were way off (lower than expected). Building is roaring and Shakopee and they have a ton of open land.

Prior Lake had another High School as one of their options a few years ago but decided against it.
 

Some guy said:
Yup. I wouldn’t want my kid at a 3000 student school… but I don’t fault communities for choosing that.

Wayzata way bigger than EP by population and is sitting at 1-2 right now. EP wins because of population and affluence but not just that.
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Wayzata the city is under 4,600 per the 2020 census. EP is over 64,000.
 

discochris said:
Honestly, as far as basketball goes, that's going to be an issue at every large, or even medium sized suburban school. With only 13-14 varsity spots, it doesn't matter much if the class size is 900 or 300, the odds of making the varsity basketball team is very small.

My son plays house league hoops (he's in 5th grade). He could play travel ball. I think I got into an argument here last year about this, but travel ball really, at this age, at least in Wayzata, is not a merit system - it's a money grab. As long as more kids go out, they add more teams - nobody gets cut. There are higher and lower end travel teams, but ultimately, if you are willing to pay, your kid will make a team.

It's not a money issue for us - I just want my kid to have fun and get some exercise and be part of a team. I have no expectations of him being some kind of basketball star (and I will not play the political games that are involved in all of that). He likes it, has fun, and that's what's important to us.
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Not to jump into an old argument but he could have fun and exercise on a travel team, couldnt he? There are lots of politics and issues with some travel sports organizations so maybe your reasoning is sound
 

Gopher 461 said:
To Gophers_4Life-
Yeh, there are a few single-family lots still available in EP, a very few. I guess the question is why are Gopher Holers commenting on a decision that was probably made twenty years ago when some reasonable people looked at the future and made a decision. The same process occurred in the Lakeville area a few years back and a similar number of reasonable people decided to go with two high schools because of the projected population growth and growing household count way beyond the 65,000+/- in Ep. Why the controversy? EP has a winning tradition in football, but there are other team sports that don't have the same experience (eg soccer, volleyball, baseball, track and field.
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I've spent a lot of my adult life working on school finance/property tax issues and am somewhat familiar with the situation out there in the 1990s. Some in the community were clamoring for a second high school, but the board and administration kept pointing to what you--and a couple of other posters--have pointed out. The demography was such that student growth was going to cap out and they'd probably end up building a high school that they really didn't need. Eden Prairie was the Reloville of choice in the 1980s and 1990s, but it's probably been leapfrogged by the suburbs one step further out.

Western Hennepin, Western Dakota , Scott, Carver, Wright, and Sherburne Counties is where the growth is now.
 

Gopher 461 said:
To Gophers_4Life-
Yeh, there are a few single-family lots still available in EP, a very few. I guess the question is why are Gopher Holers commenting on a decision that was probably made twenty years ago when some reasonable people looked at the future and made a decision. The same process occurred in the Lakeville area a few years back and a similar number of reasonable people decided to go with two high schools because of the projected population growth and growing household count way beyond the 65,000+/- in Ep. Why the controversy? EP has a winning tradition in football, but there are other team sports that don't have the same experience (eg soccer, volleyball, baseball, track and field.
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Bold: no controversy. They're hardly the only district to make a similar decision/commitment to not splitting the district at the high school level. Wayzata right in the same boat. Others that were split in past decades have reconsolidated (Edina, Hopkins, White Bear, Roseville ... I believe all are correct).

I just think when you have 800+ kids per class, it's unfair to not give more kids an opportunity to compete and participate. That's only my opinion. My opinion is not any kind of objective truth.
 

discochris said:
Honestly, as far as basketball goes, that's going to be an issue at every large, or even medium sized suburban school. With only 13-14 varsity spots, it doesn't matter much if the class size is 900 or 300, the odds of making the varsity basketball team is very small.

My son plays house league hoops (he's in 5th grade). He could play travel ball. I think I got into an argument here last year about this, but travel ball really, at this age, at least in Wayzata, is not a merit system - it's a money grab. As long as more kids go out, they add more teams - nobody gets cut. There are higher and lower end travel teams, but ultimately, if you are willing to pay, your kid will make a team.

It's not a money issue for us - I just want my kid to have fun and get some exercise and be part of a team. I have no expectations of him being some kind of basketball star (and I will not play the political games that are involved in all of that). He likes it, has fun, and that's what's important to us.
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Lot of sports are going to that model of year-round club "money grabs", exactly as you say.

Football really the only major sport that hasn't, I think. Volleyball 100% for sure is, guessing basketball too. Baseball I think is that way (assume same for softball), I think soccer too.
 



Gophers_4life said:
Lot of sports are going to that model of year-round club "money grabs", exactly as you say.

Football really the only major sport that hasn't, I think. Volleyball 100% for sure is, guessing basketball too. Baseball I think is that way (assume same for softball), I think soccer too.
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Which is why I'm an advocate for football as much as I am. It has a beginning and end. Traditionally, there are no, or very few cuts as well.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Not to jump into an old argument but he could have fun and exercise on a travel team, couldnt he? There are lots of politics and issues with some travel sports organizations so maybe your reasoning is sound
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Sure. But it's a much larger time commitment for him and for us. Already for football, we do 3 practices a week plus games (and since I'm a coach, it's my time too.)

House league hoops is one practice and one game a week. Travel is 2-3 practices a week, and games both days every weekend. That's a big time commitment if you want to do other things.
For example, he wants to learn to ski this year.

I get that there are parents whose lives entirely revolve around their kids sports. I'm not one of them.
 

discochris said:
Sure. But it's a much larger time commitment for him and for us. Already for football, we do 3 practices a week plus games (and since I'm a coach, it's my time too.)

House league hoops is one practice and one game a week. Travel is 2-3 practices a week, and games both days every weekend. That's a big time commitment if you want to do other things.
For example, he wants to learn to ski this year.

I get that there are parents whose lives entirely revolve around their kids sports. I'm not one of them.
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That’s fair. My kid is 2 so I don’t do much with his sports. You don’t have to get defensive about your time.
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
That’s fair. My kid is 2 so I don’t do much with his sports. You don’t have to get defensive about your time.
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The other issue, is for travel ball, the guarantee of playing time is less than for house. He'd rather play more in house, than sit on the bench more in travel.
 

discochris said:
The other issue, is for travel ball, the guarantee of playing time is less than for house. He'd rather play more in house, than sit on the bench more in travel.
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No doubt. It gets competitive quickly. I know it was equal playing time in 5th grade for me but that was a long time ago and quickly changed as we got older. I always felt bad for kids on the bench but I wanted to win so it made it tough.

Nothing wrong with house ball. Can be a great experience and less time consuming. I played a ton of youth soccer and basketball. Was very time consuming for me. I loved it and it was worth it to me but I completely understand why some kids aren’t interested in investing that amount of time into it. Especially multiple sports.
 

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