All Things 2022 Minnesota High School Football Thread

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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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My kids have played travel sports for years. I would say it really depends on what the kid wants, and probably where his buddies are as to what you play travel vs. house league. From what I've seen, lots of kids want to just play with their friends. That being said, there is political BS in every single youth sports association, especially when parents are coaches/tryout evaluators, etc. I would say if the goal of the kid is to get better at a sport, travel is probably a better path just because those kids are better so you get pushed more, you practice/play more, etc. You can get into travel without playing the politics BS games, you just probably shouldn't care what team your kid gets on. Maybe it's different for basketball, but that's been my experience/observations from youth baseball and hockey.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
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.
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So much of this is demographics and let's face it, wealth. If you'd have told me 20 years ago that SLP and Centennial would have really successful athletic programs, I'd have said you were nuts. SLP was trending along the lines of Columbia Heights and Fridley - aging and declining inner ring Anoka county suburbs. Centennial was mainly kids from Circle Pines, Lexington and Centerville. Not exactly bastions of prominence. Then all those high end developments went up in the outer areas of Blaine in those two districts, and younger, more affluent families moved in, or moved out from Anoka, Coon Rapids, Park Center etc. which are still large high schools, but demographically poorer.

I have friends in both the Centennial and SLP districts. It's crazy how different those schools are now than they used to be.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
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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Great post here too. I knew some kids that were really good at a sport, but played house league because they wanted to go fishing, camping, whatever and didn't want to spend all the time associated with travel sports. nothing wrong with that at all.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Wayzata the city is under 4,600 per the 2020 census. EP is over 64,000.
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What does that have to do with the population of the school?
By your logic east ridge high school has a population of zero
 

To get back to how teams are doing. It was mentioned that Wayzata is 1-2. They don't look good this year. They rolled Roseville in the opener. Lost to Champlin Park, and lost to STMA this week.

I was at the CP game. Wayzata was outplayed the entire game - looked completely overmatched by a team that on paper was not supposed to be good. Even as poor as they looked Wayzata was in a position to win that game on the last play but for a terrible error by the QB who kneeled instead of spiking the ball to stop the clock for a FG try.

They play Totino-Grace this week. I think we will go to the game if the weather is nice.
 


Some guy said:
What does that have to do with the population of the school?
By your logic east ridge high school has a population of zero
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I think there is only one public school in the Wayzata district that is actually in the city of Wayzata. West Middle School. All others are in Plymouth.
 


discochris said:
I think there is only one public school in the Wayzata district that is actually in the city of Wayzata. West Middle School. All others are in Plymouth.
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Correct, but I wouldn't be shocked if eventually there's an elementary school in Medina. Part of Corcoran is in the district too.
 

discochris said:
To get back to how teams are doing. It was mentioned that Wayzata is 1-2. They don't look good this year. They rolled Roseville in the opener. Lost to Champlin Park, and lost to STMA this week.

I was at the CP game. Wayzata was outplayed the entire game - looked completely overmatched by a team that on paper was not supposed to be good. Even as poor as they looked Wayzata was in a position to win that game on the last play but for a terrible error by the QB who kneeled instead of spiking the ball to stop the clock for a FG try.

They play Totino-Grace this week. I think we will go to the game if the weather is nice.
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Champlin Park might not be as bad as people thought. They are 2-1 now. Figuring things out with a Sophomore QB. I think Wayzata's QB is also a sophomore. Always tough for a young QB. Feel bad for how the Wayzata game ended.
 



Some guy said:
What does that have to do with the population of the school?
By your logic east ridge high school has a population of zero
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because the post I replied to said "wayzata is bigger than eden prairie" or something like that. which isn't true.
 

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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Speaking more on a current level. Blaine has the talent but they can't put it together for wins.
 





UpAndUnder43 said:
because the post I replied to said "wayzata is bigger than eden prairie" or something like that. which isn't true.
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And here in a high school football thread you’re shocked to learn we are talking about the high schools not the city proper?
 

discochris said:
I think there is only one public school in the Wayzata district that is actually in the city of Wayzata. West Middle School. All others are in Plymouth.
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Here in a high school football thread when I say wayzata im talking about wayzata high school.
If I say rosemount im talking about rosemount high school.

I can’t believe this needs to be explained
 

Some guy said:
And here in a high school football thread you’re shocked to learn we are talking about the high schools not the city proper?
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I didn't bring up the city proper. someone else did.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
City lines and School District lines are not comparable.
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People seem to have a really difficult time understanding that. Cities and townships are units of government. School districts are units of government. Sometimes, they coincide. For example, in Minneapolis and St. Paul, the school district and the city are the same. In most cases, they are not, because school districts grew from rural schools that consolidated in an area over a number of years.

The Wayzata district includes all of Wayzata, and parts of the cities of Minnetonka, Plymouth, Corcoran, Medina, Maple Grove and Orono.

I'm in Minnetonka, but in the Wayzata district, and I live closer to the high schools in Hopkins, Minnetonka, Orono, and possibly St. Louis Park, than I do Wayzata high school.

I can't tell you how many times people assume we are in the Minnetonka school district.
 



I saw the kid from Kasson-Mantorville on Friday at Mankato East. He's huge. Coach Callahan was there watching the whole game. 57-15 Kasson-Mantorville. Mankato East had a 6-8 9th grader playing left tackle.
 

I think it's important to remember that those of us more interested in sports may have a different perspective on the size of the suburban schools than others. A friend of mine had kids attend Wayzata schools who were not into athletics, but were more artsy/bookish; her view was that a school the size of Wayzata was able to offer more in the way of clubs/music/drama opportunities than a smaller school would have and that it was great for her kids. Suffice it to say that school districts consider a lot of factors when making those decisions.

On the field, I don't think nearly as much attention is being paid to St. Thomas Academy's running backs, Adebayo and Hart, as would be the case if (a) they didn't have to share time, and (b) STA didn't so outclass the other 5A teams (a level they probably shouldn't be playing at) that their starters rarely play after halftime. Those guys are the real deal.
 

I went to the Maple Grove vs. Minnetonka game on Friday. Maple Grove's quarterback was a stud. The only 'Gopher' level recruit was maybe an OL from Minnetonka. They had some size, but struggled to move the ball consistently against MG. Will be an interesting year to see who are in the final 4!
 

TO UPandUnder43-I went to the LS/EP game. Both played good old-fashioned football. Hard-hitting on both sides. I think it came down to Grant's "Elk River" defense, against the power T, a 3-5-3 scheme moving players around to new positions that allowed EP to shut down LS's outstanding back and come away with the win. A rematch in US Bank at tournament time could be a great matchup.
 

GopherTouchdowns said:
I went to the Maple Grove vs. Minnetonka game on Friday. Maple Grove's quarterback was a stud. The only 'Gopher' level recruit was maybe an OL from Minnetonka. They had some size, but struggled to move the ball consistently against MG. Will be an interesting year to see who are in the final 4!
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I think a former Viking's kid is OL at Minnetonka and going to St. Thomas. Not sure on the other OL on the team.
 


FWIW - in my time I have seen two major factors impacting HS sports in MN: 1. the trend toward specialization. and 2. the rise of club programs/AAU becoming "more important" than the HS teams in a number of sports.

because of the cost and logistics, football is the one sport that seems to be insulated from the club/AAU culture - but football remains a numbers game. smaller schools are struggling more and more to get enough kids out to field a competitive team. that results in the "bad" schools getting worse, and widening the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots."

and I have no idea how to fix it. I just see the future holding more consolidations.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
FWIW - in my time I have seen two major factors impacting HS sports in MN: 1. the trend toward specialization. and 2. the rise of club programs/AAU becoming "more important" than the HS teams in a number of sports.

because of the cost and logistics, football is the one sport that seems to be insulated from the club/AAU culture - but football remains a numbers game. smaller schools are struggling more and more to get enough kids out to field a competitive team. that results in the "bad" schools getting worse, and widening the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots."

and I have no idea how to fix it. I just see the future holding more consolidations.
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The conventional wisdom is that people aren't letting their kids play football because it's "dangerous." I think the specialization of nearly every single other sport is a much larger factor.

Kids who play baseball are playing well into the fall. Hockey is practically year-round now, as is basketball. At the youth level, we are constantly dealing with this and it makes it incredibly hard to put together lineups or teach the kids when someone is missing for a hockey or baseball game (in September!) or hockey and basketball tryouts.

I know it really pisses off the board members and leadership of the local football association, but they don't have anywhere near the power of the basketball and especially hockey associations. We have had kids miss GAMES because of hockey TRYOUTS because they're told if they don't tryout at an exact time, they will not be placed on a team. And hockey knows they can get away with that crap.
 

GopherTouchdowns said:
I went to the Maple Grove vs. Minnetonka game on Friday. Maple Grove's quarterback was a stud. The only 'Gopher' level recruit was maybe an OL from Minnetonka. They had some size, but struggled to move the ball consistently against MG. Will be an interesting year to see who are in the final 4!
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Maple Grove has several key injuries and still won fairly easily. They will be a factor in 6A especially if they get a few players back.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
FWIW - in my time I have seen two major factors impacting HS sports in MN: 1. the trend toward specialization. and 2. the rise of club programs/AAU becoming "more important" than the HS teams in a number of sports.

because of the cost and logistics, football is the one sport that seems to be insulated from the club/AAU culture - but football remains a numbers game. smaller schools are struggling more and more to get enough kids out to field a competitive team. that results in the "bad" schools getting worse, and widening the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots."

and I have no idea how to fix it. I just see the future holding more consolidations.
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Programs have to have something to sell.
Right now casual football fans in the community only realize the team had a good season if the team makes the final 4 and plays in the big stadium.


They need to change the scheduling format and playoff format.
9 game schedule. Get into 8 team sections and play 7 in your section the last 7 games.
If you’re in a 7 team section because numbers don’t jive, match with another 7 team section to play 6 in your section plus one from the other 7 team section.

Self schedule the other 2 games. This way rivalries broken up by MSHSL can be played.

Teams that are 4-3 in their section or better automatically make the playoffs.
Fill in the rest with teams 5-4 overall.

Only half the teams make the playoff:
This will allow for fewer blowouts (ending 1-8 and 2-7 games) this also will allow programs that are struggling the ability to sell at 4-5 or 5-4 season as a success “we made the playoffs for the first time in 4 years”

Right now, nothing to sell except maybe the personality of the head coach for losing teams.
 

Some guy said:
Programs have to have something to sell.
Right now casual football fans in the community only realize the team had a good season if the team makes the final 4 and plays in the big stadium.
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Sell to whom? Players? The issue I brought up has nothing to do with whether kids want to play football as much as it does having to prioritize the sports that are basically year round at this point over football, which is a short season. Or do you mean to the community for support, which has no real bearing on the above point.

They need to change the scheduling format and playoff format.
9 game schedule. Get into 8 team sections and play 7 in your section the last 7 games.
If you’re in a 7 team section because numbers don’t jive, match with another 7 team section to play 6 in your section plus one from the other 7 team section.
Self schedule the other 2 games. This way rivalries broken up by MSHSL can be played.
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Self scheduling issues is how we ended up with this district football mess. The really big schools couldn't get people to play them, resulting in teams like EP going out of state or to Winnipeg. I hate district football scheduling - it's stupid that Wayzata doesn't play their conference rivals like Minnetonka, EP, Edina, etc.

Only half the teams make the playoff:
This will allow for fewer blowouts (ending 1-8 and 2-7 games) this also will allow programs that are struggling the ability to sell at 4-5 or 5-4 season as a success “we made the playoffs for the first time in 4 years”
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This will never, ever happen. There will be an outpouring of protest from parents of these losing schools that "their kid didn't get to play as many games."

Right now, nothing to sell except maybe the personality of the head coach for losing teams.
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Once again, what are you trying to sell, and to whom?
 

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