High school football returns to Minnesota this fall

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the skinny - practice starts Sept 28.
6 game regular season - 1st games on Oct 9 or 10.
post-season format to be decided - most likely a localized section or district playoff. State tournament not likely.
season will end with the final weekend in November.

Volleyball will also start practice Sept 28, with matches to begin Oct 8th. Teams may play 14 matches - no more than 2 a week. No Saturday tournaments or multi-team. Some type of post-season is likely, with format to be determined. Season will end by December 12th.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
the skinny - practice starts Sept 28.
6 game regular season - 1st games on Oct 9 or 10.
post-season format to be decided - most likely a localized section or district playoff. State tournament not likely.
season will end with the final weekend in November.

Volleyball will also start practice Sept 28, with matches to begin Oct 8th. Teams may play 14 matches - no more than 2 a week. No Saturday tournaments or multi-team. Some type of post-season is likely, with format to be determined. Season will end by December 12th.
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Don’t think they’ll allow state tourny in either sport, but it’s better than nothing.

Some girls have committed to playing club vball this fall (anticipating spring school season), but my understanding is tournys will be mainly on the weekend. Hopefully school season allows flexibility.
 


Wonder what the MSHL saw differently now versus August? Good move but why the overreach to cancel to spring?
 


Wcfan56 said:
Wonder what the MSHL saw differently now versus August? Good move but why the overreach to cancel to spring?
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I didn't listen to the meeting, but if I had to guess:

1) They received a LOT of feedback from coaches, players (and families), and AD's that they'd prefer a fall season if possible.

2) They saw and heard about the experiences in states that are playing and noted it hasn't seemed to contribute to increased community spread.
 

Wcfan56 said:
Wonder what the MSHL saw differently now versus August? Good move but why the overreach to cancel to spring?
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I know they are small schools but half the schools in the state still have snow on their fields until the mid point of the “spring season”
 

Down here in Southern MN, we had a couple of Stewartville players (that are very good) transfer to Brookings, SD to play football for their senior year.

www.postbulletin.com

Stewartville football stars Buri, Theobald transfer to South Dakota high school

COVID-19 has now led to the transfer of two of the top football talents in southeastern Minnesota as Stewartville star running back Josh Buri and star lineman Parker Theobald have left for South Dakota's Brookings High School where the sport is being played this fall.
www.postbulletin.com www.postbulletin.com
 

can we stop wearing masks for that 10 seconds we walk in the door of a restaurant until we reach our table and take them off now as well please?
 



FWIW - before the meeting, there was a survey of MSHSL member schools. Off the top of my head, I think the results came back something like this: with 394 schools responding -

Football: 80% preferred a Fall Season, 20% a Spring season.
Volleyball: 76% favored a Fall Season, 24% a Spring season.

So the schools wanted to play now. Parents were pushing hard with Facebook campaigns, etc.
And I think the B1G deciding to play gave the high schools a little bit of cover - "see, they think it's OK to play."

the obvious difference is that B1G schools will test every player, every day. High Schools can't do that. Some schools are doing the temperature scans, but other schools it's on the honor system. Parents are supposed to check the kids to see if they are showing any symptoms, but if the parents let them go to school, it's presumed the kids are OK.
 

GopherJack said:
Down here in Southern MN, we had a couple of Stewartville players (that are very good) transfer to Brookings, SD to play football for their senior year.

www.postbulletin.com

Stewartville football stars Buri, Theobald transfer to South Dakota high school

COVID-19 has now led to the transfer of two of the top football talents in southeastern Minnesota as Stewartville star running back Josh Buri and star lineman Parker Theobald have left for South Dakota's Brookings High School where the sport is being played this fall.
www.postbulletin.com www.postbulletin.com
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Are you from Stewartville??
 

It is very typical of the MSHSL to announce football is back on but nothing about a schedule.

this doesn’t apply to volleyball as much because MSHSL has only taken over scheduling for football
 




I'm in Cedar Rapids IA. High school football started I believe on time. If one player tests positive. The whole team is quarantined for that week. We have 4 high schools I have only heard of a few games getting postponed.
 

Cedar Rapids Gopher said:
I'm in Cedar Rapids IA. High school football started I believe on time. If one player tests positive. The whole team is quarantined for that week. We have 4 high schools I have only heard of a few games getting postponed.
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The protocols are identical to what baseball and softball used this summer. Of course, school was out of session, but it was a very successful summer season. It can be done.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
the obvious difference is that B1G schools will test every player, every day. High Schools can't do that. Some schools are doing the temperature scans, but other schools it's on the honor system. Parents are supposed to check the kids to see if they are showing any symptoms, but if the parents let them go to school, it's presumed the kids are OK.
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This is correct. And from what I gather this is how the rest of the country that has already been playing HS football has been handling it. And for the most part it sounds like very few issues. Good for those players to be able to keep at it, it's a huge deal for morale and mental well-being, for sure
 

short ornery norwegian said:
FWIW - before the meeting, there was a survey of MSHSL member schools. Off the top of my head, I think the results came back something like this: with 394 schools responding -

Football: 80% preferred a Fall Season, 20% a Spring season.
Volleyball: 76% favored a Fall Season, 24% a Spring season.

So the schools wanted to play now. Parents were pushing hard with Facebook campaigns, etc.
And I think the B1G deciding to play gave the high schools a little bit of cover - "see, they think it's OK to play."

the obvious difference is that B1G schools will test every player, every day. High Schools can't do that. Some schools are doing the temperature scans, but other schools it's on the honor system. Parents are supposed to check the kids to see if they are showing any symptoms, but if the parents let them go to school, it's presumed the kids are OK.
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No state tournament is a bummer. I wonder if the other states are doing their's.
 

So, because of covid it is too dangerous to attend school but not too dangerous to play football.
 

Some guy said:
It is very typical of the MSHSL to announce football is back on but nothing about a schedule.

this doesn’t apply to volleyball as much because MSHSL has only taken over scheduling for football
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Football schedules are done at the District level - not by the HS League. District committees work out the schedules and provide them to the HS league. My local HS FB coach said Monday that their district is sending out a couple of schedules for feedback before they choose one. questions about how far teams should travel vs having competitive matchups.

VB schedules are basically being done at the conference level.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
Football schedules are done at the District level - not by the HS League. District committees work out the schedules and provide them to the HS league. My local HS FB coach said Monday that their district is sending out a couple of schedules for feedback before they choose one. questions about how far teams should travel vs having competitive matchups.

VB schedules are basically being done at the conference level.
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To ad on:

the MSHSL only decides which teams belong to which districts.

It happened that way because enough was enough with all the hopscotch being played by teams switching conferences.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Football schedules are done at the District level - not by the HS League. District committees work out the schedules and provide them to the HS league. My local HS FB coach said Monday that their district is sending out a couple of schedules for feedback before they choose one. questions about how far teams should travel vs having competitive matchups.

VB schedules are basically being done at the conference level.
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For sure.
And for metro big school football it’s such a gong show it’s essentially run by the league. I admittedly have no idea how well the district scheduling system works for non metro football. It’s absolutely awful in the metro. Destroys rivalries and causes booster clubs to be short money due to small crowds not buying as many concessions.

The state high school league is the worst run organization in the state as evidenced by their handling of fall sports from early august until now.
 

Which high school rivalries were destroyed by the current districts. :sneaky:
 

MplsGopher said:
Which high school rivalries were destroyed by the current districts. :sneaky:
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Any of the 28 6A scheduling district teams whose main rival was someone not in those games.

last year Eastview, Rosemount, and eagan didn’t play Apple Valley.

Last year prior lake played 3 games against conference opponents and 5 games against non-conference opponents

last year shakopee played 2 games against conference opponents and 6 against non-conference opponents


All of this might make sense if everyone played their 7 section opponents...but that’s not the case either
 

If you want two pieces of evidence that the MSHSL is stupid when it comes to football.

6A was explicitly designed to have 32 teams. Last year there were 31 because it was deemed coon rapids was too bad to compete.

meanwhile coon rapids played in the 5a state quarterfinals screwing a smaller school who had to compete with a 6a school in their section.

The schedule and sections are so messed up and imbalanced that 0-8 Minnetonka ended up with one of the 6 seeds in a 32 team class.
 

Some guy said:
If you want two pieces of evidence that the MSHSL is stupid when it comes to football.

6A was explicitly designed to have 32 teams. Last year there were 31 because it was deemed coon rapids was too bad to compete.

meanwhile coon rapids played in the 5a state quarterfinals screwing a smaller school who had to compete with a 6a school in their section.

The schedule and sections are so messed up and imbalanced that 0-8 Minnetonka ended up with one of the 6 seeds in a 32 team class.
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It's certainly not been ideal. I'm no defender of the MSHSL (and in fact, don't even live in the state any longer), but I'd be curious what improvements you'd suggest. As noted above, a lot of this began when teams started fleeing the old Classic Lake Conference, then the Lake Conference. You then had the remaining teams -- EP, Minnetonka, Edina, Hopkins, and Wayzata -- needing to find 4 opponents each year. This led to trips to the UP in Michigan, games against the same opponent twice in one year, and even a team from Texas coming up to play Hopkins. Combined with the rapidly changing and shrinking demographics of first ring suburbs like Hopkins, Robbinsdale, etc. and the boom in places like St. Michael, Shakopee, etc., the conference structure was sure to continue crumbling as teams tried to rearrange themselves for competitive advantage. Order definitely needed to be brought, although as you've pointed out, it really hasn't worked perfectly.
 

Some guy said:
If you want two pieces of evidence that the MSHSL is stupid when it comes to football.

6A was explicitly designed to have 32 teams. Last year there were 31 because it was deemed coon rapids was too bad to compete.

meanwhile coon rapids played in the 5a state quarterfinals screwing a smaller school who had to compete with a 6a school in their section.

The schedule and sections are so messed up and imbalanced that 0-8 Minnetonka ended up with one of the 6 seeds in a 32 team class.
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Ideally you'd just have the classes based on competitiveness rather than school size. Coon Rapids is a better fit in 5 than 6.
 

Seems like there is more discussion about the League and its bureaucracy, rather then a discussion about the kids and the talent on each team. Many hard working talented kids being cleared to play in their most important season. With the rough weather up here, it would have been nice to get games started in two weeks. Which programs will be the strongest in state? I see the running back from CP signed with UST.
 

AO54 said:
Ideally you'd just have the classes based on competitiveness rather than school size. Coon Rapids is a better fit in 5 than 6.
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Tell that to ST Francis who is about half their size: is closer to being 4A than 6A and lost 40-0 to a 6A school in the 5A playoffs due to “fairness”


the high school shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers for “fairness”


coon rapids is losing too much
Let’s move them down and let them win more at the expense of:
St Francis 40 point loss
Irondale 38 point loss
Park Center 28 point loss

Using coon rapids logic I guess we should move down those 3 so they don’t get blown out...since getting blown out was a good enough excuse to move coon rapids down


meanwhile is 6A:
Eagan 1-35 their last 36 games
Anoka 2-25 their last 27
 
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