Minnesota High School Football Section Championship Matchups

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MplsGopher said:
4A and 5A seem automatic for Hutch and Mahtomedi, same ol same ol for those powerhouses.
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I haven't seen Mahtomedi, but I have watched Mankato West. They are a powerhouse as well, it will take a really great team to beat them.
 

Mayer crushes another opponent on the way to the Championship game!
 


GopherRock said:
Speaking of STMA, they may be the last district that I know of that was carved out of pieces of other districts. It happened in the late 60s when the Legislature decided that all school districts had to be K12 instead of K6 or K8
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That link says:

In 1963, the Minnesota Legislature required the territorial merger of nonoperating school districts—districts that had no educational facilities and transported students to another district—with districts that operated a school. In 1967, the legislature determined that a school district should have both an elementary and a secondary program. Districts that did not operate a secondary school were given until 1971 to merge with a district that provided K-12 education.

But there still exist two non-operating school districts in Minnesota. Franconia, which sends their kids to Osceola, WI, and Prinsburg, where nearly everyone sends their kids to a church school, and the few who do not go to MACRAY.

I grew up very close to Franconia and I never knew this until recently. I don't know why they weren't part of the old Taylors Falls district or consolidated into Chisago Lakes (which itself is the result of about five mergers).
 
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GopherTouchdowns said:
I do think one school districts make is easier to fundraise, upgrade facilities, etc because you don't need to worry about equality with the rest of the district (ie Blaine can't get a stadium upgrade unless Coon Rapids, Anoka, etc get one).

I think districts with growth also have an advantage with more housing availability. Areas like Minnetonka and Edina have no where to grow. Minnetonka has, from what I understand, one of the best youth football programs around though.
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That's what happened when Maple Grove opened. Osseo and PC shared a stadium at Osseo high school. When MG opened, they got a stadium, and the district had to build one at PC as well.

In 2019, 37% of elementary school kids in the Minnetonka district were open enrolled from outside the district. Edina is at 23% open enrollment overall in the district. But quite a few Edina students are also enrolled outside the district in private schools.

Minnetonka had the most 4th grade teams of any of the LMAA districts this season. Some were very good, and some were very awful. And the most awful, whiny coaches.
 

Mankato West buried Rogers 42-7 to set up the 5A match up with Mahtomedi. Should be a good one, but I will have watch via DVR. Other plans that afternoon at The Bank across the river.
 
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Prep Bowl is set

Friday, Nov 26:
10am - Class A: Minneota vs Mayer-Lutheran
(Minneota has allowed 33 pts this season. 9 shutouts)
1pm - Class 2A: Chatfield vs West Central Area-Ashby
4pm - Class 4A: Kasson-Mantorville vs Hutchinson
7pm - Class 6A: Maple Grove vs Lakeville South

Saturday, Nov 27:
10am - 9-Man: LeRoy-Ostrander vs Fertile-Beltrami
1pm - Class 3A: Plainview-Elgin-Millville vs Dassel-Cokato
4pm - Class 5A: Mahtomedi vs Mankato West
 



discochris said:
Minnetonka had the most 4th grade teams of any of the LMAA districts this season. Some were very good, and some were very awful. And the most awful, whiny coaches.
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I assume you have a kid/newphew/grand___ in the LMAA and/or coach in it yourself.

I personally would never let a 4th grader play tackle football. But, to each their own.
 

discochris said:
Seven. Most consolidated in the 1950's, until Golden Valley merged in 1980.
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Is this stated on the Hopkins district page, or is there some central database/site you're pulling this from? Would love to know if there is the latter. I'm a weirdo that likes looking at (old) maps.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Prep Bowl is set

Friday, Nov 26:
10am - Class A: Minneota vs Mayer-Lutheran
(Minneota has allowed 33 pts this season. 9 shutouts)
1pm - Class 2A: Chatfield vs West Central Area-Ashby
4pm - Class 4A: Kasson-Mantorville vs Hutchinson
7pm - Class 6A: Maple Grove vs Lakeville South

Saturday, Nov 27:
10am - 9-Man: LeRoy-Ostrander vs Fertile-Beltrami
1pm - Class 3A: Plainview-Elgin-Millville vs Dassel-Cokato
4pm - Class 5A: Mahtomedi vs Mankato West
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I can’t believe PEM is in the state title game and Kasson in the same year: a year when Stewartville was unbeaten until the playoffs.

the rochester suburbs are where the growth is in the out state so it makes sense but I don’t think of those teams when I think of favorites
 




MplsGopher said:
I assume you have a kid/newphew/grand___ in the LMAA and/or coach in it yourself.

I personally would never let a 4th grader play tackle football. But, to each their own.
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Kid - yes.
Coach - yes.
 

MplsGopher said:
Is this stated on the Hopkins district page, or is there some central database/site you're pulling this from? Would love to know if there is the latter. I'm a weirdo that likes looking at (old) maps.
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I found it here:

https://patch.com/minnesota/hopkins/from-the-vaults-hopkins-schools-through-the-ages

At the time, Harley Hopkins, Eden Prairie, Oak Knoll, Shady Oak, Burwell as well as Glen Lake were all separate school districts. Upon completion of the new high school, all six districts sent their seventh through 12th graders to this campus. At first, it was a simple college prep curriculum, however, more specialized courses such as cooking, sewing, typing and agriculture were soon added. After nearly 50 years, a new high school (currently Eisenhower Community Center) opened in 1956.
 

MplsGopher said:
I personally would never let a 4th grader play tackle football. But, to each their own.
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Due to injuries? I played both football and soccer growing up and got more injuries from soccer.

Point being injuries can happen in any sport.
 
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Word said:
Due to injuries? I played both football and soccer growing up and got more injuries from soccer.

Point being injuries can happen in any sport.
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I have a couple of opinions on this. I agree that injuries can happen in any sport.
I started organized tackle football in fourth grade. But for years before that, we used to play full tackle football in our neighborhood with no pads or anything - we beat on each other. And that was a group of us in about a five year age difference.

Having coached and gone through the many hours of training, I will say that there are a lot of things being done in the game to mitigate injuries. The game is taught very differently than it was when I was a kid. The only real concern I had was the significant weight difference between kids of this age.

That said, I really don't give a sh!t if people don't think kids should play football. You do you.

The one sport I would be extremely reluctant to let my kid participate in would be wrestling, due to the weight cutting aspect of the sport.
 

discochris said:
I have a couple of opinions on this. I agree that injuries can happen in any sport.
I started organized tackle football in fourth grade. But for years before that, we used to play full tackle football in our neighborhood with no pads or anything - we beat on each other. And that was a group of us in about a five year age difference.

Having coached and gone through the many hours of training, I will say that there are a lot of things being done in the game to mitigate injuries. The game is taught very differently than it was when I was a kid. The only real concern I had was the significant weight difference between kids of this age.

That said, I really don't give a sh!t if people don't think kids should play football. You do you.

The one sport I would be extremely reluctant to let my kid participate in would be wrestling, due to the weight cutting aspect of the sport.
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Gymnastics is brutal too. I would have let my kid play football but he chose soccer.
 

Word said:
Gymnastics is brutal too. I would have let my kid play football but he chose soccer.
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Yeah, some pretty horrid injuries come from gymnastics.

These days, if you want to play soccer in high school, you're going to end up having to go through a development academy and play significant travel soccer. One of the things I love about football, is that does not exist, and far as I know, there are no cuts.

My son does play rec soccer in the spring, and house league basketball in the winter. I'm generally opposed to travel teams, especially at such a young age. (and I'm selfish).
 

Golden Shower said:
Man you’re a dick! What does any of that have to do with this game? You might want to get out and spend some time in the suburbs before you spout off you city douche bag. Sorry people are fleeing Minneapolis in droves because it’s become a sh*thole and you don’t like it. I suggest maybe you get out from behind the computer and your mom’s basement and learn how to not be suck a dickwad.
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Don't let him bother you. His aluminum can retrieval business is slowing down with the cold weather and his cardboard box is needing insulation. Hopefully he gets a spot in the Dorthy Day.
 

discochris said:
Yeah, some pretty horrid injuries come from gymnastics.

These days, if you want to play soccer in high school, you're going to end up having to go through a development academy and play significant travel soccer. One of the things I love about football, is that does not exist, and far as I know, there are no cuts.

My son does play rec soccer in the spring, and house league basketball in the winter. I'm generally opposed to travel teams, especially at such a young age. (and I'm selfish).
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I guess for soccer it depends what you consider significant travel soccer. And to play high school, it depends on the high school. Some of the better/bigger school's varsity programs will be made up of top-level players from a traveling club. There aren't a ton of "academy" level players in Minnesota though, so that's not super common. Soccer is year-round though and depending on the team you make and the club you're on they might demand you play all winter. Other clubs allow players to play a winter sport and just make it to soccer training when available. My son does play soccer about 10-11 months out of the year, but it's only twice a week in the offseason.

My neighbors' kids that play baseball and basketball travel a lot more than my son does for soccer though.
 

Word said:
Soccer is year-round though and depending on the team you make and the club you're on they might demand you play all winter.
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Academy was not the right word. I should have just said development program. Academy level would probably go to Shattuck.
I guess that's more what I was referring to - the year round aspect and being expected to be with your team even all winter. I looked into it if he was interested, but when I explained what that would mean (no weekends at the cabin in the summer) and he said it didn't sound like much fun.
 

Also, a lot of travel sports becomes a social event for the parents, which to me, sounds horrible.
I know at least one family who put their kid in travel basketball, when he should probably be playing house league, simply as a keeping up with the Joneses thing. Even though there's no way they will commit to all the practice time and every weekend - they have a place up north, a place out west, and I never did find out why he missed football practice every Tuesday.

And if you aren't going to commit, it's not fair to the kid, the coaches, or the team. They tell you what that commitment is going in.
 

discochris said:
Also, a lot of travel sports becomes a social event for the parents, which to me, sounds horrible.
I know at least one family who put their kid in travel basketball, when he should probably be playing house league, simply as a keeping up with the Joneses thing. Even though there's no way they will commit to all the practice time and every weekend - they have a place up north, a place out west, and I never did find out why he missed football practice every Tuesday.

And if you aren't going to commit, it's not fair to the kid, the coaches, or the team. They tell you what that commitment is going in.
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Yeah, I'm almost 40 so I can't imagine how much more this has gotten to be the case but even for me growing up. I played traveling baseball and basketball and the parents almost seemed closer than us kids.
 

Word said:
Due to injuries? I played both football and soccer growing up and got more injuries from soccer.

Point being injuries can happen in any sport.
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Damage to developing brain. Not talking concussions either. And I'm not saying soccer is any better, not sure it is, in that sense.
 


discochris said:
Also, a lot of travel sports becomes a social event for the parents, which to me, sounds horrible.
I know at least one family who put their kid in travel basketball, when he should probably be playing house league, simply as a keeping up with the Joneses thing. Even though there's no way they will commit to all the practice time and every weekend - they have a place up north, a place out west, and I never did find out why he missed football practice every Tuesday.

And if you aren't going to commit, it's not fair to the kid, the coaches, or the team. They tell you what that commitment is going in.
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You don't put your kid in traveling basketball. They are selected for the traveling teams.
 


Dakota2 said:
You don't put your kid in traveling basketball. They are selected for the traveling teams.
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Club sports are very much a $$$$$ thing.

Sure, your kid might not make the A team, but if you're willing to pay the $$$, they'll make a team for him/her to be on.
 

Dakota2 said:
You don't put your kid in traveling basketball. They are selected for the traveling teams.
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There were no cuts at this grade level. They just keep adding teams to accomodate whoever tried out and they try to balance out the talent levels. So, yeah you do "put your kid in traveling" around here.

I know, I was surprised as well. When I was a kid, only a few made it.
 

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