FOOTBALL ACROSS MINNESOTA | Week 1

The coaches of Minneapolis and St. Paul high school football teams gathered in the training room at Minneapolis South last November.

Fourteen teams played in the Prep Bowl that month. None from either city, again. But this meeting wasn’t about returning city schools to the elite tiers of high school football. It was about traditions and, ultimately, creating momentum to ensure city football’s survival.

Minneapolis North coach Charles Adams III organized the meeting. He had been most vocal about a change he saw as necessary.

Traditional rivalries among the two city conferences had gone on hiatus since the Minnesota State High School League replaced the conference format in football with a district model in 2015. The change often left city schools scheduled to play teams with which they had little in common. In this same time period, the city programs were changing dramatically. The rapid disappearance of youth park programs was draining the feeder pipeline for city high schools, a root cause of a growing city-vs.-suburbs disadvantage.

Adams, though, wanted change to start with perhaps the most practical point.

“There is no excuse for me to go almost 10 years and not play Camden, South, Edison,” he said.

The coaches put together a plan that November day that resulted in a return to some cherished traditions. MSHSL signed off on an arrangement that allows Minneapolis and St. Paul schools to play primarily one another this season, with a return of the Twin Cities Championship that will pit the top two teams on each side of the river in the regular-season finale.

“We’re excited about it as coaches to get some of that tradition and community feel back within our games,” Minneapolis Washburn coach Ryan Galindo said. “It’s always nice when the students actually know the school that you’re playing.”

A rebooted traditional city schedule needs to be just the first step, however, if city football is going to emerge from its current perilous position.

As the inter-city games continue for most teams in this third week of the high school season, not every public school on each side has enough participation to field a team.

In St. Paul, Harding and Humboldt have a co-op team, as do Como Park and Washington Tech.

In Minneapolis, Edison dropped football for a second consecutive season. South’s participation numbers are so low that its team was placed in a subdistrict with other schools facing similar challenges. The Tigers are scheduled to play two opponents twice (Spectrum and PACT).

Both Edison and South inquired about forming a co-op with a fellow city school but were turned down.

“We really need to [co-op] because we just don’t have the numbers,” South athletic director Amy Cardarelle said. “I really wanted to be in that Minneapolis-St. Paul conference they created. When the co-op fell through, we wouldn’t survive in there.”

Nostalgia was one powerful driving force behind the push to restore city ties. Long-timers associated with city football believed something was missing in the district model, which was created to help with scheduling and to group schools based on enrollment and competitive makeup with the goal of finding matchups of “like schools.”

Matchups between city schools were preserved, but not exclusively. Remaining games on the schedule often featured private schools or suburban schools that benefit from having feeder programs at youth levels.

“It’s been a grind for us physically,” North’s Adams said. “It’s not that we can’t compete with them, but we can’t compete with the numbers.”

In 2023, Como Park’s schedule included Byron and Hill-Murray. Combined score of those two losses: 124-6.

“We don’t mind playing them in a one-off,” Como Park athletic director Koua Yang said. “It’s also a safety issue. I think playing Minneapolis and the same city teams is a better fit for us for now.”

Many others agree with that sentiment because football, more than any sport, is a numbers game, and city schools face different challenges than suburban schools. In Minneapolis, youth football is not as prevalent or as popular as it once was.

“Back when I started, we had 150 to 200 programs in Minneapolis playing youth football,” longtime Roosevelt coach Rodney Lossow said.

Individual city parks fielded their own programs, and kids from those parks predominantly funneled into nearby high school programs. That’s no longer the case.

Tim Grate, athletic program manager for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, tracks data for the city’s 47 recreation centers. The introduction of flag football and increased attention and awareness of concussion risks have dramatically altered the landscape, according to Grate.

The days of 100-plus teams are long gone. In 2019, Minneapolis parks had 21 youth flag teams and 18 tackle teams. In 2023, there were 58 flag teams and four tackle teams.

This year, the city parks program is fielding 71 flag teams and only two tackle teams.

“We just can’t get kids to participate,” Grate said. “It’s free to play tackle football in Minneapolis. We have eliminated the financial barrier … so we know that’s not the reason.”

On the other side of the spectrum from shrinking park programs is an uptick in travel teams featuring Minneapolis kids that compete across the country. While travel ball gives young city players another option, coaches say those players often end up attending suburban or private schools once they reach high school.

Eric Brever is an attorney and assistant coach at New Prague High who assists the MSHSL in football scheduling. Brever, who worked with city coaches on this new format, said a district model originally was a “breath of fresh air” for everyone, but the disparity in feeder programs between city and suburban schools created an “apples and oranges” imbalance.

The effects are evident at the varsity level. Edison halted its program because it lacked players. South’s Cardarelle said “on a good day we’ve got 25 to 30” players. Cardarelle pushed for a co-op with Roosevelt, but there were divided opinions and ultimately the attempt failed.

The Tigers lost two upperclassmen to ACL injuries in the season opener, leaving Cardarelle concerned about being able to complete the season.

Minneapolis schools are allowing eighth-graders to play on B squads to help boost participation and build a connection to the program. Coaches are looking for ways to stabilize their numbers while grappling with challenges and change. Flag football’s popularity is one reason for the sharp decline in participation.

“Flag football is all the rage,” Cardarelle said. “I think we would have a lot more kids playing if we could play flag. I don’t know how football is going to survive in the city.”

Coaches hope the return of the city conference schedule will help spark interest.

“We’re passionate about our kids in football and just keeping it alive,” Washburn’s Galindo said. “There have been years within my head coaching career that we had 40 kids on the team. That’s scary. Trying to keep it going and when you can play your friends who go to South or Roosevelt or North or Camden, that gets you a little more invested in what you’re doing.”

Roosevelt senior quarterback Kieran Quinlan said playing those rivals “definitely feels closer to home and a lot more exciting.” Quinlan played on the same eighth-grade team representing Pearl Park as the current starting quarterbacks at Washburn (Andrew Backhaus) and Southwest (Kyler Thom). They split up to different high schools and became varsity starting quarterbacks.

“It’s all guys I grew up with,” Quinlan said. “The competitive aspect really draws it more out of me. I know these guys. I really want to compete with them. It makes it more fun.”

Not just for players and coaches but fun for communities, too.

“It’s everybody — the parents, fans,” St. Paul Johnson coach Richard Magembe said. “There’s familiarity in the city. You know people who go to Central, Harding or Como. You have aunts and uncles who attended these schools. It’s better when you have that familiarity.”

Schedules are adjusted every two years, though “this model I think can work going forward,” Brever said.

Minneapolis schools are even dusting off the Bell Trophy that was for years awarded to the regular-season Minneapolis conference champion. North High has kept it in storage for a decade.

“People are like, where’s the bell at?” North’s Adams said. “There was no city conference anymore. We kept it. This year, we will bring it out.”

The Bell Trophy winner from Minneapolis will play the St. Paul champ in the final regular-season game in October. That last week will be reserved for crossover matchups — 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3 and so on — between the two cities.

“You can have a legitimate Twin Cities championship,” Adams said.

Adams doesn’t want to stop there. He pitched to MSHSL officials an idea about creating a classification solely for Minneapolis and St. Paul teams that would play a championship game at the Prep Bowl.

“It guarantees a state champion from Minneapolis or St. Paul every year,” Adams said. “A Twin Cities class. You know how competitive and how good that could be? Why not?”

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WEEKEND REWIND

Game balls

Zack Shatek: Hastings junior rushed for a school-record 376 yards and five touchdowns in a win over Bloomington Jefferson. He averaged 14.5 yards per carry.

Conner Haggerty: Winona State defensive lineman made seven tackles, forced two fumbles and had two sacks in a victory over Bemidji State. His sack/strip with 18 seconds remaining sealed the win.

Jevon Williams: St. Scholastica tailback rushed for 227 yards and four touchdowns in a triumph over Wisconsin Lutheran. Williams also caught two passes for 57 yards.

J.J. McCarthy: You might have heard Game 1 of the J.J. McCarthy Era was a special one?

Social shoutouts

The best things we saw on social media this week:

• How ‘bout this for a touchdown catch?! Ethan Fortin to Zachary Greengard for six. Rogers was one of the Taco Bell Teams of the Night last Friday on the Strib Varsity Live With Randy Shaver show for its 20-0 victory over Blaine.
• QB Kaden Harney took this one 50 yards against Eden Prairie to cap off Maple Grove’s impressive 28-14 victory Friday. The Crimson, no surprise, kept the top spot in the Minnesota Top 25 rankings this week.
• Sam Backer banged his way into the end zone Saturday, and then he was toppled by Minnesota State Mankato teammates. The video delivers a quick laugh.
• Postgame speech time! Monday night in Chicago was an opener Vikings fans will remember for a long time.

He said what?!

“I’ve got so much love for this team. Our H.A.V.O.C. defenses. Man, we’re the best in the country, and I’m gonna say that right now. We can go toe-to-toe against anybody in the country.”

– Gophers cornerback John Nestor, who had two interceptions, including a pick-six on the first play of a 66-0 rout of FCS opponent Northwestern (La.) State.

Numbers to know

6 – Touchdown passed by International Falls quarterback Hayden Swenson on 11 attempts in a victory over Ely.

472 – Total yards of offense generated by St. Thomas against 11th-ranked Idaho, which had held Washington State to 211 yards the previous week.

10,270 – Career passing yards for Minnesota State Moorhead’s Jack Strand, who eclipsed the five-digit mark in Saturday’s win over Southwest Minnesota State.

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UP NEXT

Grab your popcorn

Lakeville North at Lakeville South, 7 p.m. Friday. The Battle of Lakeville is always a festive community event. Neither team comes in undefeated, but these are two accomplished programs with terrific coaching staffs and talented players. Both teams are eager to experience a victorious locker room again.

A FAM final word

“Journey.”

No, not the band, although I do love their music, and of course, what sporting event is complete without “Don’t Stop Believin’” blasting from the speakers?

This marks the kickoff of Season 5 for FAM, and I’m just as excited for it as I was when this weekly column launched in 2021. Every season for every team — varsity to Vikings — represents a journey filled with highs, lows, drama, excitement, intriguing developments and compelling stories.

FAM loves great stories. If you hear of one, let me know. I’ll hop in the car and be on my way.

Let’s have some fun this season.

. . .

Thank you for reading Football Across Minnesota (FAM), my weekly column that tours football topics in our state from preps to pros. FAM will publish midday on Tuesdays. I appreciate feedback, so please reach out anytime. — Chip (email: anthony.scoggins@startribune.com; on X: @chipscoggins)