Fall High School Sports Practices Begin

Wes Vork-NSO

Aug 15

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Today is the day! For most fall high school sports teams practice will begin today. That means don’t be surprised to see cross country runners putting time in on our local roadways, soccer players on the pitch, the sound of football players calling out plays at football fields and volleyball teams getting their time in on the volleyball courts.

The Minnesota State High School League allows for teams to begin practice, with coaches, two weeks prior to Labor Day and that day is today. Many of the high school football teams will be holding two-a-day drills, while others opt for a longer practice in the morning with a lunch break at 11am and then finishing their day by 2pm allowing athletes to have at least some of their remaining days of summer ahead of them.

Among the changes this year on the local scene is that AlBrook and Cotton no longer have individual football programs because the new South Ridge High School will be opening this fall. At this point the gym will not be ready for the beginning of the school year which means the new Panther teams will be playing their volleyball games in the old AlBrook High School until the new gym is ready.

Also, the new football season means that the defending Minnesota State 9-Man Champion Cromwell Cards will begin defense of their state title garnered last fall. Meanwhile, the other team which had an exceptional season was the Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels who lost in the first round of the State Class AA football tournament to Eden Valley-Watkins. The Rebels have built a strong program under Dave Louzek and look for them to retool and be a force again this season.

Look for a wide open season on both the boys and girls soccer fields. In the Class A girls side of things there should be a number of teams in contention including; Cloquet, Esko and Hermantown.

On the boys side look for a good season from Cloquet-Esko-Carlton as well as Hermantown. Those teams could be the cream of the crop by the end of the season.

While there will be strong individual runners from a number of schools for both boys and girls cross country it appears as if the Esko Eskomos will be the team to beat in small schools around the area and Duluth East in the large schools.

For volleyball you can look no further than the Esko Eskomos again this year. The Eskomos won a section title a year ago and with the talent coming back it would be a bit of a surprise if they didn’t make another return to the big show.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com