Changes Coming To Section Football Next Season

Mar 24

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

Recently the Minnesota State High School League announced sectional changes to Boys and Girls basketball teams in our area; changes will occur as well in high school boy’s football beginning this fall with the 2011-2012 academic year.

Changes will affect all of the sections in our area with the exception of the 5A schools, which will remain the same as it was for the past two years. Duluth East is the lone 5A school in the area and plays football in Section 8.

Starting with nine man football sectional assignments in Section 5 9-man, which last season had only 5 teams, will once again have eight teams in the section 5 9-man. Silver Bay, Floodwood, Cromwell, Hill City, and McGregor will welcome Cherry and South Ridge (formally AlBrook-Cotton) from Section 7 9-man, and Northland will move to Section 5 9-man from Section 6 9-man.

Section 7 9-man will see the most changes, with only three schools remaining in their current form from last year. Mountain Iron-Buhl, Bigfork, and Little Fork-Big Falls will welcome merging schools Cook and Orr as they will now play as one team, as will Tower-Soudan and Babbitt- Embarrass. New schools to Section 7 9-man are Chisholm and Ely, who both drop down a class from Section 7A and will play nine man football. Kelliher-Northhome will move to Section 7 from Section 8. Mesabi Academy will begin nine man play this fall.

Section 7A, with the loss of Chisholm and Ely moving to nine-man, will have two new teams as well. Moving down a class from 7AA will be Braham and Deer River who will join the six remaining schools in 7A, Carlton/FDL, Barnum, Mesabi East, Cook County, East Central, and Ogilvie. Cook County was very close to being moved to nine-man as the cut off is 165 students to be placed in nine-man, Cook County’s enrollment is projected at 166.

Section 7AA, with the loss of Deer River and Braham has a third loss as Esko will move up and join Section 7AAA. Five schools will remain as they were in 7AA, Moose Lake-Willow River, Eveleth-Gilbert, Duluth Marshall, Rush City, and Hinckley-Finlayson. Joining Section 7AA will be Aitkin and Two Harbors who drop down a class from 7AAA, and Crosby-Ironton who moves from Section 6AA.

Section 7AAA will be a nine team section compared to 8 the last several seasons. The seven remaining schools from last year are International Falls, Milaca, Mora, Pine City, Proctor, Virginia, and Greenway-Nashwauk-Keewatin. Two new schools include Esko moving up from Section 7AA and Cloquet which drops down a class from Section 7AAAA to their new placement in 7AAA. Cloquet will be the largest AAA team in the state with projected enrollment of 614, nine below the AAAA cutoff.

Section 7AAAA, with the loss of Cloquet will have five of the same teams from last football season plus one new addition to the section. Detroit Lakes will join Duluth Denfeld, Hibbing, Grand Rapids, Bemidji, and Hermantown to make up the six schools in Section 7AAAA. Hermantown will have the smallest AAAA School in the state with a projected enrollment of 623, right at the cutoff for AAAA schools.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com