defense wrote:Did Bemidji opt up before they whent to class A??? I assumed 2 years ago was the first year that they were small enough to be in class A.
Bemidji started opting up, IIRC, in the early 2000's. Before that they were a natural AA. They decided to not opt-up in 2007, and were A in '07-08 and '08-'09, but opted-up again in '09-'10...
Enrollment has fallen at Bemidji to the point that basketball is no longer AAAA, but AAA and football isn't AAAAA, but AAAA... I've lived here for 11 years, and Bji's been big class every year in every sport (except hockey for those two years), and all of a sudden, basketball and football each drop a class, and soccer is suddenly Class A, and in a section with Walker-Hackensack-Akeley... Quite a change.
If it gets to a point where these teams that have been successful in the past are embarrassing themselves and their alumni than i think its time to move to "A'.
HShockeywatcher wrote:Recruiting can't be illegal. If it were, almost all teams in the state would be in violation. What is illegal is active recruiting by individuals, which isn't what I was talking about.
You find ways to amaze me everyday. I don't know how, but in a matter of 3 sentences you talk in a circle.
Elk River AA State Champions- 2001 Boys & 2004 Girls
I'm not sure if you are aware, but there's this relatively big city pretty near Cloquet that has plenty of jobs.
You are talking about Duluth and you are incorrect sir. "Plenty of jobs" perhaps in service industry but that is about it. Duluth suffers with the same exact issues that Cloquet and GR have with enrollment loss and strong economic base. Perhaps you have heard about the closing of Central school?
HShockeywatcher wrote:Recruiting can't be illegal. If it were, almost all teams in the state would be in violation. What is illegal is active recruiting by individuals, which isn't what I was talking about.
You find ways to amaze me everyday. I don't know how, but in a matter of 3 sentences you talk in a circle.
northwoods oldtimer wrote:
I'm not sure if you are aware, but there's this relatively big city pretty near Cloquet that has plenty of jobs.
You are talking about Duluth and you are incorrect sir. "Plenty of jobs" perhaps in service industry but that is about it. Duluth suffers with the same exact issues that Cloquet and GR have with enrollment loss and strong economic base. Perhaps you have heard about the closing of Central school?
The way HSHW bugs everybody kinda makes him my hero. Its gotta be an act right? Are we being punked? Its pure genius how he can have an uneducated opinion about EVERYTHING.
You bug me HSHW, and apparently everybody else too.
karl(east) wrote:
And so long as Dave Esse is at the helm in Cloquet, I doubt they're going anywhere. Even with the well as dry as it's been the past two years, they've still been able to pull off a few huge upsets and put a good scare into the elite teams.
Exactly, Esse cannot stand single a hockey, I think he would rather coach his daughters girls team than single a. I don't see what the big deal is, Cloquet has had two bad years, after going to the section finals for four straight years. In smaller programs, dryspells happen once in awhile, and like Karl said earlier, Cloquet has some talent coming up. I take offense to people claiming Cloquet will be single a soon, let me tell you it won't happen, TOO MUCH PRIDE, period. When Duluth East didn't make it past the semifinals for three straight years did we hear they are going to move to single a? C'mon enough with saying Rapids and Cloquet will be single a, because we all know it won't happen, and if it does it won't be for a long long time.
defense wrote:Did Bemidji opt up before they whent to class A??? I assumed 2 years ago was the first year that they were small enough to be in class A.
Bemidji started opting up, IIRC, in the early 2000's. Before that they were a natural AA. They decided to not opt-up in 2007, and were A in '07-08 and '08-'09, but opted-up again in '09-'10...
Enrollment has fallen at Bemidji to the point that basketball is no longer AAAA, but AAA and football isn't AAAAA, but AAAA... I've lived here for 11 years, and Bji's been big class every year in every sport (except hockey for those two years), and all of a sudden, basketball and football each drop a class, and soccer is suddenly Class A, and in a section with Walker-Hackensack-Akeley... Quite a change.
OK, that' s kinda what i was thinking. The Fergus Falls teams are in the same situation. Baseball and softball has moved to AA to compete with the likes of Breckenridge, Ottertail Central, Pelican Rapids..... Wrestling has moved down, they wrestled Pequot Lakes in the sections, ...... I think boys soccer and golf are the only two sports that decided to stay in the big school classes. The hockey team initially was in AA, but after two years against the wishes of the coaches, they whent to A. Congrats to Bemidji for their decision.
I am not one to belittle class A teams. I think class A can be great, except the mshsl keeps screwing up the sections. I feel that schools such as Fergus Falls or Bemidji, or Detroit Lakes are the big schools in their areas and should be competing with the bigger schools.
