The disparity between east and west obviously continues to grow, but the gap between west and west is also widening. No. 1-ranked Roosevelt improved to 5-0 after topping Stevens 38-7 Friday night. Central beat Douglas 61-14. (Photo Kevin Cox/IDS)
The only comparable story I could think of after the football I witnessed on Friday night was Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
For Rapid City Stevens the porridge was too hot. The Raiders were down 20-0 to No. 1-ranked Sioux Falls Roosevelt after only five minutes and ended up losing 38-7. In three games against Sioux Falls teams this season they have been outscored 144-14.
For Rapid City Central the porridge was too cold. The Cobblers were up 48-7 at the half over Douglas. The second string was playing midway through the second quarter, and they ended up winning 61-14. This season, in three wins against West River high schools, Central has outscored Sturgis, Spearfish and Douglas 117-27.
One week every season, the porridge is just right. That’s when the Cobblers and Raiders play each other. This year, that will be in the final week of the season.
(Photos Sam Hurst/IDS)
The Class ‘AA’ Football Identity Crisis
Let me start with an obvious question, which also has an obvious answer. Why is Douglas High School playing in ‘AA’ football? Two weeks ago, St. Thomas More manhandled the Patriots 46-13. This week, Douglas with a SDHSAA calculated enrollment of 522, played Central enrollment of 1, 542*. One Central player told another on the sideline Friday night, “This isn’t even any fun.” There were still five minutes left in the first quarter.
The truth is that it isn’t fun for anyone: not for the fans, not for Central, and certainly not for the Douglas kids who keep getting thrown to the wolves each week.
The first thing defenders of the system say is, “Well, the enrollment at Douglas is….blah, blah, blah.” The problem is, Douglas’ enrollment is 1/3 of Central’s, and that doesn’t even take into account the revolving door of Air Force kids moving in and out of the school.
Change the rules. Adapt. The SDHSAA can certainly move Douglas to a lower class so the Patriots can have more competitive games.
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(Photos Kevin Cox/IDS)
As Roosevelt coasted into the end zone with their third interception return for a touchdown in the first half against Stevens, I could hear the echoes of Sioux Falls fans 350 miles away, saying one thing over and over, “Metro Conference.”
As the starters for O’Gorman sat on the sideline before halftime Friday night after jumping ahead of Sturgis 42-0 in the first quarter, I could hear the echoes of the Sioux Falls media, coaches, and players saying, “Metro Conference.”
Who can blame them? Sioux Falls teams aren’t getting any better playing West River teams. Anybody watching national trends in high school football knows that Washington and Roosevelt can better spend their travel budget playing the best teams from Iowa, or even Minnesota, Kansas and Nebraska, rather than driving 350 miles down I-90 to take their starters out midway through the third quarter.
South Dakota ‘AA’ high school football has been facing an identity crisis for a while now. We all know it. Sioux Falls is now a city that has a population of more than 150,000. O’Gorman, who actively recruits, and where football is king, is playing a team from a town of 6,600 that cares about two things: motorcycles and wrestling.
Solving the Douglas and Sturgis problem should be easy. Move them down in class. Spearfish has already moved to Class ‘A’. Now, give them all Class ‘A’ schedules. The East will be better off with a Metro Conference.
I can understand why Sturgis and Douglas can’t compete against the largest schools in the state, but what should the SDHSAA do with Rapid City Stevens and Central?
Maybe the U.S. government can redraw the state borders just for the sake of football. The eastern South Dakota borders might stretch past Sioux City. The western borders mightbe extended into Wyoming. And the cut off between the two new football states would be at the Missouri River. When powerhouse high school football teams from Georgia travel 300 miles to play the best teams in south Florida on ESPN the borders are already shifting.
Maybe we should go to a relegation and promotion system like they do in European and South American soccer leagues. The top three finishers in the lower leagues on any given year are promoted to the next level. The bottom three finishers in each league are relegated to the next level below.
I suppose, for a moment, it’s nice to pad the stats for the winning team. But
for fans, players, media, and coaches ‘AA’ football—outside of when Sioux Falls plays Sioux Falls—simply lacks quality in almost every meaningful way.
South Dakota is certainly not Texas, California, or Florida. We are a sparsely populated state and it is much more difficult to find competitive opponents here than in Miami, Dallas, Chicago and L.A..
But the answer, as complicated as it may now be, is for Central and Stevens to get better. Otherwise, the two largest high schools in the state will remain in a league of their own.
Thoughts?
*Every two years the SDHSAA takes a look at the average daily membership (ADM) in grades 9-11 and assigns schools to classes in all sports according to those numbers. The lists for all sports have been posted on the SDHSAA web site at http://www.sdhsaa.com/Athletics/ClassificationInformation/AverageDailyMembershipsADMs.aspx*
How did Rapid City football teams get so bad? They used to be competitve. Is this a matter of they didn’t keep up with change and SF did? Is it a culture issue, in other words, sports east of the river is a bigger deal than west of the river? I think both. Rapid City literaly does nothing to foster an enviroment to help create an “athlete.” (RC Middle Schools) Not an athlete by Rapid City school district terms but lets say, well, by the terms of most everywhere but Rapid City. It seems as though RC athletes go out for sports these days because it is a social opportunity for them. Not for the love and passion for the sport. Not for the personal challenge of bettering yourself through hard work and determination. Its because “my friends are doing it and its cool to walk the hallways with your jersey on.” Or, “let’s come up with a really cool pre-game rah rah chant and high five like they do on sportscenter.” You can’t honestly tell me that getting beat 50-6, 4 times a year and then beating others 50-6, 3 times a year is fun.
There are tons of athletes here. Just because we are not doing good in football this year doesnt mean there is no athletes in Rapid City. And by the way Stevens has the most state championships out of any school in South Dakota.
There are plenty of talented athletes on Central’s and Steven’s football squads. We are half the size of Sioux Falls and have two high schools to their four. Pound for pound the kids between all these schools probably aren’t much different. So if it’s not the kids, where should we look to explain why the RC teams compete so badly against their counterparts in Sioux Falls?
Come on…Infield Raker!!! Say it out loud.
I have coached many different sports at many different levels and one thing never changes: if I coach talented, dedicated athletes I’m really smart; if I don’t, I’m stupid.
Duh, its the coaching. You put two of those Sioux Falls coaches at Central and Stevens I guarantee they would be compettive
Everyone was pretty quick to forget how stevens competed with all of the sioux falls teams last year (except for washington but that was mostly because of all the injuries). We beat OG, came 3 yards short of taking roosevelt to OT, and was a two point conversion from beating lincoln (a game where we gave up a 21-7 lead at the half). Last year was a special class with a amazing mix of athletes, hardworkers, and natural born leaders, and losing 19 starters is gonna hurt any team. Overall I think stevens is headed in the right direction and is a couple years away from being competitive with sioux falls every year. Finding a way to convert individual talent to team talent is the key, but overall I think the future looks bright because there is talent at stevens.
To follow up on sodakhic above, does anyone know how Central matched up with Roosevelt during the years when Kim Nelson, now the Roosevelt coach, was coaching Central? I don’t….but that might either give some credibility to the above comment…or not?
I believe Kim Nelson’s last season as head coach in Rapid City was 1993. I’m not sure of how he did against Roosevelt specifically, O’ Gorman, Brandon Valley and Yankton were the dominant teams back then. But Nelson’s Central teams were always good. I don’t ever remember a sub. 500 team during his tenure and Central certainly didn’t get blown out. He didn’t win a state title (Central never has), though they lost in the semis a couple times. It’s just my opinion as someone who had a brother play for him, but I believe Central would have won a couple state titles if he would have stayed around. There was a lot of talent there in the mid-90’s.
Thanks for the info, Baller. that’s kind of what I thought I remembered! Thanks also to the SHS students who reminded us of all the state championships Stevens has had and that last year’s team WAS competitive and gave us some fun, exciting games. We do too soon forget. But that seems to have been the exception rather than the norm in recent years. I just have trouble believing that SF kids are somehow typically bigger, more talented, more competitive, more dedicated, more passionate. I’ve taught too many kids over too many years to think that there are superior genes or better “quality” kids either physically, mentally, or morally “over there.”
The idea that Douglas does not belong in AA is not new. Two years ago they had to play Washington in the first round of the playoffs and it was 45-0 in the first half. The year before it was O’Gorman they faced and the result was similar. Their size and the movement of kids is only part of the problem. The dedication of their athletes is a factor and good old fashioned economics is another big part of it. Now that they are forced to play Central and Stevens, more attention will likely be called to the fact that no matter what the enrollment numbers say, Douglas has no business being in AA in any sport.
central and stevens still have over 1800,and 2800 students respectively. Why can’t they field a team year in and year out that is competetive. it does not matter the population of the town. there are still thousands of students to chose from. why can’t they compete year in and year out? why can the smallest school in Rapid compete?
I know some of the discussion here has focused on the coaching. I guess I even suggested that earlier. But I was also wondering if there might not be problems with how the development of players and teams is organized here that might be different than Sioux Falls. Do the changes from midget football rules to high school rules create obstacles? Does Stevens or Central cut players or let everybody play? I don’t know actually. What do they do differently in Sioux Falls? Certainly you have to look at a possible shortcomings in three areas, individual talents, coaching talents, and organizational “talents” or some combination of those.
I think are football should be getting better in the upcomming future we have 2 youth football programs in town now and i think that it should help get the concept down to those who will continue playing, i do think that the High Schools should actually start 1 month earlier though due to conditioning of the atheletes, i also beleive coaching makes one of the biggest issues of them all as well, plus having to play on a mutual field by both high schools i would say is totally un-exceptible in my book, you travel to Sioux Falls and they have there own Stadiums somthing they can protect when the visitors enter there house or home field, if you where to travel let’s say Omaha NE, what do you think you would find there, i know for sure you would find 930,000 thousand more people but also you will find every High school has there own stadium, and they put to shame Tech’s field that both of our schools call Home, we as parents and citizens of Rapid City need to come to gether and support the idea of our 2 major schools should have this and not only does it help for football but also for track, and cross country, and other events that the school could have rather than rent the colleges field. i could ramble on and on but that is my 2 cents.