Hello from U.S. Bank Stadium and the MSHSL
soccer state semifinals. Six boys games are being played here today (Wednesday)
and the six girls semifinals will be played tomorrow (Thursday). All six state
championship games will be held here on Saturday, with third-place games Thursday
(boys) and Friday (girls) at the West St. Paul Regional Athletics Center.
First, a word about the scheduling of
these games. One difference this year is holding the state championship games
on Saturday, the same day that the state cross-country championship races will
take place at St. Olaf College in Northfield. It would be optimal, of course,
for each of these sports to have their own day for championships; it’s
especially tough for the media to cover dual tournaments at dual sites.
But the calendar is always a factor. The Vikings
had a Sunday night home game at the stadium, not leaving enough time to prepare
the facility for soccer at 8 a.m. Monday. Tuesday was election day, when no
high school sports can be played before 8 p.m. So the semifinals are on
Wednesday and Thursday. The soccer coaches want the players to have at least
one day of rest between games at state, and that’s why the championship games
are on Saturday.
Now, let’s address some folks who do not
understand at all how this works.
Here’s a Twitter comment that was posted on
Tuesday: “Congratulations on
making it to the State Semi-Finals! Your reward? An 8:00am game on a Wednesday
morning while your parents are at work!”
Of course 8 a.m. games
are not perfect. But the person (or bot) behind that Tweet does not understand (or
does not care) that the MSHSL has access to U.S. Bank
Stadium for only three days of soccer each autumn. That means playing 18 games
in those three days. If the person (or bot) behind that Tweet would like to
step forward with better ideas of how to play 16 games in three days, we are
all ears.
Here’s another dim-witted Twitter note, after
a photo of the field all set for soccer was posted: “Soccer lines over football lines. Would
baseball do this? Would volleyball and basketball do this? #DoBetterMSHSL”
Again, there are clueless folks out there and bless ‘em.
The football lines are, of course, painted on the turf at U.S. Bank Stadium and
cannot be removed. And I don’t know for certain how many indoor turf soccer fields
there are in Minnesota that have no football lines and can seat several thousand
fans (yes, I do … the answer is zero). And if that Twitter expert thinks the
kids and fans would rather play these games outdoors instead of inside a
world-class stadium, then there is no end to the cluelessness.
Believe it or not, there are reasons why things are
the way they are. We are so fortunate in Minnesota to have facilities like U.S.
Bank Stadium, Target Center, Target Field, Xcel Energy Center, Williams Arena,
etc., for our student-athletes to use for state tournaments. It’s not that way in
most other states; in fact it may not be that way in any other state. Many
states use high school or small-college facilities for state tournaments. We
don’t take it for granted how good we have it here in our great state.
Are there sometimes fair reasons to criticize how
these tournaments are set up? Oh for sure, I’ve done exactly that at times. But
to complain about morning start times or football lines on a soccer field? There’s
no reason for that. Do better.
Tournament Tidbits
--Rosemount
High School has an MSHSL enrollment of 2,408 students and 1,300 of them came to
U.S. Bank Stadium to watch the Irish boys soccer team vs. Duluth East in the
Class 3A state semifinals.
Boys Soccer State Semifinals
At U.S. Bank Stadium
Wednesday
Class 3A
Mounds View 2, Rochester Mayo 1
10 a.m.: Duluth East v Rosemount
Class 2A
12:30 p.m.: Orono v Willmar
2:30 p.m.: Mahtomedi v Holy Angels
Class 1A
5 p.m.: Southwest Christian v Pine
Island/Zumbrota-Mazeppa
7 p.m.: Rochester Lourdes v St. Paul
Humboldt/Open World Learning
Girls Soccer State Semifinals
Thursday
Class 3A
8 a.m.: Edina v Stillwater
10 a.m.: Centennial v Rosemount
Class 2A
12:30 p.m.: Benilde-St. Margaret’s v
Cloquet/Carlton
2:30 p.m.: Holy Angels v Mahtomedi
Class 1A
5 p.m.: Holy Family v
Breck
7 p.m.: Minnehaha Academy v Cotter
Saturday’s Championship Games
8 a.m.: 3A girls
10:30 a.m.: 3A boys
1 p.m.: 2A girls
3:30 p.m.: 2A boys
6 p.m.: 1A girls
8:30 p.m.: 1A boys
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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