Nice article on the Star Tribune website today about the alma mater of Benster and Fearless Maria and the
surprising success of the football team:
Through it all, Irondale football coach Ben Fuller never doubted. Not through a winless first season, nor through a mere five victories in his first three. Not even when his quarterback, who showed all the trappings of being a potential star, spent the first two years of his career on the bench because of injuries.
Now things are changing:
Expectations were high, but there needed to be a catalyst, something to crank up the ignition. That happened in the first game of the season when Irondale rolled over nearby rival Spring Lake Park — a 2016 Prep Bowl finalist — 35-0. Mention that game to players and smiles creep over their faces.
“That was a huge confidence boost for us to beat them,” said [quarterback Brendan] White, a senior. “I don’t think we’ve beaten them in, like, five years.”
We see the kids practicing, often at the same time that Fearless Maria's Irondale Marching Knights are practicing. Historically, Irondale has been an also-ran, at best, in football. It would be fun to see this trend continue.
3 comments:
First your high school alma mater, now Irondale. Has the world been turned upside down? Is it Trump?
its difficult to turn around a high school program. the better athletes perpetually transfer to the stronger school in the region, creating in a sense, a regional all-star team that crushes the competition.
its difficult to turn around a high school program. the better athletes perpetually transfer to the stronger school in the region, creating in a sense, a regional all-star team that crushes the competition.
They’ve tried to stop that sort of thing in Minnesota, but it’s only worked to an extent. It’s a larger problem in basketball; one high school in the western suburbs, Hopkins High School, is notorious for finding ways to get top kids from other parts of the metro area to go to school there.
There’s a big disconnect in our school district between the two high schools, Irondale and Mounds View. They are very different places and have very different atmospheres. It’s a sore subject, as we have friends from Mounds View and our kids know a lot of Mounds View kids. It’s mostly about money — the Mounds View side of the district is generally (but not entirely) wealthy, while the Irondale side is middle class with pockets of real poverty. I could write several posts about it, but it’s such a sore subject among of a lot of people that I’ve never really tackled it.
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